Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2015 10:53:02 +0000
Subject: Re: @EXT: access to information request - Europol - Trade in abandoned children
From: Arun Dohle <[FOI #2043 email]>
To: G24 EU & International Law <[EUROPOL request email]>

Dear G24 EU & International Law (Europol),

Thank you for your request for clarification. Let me give it a try.

In the annex to the Europol Convention Trafficking in Human Beings is defined. It states: “traffic in human
beings means subjection of a person to the real and illegal sway of other persons by using violence or menaces or by abuse of authority or intrigue with a view to the exploitation of prostitution, forms of sexual exploitation and assault of minors or trade in abandoned children.

Hence, as far as I understand, the subject of trade in abandoned children is included in bilateral agreements between Europol and third countries.

I have a Europol report here, which i think is from 2000, on THB, and chapter 2.4.3. is about the trade in abandoned children for adoption (one of the ways in which abandoned children are exploited).
Unfortunately I only have the body of the report, but not the cover page, so no title, exact date et.

For my current research I am looking for documents that show why the trade of abandoned children was included in the annex of the Europol Convention. Some country must have suggested to include it. And likely with well documented motivations?

As for second point of my request ‘all documents
related to Europol's activities in this domain’:

- Scope: documents related to Europol investigations (including studies) into the exploitation children by means of the trade of children for adoption

- Timeframe: from 1999 until now.

I hope this helps.

Yours sincerely,

Arun Dohle

-----Original Message-----

Dear Mr Dohle,

 With regard to the first point of your request below, ‘documents, letters,
 minutes, email, phone logs etc, related to the decision to put Europol in
 charge of the issue of Trade in Abandoned Children’, we find no documents
 containing the information you request. Please note that this does not
 mean you have been refused public access, but rather that the documents
 you seek containing the specific information you mention are not present.
 As a matter of clarification, Europol’s competence is defined in Article 4
 of its legal basis, the Council Decision 2002/187/JHA (herewith enclosed)
 and covers  ‘organised crime, terrorism and other forms of serious crime
 as listed in the Annex affecting two or more Member States in such a way
 as to require a common approach by the Member States owing to the scale,
 significance and consequences of the offences’.


 With regard to the second point of your request below, ‘all documents
 related to Europol's activities in this domain’, we would like to inform
 you that unfortunately your request is too broad and insufficiently
 precise and it is not practically possible for us to satisfy it.
 Therefore, we would like to invite you to reconsider the scope of your
 request, by limiting it to certain events or time frames, or by indicating
 further your specific interest, in line with the applicable rules on
 public access as established by the Management Board, attached for your
 convenience. Please find attached the EU Serious and Organised Crime
 Threat Assessment (SOCTA) from 2013 which may orientate you in this
 regard.
 Thank you for showing interest in our organisation.

 Kind regards,

 G24 – EU & International Law


-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #2043 email]

This message and all replies from European Police Office will be published on the AsktheEU.org website. For more information see our dedicated page for EU public officials at http://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers


-------------------------------------------------------------------
