Human Trafficking in [Moldova Street Children in [Moldova] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Moldova] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the first
ten years of the 21st Century
- 2000 to 2009
Moldova is a source, and to a
lesser extent, a transit and destination country for women and girls trafficked
for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and men trafficked for
forced labor. According to an ILO report, Moldova’s national Bureau of
Statistics estimated that there were likely over 25,000 Moldovan victims of
trafficking for forced labor in 2008.Moldovan women are trafficked primarily
to Turkey, Russia, Cyprus, the UAE, and also to other Middle Eastern and
Western European countries. Men are trafficked to work in the construction,
agriculture, and service sectors of Russia and other countries. There have
also been some cases of children trafficked for begging to neighboring
countries. Girls and young women are trafficked within the country from rural
areas to Chisinau, and there is evidence that men from neighboring countries
are trafficked to Moldova for forced labor. The small breakaway region of Transnistria in eastern Moldova is outside the central
government’s control and remained a source for trafficking in persons. - U.S.
State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009
[full country report] |
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CAUTION:
The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** NGOs urge Moldova and Pridnestrovie
to work together in fight against sex slave trade www.tiraspoltimes.com/node/651 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
TOP EXPORT: PROSTITUTES - In Moldova, the situation is
much worse. Although formerly one of the most wealthy parts of the former
Soviet Union, Moldova is today officially the poorest country in Europe. With
nearly total unemployment, the registered daily income of 80% of the
population is below a dollar per day. This fact can explain why desperate
people sell their organs for money and sex trafficking is rampant. Moldovan
prostitutes are now the country’s main export. 40% of Moldova's sex slaves are
kids, and both the traffickers and the involved government officials know
that children are highly sought after for the sex trade. Government officials behind record rise in Moldova organ
trade www.tiraspoltimes.com/news/government_officials_behind_record_rise_in_moldova_organ_trade.html There are villages in the Southern
region of Moldova where almost all the inhabitants sold organs in order to
escape the extreme poverty they live in. The "commerce" goes on
with the agreement of the Chisinau authorities, DPA reports. ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - According to the IOM, Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – While many different individuals have become trafficking victims, the primary target group was the female population between the ages of 15 and 30. In 2004 the IOM reported that 12 percent of the victims they assisted were minors at the time of return, and 40 percent were minors at the time of their initial trafficking. Victims often came from rural areas where economic desperation had already driven many residents to look for work abroad. According to the IOM, most victims had already suffered some form of physical or sexual abuse at home and were willing to face significant risk to escape unbearable circumstances in their families. Women and girls typically accepted job offers in other countries, ostensibly as dancers, models, nannies, or housekeepers. In many areas, friends, relatives, or acquaintances approached young women and offered to help them find good jobs abroad. The IOM reported that former victims frequently acted as trafficking recruiters, sometimes under coercion, and that over the past two years women had recruited most of its caseload victims. Newspaper advertisements promising well-paying jobs abroad also lured many victims. The IOM also noted that traffickers themselves were mainly foreign men, and the International Labor Organization's (ILO) program for the elimination of child labor reported that in many cases traffickers of children have been Roma. Another trafficking pattern involved orphans who were required to leave orphanages when they graduated from school, usually at the age of 16 or 17, and had no funds for living expenses or continuing education. Some orphanage directors reportedly sold information on when orphan girls were to be turned out of their institutions to traffickers, who approached the girls as they left. According to the Center for Prevention of Trafficking in Women, parents or husbands pressured some young women to work abroad. Traffickers commonly recruited women from rural villages, transported them to larger cities, and then trafficked them abroad. Concluding
Observations Of The Committee On The Rights Of The Child (CRC) - 2002 [45] The Committee notes that some measures have been developed
to combat trafficking, but is nevertheless deeply concerned about the serious
proportions of trafficking of girls from Human
trafficking: The faces and sorrow at the heart of a UN report www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29907&Cr=&Cr1= Anna (not their real names) was
beaten throughout her childhood in Moldova, and fled her home in despair at
age 12. But those who “helped” her run away to a supposedly better life trafficked her to Ana spent five years begging in
Poland before she managed to escape and was returned to Moldova by the local
police. Moldovan sex slaves released in U.K. human trafficking raids www.tiraspoltimes.com/node/1745 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
A group of girls from Moldova, Europe's poorest country,
is the continent's leading supplier of underage girls for sexual
exploitation. Human trafficking rings operate with impunity in Moldova, where
they are for the most part under government protection and where a number of
local government officials are involved as participants behind the rings. Due
to a climate of impunity, no government officials have ever been charged with
human trafficking and prostitution offenses in Moldova Professor
visits Moldova to help combat human trafficking Moldova is a small, land locked,
communist country sandwiched between the Ukraine and Romania. It is the
poorest country in Eastern Europe and one with the poorest record in
trafficking of women and young girls. Thousands of Moldovan women are
estimated to have fallen victim to human trafficking in that country.
