Torture in [Poland] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Poland Street Children in [Poland] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Poland] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early years of the 21st Century gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Poland.htm
Poland is a source country for men and
women trafficked to Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Sweden,
the Netherlands, and Israel for purposes of forced labor and sexual
exploitation. It is also a transit and destination country for women
trafficked from Moldova, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Belarus, Russia, Sudan,
Senegal, Uganda, Kenya, Djibouti, China, and Vietnam for the purpose of
commercial sexual exploitation. Women from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Mongolia, and
Vietnam are trafficked to Poland for purposes of forced labor, forced
begging, and debt bondage. - 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
Poland. Some of these links may lead
to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even
false. No attempt has been made to
validate their authenticity or to verify their content. ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Human Trafficking Ring Raided in Associated Press AP, Rome, 19 July 2006 www.makewaypartners.org/ItalyHumanTraffickingRing.htm [accessed 19 December 2010] "Gangsters
working in Tales of sex and sadness from inside Amelia Hill, The Observer, 23 December 2007 www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/dec/23/communities.socialexclusion [accessed 19 December 2010] 'I'D BEEN DREAMING
OF A FUTURE AS A WIFE AND A MOTHER' - 'I had been working as a waitress, dreaming of a future as a wife and mother,' Alma says. 'This man shared my Muslim religion. I trusted him. When he locked me in his house, took away all my money and possessions, I was terrified. But when he forced me into a car and had a friend drive me to a foreign country where I didn't speak the language or know anyone, I was beside myself . My family went to the police but after a week I knew they wouldn't take me back because, according to our religion, I was ruined. 'He beat me and made me live with another girl who spied on me. She wouldn't leave me for a second and reported to this man if I did anything that looked like trying to escape. He forced me to work in the brothel, but the clients complained because I just cried all the time. The manager asked me what was wrong. I didn't have the language to express myself, but eventually I managed to explain. I don't think she felt sorry for me, but she saw that I wasn't going to earn her brothel any money because I would never willingly work. She helped me to escape and I went to the police. This has damaged my life in all directions. I have no dreams now and no hopes. I have nothing.' ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2003 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2003/poland.htm [accessed 19 December 2010] GOVERNMENT
POLICIES AND PROGRAMS TO ELIMINATE THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR - In September
2003, the Government of Poland approved a national plan to combat trafficking
that coordinates the efforts of the government, the private sector, and
NGOs. In cooperation with the Global
Program Against Trafficking in Human Beings of the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime, the government has also started a project against
trafficking in persons. The project aims is to strengthen criminal justice
responses to trafficking and to enhance the coordination among the criminal
justice system, civil society, and other organizations to prevent trafficking
and control the involvement of organized crime. INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - There are also reports that girls are trafficked to
and from Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61668.htm [accessed 19 December 2010] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Traffickers targeted young, unemployed, and poorly paid women, particularly
those with weak family ties and support networks. Traffickers attracted
victims through methods including fake employment offers, arranged marriages,
fraud, and coercion. Some victims believed that they were accepting
employment abroad as waitresses, maids, or nannies. While traveling to their
purported destinations, traffickers confiscated their passports and identity
papers and exerted control over them through fear and intimidation.
Traffickers threatened victims with violence, and those who resisted or tried
to flee were raped, beaten, or intentionally injured. As many as 90
percent of those trafficked in the country had false travel documents, and
the trafficking operation usually involved a network of criminals. One
criminal would recruit the victim; a second would provide false travel
documents and traffic her across the border; and a third would supervise her
work with clients, functioning as a pimp. Arrest statistics indicated that
approximately 25 percent of traffickers were non-citizens. Unlike in previous
years, there were no reports of large-scale auctions of women in 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/poland2002.html [accessed 19 December 2010] [48] While noting
the increased efforts of the State party to cooperate in regional programs to
prevent trafficking and repatriate victims, the Committee is nevertheless
concerned that Human trafficking gang sentenced to six
years NDS 7thspace.com/headlines/359712/uk_human_trafficking_gang_sentenced_to_six_years.html
[accessed 19 December 2010] The The scam worked by
recruiting the workers via newspapers and the internet in Poland, and then
asking them to pay money up front for accommodation and the necessary
documentation they´d need to work in the UK - on average between £300-£500
each. On arrival they´d be picked up from the airport and then taken to the Halcar Tavern, Carwood Grove in
Human trafficking in Agence France-Presse AFP, www.iol.co.za/news/world/human-trafficking-in-poland-on-the-rise-un-1.444830 [accessed 19 December 2010] Human trafficking
in Trafficking for
labour and prostitution is already endemic in Poland, said Ezeilo, adding that data from the police indicates that
