“We need to be very clear on the premise that the only way to end trafficking and sexual exploitation is to end the business. And the most forceful way is to promote a process of social transformation. If nobody consumes, what is it going to be produced for?” The Advisory Member in the Technical Office of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID), Miriam Benterrak, made the reflection during her presentation at the III Conference on Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation.
The expert, in her speech, addressed the theme of this edition: the new realities in the integral approach to the fight against human trafficking and sexual exploitation. On this issue, he pointed out that there has been a development in terms of cooperation, although he acknowledged that there is still much to be done.
Thus, he said that this issue has to be addressed internally and externally: “We cannot lose that idea that we are facing a transnational problem in which many countries with very different systems are involved.”
The rapporteur believes that it is important for there to be knowledge about this issue in Europe, seeking a more effective formula for cooperation. “Cooperation is not only about pooling the data collected or the situations found, but also about establishing a system for the collection of comparable data in which women’s vulnerable situations are collected, such as their family situation, economic situation or origin,” he said.
Benterrak has said that it is not easy to establish a joint work on this issue and has stressed the importance of not only specialized entities assisting victims, but also those that are not in order to guarantee their rights. “We have to start to ‘put the accent’ where the legislation is ‘lukewarm’, we cannot turn our backs on the prostitution context of those profiles, and this scourge must be prevented.”
Prostitution in Melilla
The Head of Area of Crimes Against Persons of the Organic Judicial Police Unit of the Command of the Civil Guard of Melilla, Salvador Vargas, was the first to speak at the round table on the ‘Reality of women in the situation of prostitution in Melilla’, noting that “prostitution in the city is a complex problem that involves economic, social and gender issues”.
Like Benterrak, it considers it essential that all institutions coordinate and reinforce each other in order to protect the rights and dignity of women who are victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation.
“Since the pandemic hit, borders have been closed and the model of prostitution has been changed. Street prostitution and alternative clubs disappear and a new model of brothel housing appears”, explained the Head of the UCRIF of the Provincial Brigade of Foreigners and Borders of the Superior Police Headquarters of Melilla, Antonio José Alonso. He has assured that during the Covid-19 situation, mostly Moroccan women, were trapped in Melilla. “The majority lived in irregular situations and the pimps used their delicate situation to work with them,” he said.
For her part, the Coordinator of the Detection Project of Fiet Gratia, Noelia Jiménez, along with other participants of the Conference, has reiterated that the current prostitution in Melilla “hides and, as a result, it is more difficult to contact women who are at risk of trafficking and sexual exploitation.”
He pointed out that a barrier is increasingly being promoted that causes victims not to talk about their situations and not to report what they have suffered. “Without demand, there would be no trafficking, no sexual exploitation, no prostitution,” he concluded.
The lawyer and coordinator of Fundación Cruz Blanca Melilla, Hakima Bachir, has explained the primary functions that can help victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation: “Raise awareness, prevent and detect cases of possible cases of prostitution or even attempted seizures in juvenile centers.” In addition, he has pointed out that his entity tries to be a support for the public administration and put eyes where there are none to prevent trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Legal protection of victims
The lawyer of Fiet Gratia’s Solidarity Office, Hanna San Justo Kumin, has started the last table on the legal protection of victims of trafficking in human beings and prostituted women, in which she spoke about the difficulty of adjusting the criteria of exemption from criminal and administrative responsibility to the reality of trafficking crimes. “It is important for victims to know their rights before, during and after the procedure,” he added on this issue.
“We must be able to have a victimocentric perspective in the judicial process and procedure, understanding that the protection of the victim is a value itself and must be the purpose of the procedural action itself,” said the Chief Prosecutor of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Melilla, Laura Santa Pau, who has also placed in importance the judicial assessment of specific measures, of the statements of the victim and the collaboration of other entities and legal operators in the case.
UNHCR’s Senior Community Based Protection Assistant, Laura Ribera, sees a need for a local protocol to address the protection of victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation. “To do this, it is necessary to have indicators of whether they are men, women, boys or girls; take into account the geographical context of Melilla; know which organizations intervene in the identification; focus on the identification of child victims so that the best interests of the child prevail; and the link between international protection and human trafficking,” he said.
“Lawyers are the first to arrive and the last to leave,” said the Secretary of the Governing Board of the Melilla Bar Association and member of the Subcommittee on Violence against Women of the General Council of Lawyers, Francisca Mª Gómez. The lawyer has concluded the III Conference recalling the rights that victims have: assistance, support and protection; compensation, right to integration and labor rights; and a right to a period of reflection and the resident card.”