Addressing Contemporary Forms of Slavery in EU External Policy

Analisi approfondita 04-12-2013

Contemporary slavery is the exercise of the powers attaching to the right of ownership-control over a person by another su ch as a person might control a thing. There are an estimated 30 million slaves in the world today, including 1.1 million sslaves in Eu rope. Recognizing that human trafficking is not in itself slavery, but rather a mechanism or conduit that brings a minority of the world’s ens laved peopl e into slaverry, the EU should shift its focus very clearly from trafficking to slavery. EU anti-slavery efforrts might include new research, trade agreements targeting slave-made goods that entt er the European economy, and slavery inspectorates in Member States. This more comprehensive strategy should not be limited to trafficking victims but also aimed at tthe many people who are enslaved without a trafficking process . The EU m ust think bi gger than it has done so far and aim for a slave-free Europe and eventually a slave-freee world. It i s not possible to fully separate internal from external policy with regard to the EU’s response to human trafficking and modern slavery, and so this report attempts to demonstrate the link between the two and recommend specific actions.