Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Bulgaria.htm
Bulgaria is a source, transit, and, to a lesser extent, a
destination country for men, women, and children from Ukraine, Moldova, and
Romania trafficked to and through Bulgaria to Germany, Belgium, France,
Italy, Spain, Austria, Norway, the Czech Republic, Poland, Greece, Turkey,
and Macedonia for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced
labor. Ethnic Roma women and children remain highly vulnerable to
trafficking. Children are trafficked within Bulgaria and to Greece and the
United Kingdom for the purposes of forced begging and forced petty theft.
Around 15 percent of identified trafficking victims in Bulgaria are children.
Bulgarian women and some men are trafficked internally, primarily to resort
areas along the Black Sea coast and in border towns with Greece, for the
purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 Check out a later
country report here or a full TIP
Report here |
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CAUTION:
The following links have been culled from the web to
illuminate the situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of particular
interest to you. Would you like to
write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include possible precursors of trafficking such as poverty. There is a lot to the subject
of Trafficking. Scan other countries
as well. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. HELP for Victims International
Office for Migration Bulgaria Hotline ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Children from The Sofia Echo, Jun
28 2007 sofiaecho.com/2007/06/28/651263_children-from-bulgaria-victims-of-human-trafficking-most-often [accessed 24 January
2011] Bulgarian children
are most often the victims of trafficking and ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country Reports
on Human Rights Practices: Bulgaria U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/bulgaria/
[accessed 13 May
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR There were some reports of families and criminal organizations subjecting children to forced work (see section 7.c.). The national antitrafficking commission reported receiving an increased number of labor exploitation complaints. The commission attributed these complaints to the increased number of persons who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus crisis and who exercised less caution in accepting employment opportunities. According to the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, “children and adults with disabilities are forced into street begging and petty theft.” As of October authorities registered 26 cases of trafficking in persons for the purpose of labor exploitation, although that was a significant decrease from the same period in 2019. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT The government
continued programs to eliminate the worst forms of child labor, mounted
educational campaigns, and intervened to protect, withdraw, rehabilitate, and
reintegrate children engaged in the worst forms of child labor. NGOs continued to
report the exploitation of children in certain industries, particularly small
family-owned shops, textile production, restaurants, construction businesses,
and periodical sales, and by organized crime–notably for prostitution,
pickpocketing, and the distribution of narcotics. Children living in
vulnerable situations, particularly Romani children, were exposed to harmful
and exploitative work in the informal economy, mainly in agriculture,
construction, and the service sector. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/bulgaria/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 23 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Labor laws provide
basic protections against exploitative working conditions, but they do not
extend in practice to gray-market employment. Roma and other ethnic
minorities are particularly vulnerable to trafficking for sexual and labor
exploitation. Although the government has continued to step up efforts to
combat trafficking, shelter victims, and punish perpetrators, these measures
have not matched the scale of the problem, and punishments remain light in
practice. Committee against
Torture considers report of Bulgaria Committee against
Torture, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights
OHCHR, 21 Nov 2017 www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22429&LangID=E [accessed 22
November 2017] In the area of
trafficking in human beings, Bulgaria had made significant progress. It was
one of the countries in Europe with the most comprehensive institutional
frameworks to combat trafficking in human beings. It had penalized
trafficking in line with the highest international legal standards, and it
had gone further to ensure more severe punishments in cases where the victim
was a child. The National Commission to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings
had made the early identification of victims in mixed migration flows one of
its priorities, and it had partnered successfully with United Nations bodies
and international humanitarian organizations. A National Referral Mechanism
for Support to Trafficked Persons in Bulgaria had been set up in July 2016.
Its main objective was to guarantee respect for the human rights of the
victims, including unconditional support, security and safety,
confidentiality and protection of personal information and a
non-discriminatory approach. Human Trafficking
Scheme from Bulgaria Busted in Greece Sofia News Agency,
August 16, 2012 www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=142382 [accessed 17 August
2012] Police in Greece
have cracked a network for human trafficking from Bulgaria, in which
Bulgarians were forced to beg. The undisclosed number of Bulgarians were held in an apartment in the central
Greek city of Larissa. The Bulgarians were
among the country's poor, and were lured with promises for work in Greece.
After that, they were forcefully held, were made to beg in various European countries,
and were severely beaten at each attempt to escape. Greek police
discovered the network, after a 58-year-old male Bulgarian was hospitalized
after being abandoned outside the city following such a beating. Over One Billion
Euros Per Year from Human Trafficking for Bulgarian Mafia Bulgarian News
Network, 4/7/2009 - Source (restricted):
www.bgnewsnet.com/story.php?lang=en&sid=23942 businesstravellers-org.web26.winsvr.net/Default.aspx?tabid=36&EntryID=1609 [accessed 24 January
2011] The annual profit
from human trafficking and prostitution for the Bulgarian mafia is over one
billion euros, a RiskMonitor report revealed on Tuesday. Every year the
victims of human trafficking in Bulgaria are around 10,000. The schemes for
money laundry of human trafficking profits include luxury boutiques, outlets
and car stores. It has also been revealed that such criminals have started to
invest in agriculture, where they could, for example, file reports of
producing far more than what they actually do, thus laundering the money.
