Frattini backs EU-wide helpline for trafficked prostitutes 

Questioned by the Parliament on the EU action taken, or planned, against forced prostitution during the World Cup, the EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said that the EU had supported creation of NGO-run telephone help lines for victimes of forced prostitution. Many MEPs criticised the absence of any more substantial action by the EU or by the member states.

Frattini said that the Commission would like to see establishment of an EU-wide hotline for forced prostitutes, and agreed that a 'European Day of trafficking', suggested by an MEP, should be set up in 2007.

A Europol study on forced prostitution indicates that major sports events, such as the World Cup 2006, indeed increase the risk of trafficking of people for sexual exploitation, especically from the Eastern EU countries and the neighbouring countries.

In October 2005 the Commission presented a communication on trafficking in human beings, which has been a major problem in Europe since the early 1970s.