Mr. Mike Hancock (Portsmouth, South) (LD): I point out to the right hon. Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane), in case he missed it, that the England team have not yet failed to qualify for the World cup; they failed to qualify for the European cup. I ask him not to wish it on them.

The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, the hon. Member for Gedling (Mr. Coaker), and everyone else who has spoken have shown a great commitment to the issue that we are discussing. I pay tribute to all who have contributed for the effort that they have put into it. I have been working on the issue for the past 15 years. For the last 10, I have been heavily involved in the work of the Council of Europe. I congratulate the British parliamentary delegation from all parties and both Houses. Over that time, it has played a significant part in forcing the subject on to the agenda. It was the driving force behind a new commitment to the issue of trafficking.

My hon. Friend the Member for Eastleigh (Chris Huhne), who led for the Liberal Democrats, mentioned some of the countries that had not yet signed the convention. Those countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain, have not wanted to get involved because of the repercussions internally. They would have to face up to the reality of prosecuting those from whom many of them seek to gain votes. In Italy, 50,000 young girls, under age, are employed in the sex industry and are probably having sex with five clients a night, five nights a week. There are millions and millions of illegal sex acts in Italy, but very few men have been prosecuted by the Italian authorities for having sex with under-age girls. The right hon. Member for Rotherham was right in what he said about trying to do something about demand. It is too easy to criticise such countries as Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria and Ukraine and to say that they are driving the industry, but that is not the case; the issue is where the demand lies.

I had the misfortune to meet a man from Moldova who had had an operation in Turkey to have an organ removed. He was quite open about it. He was dying from the consequences of blood poisoning that he had contracted during the operation. He claimed that the organ was received by a British citizen who had gone to Turkey for the operation. It was done not in some back-street workshop but by sophisticated doctors and nurses who knew what they were doing. Presumably, the recipient of that kidney paid a fortune for the operation. The chap from Moldova got $1,000 and death. Many of the journeys of the trafficked start in desperation and, sadly, many, if not all, end in despair, and an increasing number end in death.

We must appreciate the size of the problem. It is not just a matter of knowing the figures. There is universal agreement in the House that we are talking about a very big issue. The Minister is to be congratulated on the robust way in which he put his case today, and on accepting that we must get to grips with the size of the problem. There has been a slow—sometimes painfully slow—recognition of trafficking right across the world, but particularly in Europe. It is a disgrace that all 47 countries of the Council of Europe have not, as a duty, signed and ratified the convention.

The issue of co-operation is fraught. The right hon. Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz) is no longer present, but he asked for people to give evidence to his Committee. When the Council of Europe committee on which I served wanted evidence, we did not have to go very far from the home of the legislation that we are discussing. Less than half a kilometre away in Strasbourg, there were hundreds of women plying their trade not in brothels or massage parlours, but on the streets. So when the group that was looking into the issue wanted information, we went out with a team and spoke to a group of girls.

We met girls from 18 countries in the course of three hours. Some of them gave graphic details and some of them, surprisingly, had the dates that the European Parliament met in Strasbourg because they said that those were good weeks for them. The home of human rights is one of the bastions supporting the demand for the trade. We had the misfortune to meet a young lady whose sister had been killed and her body dumped in the Rhine. Both sisters had been trafficked not once, but twice. Why twice? Because they were both returned from the United Kingdom. They were found and returned. Why were they trafficked again? It was because, as hon. Members have said, there would have been problems and consequences for their family if they had not co-operated. Those girls were forced—not physically, but by the mental pressure of the threat that there would have been to their family’s very existence and life in Moldova if they had not co-operated with the traffickers. Once again, they were back on the streets.

I turn now to the issue of the children. I understand why it is difficult for local authorities to hold on to them—the law does not allow us to lock them in; they are not kept in secure units. Why are those children kept so close to the very streets from which they have been brought? The traffickers and organisers know only too well where they are. I agreed with the Minister when he said that one of the problems of having safe havens all over the place is that the traffickers know and recognise them. They haunt those places and drive on the evil trade.

We have to find new approaches. I was delighted when the Minister said that he had an open mind and wanted people with ideas to come forward with them. One of the issues is that children should not be kept close to where they are found. There should be widespread co-operation to make that happen. Another issue relates to the disclosure of information between our police force and others; there is wholesale police corruption in many of the countries. Many allow the trade to continue and are significant beneficiaries of it. If we give information, it is disseminated within hours of being received and the traffickers know whom to go after and punish.

Why does that happen? It is because, as every Member who has spoken in this debate clearly recognises, drugs, guns and the trafficking of human beings are the big money earners in the underworld across the globe. That is why we have to find new approaches to the issue. I hope that they will be found faster in this country because of the unity in the Chamber tonight and the excellence of this debate.