Legalisation of prostitution would be a mistake, Interior Minister Roumen Petkov said at a press conference on October 18 2007, the international day for the fight against human trafficking.

Petkov said that this was his personal opinion and that in Bulgaria’s society there was a debate on the problem.

If Bulgaria wanted to be a “civilised European country”, prostitution legalisation should not be approved, he said as quoted by Focus news agency.

US Deputy secretary of state for Europe and Eurasian affairs Colleen Graffy said that the US was against prostitution legalisation. Prostitution would lead to a number of other crimes, such as money laundering, violence, abuse of women and organised crime, she said.

The US appreciated Bulgaria’s efforts to limit human trafficking, which is the contemporary equivalent of slavery, Graffy said.

According to Petkov, in 2006 Bulgaria’s police took part in 16 successful police actions in the EU under the Europol control. Between January and September 2007, 17 successful joint police operations against human trafficking with participation of Bulgarian policemen had been undertaken.

Bulgaria’s authorities revealed 13 cases of export of babies by pregnant women and their adoption by foreigners and investigated money laundering of 60 000 euro from baby trafficking, Petkov said.