According to the report, 70 percent of the prostitutes in Belgium are of
Bulgarian origin. There is also a trend that has appeared recently -
Bulgarian girls are being trafficked to countries like the USA and South
Africa. Sofia News Agency,
December 4, 2007 www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=88170 [accessed 24 January
2011] Officials
have previously announced that the total number of people sentenced for human
trafficking for the first nine months of 2007 was 26. Bulgarian officials
say legalizing prostitution could spur human trafficking Associated Press AP,
Sofia, October 9, 2007 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4
September 2011] Former foreign
minister Nadezhda Mihailova, whose Institute for Democracy and Stability in
Southeast Europe organized the conference last week, estimated that some
10,000 Bulgarian women are trafficked each year - mostly to Germany and the
Netherlands, where prostitution is legal. 10 000 Bulgarian
Women Per Year Victims of Human Trafficking Olga Yoncheva,
news.bg, 05.10.2007 international.ibox.bg/news/id_867476283 [accessed 24 January
2011] Around 10 000 Bulgarian women per year become victims of trafficking
towards EU countries. For
the last two years, 32 organized criminal groups which deal with women
trafficking have been cracked down. 16 leaders have been caught. READING ROOM: Libby Gomersall, The
Sofia Echo, Aug 13 2007 sofiaecho.com/2007/08/13/655260_reading-room-bulgarias-working-girls [accessed 24 January
2011] The dark side of
prostitution is not that it exists at all, but the fact that a pimp controls
most girls and that their exploitation is not just confined to roadside
prostitution. Bulgaria is one of the largest human traffickers in the world,
providing enslaved girls to brothels all over Europe. Currently, Bulgarian
laws on prostitution are unclear. Existing legislative provisions date back
to before 1944. When communism came to Bulgaria, sleazy practices like this,
along with other such crimes against women like domestic violence, were
considered to exist solely in the Western world. Shock human
trafficking case Agence France-Presse
AFP, www.iol.co.za/news/world/shock-human-trafficking-case-1.349584 [accessed 24 January
2011] Ten Bulgarians involved
in trafficking women to Between 2002 and
2005, the group transferred at least 105 Bulgarian girls to France and forced
them to work as prostitutes, Ivanova said. Bulgaria to
extradite human trafficking suspects to France Agence France-Presse
AFP, www.expatica.lu/news/local_news/bulgaria-to-extradite-human-trafficking-suspects-38693_35294.html [accessed 24 January
2011] The five men were
allegedly part of an organised crime group involved in trafficking Bulgarian
women to 80 human
trafficking cases submitted to National Security Service in 2006 www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n107358 [Last access date
unavailable]] "Eighty cases
of trafficking in human beings from Bulgaria were submitted to the National
Security Service in 2006", NSS deputy director Rumen Georgiev said at a
press conference entitled "Action against Trafficking in Human
Beings", a journalist of FOCUS News Agency reported. Twenty-two cases
have already been closed. "The number of human trafficking cases is
higher than the drug trafficking cases", Georgiev explained. Human Trafficking
Epidemic In Make Way Partners,
27 Dec 2006 www.makewaypartners.org/Humantraffickingepidemicinbulgaria.htm [accessed 24 January
2011] Human trafficking
and drug smuggling were epidemic in Bulgaria, France
Crash Human Trafficking Channel Sofia News Agency,
2006 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4
September 2011] A channel for
traffic in people to Police in
Bulgaria's Russe and French Marseille acted in close cooperation in crushing
the channel. Six people were questioned in the Bulgarian city and 5 homes
were searched. A total of 20 cell phones, many personal belongings as well as
bank transfers documents were confiscated during the search. How the new Fagins
are bringing child slavery to Britain Olga Craig, Bojan Pancevski, and David
Harrison, The Telegraph, 04 Jun 2006 [accessed 20 January 2011] Two years ago, when
she was 10, Dochka lost what was left of her innocence when she was sold to a
band of child traffickers by her mother and aunt in New arrests on
charges of human trafficking in Bulgaria The Sofia Echo, Jun
05 2006 sofiaecho.com/2006/06/05/642586_new-arrests-on-charges-of-human-trafficking-in-bulgaria [accessed 24 January
2011] The actions of
Bulgarian police were co-ordinated with Europe-Wide
Human-Trafficking Ring Cracked Associated Press AP
& Reuters, May 29, 2006 www.rferl.org/content/article/1068749.html [accessed 24 January
2011] Authorities across Corruption and
Human Trafficking Hinder The Sofia Echo, May
17 2006 sofiaecho.com/2006/05/17/645186_corruption-and-human-trafficking-hinder-bulgarias-eu-entry [accessed 24 January
2011] According to the
article, the European Commission report from May 16 meant Revealed: kept in a
dungeon ready to be sold as slaves David Harrison in [accessed 24 January
