Thank you for invitation. Here today to highlight issue of human trafficking.

This event is timely. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the then British Empire. For over four hundred years, from the mid-fifteenth century, Europeans enslaved millions of Africans through the transatlantic slave trade. It is thought that over 12 million Africans were loaded onto slave ships and that some three million died. William Wilberforce’s famous bill marked the beginning of the end for the transatlantic traffic in human beings.

However, slavery still persists in many parts of the world. In fact, there are probably more people enslaved today than at any previous point in history.

Trafficking of people is one modern form of slavery. Each year, an estimated 600,000 to 820,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders. 80 percent are women, 50 percent are minors. The majority are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation.

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, former Eastern bloc countries such as Albania, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Belarus and Ukraine have been identified as major trafficking source countries for women and children. Young women and girls are often lured to wealthier countries by the promises of money and work and then reduced to sexual slavery. In poverty-stricken Moldova, experts estimate that since the collapse of the Soviet Union between 200,000 and 400,000 women have been sold into prostitution abroad.

This trade is run by organised criminal groups, operating internationally. They smuggle victims from source countries, across international borders, to their final destination. It is an immensely profitable business.

Tackling human trafficking is part of the international community’s efforts to tackle organised crime. It is a global problem. It can only be solved through international co-operation. From the UK’s point of view, working through the European Union and with EU partners is crucial in trying to stop the damage we see in our cities and on our streets. During the UK Presidency of the EU in 2005, we successfully negotiated an EU action plan designed to ensure a common response to human trafficking and to combat trafficking into, and within, the EU. It focuses on co-ordination of EU action, reducing demand, investigating and prosecuting, protecting and supporting victims and returns and reintegration.

Here in Cyprus the High Commission works closely with the Ministry of Interior on issues like illegal immigration and asylum and also have an active dialogue with the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit. We can both learn from each others’ experiences.

So what can we all do to stop trafficking? Three key points:

First, you need laws that allow the traffickers to be prosecuted, whilst giving protection to the victims. The UK has criminalised trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced labour. Traffickers involved in sexual exploitation have been successfully prosecuted and given heavy prison sentences.

Secondly, you need to actually implement these laws. You need effective policing. Here in Cyprus, the UK is directly affected. The Sovereign Base Area police are responsible for policing sections of the Green Line and are devoting an ever increasing amount of resources to the fight against human trafficking and illegal immigration. Their efforts were noted in the Commission’s latest report on the Green Line. But that same report highlighted the scale of the problem for Cyprus and the increasing need to police effectively the whole of the Green Line.

Thirdly, you need to increase public awareness. Laws are ineffective unless they have the wholehearted support of ordinary people. People need to feel strongly enough about the issue that enforced prostitution becomes socially abhorrent – rather than excused, or simply ignored. That is what tonight is about. It’s about drawing attention to the problem, rather than sweeping it under the carpet.

Tonight’s film depicts the struggles of a 16-year-old girl living in an unidentified ex-Soviet republic and deals with the trafficking of women for prostitution. It’s uncomfortable viewing. But the messages are crucial for all of us.