Resistance from government agencies and corruption of officials make it
difficult to work together as a task force. An intelligent girl with
ambitions, Elena had been enticed to London from Moldova with a promise of a
good job and a bright future. Once in the U.K., however, her passport was
taken from her and she was kept in solitary confinement to break her will.
She was warned that her family in Moldova would suffer harm unless she did
what she was told. And then she was put to work as a sex slave, servicing a
procession of men in the most appalling circumstances. Like Elena, these victims may end
up in the sex trade. Many others find themselves condemned as slave laborers,
forced to work in domestic service, in hazardous factories or at grim sites
like the cocoa plantations of West Africa. Thousands more, many just
children, become unwilling conscripts in bitter wars. Nearly all suffer
physical or sexual abuse, creating mental and physical scars they carry for
the rest of their lives. Organ
trafficking: a fast-expanding black market China, India, Pakistan, Egypt,
Brazil, the Philippines, Moldova,
and Romania are among the world's leading providers of trafficked organs. If
China is known for harvesting and selling organs from executed prisoners, the
other countries have been dealing essentially with living donors, becoming
stakeholders in the fast-growing human trafficking web. Causal
Factors in the Crime of Trafficking of Women for the Purpose [PDF] [page 163] Table 2: Type of Exploitation
2003
Trafficking in
women remains a global abuse The June 28, 2007, German weekly,
Die Zeit, published an article on the growing
problem of human trafficking in Europe. The article gave several specific
examples. One woman, Natalia, from the country of Moldova, wrongly assumed that a
household job awaited her in Istanbul that would pay 300 Euros per month. At
the Istanbul airport, however, her male contact person was approached by
another man who told Natalia that she would be
working for him instead. Subsequently, she was forced into prostitution and
''sold'' six more times. Fortunately, her sister managed to locate her and to
get her released. Trafficking victims
prompt new Baptist ministry in Moldova "Earn money abroad. Waiters,
housemaids and managers needed for world-renowned hotel chain. Immediate
openings. Potential to earn thousands."
Natasha couldn't believe her eyes. She'd been looking for employment
ever since she graduated but there were no jobs to be found in Moldova, a
country in Eastern Europe. Seeing the newspaper advertisement, she thought to
herself, Why not try it? Most of her friends had found jobs in other
countries, why shouldn't she? She picked up the phone and made the call. Two weeks later, Natasha was
sitting in a small, windowless room with a foam mattress on the floor and a
bare bulb giving off insufficient light above her shaved head and bruised body.
