ABSTRACT
Human trafficking has been recognised as a serious problem within Europe and beyond at least episodically for the past century. This chapter is problem and policy oriented. It shows that the EU has engaged a broad range of organisations in attempting to fight human trafficking. Why? As a destination region, Europe is affected by the humanitarian, criminal and immigration issues connected to human trafficking. Since it is difficult to control trafficking unilaterally, the EU has been active in establishing and promulgating both regional and international norms in this area. Individual countries within Europe have ratified agreements, altered their criminal statutes and stepped up their cooperative efforts to enforce anti-trafficking laws nationally, regionally and, to a lesser extent, worldwide. They have been motivated by both values and interests in this regard. This effort has involved participating cooperatively with a range of IOs, from the Council of Europe, to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, to Interpol, to the United Nations. While Europe’s law development and enforcement efforts have been strong, the EU has done somewhat less to aid and assist countries to deal with the causes of the problem. The EU has taken a consistent legal approach, but has been less willing over time to put significant resources into aid packages to address the trafficking problem. It is difficult at this time to assess effects of Europe’s participation in the fight against human trafficking on the specific IOs with which the EU have cooperated. But one thing is clear: human trafficking has not been ‘solved’ and the prosecutorial approach appears to have run up against clear limits and raised problems of its own.
