Yes vote will boost battle against sex trafficking

THE trafficking of women and children from poor west African and eastern European countries is one of the most horrendous cross-border crimes to emerge in recent years.

According to a report last April from the Immigrant Council of Ireland, more than 100 women and girls were identified as having been trafficked into Ireland for the sex industry in a 21-month period and it stressed this was just “the tip of the iceberg”.

If we vote Yes to the Lisbon Treaty, it will provide the EU with the means to tackle such cross-border crimes. Through the creation of new institutions such as the president of the European Council, the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and a new external action service, the treaty will equip the EU to fight not only the trafficking of women and children, but also money-laundering, arms trafficking, counterfeiting and terrorism. These are crimes that affect all states but can only be tackled by working together with our fellow EU member states.

The EU is focusing action on combating these crimes by strengthening cooperation and coordination between police and judicial authorities. The EU is introducing a framework of common provisions to tackle certain issues such as child pornography and child sex tourism and to facilitate the search for missing or sexually exploited children. Particular emphasis is also placed on measures to combat trafficking in women for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

The treaty will help protect women and children from being brought here to be exploited and will also serve to reduce the supply of drugs and guns into our country, the lifeblood of our ruthless gangland criminals.

Pauline Byrne

Stanford Green

Walkinstown

Dublin 12