Lost kids, lost futures – The European Union’s response to child trafficking

Over one million children every year across the world leave their homes and fall, or are given or sold, into the hands of traffickers who exert control over children and move them from one place to another in order to exploit them. Child trafficking is not new, but there are indications that in recent years it has been growing and a variety of international responses have been devised to put an end to it. This paper looks at how the European Union (EU) has chosen to respond to this challenge and assesses critically the legal, policy and implementation framework put in place to fight child trafficking.