FEMMIGRATION Legal Agenda for Migrant Prostitutes and Trafficked Women on the Internet

Daphne project: 2003-025

Daphne Programme – Year 2003

Final Report

Project No.: JAI/DAP/03/025/W

Title:

FEMMIGRATION Legal Agenda for Migrant Prostitutes and Trafficked Women on the Internet

Start Date:1December 2003End Date:30 November 2004

Co-ordinating Organisation’s name: Amnesty for Women Städtegruppe Hamburg e.V.

Contact person:

Name:Julieta Manzi-Adam

Address:Grosse Bergstr. 231

Postal code:22767

City:Hamburg

Country:Germany

Tel. No.:00 49 (0) 40 38 47 53

Fax No.:00 49 (0) 40 38 57 58

e-mail: Website:

Partner Organisations’ names and countries:

• Austria: LEFÖ/ Beratung, Bildung und Begleitung für Migrantinnen
• Denmark: VFS-Udsatte/ Videns- og Formidlingscenter for Socialt Udsatte
• Finland: Pro-tukipiste/ Prostitute Counselling Centre
• France: Autre Regards
• Greece: Act-up
• Ireland: Irish Council for Civil Liberties
• Italy: Comitato per I Diritti Civili delle Prostitute
• Netherlands: TAMPEP International Foundation
• Portugal: UMAR/ União de Mulheres Alternativa e Resposta
• Spain: CEAR/ Comision Española de Ayuda al Refugiado
• United Kingdom: SCOT-PEP/ Scottish Prostitutes Education Project

1.Aims of the project

In the course of the globalisation of markets, the market for sexual services in the European Union is also growing. Between 30% and 90% of the sex workers in the EU are migrants from non-EU countries.[1]These women are particularly at risk of violent and sexual crimes because of their poor living and working conditions, their weak legal situation and their lack of knowledge about their own alternatives for action.

As well as immigration problems, they encounter - if they supply or are compelled to supply sexual services - very different circumstances in the individual countries of the EU in terms of employment law, criminal law and social security. Are they allowed to operate in the area of sexual services or are they committing an offence? Who can they turn to if they become the victim of a crime of violence? If they complain to the police, will they be prosecuted and deported? Can they obtain medical and social security benefits?

The lack of knowledge about their rights makes the women easy victims of pimps and human traffickers. As well as physical and mental violence being used, deliberate false information about the legal position frequently helps to force the women into dependent and violent relationships and to keep them in those relationships.

In addition to the repressive approach based on the combating of organised crime, a second decisive factor required for the combating of the trafficking of women is the prevention of such trafficking by the empowerment of not only the women who are (potentially) affected but also of the counselling centres.[2]For this purpose, the women who are affected and the counselling centres need readily understandable information about safe migration, available options for working migration including information about the legal position and policy in the destination countries, migrants’ rights and the help available in case of need.[3]

takes account of this, as the project gives precise information about the legal and factual conditions for trafficked women and female migrants in prostitution in the individual EU countries, in an up to date and readily understandable form on a website that is accessible to anybody.

Who are the beneficiaries?

is aimed directly at women who want to emigrate to the EU or who are already staying in the destination country, as well as counselling centres and aid organisations throughout the world.

The website provides support for the work of the various counselling centres, NGOs and public authorities in the countries of origin and in the transit and destination countries, by making available the detailed information necessary for counselling purposes about relevant legal issues relating to aliens, criminal law, employment law and social security in the following 13 EU partner countries: Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany. The website also gives information about the rights of victims of crimes of violence and supplies contact addresses of GOs and NGOs in these countries which support female migrants, migrant prostitutes and women affected by human trafficking.

What was the expected result?

It is essential, in order to prevent the trafficking of women, to strengthen the position of women before and during migration. The expected result of the project was to provide information to enable women to protect themselves from the outset against getting involved in violent arrangements or to free themselves from them. For this, the women require information as early as possible about their legal situation during the migration process and also about aid organisations and the support which they offer in the countries of origin and in the destination countries.

If the Commission formulated conditions / recommendations in its selection letter, how were these fulfilled?

The Commission did not formulate any conditions/recommendations.

2.Implementation of the project

Amongst the planned activities, outline those that were implemented. Likewise, outline those that were not implementedand explain the underlying reasons thereof.

The following activities were planned and implemented byfemmigration.net in this project phase:

(1)Integrating three new EU countries (Denmark, Portugal and Ireland) into the existing EU network of GOs and NGOs and collecting the information that is relevant to women affected by the trafficking of women and presenting it on the website.

