HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- Western officials 'colluding with people
traffickers'
Rory Carroll,
Rome
Tuesday July 23, 2002 The Guardian Some western officials are
undermining the fight against human trafficking by becoming cronies of Balkan
pimps and having sex with the prostitutes they are supposed to rescue, according
to a damning report published yesterday.
Criminal gangs who earn billions of pounds by trading women and children have
corrupted elements of the local and international police forces and border
guards at the forefront of Europe's crackdown.
The report, commissioned by the United Nations and the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, says trafficking in south-eastern Europe is
growing worse despite - and in some cases because of - the international
campaign to end the trade.
"Stories about local and international police frequenting bars, using the
services of women and being on good terms with the owners and traffickers are
legion," the report adds.
The presence of foreign soldiers in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, and
western officials in other eastern European countries, is said to have fuelled
the industry.
"The international market for sex services as well as local demand has
expanded, particularly in countries where there is a large international
presence," the report says.
Such an environment deters prostitutes - in many cases teenage girls forced
into the sex industry - from trying to escape, says the report, citing an
alleged case in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, where police handed
women over to traffickers after arresting them in a brothel.
"There is also information about Bulgarian border police who first took money
from women to take them safely back to Bulgaria, only to deliver them back to
the traffickers for additional money," the report adds.
Since illegal immigration became an electoral issue EU governments have
promised improved coordination and resources to combat human trafficking but the
reality, according to the 270-page report, is a shambles which has left women
and children more vulnerable to exploitation.
"The attempts to come to grips with the problem of human trafficking have so
far been toothless and without much success. Despite increased attention at the
political level, few states have taken adequate measures to protect individuals
from trafficking and its related human rights abuses," the report says.
Not all of the women are abused. Ethnic conflict and economic meltdown have
shredded incomes and opportunity, especially for women, and many choose to enter
the west illegally to work as waitresses, nannies and prostitutes, the report
points out.
It adds: "They are able to achieve their goals [and] are often able to
improve the economic condition of their family and their own position within
it."
But, according to the report, there is a separate category of women and
children who end up the property of traffickers. It says they should be treated
as victims of crime, not illegal immigrants and points out that they seldom get
medical care for possible sexual diseases, or the chance to testify in court
against the traffickers.
The criminal gangs are increasingly bolstered by ex-prostitutes who return
home to recruit girls. Such women have been known to manipulate aid agencies,
pretending they are fleeing their pimps, to gain a free flight.
Authorities pressured for results have allegedly distorted statistics. "For
example, prevention of trafficking is used as an argument for refusing young
women entry to a country or for refusing to issue them a visa, and then, in the
police statistics, these cases are relabelled as successful cases of rescuing
'victims of trafficking'."
� Two people drowned and dozens were injured after an Italian coastal
patrol boat hit a motor dinghy packed with suspected illegal immigrants and
refugees near the Albanian coast, Italian customs officials said yesterday.
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