cases of human trafficking are "growing by the day." Despite the growth, inspectors did not
have the "necessary capacity" to deal with the issue. Tales of sex and sadness from inside Amelia Hill, The Observer, 23 December 2007 www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/dec/23/communities.socialexclusion [accessed 19 December 2010] 'I'D BEEN DREAMING OF A FUTURE AS A WIFE AND A MOTHER' - 'I had been working
as a waitress, dreaming of a future as a wife and mother,' Alma says. 'This
man shared my Muslim religion. I trusted him. When he locked me in his house,
took away all my money and possessions, I was terrified. But when he forced
me into a car and had a friend drive me to a foreign country where I didn't
speak the language or know anyone, I was beside myself . My family went to
the police but after a week I knew they wouldn't take me back because,
according to our religion, I was ruined. 'He beat me and
made me live with another girl who spied on me. She wouldn't leave me for a
second and reported to this man if I did anything that looked like trying to
escape. He forced me to work in the brothel, but the clients complained
because I just cried all the time. The manager asked me what was wrong. I
didn't have the language to express myself, but eventually I managed to
explain. I don't think she felt sorry for me, but she saw that I wasn't going
to earn her brothel any money because I would never willingly work. She
helped me to escape and I went to the police. This has damaged my life in all
directions. I have no dreams now and no hopes. I have nothing.' Combating Trafficking for Forced Labor
Purposes in the OSCE Region Commission on Security and Cooperation in
Europe CSCE ( Click [here]
to access the article. Its URL is not
displayed because of its length [accessed 10 September 2011] Last year, press
reports indicated that in Suspected human trafficking gang leader
nabbed in Poland Deutsche Presse-Agentur
(German Press Agency) DPA, rawstory.com/news/2006/Suspected_human_trafficking_gang_le_11152006.html [accessed 19 December 2010] [scroll down] In July, a joint
operation saw Italian and Polish police free more than a hundred Polish
citizens that were being held in Nazi-style labour camps in Human Trafficking Ring Raided in Associated Press AP, www.makewaypartners.org/ItalyHumanTraffickingRing.htm [accessed 19 December 2010] "Gangsters
working in Bogdan Zaryn,
Polskie Radio, 26 April 2006 www.webcitation.org/query?id=1149293610873686 [accessed 19 December 2010] The British authorities argue that Poland’s accession to the EU has made it that much easier for traffickers to recruit their victims.” It’s estimated that roughly 10,000 Polish women have been the victims of domestic and international human trafficking mills. Jolanta Plakwicz from the Polish Feminist Union thinks that the figure is much higher. Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 1 Civil Liberties: 1 Status: Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/poland [accessed 27 June 2012] Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org/europecentral-asia/poland [accessed 19 December 2010] Stop Violence Against Women – Country Page [accessed 19 December 2010] Library of Congress Call Number DK4040 .P57
1994 lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/pltoc.html [accessed 19 December 2010] Flesh Peddling The www.warsawvoice.pl/WVpage/pages/article.php/5682/article [accessed 19 December 2010] Human trafficking
and slavery are not a thing of the past; they are a frightening reality of
today. The number of detected cases of
trafficking in women and children forced into prostitution is growing. Over
the past nine years various organizations and police in Poland have been
approached by 1,511 women; in 2003 alone, there were 261 reports WHOM THEY SEEK - Ideal victims for
recruiters are women who cannot speak foreign languages, have never been
abroad and have no knowledge of the law, so that when they are expelled from
Poland, they will be helpless.
Procurers know well where to look for such women. They choose first and
foremost those who are greatly affected by a lack of money and those who have
looked for a job for a long time. The best candidates come from broken homes
or have poor contact with their parents. That provides a kind of a protection
for the pimp: when problems arise, the woman has no one to turn to. The
candidates do not have to be young and beautiful. Procurers recruit both
16-year-olds and women over 45. ENAWA Annual Report on Violence Against
Women in 10 Countries Sources: World Organisation Against Torture
OMCT & AVIVA, July 31 2003 www.enawa.org/scripts/wwwopac.exe?database=brief&isutf8=1&%250=100397 [accessed 19 December 2010] In Unaccompanied children in Poland - new
program by Nobody's Children Foundation and Polish Office of Repatriation and
Aliens Child Centre for Children at Risk in the www.childcentre.info/projects/traffickin/poland/dbaFile11163.html [accessed 19 December 2010] New Polish law on
providing protection for refugees staying in the * creating a special
“friendly” conditions of minors interviewing * guarantying the
presence of psychologist during a minors interview * preparing by
psychologist an opinion about the interviewed minor’s
psycho-health condition Research based on case studies of victims
of trafficking in human beings in 3 EU Member States, i.e. Belgium, Italy and
The Netherlands [PDF] Commission of the European Communities, DG
Justice & Home Affairs, , Hippokrates
JAI/2001/HIP/023 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] 2.8.1.4. THE World Congress Against the Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children United States Embassy At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 10 September 2011] CHILDREN OF And so the
trafficking of children from Eastern Europe into the countries of the West
has grown. Once in Western Europe, the children are often passed through paedophile networks until they effectively disappear. 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 [Poland] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Poland Street Children in [Poland] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Poland] [other countries]