When the door opens, a man quietly slips in and strips. Natasha shrinks into
a small ball -– this is not the job she applied for. Tricked and sold into slavery, Natasha has
nowhere to turn to for help. Since declaring its independence
from the Soviet Union in 1991, Moldova has, in many ways, failed to make a
name for itself economically or politically. It does, however, have the
unfortunate distinction of leading Eastern Europe in human trafficking. "The British Helsinki Human
Rights Group did a study in 2000, and they said 60 percent of the girls that
are being trafficked out of all of Eastern Europe are coming out of
Moldova," Davis said. "That would include countries much, much
larger than Moldova. Russia, Ukraine, Romania, countries that are considered
to have really bad trafficking problems, and here's little Moldova ... and
more girls are coming out of here than anywhere." Human
Trafficking Booming in Eastern Europe, but Governments Don’t Seem to Care Soviet Union has fallen, there is
no way communism can be restored again, the new ruling elite gloat in
countries that were once part of that setup.
But poverty, prostitution and crime thrive like never before in that
region. Young girls are the worst victims of the churning. On a per capita basis Modolva,
a small piece of territory near Ukraine, has earned the invidious distinction
of being Europe’s top exporter of sex slaves. UN's fight against Moldova sex slavery, human trafficking www.tiraspoltimes.com/node/872 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
SEX SLAVERY AMONG UNDERAGE GIRLS
FROM Data collected by UNODC show that
about 80 per cent of the victims of human trafficking, most of them women and
young girls, are forced into prostitution. The remaining 20 per cent, usually
the men and boys, face forced labor. About half are under the age of 18. The International Organization for
Migration considers Moldova the main European source of women and children
for forced prostitution in Western Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East.
Typically, young women are lured overseas with the promise of waitress or
housekeeping jobs, only to be forced into the sex trade, sometimes even sold
two or three times. NGOs urge Moldova and Pridnestrovie
to work together in fight against sex slave trade www.tiraspoltimes.com/node/651 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
TOP EXPORT: PROSTITUTES - In Moldova, the situation is
much worse. Although formerly one of the most wealthy parts of the former
Soviet Union, Moldova is today officially the poorest country in Europe. With
nearly total unemployment, the registered daily income of 80% of the
population is below a dollar per day. This fact can explain why desperate
people sell their organs for money and sex trafficking is rampant. Moldovan
prostitutes are now the country’s main export. 40% of Moldova's sex slaves are
kids, and both the traffickers and the involved government officials know
that children are highly sought after for the sex trade. Moldova: Lower prices behind sex slavery boom and child
prostitution www.tiraspoltimes.com/node/653 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Two American TV crews have
investigated MAIN ORIGIN OF FORCED CHILD
PROSTITUTION - Organ
trafficking and sexual slavery are mainstays of Moldova's economy. Record
numbers of Moldovan women are made into sex slaves, forced into prostitution
and lifelong servitude. Moldova holds
a dubious world record: The country is today the leading haven for pedophiles
and for traffickers who earn fortunes enslaving underage kids in a brutal
international sex trade. Government officials behind record rise in Moldova organ
trade www.tiraspoltimes.com/news/government_officials_behind_record_rise_in_moldova_organ_trade.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
There are villages in the Southern
region of Training
Roma to combat human trafficking Through a contribution of the
Norwegian and Finnish governments, the Council of Europe is organising training courses to prevent human trafficking
of Roma from Albania, Moldova and Slovakia. The route to hell living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1230692006 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] The advert in the local paper was brief. "Women and girls under 35. Well-paid jobs abroad." There was a contact phone number, and Olga rang the same evening. She was a 21-year-old single mother, living in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau and supporting her young son by working ten hours a day in an outdoor food market. Revealed: kept in a dungeon ready to be sold as slaves 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. Woman falls six stories, now walking www.insidetxbiz.com/adminnm/templates/healthcare.asp?articleid=551&zoneid=8 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] The woman was kidnapped and left with a group of individuals who intended to sell her into forced prostitution. In November 2004, she fell six stories while trying to escape her captors and suffered numerous life-threatening injuries including a fracture of the pelvis and spinal column, causing her to lose the use of her legs. Merchants of
Misery: Human Trafficking in Moldova [DOC] Silvia’s descent into the dark world of trafficking
began when a neighbor told the 19-year-old that she could get a good job as a
sales girl in Moscow. Unemployed, broke, with a baby daughter and no husband or
job prospects in her hometown of Ungheni, Silvia
(not her real name) decided to travel to the Moldovan capital of Chisinau
where she was to meet two men who would arrange her travel to Balkans
Urged To Curb Trafficking Countries in Treatment Options for Young Moldovan Woman Sex Trafficking
Victim www.texasback.com/pr_42305.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Texas Back Institute Research Foundation (TBIRF) physicians, along with a team of local specialists, will be donating professional treatment and services to a 19-year-old Moldovan woman, an escaped sex trafficking victim Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 4 Civil Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free Stop
Violence Against Women – Country Page U.S. Library of Congress
- Country Study Young
Women From Rural Areas Vulnerable To Human Trafficking Tens of thousands of Moldovan
women are estimated to have fallen victim to human trafficking. Most victims
come from rural areas, where economic hardships and ignorance turn young
girls into easy prey for traffickers. "During the day, we were
locked on the third floor of a house with iron bars on the doors and windows.
