Virginia Barcones calls for “zero tolerance” for trafficking and sexual exploitation

• The Government delegate in Castilla y León inaugurates the fourth edition of the conference against trafficking and sexual exploitation that seeks to raise awareness and raise awareness about one of the most silenced manifestations of violence against women • The conference addressed the direct relationship of the consumption of pornography with the increase of sexual violence among young people, care for victims and the prosecution of crime

November 9, 2023.- The Government delegate in Castilla y León, Virginia Barcones, has inaugurated this Thursday in Palencia the fourth edition of the 'Day against trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and girls' that has been held in the hall of events of the UVA campus in the framework of the commemorative acts of the International Day against Violence against Women.

Accompanied by the subdelegate of the Government in Palencia, Ángel D. Miguel Gutiérrez, the vice-rector of the UVA campus, Amalia Rodríguez González, and the head of the Viogen Unit in Palencia, Almudena Luis, Virginia Barcones has reaffirmed the firm commitment of the Government of Spain to eradicate all forms of violence against women

Hence, he stressed the importance of combating sexual exploitation and trafficking in human beings to advance gender equality, while warning that sexual exploitation and trafficking for that purpose are modern slavery, a “business in which the most vulnerable people, mainly women and girls, are treated as mere commodities, violating all human rights.”

According to the latest UN Study, sexual exploitation continues to be one of the main purposes of trafficking, affecting 4 out of 10 cases identified, with more than 51,000 victims registered globally. Sixty per cent of the identified victims are women and girls.

A reality that, Barcones continues, has acquired worrying levels. In fact, it is one of the three most lucrative businesses along with drug and arms trafficking, with Spain being one of the main transit and destination countries for trafficking. One of the keys is the consumption of prostitution, in which our country is at the head of the whole of Europe, representing 0.35% of the national GDP, that is 4.1 billion euros per year.

BOOM AMONG YOUTH

At this point, Barcones recalled that, although trafficking is traditionally related to forced prostitution, sexual exploitation can also occur in other forms and other contexts, especially very worrying among the younger population, given the increase in the consumption of pornography.

With the rise of new technologies, traffickers have begun to adapt their modus operandi through cyberspace. “And in this context, we find sugardating, one more form of masked and sweetened prostitution. A phenomenon that positions Spain as the fifth country in the world with more people subscribed to specific websites to facilitate these relations,” said Barcones.

The Youth in Spain Report (2020), points out that 1 in 10 young people, between 15 and 29 years old, have consumed prostitution, and 4.8% more than once in their lives. It is therefore important to deactivate consumption when it is a fact that exploitation grows among young people. The average age of viewing pornography is at 12 years and 68.2% of women and adolescents regularly consume it.

“This is one of the most atrocious violations of human rights that compels us to redouble our efforts with awareness campaigns, prevention and education to achieve a community with zero tolerance against trafficking and sexual exploitation,” said Barcones.

A “serious violation of human rights, freedom and dignity” that the Executive faces with different initiatives, such as Organic Law 8/2021, on the integral protection of children and adolescents from violence, and with the Operational Plan for the Protection of the Human Rights of women and girls victims of trafficking, sexual exploitation and women in contexts of prostitution.

Known as the ‘Road Plan’ (2022-2026), it gives economic, labor and social alternatives to victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation, in order to improve the irregular administrative situation, among other measures. Two key tools to eradicate trafficking and sexual exploitation, but to which must be added the involvement of each and every citizen.

IN FIGURES

During 2022 in Castilla y León, 813 people were known to be at risk of being trafficked. Thirty people were identified as victims of trafficking or sexual exploitation and 18 people were arrested for these crimes.

These figures, added to the trivialization of commercial sex consumption in many clients, “lead us at least to the reflection and promotion of conferences such as the one we are talking about this Wednesday, with which we try to raise awareness in society and focus on one of the most silenced forms of violence against women, given that it is estimated that for each identified victim there are at least twenty unidentified”.

This seminar was attended by the researcher, writer and president of the international academic network of studies on pornography and prostitution, Rosa Cobo, who stressed the close relationship between the consumption of pornography and the increase in sexual violence among minors and the gateway to prostitution.

A paper shared with Miriam Benterrak, a vocal advisor of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development, in which the recommendations adopted by Spain to put an end to this type of violence have been addressed.

The second panel dealt with the prosecution of crime through the Prosecutor’s Office and Security Forces and Corps, with voices as authoritative as that of Santiago Mena Cerdá, Superior Prosecutor of Castilla y León, Paloma Doncel Tejedor, Chief Inspector of the Police Brigade for Foreigners in Palencia, Enrique Peláez Martínez, Head of the Judicial Police Organic Unit.

The last block has focused on the care and recovery of victims from one of the Social Entities that intervene psychosocially throughout the process, such as ACLAD, by the hand of two members of its psychosocial team.