The project  "Combating trafficking and sex tourism" aims at raising European public awareness on human rights abuses caused by trafficking and sex tourism.

The project is implemented in:
Europe: Regions Piedmont and Liguria (Italy), Bucharest (Romania), Andalusia (Spain)

Latin America: City of Fortaleza (Brazil), Guarulhos (Brazil), Salvador de Bahia (Brazil), Rosario (Argentina).

Leading institution: Municipality of Genoa
 

Partners:

Spain: FAMSI Fund (Fondo Andaluz de los municipios para la Solidaridad Internacional);
Italy: City of Turin, University of Genoa, Town of Collegno (TO); ISCOS PIEDMONT NGO (Trade Union Institute for Economic Cooperation and Development), CONFCOOPERATIVE - Provincial Union Of Turin, MAIS NGO (Movimento per l’Autosviluppo, l’Interscambio e la solidarietà), Gruppo Abele, ACEL (Agency for Cooperation of Local Authorities);
Romania: Asociatia Caritas Bucuresti;
Brazil: Prefeitura Municipal de Guarulhos (SP), Prefeitura Municipal de Fortaleza ( EC), Prefeitura Municipal de Salvador (BA), Frente Nacional de Prefeitos (FNP);
Argentina: Municipalidad de Rosario.

Expected Results

• Develop a comparative research on trafficking and sex tourism in Italy, Brazil, Spain and Romania
• Train 50 officers and 350 operators of the sector in the analysis and the methods of combating trafficking and sex tourism and strengthening municipal services
• Sensitize 1 million people through the creation of 3 campaigns

Context

 As stated in the Convention of the European Council of 16 May 2005, the trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation is a priority problem in today’s Europe. The available data cannot represent the true dimension  of a market that guarantees to the involved rackets cash to invest in other illegal sectors, such as trafficking in arms and drugs. A sort of parallel and informal immense and varied capitalism. There are many forms of prostitution.
It's impossible to generalize, but this phenomenon is widespread and worrisome, since almost all women are victims, not all are free to choose. Yet, the public debate is weak, and the scientific is  considered a "niche", and so it tends to linger on the reconstruction of the scenarios of trafficking in women, neglecting other forms of prostitution and, above all, by failing to reflect on the social dimensions of prostitution. 
The sex trade - trafficking and tourism - is a market that is increasingly growing due to the extreme poverty that perpetuates the offer generated in the richer Western countries. In this context of extreme poverty, individual freedom decreases and the cases of unreported slavery and the cancellation of the rights and dignity of a growing number of human beings increase.
The fight against human trafficking and sex tourism is therefore an extremely important feature of the fight against poverty.
At the basis of this project there is the awareness that the dissemination of accurate information on this ambiguous phenomenon which is trafficking in persons, requires an integrated approach, involving citizens, officials from Latin America, the social workers, victims and media.
 

Objective

Development of awareness campaigns and capacity building actions of local authorities and associations of the organized civil society in order to decrease the exploitation of women, children, men and transgender people for the sex trade.

The project will be realized, as an accompaniment to and alongside national and international policies. Involving local authorities and associations of the organized civil society in the development of dynamics regarding the involvement and information of the population in the recognition and promotion of the human rights of victims of sexual exploitation.

• combating sex tourism
• fighting against trafficking in children and transgender
• creating a research on the victims of trafficking in the first year, which will create an awareness campaign; instead in the second year the subject of the research will be sex tourism and customers; disseminating the results during the training of officials in Latin America. This will provide a better understanding of the phenomenon, especially in Brazil, in view of the 2014 World Cup, which will bring not only an increase of the positive effects of tourism, but unfortunately also illegal phenomena, such as sexual exploitation of women and minors.

Insights 

The size of trafficking for sexual purposes with regard to the territories directly affected by the proposed project is impressive.
In Italy it is estimated that between fifty and seventy thousand prostitutes, of which at least twenty-five thousand migrants, two thousand minors, and more than two thousand women, are enslaved (Bonadonna, 2009).
In Spain in 2006, the number of victims of prostitution identified by the Civil Guard was 19,415, of which 18,478 (95.2%) were foreign, 4303 from Romania and 58,59% from Latin America. The number of complaints, however, in Spain as in Italy remains low (172 in Spain) although there are increasing complaints by women from Romania (53.5%). Trend data on Romanian citizens are interesting because they represent the tip of the iceberg of the phenomenon thanks to the regularization of the migratory situation due to the entry of the country into the EU.
As can be seen from data, a high number of victims in Europe comes from Latin America, particularly Brazil, which is identified by the International Labour Organization (OIT 2007) as a world leader of trafficking in women for sexual exploitation purposes. Inside the country, there were identified 110 domestic routes and 131 international routes of trafficking in women and children to Europe (mostly directed to Italy, Spain and Portugal). These data are confirmed by those of the United Nations that showed that 75,000 Brazilian are forced into prostitution in the European Union. Representing 15% of the total of "slaves" of our continent. Even in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, the phenomenon is equally important and, according to a report of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), involved only in 2006, 40,000 victims of trafficking.
Within this huge phenomenon, 30% of the victims are minors and this percentage is steadily increasing in the countries members of the EU (2003 OSCE data, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe).
According to a study carried out in Bucharest (PHARE twinning), only in 2008 the identified minors, victims of trafficking for sexual purposes were 178, of which 55% victims of internal trafficking and the remaining 45% sexually exploited in EU countries (notably Spain and Italy). The report on the trafficking of children, carried out by Save the Children in 2004, showes that a high percentage of victims of sexual exploitation are also involved in the pornography market. (Save the Children study-2004).
Sex tourism, along to the trafficking in human beings, is also a serious problem related to the sexual exploitation of minors.
In Europe, this phenomenon takes place both inside and outside the EU's borders towards the same countries of origin of trafficking. Romania and Brazil are among the first countries in the world for sexual tourism attraction (Data World Travel and Tourism Council) and trends for the coming years register a constant growth.
As for the trafficking, even in sex tourism, children involved represent a high percentage of the victims of the phenomenon and the European citizens are among the tourists the most present in the areas affected by the phenomenon. In Brazil, Fortaleza (project partner) is the third largest city after Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo with the highest index of sex tourism.

http://www.etts.comune.genova.it/