 | | | | | |  | | | It is estimated that 15% of all men have visited a prostitute | |
| | |  | | | What can be done? The United Nations Convention on Transnational Crime, with its protocols on trafficking and smuggling, has been in place for two years.
So far 141 countries have signed up to the Convention and 100 have signed the protocols.
Each country that signs has to have legislation against trafficking and smuggling, adequate sentencing guidelines and a system in place for protecting victims and witnesses.
However, for a prosecution to take place you first have to catch your criminal and that's not easy. A girl being brought to the UK from Eastern Europe might have travelled through half a dozen different countries and been sold on ten times.
A criminal prosecution also needs witnesses, and the witnesses are the girls themselves, who may be in fear or in debt to their traffickers. At a recent conference in London, over 600 prosecuting lawyers from around the world met to discuss how they could improve the possibility of a successful prosecution.
One idea was the witness-free prosecution. "If we can find surrounding evidence and circumstances about the activities of the traffickers we can say to the victim we may not have to bring you to court.
That would be a strong weapon in making sure we bring the traffickers to book," said Raj Joshi of the Crown Prosecution Service in London.
Italy is ahead of other European countries in implementing Article 18 of its immigration law.
This allows girls who escape their traffickers to be given temporary residence permits. They are encouraged to give evidence, but it is not conditional. If they don't give evidence they can still get the permit.
The permit means they are no longer illegal migrants; they have some dignity and respect, and can rebuild their lives. And, it is hoped, this will increase the likelihood of giving evidence.
"The approach aims at the collaboration of the victim. After this process of confidence building and rehabilitation, the ultimate objective is to tackle the criminal organisations which are our major concern," Bruno Bratolla of the Italian government told BBC World Service.
He is critical of those countries which expel victims because they are illegal migrants: "It just moves the problem from one country to another," he said. | | < previous |  | |
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