Government approves Comprehensive Plan to Fight Trafficking of Women and Girls for Purposes of Sexual Exploitation 2015-2018

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

The Vice-President of the Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, declared that the Comprehensive Plan to Fight the Trafficking of Women and Girls for the Purposes of Sexual Exploitation 2015-2018 is a cross-cutting response to "one of the worst modern forms of slavery, a flagrant violation of human rights, particularly of women, who represent the vast majority of the victims of this scourge".

The Minister for Health, Social Services and Equality, Alfonso Alonso, claimed that "the trafficking of human beings is the slavery of the 21st Century", and that 80% of the victims are women or girls, according to Eurostat. Last year in Spain, the State law enforcement agencies detected 14,000 women at risk, the majority of them of Romanian, Spanish, Dominican, Brazilian, Colombian and Paraguayan nationality. 85% of these women are under the age of 35, 40% under the age of 25 and 1% are minors.

The plan approved on Friday is allocated a provision of 104 million euros and is divided into five priority headings and 143 specific measures, with the aim of providing a response to this phenomenon in all areas and from different perspectives.

Alfonso Alonso specified that the first priority is to detect and prevent trafficking, in which "the role of the police and the Guardia Civil is essential". The document also provides for professionals working in other areas, such as primary care doctors, contribute to identifying women at risk.

Pool MoncloaThe plan also commits to raising awareness in society of situations of sexual exploitation, in particular through messages aimed at the youngest members of society. In this regard, the minister announced that in October, a new campaign will be launched against people trafficking, which will be presented the following Wednesday to those bodies and organisations that fight this phenomenon and to the victims.

Moreover, the ministerial department will act in collaboration with local councils, regional governments and the media in terms of publicising the phenomenon. "We are committed to formulas of self-regulation, through codes that can be designed and to a joint reflection" to ascertain the best way to alleviate this situation, said Alfonso Alonso.

Another of the main priorities of this plan is identifying, protecting and helping victims, particularly the most vulnerable, such as women with disabilities, those with children and minors. The integration of foreign victims finding themselves in illegal situations will also be actively encouraged.

Alfonso Alonso also announced that one of the main underlying principles of the text consists of returning to victims the economic sums deriving from the seizure of goods and assets from traffickers. In this regard, he recalled that Parliament is analysing the creation of an office to recover and manage assets.

The Minister for Health, Social Services and Equality added that the collaboration between the Ministry of Home Affairs and various other public authorities, Government Representatives for Gender-Based Violence and those bodies and organisations that seek to combat trafficking will also be enhanced in order to "prosecute criminals more effectively".

Subsidies for Cáritas and the Red Cross

The Council of Ministers approved the concession of subsidies for a total amount of 67.6 million euros to Cáritas Española and to the Red Cross, charged to the tax allocation from Personal Income Tax (Spanish acronym: IRPF). As a result of today's contribution, the Red Cross has received 162 million euros and Cáritas Española 96 million euros during this term of office, according to Alfonso Alonso.

In total, the government has distributed close on 221 million euros to finance 1,272 programmes to a total of 470 bodies and organisations in 2015, as a result of the contributions made from taxpayers who elected the option of other purposes of a social nature in their IRPF return.

Alfonso Alonso underlined that in total more than 850 million euros have been distributed in social action programmes to organisations operating in the 'Third Sector', particularly aimed at protecting the most vulnerable people. "The importance of this programme for guaranteeing the social cohesion and structure of the countries has once again been made clear and in order for us to have a powerful, strong network of bodies and NGOs in the third sector that work for the benefit of others".

Reception and integration of refugees

Pool MoncloaOn another note, the Council of Ministers analysed a report on the work of the Inter-ministerial Group for the management of the asylum and refugee crisis and agreed to immediately set up two liaison missions that Spain will send to Italy and Greece.

