The Delegate of the Government, Sabrina Moh, has defended the coordination and collaboration of all institutions, entities and organizations and the creation of awareness and prevention spaces as key elements in eradicating trafficking.
At the opening of the III Conference on Trafficking in Women and Girls for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation, entitled ‘New Realities in the Integral Approach to the Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings and Sexual Exploitation’, the highest representative of the Government of Spain recalled that trafficking is a serious crime that, in addition, violates human rights.
Moh, who has valued these days organized by the Coordination Unit Against Violence Against Women, in collaboration with Fiet Gratia, said that “it would be good if we did not have to carry out this type of day because there was no such crime and this violation of human rights”, but “unfortunately, as long as it continues to exist, we will have to continue creating spaces to be able to raise awareness and, above all, to work in a coordinated way to eradicate this scourge”.
HRD Violation
The Head of the Unit, Laura Segura, for her part, recalled that these Days are held this week because September 23 is the International Day Against Trafficking for the Purposes of Sexual Exploitation of Women, Girls and Children.
“We want, above all, to focus the days on what has to do with the fight against the exploitation of women, girls and boys, because we are talking about one of the most serious gender violations that exist”, he has made clear and therefore, he has apostilled, that they are done with a gender approach.
As Segura has explained, 60% of the victims of trafficking are women, but when it comes to trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation that percentage of women rises to 90% “therefore, the gender approach is key”.
Some days that will also have the focus of childhood since boys and girls are also victims of trafficking. Hence, he added, that the program has included a table that addresses how this cruel crime affects children in our country and in all countries of the world.
“It is an extended violation of human rights but, in turn, it is also an invisible violation,” he said, and that is that the data “do not reflect reality because it is very difficult to really know what the reality of trafficking is.”
“It is difficult because it is confused, in turn, with other crimes and, in addition, there is a very fine line between trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, sexual exploitation itself, prostitution...”, he said. All these realities are going to be addressed in these Days with the specialized entities and organizations that are on the street working with the women “who are suffering this violence and, in turn, also with the institutions that address this crime.”
Segura has stressed the importance of the need for training and awareness of each and every professional and society to defuse the demand for prostitution “which is the main source of trafficking”.
Therefore, “the training of professionals is fundamental”. “Without this training, sometimes we do not have the tools to be able to detect these realities of trafficking,” he argued, and referred to the need to “activate these coordinated and network working mechanisms, which are so important in the fight against gender violence.”
Contacts via web
Today’s speaker is researcher and sociologist Lluis Ballester, who as Segura has explained “has been working for a long time on trafficking and exploitation and, in turn, with young people and prevention and on how new technologies are very directly affecting the consumption of pornography and prostitution.”
Ballester has addressed the changes that are taking place in prostitution and deals with the introduction of screen technologies “that have activated at least two processes: The creation of new claimants for prostitution, of a new demand based on pornography, and the increase of possibilities of concealing situations of sexual exploitation.”
A fact that happens, he said, because “contacts are no longer made in the street, in the club… but they are being made in increasingly hidden spaces”. “Initially, this started in the 90s in flats, but at this moment the migration is being made to contacts from the websites. That means extreme concealment,” he said.
Going deeper into this issue, Ballester has revealed that the contact is now made, in many cases, from pornography or from direct searches on the websites. “This concealment means more isolation of women who are in situations of sexual exploitation and, in addition, the serious difficulty for organizations and for the Administration itself to give help, to offer the possibility of support to women who are in the most difficult situations,” he said.