Comment:'Di-Ve.com' reports that Maltese Labour MP Justyne Caruane issued a statement calling for a comprehensive law ensuring the right of children to express their views in court. At the moment children do not have the ability to initiate legal proceedings, additionally, a court order is required for the appointment of a children’s advocate to speak on the child’s behalf, but requests for this appointment have often been refused.

Di-ve.com full text

Comment: 'EveryOne Group', a human rights NGO has appealed to the Spanish government and Parliament to provide humanitarian protection to the Romanian Roma after having suffered persecution in Italy. EveryOne Group is asking the Spanish authorities to show an act of brotherhood and antiracism and grant humanitarian protection to the members of the Caldarar, Ciuraru, Grancea and Danila families (about 35 people in all, including several children), thus avoiding further suffering, inhumane treatment, injustice, and loss of life in Italy.

EveryOne Group full text

Comment: a very well documented report from the 'Guardian' on the trafficking of Chinese underage girls in the UK. This undercover investigation is revealing the reality of a highly profitable business, exploiting minor girls as young as eleven. The lack of protection from the authorities regarding these young migrants and the link with the country of origin is clearly explained.

The Guardian full text

Comment: European Governments are likely to embrace some articles of Sweden's prostitution law reported 'ISN'. Sweden criminalizes the purchasing of sex but decriminalizes the selling of sex and treats the prostitutes as victims rather than illegal immigrants. This approach has similarities with 'The CoE Convention on Action against trafficking in Human Beings'. Norway and the UK already have taken measures to reform their criminal law and therefore attacking the illicit market for sex traffickers more efficiently.

ISN full text

Comment: 'Adnkronos International' quotes Save the Children saying that hundreds of unaccompanied children arriving in Italy illegally have disappeared without a trace since June. The children vanished from the Sicilian province of Agrigento where they are transferred after arriving in the island of Lampedusa. The average age of the unaccompanied minors is 15-17. They are accommodated in 20 residential homes but these homes are understaffed and staff is not qualified enough.

Adnkronos International full text