Torture in [Moldova] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Moldova Street Children in [Moldova] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Moldova] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early
years of the 21st Century gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Moldova.htm
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 he Tiraspol Times & Weekly Review,
Chisinau, 11/Mar/2007 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8 September 2011] 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 Government officials behind record rise in Karen Ryan, The At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8 September 2011] There are villages
in the Southern region of ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/moldova.htm [accessed 21 February 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - According to the IOM, Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61664.htm [accessed 21 February 2011] 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) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 4
October 2002 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/moldova2002.html [accessed 21 February 2011] [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 UN News Centre, 13 February 2009 www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29907&Cr=&Cr1= [accessed 21 February 2011] Anna (not their
real names) was beaten throughout her childhood in 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 The At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8 September 2011] 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 fortmyers.floridaweekly.com/news/2008-03-13/Top_News/017.html [accessed 21 February 2011] Slavery In Our Times Newsweek, March 08, 2008 www.newsweek.com/2008/03/08/slavery-in-our-times.html [accessed 21 February 2011] An intelligent girl
with ambitions, Elena had been enticed to 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 IHS Jane's, 05 March 2008 www.janes.com/news/publicsafety/jid/jid080305_1_n.shtml [accessed 21 February 2011] Causal Factors in the Crime of Trafficking
of Women for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation - An exploration into push
and pull factors relevant to women trafficked from Moldova to Western Europe [PDF] Scharie Tavcer
from www.freidok.uni-freiburg.de/volltexte/4426/pdf/Tavcer_Doktorarbeit.pdf [accessed 21 February 2011] [page 163] Table 2: Type of
Exploitation 2003
Trafficking in women remains a global abuse Hans M. Wuerth,
Special to The Morning Call, October 2, 2007 articles.mcall.com/2007-10-02/news/3781642_1_human-trafficking-world-s-human-rights-abuses [accessed 21 February 2011] The June 28, 2007,
German weekly, Die Zeit, published an article on
the growing problem of human trafficking in Trafficking victims prompt new Baptist
ministry in Moldova Sue Sprenkle,
Baptist Press BP, Chisinau, Oct 2, 2007 www.sbcbaptistpress.org/BPnews.asp?ID=26535 [accessed 21 February 2011] "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. Kim Grizzard, The
Daily Reflector, July 15, 2007 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8 September 2011] Since declaring its
independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, "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 Gopalan, June 28, 2007 --
Source-Medindia [accessed 21 February 2011] UN's fight against Moldova sex slavery,
human trafficking The At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8 September 2011] 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 The At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8 September 2011] 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. The At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8 September 2011] 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 Karen Ryan, The At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8 September 2011] There are villages
in the Southern region of Training Roma to combat human trafficking Council of wcd.coe.int/wcd/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1056663 [accessed 29 August 2011] Through a
contribution of the Norwegian and Finnish governments, the Council of Europe
is organising training courses to prevent human
trafficking of Roma from The route to hell Louisa Waugh, The Scotsman, 22 August 2006 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8 September 2011] 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 David Harrison in [accessed 21 February 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. Woman falls six stories, now walking Inside Collin At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8 September 2011] 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 Don Hinrichsen,
Chisinau -- The State of World Population 2005 report, The Promise of
Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development
Goals, published by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/presskit/docs/moldova.doc [accessed 21 February 2011] 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 Balkans Urged To Curb Trafficking Imogen Foulkes,
BBC News news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4397497.stm [accessed 21 February 2011] Countries in Treatment Options for Young Moldovan Woman
Sex Trafficking Victim Texas Back Institute TBI, Media Alert,
April 23, 2005 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8 September 2011] 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 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/moldova [accessed 27 June 2012] Stop Violence Against Women – Country Page The Advocates for Human Rights, December
2008 [accessed 21 February 2011] Library of Congress Call Number DK507.23
.B45 1995 lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/mdtoc.html [accessed 21 February 2011] Young Women From Rural Areas Vulnerable To
Human Trafficking Eugen Tomiuc,
Radio Free Europe/Radio www.rferl.org/content/article/1055188.html [accessed 21 February 2011] 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. Child trafficking in Moldova International Labour Organisation ILO,
Chisinau www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/insight/lang--en/WCMS_075592 [accessed 28 August 2011] 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 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 Institute for Public Policy IPP, cloud2.gdnet.org/cms.php?id=research_paper_abstract&research_paper_id=8310 [accessed 21 February 2011] This paper analyses
the problem of child trafficking from 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] Edited by: Muireann
O’Briain, Anke van den
Borne, & Theo Noten, ECPAT Europe Law
Enforcement Group, Amsterdam 2004 -- ISBN: 90-74270-19-0 www.childcentre.info/projects/traffickin/dbaFile11169.pdf [accessed 21 February 2011] [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 Angus Roxburgh,
BBC News Online in news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3243679.stm [accessed 21 February 2011] NOT FOR SALE - The country is
the source of much of Bethany
Bell, BBC, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2931646.stm [accessed 21 February 2011] 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 Preston Mendenhall, msnbc.com, Droki [accessed 21 February 2011] TRAPPED - Ruslan, pretending to be her suitor, took Natasha to meet
some acquaintances and said they would take her to 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 Peter Baker, www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20602-2002Nov6?language=printer [accessed 21 February 2011] "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 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8 September 2011] 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. Journey
Into Sex Slavery At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8 September 2011] 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 British Helsinki Human Rights Group BHHRG At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8 September 2011] 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: [accessed 21 February 2011] II. CURRENT
CONDITIONS - A. BACKGROUND - In Moldova and 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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Torture in [Moldova] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Moldova Street Children in [Moldova] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Moldova] [other countries]