2011] The women, aged 18 to 24, are from across eastern Europe, lured from Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Bulgaria, with promises of good jobs as waitresses, au pairs and dancers. Instead, they have been forced into modern-day slavery in western Macedonia, locked in the dirty cellar and only summoned upstairs by their masters to perform sexual services for customers who are usually drunk and often violent. When they were found, the victims, some of whom had been "broken in" as prostitutes in other countries on the way to Macedonia, barely knew where they were. They had no idea what the future held but knew that it was beyond their control. Balkans Urged To
Curb Trafficking Imogen Foulkes, BBC
News, 31 March, 2005 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4397497.stm [accessed 24 January
2011] Countries in Initiative to Help
Fight Human Trafficking in Three SEE Countries Robert Herschbach,
Southeast European Times, 05/04/05 www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2005/04/05/feature-03?print=yes [accessed 24 January
2011] Atrocious Pimping
Suspect Arrested In Sofia Sofia News Agency,
Apr 29, 2005 www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=47227 [accessed 4
September 2011] At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly also be accessible [here]
A
man suspected of kidnapping, abusing and forcing women into prostitution has
been arrested in Seduction, Sale & Slavery: Trafficking In Women & Children For Sexual Exploitation In Southern Africa [PDF] Jonathan Martens,
Maciej 'Mac' Pieczkowski, Bernadette van Vuuren-Smyth, International
Organization for Migration (IOM), May 2003 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4
September 2011] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - The major findings may be summarized as follows: Russian and Bulgarian mafias traffic Russian and other Eastern European women on South African visas fraudulently obtained in Moscow to upscale South African brothels. These Eastern European women are promised jobs as waitresses, dancers, strippers, and hostesses in South Africa, but are not told that they must pay a debt of US$2000 per month for six months or more as sex workers until they arrive in South Africa. If they refuse to cooperate, they and their families back at home are threatened with violence. Miss Humanity Velina Nacheva, The
Sofia Echo, Jan 15 2004 sofiaecho.com/2004/01/15/631113_miss-humanity [accessed 24 January
2011] Magi spends most of
her time in In conversations with children from orphanages and schools, Magi explains the dangers that children might encounter when talking to strangers who offer strange work opportunities. In response she is always greeted with much love and affection by the children in Blagoevgrad and said that these children do mean a lot to her. "They ask questions, share their dreams and are natural," she said. - htcp Face to Face
Bulgaria FACE2FACE 2004-2006 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4
September 2011] The poor economy of a country is the main factor that makes these girls potential victims. They are trying to run away from poverty and to have a better future for them and for their families by accepting shady offers from unknown people and agencies. Once they choose this road, they rarely escape from this trap alive. It is proven that girls from orphanages and small towns and villages are most vulnerable because of uneducation and desire for quick earnings. Michael Cory Davis,
Screenwriter of Svetlana's Journey film, based on true events American Chamber of
Commerce in At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4
September 2011] Many people are mis-educated about the forced prostitution industry, thinking that these young girls ask for this to happen to them, simply by their desire for money. In fact, many of the statistics show the initiation and involvement of young girls in this industry, comes from abductions, kidnappings, and out right lying by the sex peddlers. These peddlers use many tactics, usually finding girls in poor areas and promising them opportunities as secretaries, models, waitresses, and even schooling. Svetlana's story is one of the thousands that pour into the office of Face to Face daily. Kosovo: Trafficked
women and girls have human rights BRAMA News, May 6,
2004 www.brama.com/news/press/2004/05/040506amnestyinternational.html [accessed 24 January
2011] Some 406 foreign
women were assisted by the IOM in Kosovo between December 2000 and December
2003. According to the IOM, 48 per cent of women who have entered its
repatriation program - enabling them to return to their home country -
originated from Moldova. Of the remainder, 21 per cent came from Romania, 14
per cent from Ukraine, six per cent
from Bulgaria, three per cent from Albania and the remainder from Russia
and Serbia proper. Susan Phillips, Z
Magazine, June 2002 www.zcommunications.org/bulgaria-traffic-in-women-by-susan-phillips [accessed 24 January
2011] For young women
from small towns and smaller options, Minkova says they are often lured by
offers they find hard to resist. "They tell them, 'you look great,
you're very nice, I think you'd make a great baby-sitter," says Minkova.
