TDHIF is advocating at EU level to combat the trafficking of children in the framework of the International Campaign Against Child Trafficking (ICaCT) started in 2001.

The EU policy against trafficking in persons: Terre des Hommes keeps its focus on exploitation of children through trafficking and through migration of children in Europe .

At EU level, the issue of trafficking in persons became high in the political agenda between 2002 and 2005. This was a period where the EU developed a couple of important European legislations to fight against trafficking that are now in the implementation phase. The EU legislative approach focused on fighting organised crime and ensured legal provision in Europe to be able to prosecute traffickers. Therefore, the EU did not focus in adopting European legislation on protection and assistance of victims of trafficking or children exploited during and after migration .

Although we can recognise a slight decrease of political interest on this issue due to the fact that basic EU legislation now exists, the EU continues to develop policy giving now an enhanced importance to the perspective of victim’s protection and assistance . Terre des Hommes has continued to follow closely the legislative and policy development on trafficking at EU level and contributed to it by focusing specifically on children. In that perspective, Terre des Hommes gave a priority on the issues of prevention of child trafficking and transnational protection mechanisms in Europe. In that context, in February 2008 Terre des Hommes organized an event on intercountry adoption, to launch the study: "Adoption: at what cost? ". The study aimes at underlining the responsibility of receiving adoption countries, because often illegal intercountry adoption implicates abuses such as child trafficking.

On the level of the European Parliament, recently a Bulgarian Member of the European Parliament, Ms. Marusya Lyubcheva , has prepared a Declaration on combating the trafficking of children . The declaration was presented to the European Parliament during the Plenary Session on the 4th of June, accompanied by a press release issued by Terre des Hommes International Federation. To become a political reference, the Declaration will have to be signed by 400 Members of the European Parliament. Because of Terre des Hommes’ expertise on this issue, MEP Lyubcheva invited TDH to support and cooperate with this initiative to continue the struggle against child trafficking and keep them as a priority item on the EU agenda .

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