We did not have a TV or a phone. It was very strict. At night, they would
take us to a hotel, which had guards and a tall fence around it, so we could
not get out. There were people guarding us around the clock," Alina said. One day, while at the market here
in the Moldavian capital, she met a woman from a neighbouring
village who listened attentively to her woes and proposed that she accompany
her to Ukraine where she could find a job. From September to April 2003, Ioana was forced to sell goods on a market in Ukraine. As
compensation, she received a pair of winter clothes and food. Eventually,
Ukrainian police who had been searching for her at the request of her mother,
found the girl and returned her to her home. Paradoxically, Ioana reportedly told the police she preferred life with
the trafficker to her own home, believing life was better on the run than
among her alcoholic parents. Trafficking
of children for labor and sexual exploitation in Moldova This paper analyses the problem of
child trafficking from Moldova for the purpose of labour
or sexual exploitation. According to the authors, the problem is a serious
one, with up to 5000 cases of child trafficking each year. The children are
either abducted or sold by their parents. According to the researchers, the
single most important factor that contributes to the problem of child
trafficking is widespread poverty. More than one-half of the population live
on below-subsistence incomes ($30 per month per capita or less). Joint
East West research on trafficking in children for sexual purposes in Europe
[PDF] [page 30]
Other countries see mostly the emigration of their young populations
to service the sex industry and labour markets abroad.
The Belarus report says that of Belarusian workers who went abroad in 2001,
70% of them were under the age of 24. Unofficial estimates put the number of
Moldavians working abroad at between 600,000 and 1 million persons. From some
communities in Moldova up to half the population has emigrated. The Romanian
researchers point out that it is a combination of economic and political
factors at home that creates a favourable climate
in which young people want to emigrate. These include low pay, insecurity of
employment, and the inadequacy of the educational system at home to respond
to the labour market. But they also include the low
level of community and parental involvement with young people and the
negative perceptions that young people have about their futures in their own
country as important ‘push’ factors. The Moldova research quotes official
polls as showing that almost 90% of young people between the ages of 18 and
29 want to leave the country. Trafficking
troubles poor Moldova NOT FOR SALE - The country is the source of
much of Europe's human trafficking. Billboards in the streets of the capital,
Chisinau, depict a girl gripped in a huge clenched fist, being exchanged for
dollars. The caption reads: "You
are not for sale". There are few countries in the world where people
have to be reminded of that by public advertisements. In fact, tens of thousands of Moldovan
women have been sold into prostitution in more affluent countries. And the
trade in human organs, particularly kidneys, is a growing and frightening
problem. Europe's
human trafficking hub Wandering through Ana's village,
it is not hard to understand why her daughter was eager to leave. Few people here have running water, which
has to be hauled from local wells. Grinding poverty and chronic unemployment
since the fall of the Soviet Union has made many Moldovans
desperate to seek their fortunes abroad. But it does not always work out as
planned. Elena, who is 25 years old,
had been promised a job in Italy at a pizzeria by her best friend Marina. But
Marina sold her to a pimp who forced her to walk the streets of Bologna. Escaping
brutal bondage in Europe TRAPPED - Ruslan,
pretending to be her suitor, took Natasha to meet some acquaintances and said
