Integrating a Human Rights Perspective into the European Approach to Combating the Trafficking of Women for Sexual Exploitation
![handle is hein.journals/bufhr12 and id is 17 raw text is: INTEGRATING A HUMAN RIGHTS
PERSPECTIVE INTO THE EUROPEAN
APPROACH TO COMBATING THE
TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN FOR
SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
Alexandra Amiel
INTRODUCTION
The United States (U.S.) government estimates that between
600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders an-
nually.' Eighty percent of the victims who are trafficked into some form of
commercial sexual exploitation are women.2 The majority of these women
are physically and emotionally abused and are at the mercy of their traffick-
ers who often confiscate or destroy their travel and identification
documents.
Human trafficking is a complex, multi-faceted problem that inter-
twines issues of law enforcement, border control, gender, crime, security
and human rights. It is a lucrative business that generates an estimated nine
and a half billion dollars annually.3 Trafficking is often linked to organized
crime groups and other illegal activities such as money laundering, drug
trafficking, arms dealing and document forgery. In addition to being profit-
able, traffickers operate with impunity because of the lack of anti-traffick-
ing legislation and the corruption of government officials and law
enforcement institutions. Trafficking activities continue to thrive and take
on new forms and dimensions with the advent of technologies such as the
Internet, accessible transportation methods and the globalization of the sex
industry.
The opening of European borders in the late 1980s and early 1990s
sparked a dramatic increase in human trafficking within Europe which was
further exacerbated by failing economies and a weakened rule of law. Sub-
standard living conditions in the poor, war-torn and politically unstable
1 See U.S. DEP'T OF STATE TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT, ch. 1 (2005), avail-
able at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/47255.pdf [hereinafter TIP
REPORT].
2 Id. Human trafficking is manifested in different forms, including sexual ex-
ploitation, labor exploitation, begging, juvenile delinquency and domestic servi-
tude. This paper will focus solely on the trafficking of women for sexual
exploitation or prostitution.
3 Id.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/bufhr12&div=5&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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