The Fifth Conference on Trafficking in Women and Girls for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation organized by the Government Delegation focuses in this edition on the attention to victims and new forms of exploitation.

The Delegate of the Government in Melilla, Sabrina Moh, who inaugurated this morning Jornadas, which are taking place in the auditorium of the Civil Guard Command of Melilla, has highlighted the need for all the agents involved to work together “to safeguard and protect the victims”, and has reaffirmed the “firm commitment” of the institution of which she is the head to continue working in terms of awareness, prevention and daily attention to trafficking.

“It is very important that we are here today because we have to continue moving forward on this hard road, a road that cannot be traveled without collaboration, coordination and, above all, facing courageous policies, in an interinstitutional way,” said Moh.

The highest representative of the Government of Spain in our city thanked the Head of the Coordination Unit against Violence against Women, Laura Segura, and the entity Fiet for their involvement and the organization of these “so necessary and so important” days, highlighting the commitment of the institutions to provide solutions and guarantee the protection of victims.

Focus on health and emerging technologies

The Head of the Unit, for her part, pointed out that these days, implemented five years ago in the city, have been consolidated as a “space for reflection, coordination and collaborative work” around one of the “most important and serious crimes in terms of gender violence and violation of human rights: trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, sexual exploitation itself and prostitution”.

In this edition, the conference focuses on the “critical approach to these crimes” from the perspective of the administrations, the State Security Forces and Bodies and the specialized entities that accompany the victims.

As he recalled, trafficking affects women and girls by more than 90%, which demonstrates its “gender connotation” and the need for a victimocentric approach, which places women at the center, listens to their stories and demands, and works for their recovery.

The head of the Coordination Unit explained that the days, organized every year around September 23, the International Day against Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation, take place in two sessions, today and tomorrow. They will address two major blocks: on the one hand, the psychosocial and health response, both mental and physical, to the consequences suffered by victims; and, on the other, the problem of emerging technologies, which have become a new mechanism of capture and exploitation.

Segura thanked the participation of the institutions, the rapporteurs and, especially, Fiet, with which the Government Delegation organizes these days every year and which, in addition, “collaborates daily in the persecution of this crime and in the accompaniment of the victims.”

Sensitize society and professionals

The founder and director of Fiet, Fiona Bellshaw, who expressed her satisfaction for participating once again in the Conference, stressed that its main objective is “to sensitize the whole society and professionals about a reality that is still very invisible and that needs to be understood more closely”.

In this edition, the content focuses on the impact of exploitation on the mental health of victims and on the growing role of digital technologies as new avenues for trafficking. “These are very up-to-date and very important issues to address,” he stressed, highlighting the close collaboration with the Government Delegation, the Gender Violence Unit, the State Security Forces and Bodies and various social entities.

The director of Fiet pointed out that in Melilla “there is a very close collaboration network” that allows to offer the best care to the victims. In this regard, he explained that, in addition to awareness-raising, the entity has case detection teams and residential resources called Casas Nuevos Beginnings, “a new opportunity for women to rebuild their lives and achieve reintegration into society.”

Bellshaw has stressed that there are “many women who manage to get ahead”, although they face numerous challenges at all stages of their recovery. “We simply accompany them, we offer them all the tools they need in an integral way so that they can make decisions and achieve the dreams that led them to come to Spain, most of them from outside the European Union,” he explained.

Finally, she has assured that ensuring continuous support and follow-up is key to preventing these women from returning to situations of vulnerability, and she has pointed out that this work is what motivates the organization to continue working.

Physical and mental after-effects

Dr. Elisabeth Arrojo, from the Medical Institute of Advanced Oncology (INMOA), who speaks today at the Conference offering the paper entitled “Invisible exploitation: physical and mental wounds of prostitution and trafficking”, has stressed to the media the need to “join this cause and help all women who are victims of sexual exploitation”. In this regard, he regretted the lack of knowledge in the medical field regarding this reality: “When I met Fiet and they started telling me data and statistics that were completely unknown to me, I was very surprised and felt obliged to contribute in this.”

The oncology specialist explained that in her clinical practice she observes how cancer “is also closely related to stress factors, infections suffered by women who do not dare or cannot count it, illegal abortions that we attend in the emergency room without suspecting what is happening behind, because we do not have this information”.

Arrojo recalled that countries like Spain “are leading this unfortunate statistic of the victims of sexual exploitation” and has called for the involvement of the whole society to make this situation known. “We have to not only help them not to suffer the circumstances that they live in today, but also the consequences that this will entail for the rest of their lives,” he said.

The doctor has also warned that this suffering not only affects women victims, but also their descendants: “Even that present suffering has an imprint on the genome that your children will inherit.”