Fantasies and Realities Fueling Child Trafficking in Europe

Drawing on a rich experience in the field working with exploited children,Olivier Peyroux sets out to expose and de-construct from a child rotection perspective some of the complex sociological mechanisms driving contemporary trafficking modi operandi in Europe. Widely held mythical misconceptions linked to clichés of poverty, immigration or ethnic stereotyping continue to fuel this rapidly expanding criminal phenomenon often leading Member States to fail to correctly identify and protect the victims of some of the worst forms of contemporary slavery. In spite of a growing arsenal of child-protection focused EU antitrafficking legislation, children continue to be perceived and treated by the authorities as delinquents for the criminal activities they are forced to commit under duress or because of the manipulative ascendancy of the traffickers. Who exploits these children? Parents? Mafia type family networks? Are we dealing with organized crime? Needy families trying to extricate themselves from poverty? Why are the Police, the child protection agencies or NGOs so powerless to intervene?