(2)Updating the data in respect of the countries already represented on the website (the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, France, Spain, Finland, Belgium, Greece, the United Kingdom and Germany).

(3)Providing important information about the legal consequences of the eastward enlargement of the EU by 10 new Member States in May 2004, particularly in the area of freedom of movement for employees.

The planned activities were implemented as planned.

European partner meeting

On 24/25 January 2004,femmigration.net organised a meeting in Hamburg with the 12 European partner organisations. The objectives of this meeting were as follows::

(1)Making a presentation to the partner organisations about the European dimension of thefemmigration.netproject.

(2)Description and objectives of the project

(3)Presentation of the website by its designer

(4)Feedback and evaluation of the previous phase of the project by the partner organisations and the coordination team

(5)Two working groups which were divided into previous and new partners according to the project structure.

(a)Previous partners: organisational issues about dealing with the check-ups (see Annex 1) during this phase with a specific timetable and information about an improvement in the cooperation between partners and the coordination team and clarification of specific IT questions, such as the processing of the new information within the website for forwarding to the coordination team.

(b)New partners: the original information source for the website is a questionnaire (see Annex 2), which asks about all the relevant legal subjects (migration and right of residence, sex work and employment law, prostitutes as victims, criminal offences and regulatory issues, health issues and medical assistance, aid organisations and offers of counselling). Unclear matters in the questionnaire were explained and the timetable for implementation was presented.

(6)Miscellaneous matters:

(a)Publicity work by the partners and the coordination team (discussion as to the content of a joint leaflet (see Annex 3) and the distribution offemmigration-T-shirts (seesample)

(b)Finances

(c)Outlook for a next phase

Were any unforeseen activities implemented?

In order to make the website more user-friendly, the coordination team has put the focus on lists which in practice are particularly relevant to the migration section: a list of the EU countries, including the 10 new Member States as from May 2004, the countries of the European Economic Area and a link to the European Union internet gateway; a survey of the Schengen countries and the Commonwealth countries and a list of outside countries whose nationals do or do not require a visa for short-term entry into the EU and to Ireland and the UK. A short summary of the surveys and lists facilitates their use.

Did you revise the timetable at any point and why?

At the start of the phase, a timetable was prepared for the partner organisations to answer the questionnaires and for two or three queries to the coordination team. This was adjusted flexibly in individual cases because of different workloads/sickness etc. at the partner organisations.

Describe the role, the activities and the contributions of every partner

The role of Ireland, Denmark and Portugal, the new partners, consisted of preparing a full survey of the relevant legal position in respect of aliens, employment law, criminal law and social security and about the rights of victims of violence.

The new partners, like the previous project partners, have experience over many years in counselling female migrants and sex workers. They are supported in their work by a lawyer. The abovementioned questions were answered in a detailed questionnaire by the lawyer in cooperation with the partner organisation and they were then processed by the coordination team. As experience in previous years had shown that a number of queries are necessary before the wording is finally drawn up, there was the opportunity for queries between the legal coordination team and the new partners, by means of a timetable with previously determined deadlines.

The role of the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Spain, Finland, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Greece, the previous project partners, consisted of updating the data already on the website. The existing data had been collected by the partners in the previous three project phases in the manner described above for the three new countries. Their task was therefore to pursue developments and possible changes in the relevant legal position in their country and provide them in a “check-up”. Here too it was possible for the coordination team to ask further questions.

The coordinating organisation in Germany (“the coordination team”) was responsible for the European coordination of the project.

(1)Arranging the European partner meeting in Hamburg in January 2004, at which the objectives of the project in terms of content and the specific implementation of the project, including a work timetable and the exchange of public relations work at national level, were jointly elaborated.

(2)Updating the questionnaire for the new partners and preparing a new questionnaire for the check-ups of the previous partners.

(3)Queries and exchange of the information supplied by the partners. This process helped with the preparation of the information for the final version on the website.

(4)Structural and technical transposition of the information for the website.

(5)Disseminating and publicising the revised website and updating an existing worldwide mailing list (see point 4).

(6)Public relations work by participation in seminars and congresses.

3.Results and impacts of the project

Which results were obtained from the activities described above?

The website represents thirteen EU Member States so that - apart from Sweden and Luxembourg - almost the entire European Union prior to its enlargement to the east is represented. By the description of these thirteen countries, as former main destination countries for human trafficking, it was possible to achieve the following objectives:

1)Extending the work basis for GOs and NGOs in the countries of origin. The organisations used the website information on legal ways of migrating to the EU and employment opportunities in the EU for the basic work on counselling and street social work. This information enabled the NGOs to provide active preventative work for women potentially affected by trafficking.

