As I sit at my desk writing this I am listening to a debate happening at the same time in the European Parliament in Strasbourg about human trafficking. I plan to ask a question about the European anti-trafficking convention in Foreign Office questions in Parliament this afternoon. Thanks to modern technology, the computer I am typing on transmits a live debate, hundreds of miles away in a different country, on a subject which is too often ignored in public. I am also able to benefit from simultaneous translation so I know exactly what is going on as well as the result of the vote which will occur very shortly before my question.

I have recently been speaking to Police officers who led the joint operation, between the Metropolitan police and the Romanian police, against human traffickers in Slough who brought Roma children into the UK to beg and steal.  That operation led to severe criminal penalties for the main organisers. Police tell me that human trafficking is more profitable than drug trafficking and is second only to arms trafficking in providing profits for organised criminal gangs.  The collaboration between British and Romanian authorities was essential to the success of the operation.

But although we live in a society where international collaboration is able to provide instant feeds from the European Parliament debates, there is a risk that Britain, which has been a target for this appalling form of modern slavery, will get left behind the rest of Europe by failing to sign up to the European directive, despite the fact that every speech in the Parliament supported the directive.

In opposition, Conservatives pressed the Labour government to swiftly sign the Council of Europe convention on trafficking.  They were right then and I agreed with them, but now they are backing off from signing up to a directive which puts high ambitions into practical terms.  Perhaps they don't want to pay for independent guardians for trafficked children or maybe they don't like the European Union.  But there is a town in Romania which got its children back because of the determined action of British and Romanian policemen working together.  That action was funded by the European Union.  The children may enjoy a normal education and family Christmas this year.

Britain should play its part in EU collaboration to prevent this modern form of slavery.