The Paris-based Scelles Foundation has called on the candidates in the European elections to give urgent attention to fighting forced prostitution across the continent.

Scelles wants an evaluation of how effective EU states’ policies are in preventing the sexual exploitation of more than 300,000 new victims each year. This includes looking into lax procedures (e.g.: suspect categories of visas — entertainers, au-pairs, students, adoptions, marriages) or the behavior of police towards victims of trafficking which discourages them from coming forward. Scelles and similar associations say criminal organisations are developing the slave trade for sexual purposes at a horrific pace. Rights groups demand that international agreements to cooperate in fighting the traffic be applied.More about: Prostitution

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