Minkova says that although some women go voluntarily, knowing they will be
prostitutes, none are prepared for the cruel working conditions. Few women
successfully escape from forced prostitution. But those who do, tell a grim story.
Both Human Rights Watch and Animus report of repeated rapes and beatings by
their captors. They are put through a process of psychological torture
designed to make them compliant towards, and dependent on, the pimp.
Traffickers confiscate their passports and papers. Often moved and sold, the
trafficked women become unaware of even the country in which they are
working. Former victims report being forced to work up to 20 hours a day.
They receive little, if any, payment and are told they are in debt to their
pimps. If they get pregnant, say the Animus volunteers, they are often left
by the side of a road. Of all the money that exchanges hands, the sex workers
themselves see little of it. The Department of Labor's 2004 Findings on the
Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/bulgaria.htm [accessed 24 January
2011] Note:: Also check out this country's report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor CHILD
LABOR LAWS AND ENFORCEMENT - The Constitution prohibits forced labor. The Law on Combating
Trafficking in Human Beings, which entered into force in January 2004,
includes measures for the protection and assistance of child victims of
trafficking, and created the National Anti-Trafficking Commission to
coordinate and construct policy on trafficking. Bulgarian law penalizes trafficking a minor with 2 to 10 years imprisonment and
fines. Inducement to prostitution, which is often associated with
trafficking, is punishable by 10 to 20 years imprisonment, if the victim was
a minor. Concluding
Observations Of The Committee On The Rights Of The Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 7 and 8 January 1997 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/bulgaria1997.html [accessed 24 January
2011] [9] The Committee
is concerned at the lack of an integrated strategy on children as well as of
a systematic mechanism to monitor progress in all areas covered by the
Convention, and in relation to all groups of children in urban and rural
areas, especially those affected by the consequences of the economic
transition. The Committee is also concerned about the need to strengthen the
State party's capacity to collect and process data to evaluate progress
achieved and to assess the impact of policies adopted on children, in
particular the most vulnerable groups of children. The Protection
Project - The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/bulgaria.doc [accessed 2009] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - According to a
recent study, among identified female victims of trafficking in Women are lured
into the industry through false job advertisements offering jobs as models,
dancers, and au pairs. Many of the girls recruited are orphans or come from disadvantaged
families, making them more vulnerable to the promises of traffickers offering
them work abroad. Teenage girls are often kidnapped and, among the Roma
minority, frequently sold to traffickers by their families. - htcp Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org/europecentral-asia/bulgaria [accessed 24 January
2011] ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** 2017 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 20 April 2018 www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2017/eur/277149.htm [accessed 17 March
2019] www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/bulgaria/ [accessed 25 June
2019] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR There were some
reports of families or criminal organizations subjecting children to forced work
(see section 7.c.). According to the Agency for Fundamental Rights,
"children and adults with disabilities are forced into street begging
and petty theft." As of October the National Antitrafficking
Commission reported four cases of trafficking in persons for the purpose of
forced labor, noting a significant decrease from 2015. NGOs claimed
government mechanisms for identifying victims among at-risk groups, such as
asylum seekers, were not sufficiently robust. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61641.htm [accessed 7 February
2020] CHILDREN
- Widespread
poverty led many Romani children to turn to begging, prostitution, and petty
crime on the streets. There were reports of child smuggling rings paying
Romani women for babies that were later sold to couples in Western Europe.
Police launched 17 investigations in the Burgas and
Peshtera areas in connection with the reports, all
of which were ongoing at year's end. TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
- Girls and young women were often approached by persons who gained their trust,
frequently other young women and acquaintances, who described glamorous work
opportunities abroad. Some were sold into bondage to traffickers by
relatives. Unaccompanied young women trying to cross the border into
Macedonia, Romania, or Turkey reportedly were at risk of being abducted into
trafficking. In larger cities, organized crime groups were often responsible
for trafficking, although they used various front companies to pose as
employment agencies, escort and intimate services businesses, or tour
operators. Small crime groups and freelance operators monopolized trafficking
in smaller cities and towns. According to AAF,
the process of transforming victims into prostitutes generally took place
before they left the country. Victims typically were taken to a large town,
where they were often kept for weeks, isolated, beaten, and subjected to
severe physical and psychological torture to make them more submissive before
they were transported to their destination points. Once the victims left the
country, their identity documents were routinely confiscated, and they found
themselves forced to work as prostitutes in cities across Europe. The victims
could be required to pay back heavy financial debts to the agency that helped
them depart the country, leaving them in indentured servitude. Traffickers
punished victims severely for acts of disobedience and threatened the
victims' families and family reputations to ensure compliance. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS
OF COMPONENT ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human
Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
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