-Caveat Lector-
TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN REACHES NEW HEIGHTS IN EUROPE
Foreign Affairs News Keywords: PROSTITUTION, ALBANIANS
Source: Frankferter Rundschau online
Published: 4-9-2001 Author: Hans-Hagen Bremer
Posted on 04/10/2001 00:21:57 PDT by robbinsj
Young Albanians forced into prostitution tell of their sorry plight By
Hans-Hagen Bremer Paris - Albanian women told a committee of the Council
of Europe meeting in Paris on Monday grim tales of being auctioned off
like cattle and of enduring brutal psychological pressure designed break
them, to turn them into uncomplaining prostitutes.
"They are auctioned off like animals. If they're blonde and pretty, the
bids are higher. Then they're trained for their future trade. They're
raped, tortured and psychologically broken until they submit. It's a real
slave market," said Briseida Mema, describing the techniques Albanian
pimps use on women to supply western Europe with prostitutes. Mema belongs
to the Independent Forum of Albanian Women.
Also invited to the hearing on the burgeoning trade in women and their
sexual enslavement were parliamentarians, police specialists and
representatives of private aid organisations, including a number from
eastern Europe. The camps where the women are inducted into the sex
industry also exist in countries of the former Yugoslavia.
Calls for classifying trafficking in women as a crime against humanity
have been growing stronger recently. According to Socialist MP Lydie Err
of Luxembourg, it represents a new type of crime against humanity which
remains relatively unpunished. Where charges are filed, he says, they
often result in sentences and fines below those imposed on dealers in
drugs and arms.
Fearing revenge attacks by their tormentors, many women who have escaped
from prostitution withdrew their agreement to publicly address the
committee.
Philippe Boudin, director of the French Committee Against Modern Slavery,
puts the number of non-EU women forced into prostitution in the European
Union since the collapse of communism in 1989 at 500,000 to 600,000. Every
year, another 120,000 or so join their sorry ranks.
For the traffickers and pimps, business is booming, says Don Cesare
Lodeserto, head of the Regina Pacis womens' shelter in Lecce, Italy. The
introduction of the euro has only boosted earnings.
Experts at the United Nations put turnover in the global sex-slave trade
at seven to 13 billion dollars.
The EU declared war on the illegal trade in women back in 1999.
Several directives aimed at harmonising and stiffening relevant laws are
currently being examined by the council of ministers. As yet, none has
been passed into law.
So far, only Belgium and Italy have declared the trafficking of women for
the prostitution industry as a crime and taken steps to provide help to
victims of ruthless gangs of human traffickers. In Belgium, for example,
escaped women can assume a new identity if they wish.
More interesting articles about real slavery in Europe in these short
articles: http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/ukraine/slavebosnia.htm
'Slave trade' thrives in Bosnia High unemployment makes women easy prey
Thursday, 8 March, 2001
By Michael Voss in Bosnia
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bosnia has become the centre of a modern day version of the slave trade.
The authorities believe that many of the warlords and paramilitaries
responsible for the bloodshed of the Balkan wars have now turned their
attention to organised crime and trafficking.
Young women are lured from the poorest regions of Europe with promises of
work in the West, then sold like cattle and forced into prostitution.
International police forces are trying to stop the trade, but most
traffickers escape unpunished.
Many young women change hands in secretive deals at a market in rural
Bosnia near the borders with Serbia and Croatia. Arizona market is one of
the biggest black markets in Europe. Operating from row upon row of wooden
huts, traders sell everything from carpets to washing machines and bootleg
CDs to counterfeit designer-label clothes.
Mara Radovanovic works with a local women's group helping victims of the
trafficking. "When traders come they order the girls to take off all their
clothes and they are standingin the road naked: They are exposed to be
chosen just like cattle". Victimless crime?
>From Arizona market the women are sold to the night clubs and brothels
which have sprung up all over Bosnia. Their customers are a mix of locals
and foreign soldiers serving with the Nato-led peacekeeping force.
Douglas Coffman, the United Nations spokesman in Bosnia, says that too
many people here believe that going to brothels and supporting
prostitution is really a victimless crime. "They think that the girls are
willing and want to make money because of the tough circumstances back
home," he says. "The fact is many of these women are victims of human
trafficking. "They have been dragged across state borders, they have been
held in virtual slavery, beaten, raped and then, at the end of that
process, become prostitutes."
Police impotent
The local police are underpaid, overstretched and no match for the
organized crime gangs running the business. There is a UN police force in
Bosnia but its role limited to supporting the local police.
Detective Sergeant Maxwell Woodford, the senior UN officer dealing with
trafficking, says that the brothel owners are often tipped off in advance
of police raids. He says that on several occasions that the police have
gone to a bar and they've found it locked and in darkness on a Saturday
night, and it is clear that somehow the bar owner has been warned.
I joined Detective Woodford on a raid on a brothel outside Sarajevo where,
for once, the owner had not been forewarned. Two of the young women there
claimed they were tricked into coming to Bosnia. One of them, a
19-year-old from Moldova, says none of the eight girls working there has
ever been paid. She is now in a safe house in Sarajevo run by the
International Office of Migration.
In the past year the IOM has helped some 250 trafficked women to return
home. The majority came from the poorest parts of Europe - Moldova,
Romania and Ukraine - but the main supply route is through Serbia. With no
shortage of young women desperate to improve their lives and no sanctions
on the unscrupulous gangs that exploit them, this modern day slave trade
will continue to thrive.
See more:
http://news.beograd.com/english/articles_and_opinion/bbc/000524_kosovo_sex_slave_trad_%20warning.html
http://www.bhhrg.org/moldova/2001%20sex%20trade/moldova%20sex%20trade.htm
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