Human trafficking continues to plague societies across the world, including our own. From the six-year-old girl sex trafficked online, to the 70-year-old man kept in bonded labour, over 40 million people are trafficked every year, with the poorest and most vulnerable especially in danger. Over 40 million may seem like a staggering figure, but the real number of victims is unclear due to the hidden nature of the crime. Many more may be trafficked.
COVID-19 has only worsened the plight of trafficking victims. As more people stay at home, EUROPOL has reported that the number of children sexually exploited online spiked at the peak of the COVID-19 crisis. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime raised concerns that due to restrictions on movement victims may now be locked down with their traffickers, placing them in nightmarish situations.
COVID-19 was dubbed the ‘Great Equaliser’. Yet it is the most vulnerable who have only become more at risk. COVID-19 has exposed the gaping weaknesses and inequalities in our societies. With estimates of 2.7 billion workers negatively impacted, the consequences of this pandemic will be far reaching. Trafficking victims need our support now more than ever.
Human trafficking is not an evil that occurs in far-off countries, but one that afflicts us here in Malta. Victims of human trafficking range from Southeast Asian to Eastern European, with many victims being Maltese themselves. Human traffickers, both Maltese and foreign, often work together to exploit victims.
In recent years, a trend of women trafficked for sex into massage parlours has emerged. Told that they will be coming to Malta to work, upon their arrival women soon find that they have been tricked. With their passports taken from them, women are forced to provide sex to customers in massage parlours across Malta.
Only this September, a woman in Malta was jailed for sex trafficking three women in a massage parlour. The victims had been subjected to threats of violence if they did not comply with the demands of their traffickers.
Despite the appalling reality of human trafficking in Malta, our government has done the bare minimum to protect victims and disrupt human trafficking. The United States’ 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report found that the number of investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking in Malta had decreased since the last reporting period, with the number of victims identified drastically reduced.
The report also states that coordination between ministries was lacking. It found that the interministerial anti-trafficking monitoring committee, which is responsible for implementing the national action plan on human trafficking, did not even meet.
The government’s 2020 Blue Heart Campaign asks the Maltese population to “have a heart for victims of human trafficking”. I would suggest that they take their own advice.
As a Member of the European Parliament, it is my duty to strengthen the rule of law to ensure that traffickers are brought to justice. My group at the European Parliament, the European People’s Party (EPP), has prioritised human trafficking under our commitment to justice and security.
At a recent EPP Summit, a policy paper was adopted that called for a coordinated approach to fighting human trafficking in the Mediterranean. Our Working Group on Legal and Home Affairs pushed for the creation of a European Border and Coast Guard (Frontex) which has secured our external borders and made identifying traffickers easier.
My EPP Group colleagues introduced the Directive on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography. This was an important step towards fighting the sexual trafficking of children. It increased criminal penalties for child pornography production, criminalised the possession and acquisition of online child sexual abuse material and made provisions for the removal of websites that facilitate child pornography.
Now, more than ever before, human trafficking victims need us to stand with them and fight for them. Too many lives are ruined and lost at the hands of traffickers and it is every person’s duty to report trafficking if they encounter it. We must stamp out this crime together.
Ending human trafficking together is possible, but only if governments make the choice to step up and join the fight. Our government has taken a step back.
Roberta Metsola is a member of the European Parliament