2)Extending the work basis for the GOs and NGOs to include the three new destination countries. The organisations were able to inform women already located in a destination country in the European Union about their rights and in particular about the rights of victims (witness protection rights, addresses of women’s safe houses, medical care, safe return possibilities, etc.).

3)Extending the information basis to include the prevention of trafficking directly in respect of those women throughout the world who intend to migrate to the EU and have access to the Internet.

4)Provision of information about the EU enlargement to the east in May 2004, particularly in relation to the freedom of movement, for employment purposes, of the nationals of the new Member States.

5)Enlargement of the network of European GOs and NGOs involved with women affected by trafficking.

6)Improving the clarity of the website for various professional groups dealing with migrants, for example lawyers, journalists, travel agencies. The new, easily accessible lists regarding the Schengen states and visa lists, etc. enable these professional groups to use the website in their daily work.

7)Revising and printing a leaflet presenting the project, in German and English; print run 2000 copies in each language.

8)Designing and producing a T-shirt with the project logo and the logos of the EU and of Amnesty for Women e.V., the sponsoring association, for public relations work; 150Tshirts.

9)Public relations work and presenting the project, including taking part in the national German conference held by the services union ver.di on the topic of “Workplace prostitution” in April 2004 at the Museum of Employment in Hamburg. The project was presented at the “Altonale” trade fair in Hamburg, with its own information stand which aroused keen interest among persons already involved in the migration/prostitution/human trafficking area and among private individuals.

How did you evaluate the results?

The coordination team, together with the partners, evaluated the results of the project both inside and also outside the project.

The internal evaluation covered the assessment of the work process, the work and communications structures and the work results of the project. It was carried out twice.

- At the European partners’ meeting in January 2004, the partners and the coordination team, in the light of experience from their counselling practice, exchanged work results and discussed the content and problems with the implementation of the final phase (2003) in order to improve the quality of the work for the 2004 project.

- A second internal evaluation took place after the coordination team had placed the results of the project on the network in November 2004. The partners checked the correctness and completeness of the content relating to “their” country and confirmed this to the coordination team. Additionally, throughout the entire phase, a continuous exchange took place between the coordination team and the partners regarding the new information to be placed on the network, by means of queries about the questionnaires that were sent out. This regular exchange was particularly important for an understanding of the respective legal system and individual legal problems.

The external evaluation covered the assessment of the public relations work by the partners and the coordination team and the use, applicability and user-friendliness of the website for the project target group.

- At the European partner meeting, the partner organisations exchanged information about their current public relations work on the project. This covered the maintenance of personal contacts with employees of human rights organisations, universities, foundations etc. and arranging workshops.

- The target group, meaning NGOs and women involved in migration who are affected by human trafficking and violence, contacted the coordination team in various ways including direct email queries to the project address ous NGOs also used the website to broaden their own information and referred to e.g. the Daphne projectCabiria[4] in France; the NGOQ Web – Women’s Empowerment Base[5]in Sweden and Kobra – Zentrale Koordinierungs- und Beratungsstelle für Opfer von Frauenhandel [Cobra - Central Coordination and Counselling Service for Victims of the Trafficking of Women]in Germany[6].

- For the first time, lawyers providing advice on the law relating to aliens also expressed their views on the website and let us know that they are happy to use in their daily work the extensive information about what are now almost all the (old) EU countries and the new survey lists on the website (positive lists etc.).

- Webserver evaluation: according to the webserver statistics which represent a summary of the hits for the period from 10 September 2001 until 6 February 2005 (see Annex 4), there were more than 308840 visitors to the in a period of about 3 years.

During the period of this project, there were a total of 143759 hits (see the annexes entitled “Hits”, 1 January - 31 December 2004). This corresponds to almost 12000 hits a month.

Comparison of hits in 2003 and 2004

Months / 2003 / 2004
July / 6086 / 12668
August / 7174 / 12464
September / 8229 / 10690
October / 8892 / 12993
November / 9439 / 13710
December / 6187 / 17103
TOTAL / 46007 / 79628

For the period under consideration, July to December 2003 and July to December 2004, the number of hits thus almost doubled. The reason for the abrupt rise in the number of visitors in December 2004 is that the result of the project, namely the extended and updated website, was disseminated to about 1000 addresses by means of a worldwide mailing list.