The Vice-President of the Government explained that these two countries must create "critical points" where the profile of refugees in situ will be documented and defined, in order to facilitate their reception and integration into each of the Member States of the European Union. The liaison missions, with support from the embassies and consular offices in the two countries, will work on the ground with officials from these States, with FRONTEX - the European agency that coordinates the actions of Member States in relation to external borders - and with NGOs.

Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría asserted this will ensure that an orderly, systematic, swift and appropriate procedure can be established to receive refugees in Spain. In this regard, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Employment, in collaboration with the Ministries of Health, Social Services and Equality, of Education, and of Foreign Affairs, are working to "re-dimension" the protocols on asylum and the protection of refugees and that, in this way, "the processes to take them in and, more importantly, their ultimate integration in this country will be made with all the guarantees and for the security of everyone involved", she pointed out.

Support for the European Commission

Also in relation to refugees, the government tackled "the recent progress" made at the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council, as well as what will be the "approach to support" the European Commission at the upcoming meeting of the former, pointed out the Government Spokesperson.

As regards the informal meeting called by the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, to be held on Wednesday, 23 September, to tackle this crisis, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría announced that this will focus heavily on cooperation with countries of origin. "This is an issue that we have been advocating right from the very start, on a general basis, in the definition of a common policy on immigration and asylum in the European Union and, more recently, on issues such as the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund", she declared.

In relation to individual initiatives emerging to take in refugees, the Vice-President of the Government thanked public authorities and citizens for their solidarity and recalled that it is necessary to work hand-in-hand with the European Commission and work towards integration to avoid new movements of refugees towards other States. "If we organise things correctly now, we will avoid problems arising in the future", she said.

Continuity of the National Supercomputing Centre

Pool MoncloaThe government approved an agreement to provide continuity to the partnership agreement signed between the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Regional Government of Catalonia and the Technical University of Catalonia for the creation, construction, fitting-out and operation of the National Supercomputing Centre.

The Government Spokesperson framed this measure as "a commitment to investment in R&D+i and highlighted that it enables the centre to be offered stability until 2019, thanks to an investment in excess of 23 million euros. She pointed out that this institution has become a "benchmark" as a supercomputing infrastructure and as a technological research and development centre.

Other agreements

• The Council of Ministers modified the conditions to include ministers of evangelical churches under the general regime of the Spanish social security system. This will thus ensure their equivalence to priests of the diocesan clergy of the Catholic Church and thus comply with a ruling handed down by the European Court of Human Rights against discrimination.
• The government agreed to the distribution of subsidies to regional governments of a sum exceeding 3 million euros to help improve healthcare information of the National Health System and to finance strategies to combat rare diseases.
• The government approved the appointment of the Minister for Justice, Rafael Catalá, to head up the delegation that will attend the ceremony on 23 September in Washington (United States) to canonise Father Junípero Serra.

Current affairs

Pool MoncloaWhen asked about the government's assessment of the communications being issued by the Regional Government of Catalonia to diplomatic missions accredited in Spain on the pro-independence process, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría stressed that, despite the time and money invested in trying to convince the whole world of his vision of Catalonia, Artur Mas has achieved "the worst possible failure" because "you can buy neither reason nor international legality". This is also the position, she reminded, of the President of the United States, the President of the European Commission, the German Chancellor and the British Prime Minister.

As regards the incident involving the MP for Amaiur, Sabino Cuadra, when he tore up pages of the Spanish Constitution in the Lower House of Parliament, the Vice-President of the Government stressed that this action "has shown a lack of respect for all the people of Spain", and added that Sabino Cuadra cannot use the Constitution for his own purposes as an MP and then "ignore it" when he so wishes.

On the matter of the government's feeling regarding the Spanish basketball team's classification for the final of Eurobasket 2015 and the performance by Pau Gasol in the tournament, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría stated that the whole government feels very proud of the victories of a team of compatriots that work and play together and wishes them the very best of luck in the final "because they deserve it and they are a wonderful group of guys".