they would take her to Italy. That was the last Natasha saw of him. “I liked
him, but I also needed a job. I had no money,” Natasha said. “Ruslan sold me, and I didn’t even know. I cried. I wanted
to go home. But I couldn’t do anything. It was too late.” On buses and cars — and crossing
borders on foot — Natasha followed a path to sex slavery trodden by thousands
of other hapless women, passing, under the watchful eyes of a gang of Balkans
thugs, through Romania, Serbia and Kosovo before ending up in the former
Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. In
struggling Moldova, desperation drives decisions Europe's Poorest Country Is Major
Source of Human Organ Sellers and Women Lured to Sexual Slavery. "Poverty and personal
problems force people to do this," said Adrian Tanase,
head of the renal transplant department at the gloomy, run-down hospital in
the capital of Chisinau. Every month someone walks into his office begging to
sell an organ, which the doctor turns down. "In developed countries,
that hasn't been done for a long time, but here you can buy or sell
anything." Int'l
Organization for Migration Data on Human Trafficking in Kosovo The International Organization for
Migration (IOM) April 24 revealed new information about the methods and the
victims of human trafficking in Kosovo. At a briefing in Geneva, IOM
Spokesperson Jean Phillippe Chauzy
told reporters that 85 percent of the
victims left their home countries in search of work when they were snared
into a trafficking scheme and forced prostitution. The data, published by the IOM
office in Pristina, Kosovo, was compiled from
interviews with victims who were helped by IOM last year. Sixty one percent came from Moldova, 19 percent from Romania, and
the rest from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Albania and Russia. Their average age was
21, and more than 60 percent had a secondary school education or better. Angela Slobodchuk,
25, has a story to tell. She offers it in a low monotone, in a near-whisper,
to anyone who listens. It begins in her
poor farming village in the former Soviet republic of Moldova with the
promise of a job as a waitress in Italy.
It takes her on an odyssey of torment through Turkey, Bulgaria,
Romania, Yugoslavia and Albania. She is raped, beaten, forced into prostitution,
smuggled across borders and sold 18 times from one pimp to the next. It ends
11 months later when police along
Italy's Adriatic coast rescue the weeping woman with the miniskirt and
bruised legs and arrest her 21-year-old Albanian captor. Sex Slaves: Trafficking in human beings from Moldova to Italy Indeed, the country is so poor
that the local police are quite incapable of dealing with the
trafficking. The Vice Squad in the
Moldovan capital, Chişinău, consists of
seven policemen who have no car nor any other dedicated equipment. This is no match for the powerful criminal
networks who control this lucrative trade Trafficking
in Women: Moldova and Ukraine [PDF] II. CURRENT CONDITIONS - A.
BACKGROUND - In
Moldova and Ukraine, the female role has become much more circumscribed in
the name of tradition. Women in the earliest phases of transition from
communism showed signs of developing a new social force that would break with
the discriminatory aspects of tradition, but ultimately women have emerged to
face strengthened levels of misogyny, discrimination and inequality. In the
course of researching this report, numerous interviewees told Minnesota
Advocates of the “strong Ukrainian [and Moldovan] woman,” the provider for
the family, the keeper of traditions, a person to be revered and respected.
This mythology starkly contrasts with the reality of women’s lives. This
reality is more likely to be defined by poverty, unemployment, domestic
violence, and trafficking. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [Moldova Street Children in [Moldova] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Moldova] [other countries]