Human slavery is a multi-million pound business in Europe, run by increasingly sophisticated international criminal gangs
LONDON, April 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Governments and law enforcement agencies across Europe urgently need to step up their fight against modern day slavery and improve their coordination, a British thinktank said.
Human slavery is a multi-million pound business in Europe, run by increasingly sophisticated international criminal gangs exploiting the European Union policy of free movement for its people.
Free movement makes it tougher for police to spot people trafficked from one European country to another as they arrive at their destination legally.
Police have developed sophisticated tools and close international relationships to target the region's lucrative drug trade, but these are lacking for modern slavery, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), a London-based thinktank, said in a report on Thursday.
"Existing agencies are often relentless in their pursuit of drug traffickers, but accord human trafficking much lower priority," the CSJ said in its report "A Modern Response to Modern Slavery".
"A concerted pan-European drive by national governments and law enforcement is urgently needed to disrupt and defeat the gangs of international criminals," the CSJ said.
Many police officers are reluctant to work on slavery cases because this involves dealing with victims with complex problems, the report said.
"If a law enforcement officer seizes a batch of drugs, then the job is complete. Yet when you find the (human being) in modern slavery cases, the work has only just begun and can be extremely difficult," it added.
Britain passed a Modern Slavery Act last month, one of a raft of measures to combat a global trade that exploits millions of people and generates $150 billion a year for traffickers.
The law protects victims of trafficking from prosecution, increases sentences for traffickers from 14 years to life imprisonment, and allows authorities to seize traffickers' assets and force them to pay compensation to their victims.
The CSJ hopes all EU member states will adopt similar legislation and appoint anti-slavery commissioners.
"Organised crime groups think they can play by their own rules," said Fiona Cunningham, author of the report and CSJ associate director.
"Politicians, police and policy makers across Europe must leave them in no doubt that they are wrong and as a society, exploiting vulnerable people for profit will no longer be tolerated," she added.
(Reporting by Alex Whiting, Editing by Tim Pearce)
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