Trading Lives - A review of current literature on sex trafficking and the EU

(Erin Baumann, University College Dublin)

Human trafficking has been linked to prostitution and the abuse of women and children for centuries. Throughout history the moral acceptance and political legality of these practices have waxed and waned, the acts themselves, however, have not. Today it is estimated that roughly four million people are trafficked throughout the world every year for various proposes ranging from sexual exploitation, to indentured servitude, to camel jockeying. A large portion of this trade occurs within the borders of the European Union, where an estimated one million people are trafficked each year. Of these, over half are women or children imported as part of the sex trade. Since the breakdown of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s the number of people trafficked into the EU as part of the sex trade has nearly doubled. Women and children from across the former Soviet Union are trafficked through or directly into the EU at a staggering rate. Despite this shocking phenomenon, very few EU member states have yet to enact legislation dedicated to the minimalization or eradication of the sex trade. Of those that have enacted human trafficking centred legislation even fewer have taken steps to recognize the plight of the trafficking victim.