Excerpts from Deputy Foreign Minister Spyros Kouvelis’s 30 March 2011 presentation of the Foreign Ministry Action Plan for raising awareness of the fight against human trafficking:
- “The main issue exploited by organized crime is the fragmentation of responsibilities among agencies via over-legislation and bureaucracy. What we are trying to do is implement a new culture of cooperation with personnel from other Greek ministries, with the International Organization for Migration and NGOs, and we are organizing the operation of a national coordinating and supervising mechanism for combating human trafficking.”
- “In cooperation with international organizations, the Foreign Ministry is playing a coordinating role, which we want to institutionalize. In this very hall, on 12 October 2011, Foreign Minister Droutsas presented – together with the European Commission, the European Parliament and the International Organization for Migration – the broader National and European Planning.”
- “Our Action Plan is based on three pillars. First, protection of and care for victims, which is extremely important because we are talking about human beings. Second, fighting crime and prosecuting traffickers: production of the phenomenon. And third, prevention of the phenomenon, which has to do mainly with dealing with the existence of demand.”
- “Greece has not been left unscathed by the problem of human trafficking, but we are making great efforts. This year is the eighth anniversary of the implementation of Greece’s legislative framework. Things went pretty well in 2010: prosecutions of trafficking-related crimes rose by 65%, with convictions rising by 52%, and this led to closer cooperation between the authorities participating in these efforts. There is a serious response to Greece’s commitments within the framework of Community law, relevant treaties have been ratified, and we also have the success of the national coordinating mechanism I mentioned – the Foreign Ministry and the co-competent Ministries – in joining a European programme for confronting trafficking, and this is very important for the next steps we need to take.”
- “We want society to be with us in this effort, and that is why we have planned to bring together on this initiative the representatives of various important groups in Greece: the sports community, the business community, the educational and arts communities. Beyond that, we will launch – within the framework of the National Plan – an number of actions for strengthening the voices of all those participating.”
- “Through the National Plan, we want to set a clear goal: Two years from now – on 30 March 2013 – we want our country to have a place among the leaders in the fight against human trafficking.”
March 30, 2011