A REALITY THAT MUST BE WIPED OUT : ALMOST 900,000 SLAVES WORK IN THE EU, ONE THIRD OF THEM IN THE SKIN TRADE

 

Europe in many ways has always been seen as the flag bearer for human rights and embued with a seemingly sincere quest to uphold humanist values. But the chaos that ensued with the loss of control in the Schenken zone of the transit of migrants has created a bonanza for those who exploit laborers and especially women.  

Crime networks, from Russia to Italy, almost 4000 of them by last count, have an interest in the sex and slavery trade.  

Almost 900,000 human beings are held in bondage in the Euro zone, a third of them forced into sexual slavery.  This trade generates over 30 billion in revenue for the crime organizations.  

And where these crime organizations operate, crime, money laundering, and corruption explode. 

The same criminal outfits that run the slavery rings, are also involved in organ trafficking, a monstrous reality that is becoming more and more real each and every day. 

The authorities in Europe are hoping to curb the trend by bettering communication between EU countries, but the problem is also complacency and silence.  Many people who know who the slaves are do nothing to report it, for fear of retaliation.  The violence these crime syndicates display is a powerful deterrent to speaking up.

But many of the slaves are also people who many in the EU do not consider equal.  It's the kind of underground, in-the-dark life, that most people do not see, and when they do, they turn the other way.  And in some ways, they do not want to make waves, because they see these people as usurpers who have come willingly to either take jobs or wreak havoc on their communities. 

Another solution, which is about to be proposed, is the protection of people who come forward to inform on the criminal network's activites.  Another is to bar money launderers or people suspected of criminal involvement from being in any way connected to government or government procurement.  

A vote in the European Parliament next week might finally pass some of the measures needed to bring some control on the slavery trade. 

Source : Spiegel/ 10.15.13