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/Romania.htm
Romania is a source,
transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for
the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Romanian
men, women, and children are trafficked to Spain, Italy, Greece, the Czech
Republic, and Germany for commercial sexual exploitation, forced begging, and
forced labor in the agriculture, construction, and service sectors. Men and
women from Romania are trafficked to Cyprus, the Netherlands, Slovakia,
Poland, Portugal, Belgium, and Turkey, Sweden, Hungary, and Denmark for the
purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Romanian men,
women, and children are trafficked within the country for commercial sexual
exploitation and forced labor including forced begging and petty theft. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2009 Check out a later country report here and possibly a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in
Romania. 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. 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 precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. 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. ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Revealed: kept in a
dungeon ready to be sold as slaves David Harrison in [accessed 19
December 2010] 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. Freedom at
Midnight: Human Trafficking in Paul Cristian Radu,
Central Romanian Investigative Journalism CRJI, January 10, 2003 crji.org/?idT=88&idRec=5030 [accessed 5 May
2020] UNDERCOVER
INVESTIGATION REVEALS HOW YOUNG GIRLS ARE BEING BEATEN, ABUSED AND SOLD FOR A
FEW HUNDRED OF DOLLARS IN BUCHAREST’S BACKSTREETS. "Can I be sure
you're not giving me back to them?" Diana whispered from the backseat of
the car. "I'm scared." The
trembling figure, huddled in a blanket against a cold Bucharest night, had
only minutes earlier been just one of the legion of girls for sale in
Romania's human-trafficking market.
Driven by fear, her words tumbled out, "They hit me. He stabbed
me with a knife. You want to see the wound? I'm hungry. Do you like me? You
want sex with me? Can I have your kids
afterwards? "I'll be a good wife.
Do you want to marry me? You know, they starved me. Do you want me to take
off my blouse? I need to eat
something! Promise I will never be starved ever again? I want to smoke, too. And don't forget to
buy me chocolate." Diana - her
name has been changed for the purposes of this story - cost us 400 US
dollars. As part of a joint
investigation by IWPR and the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism,
RCIJ, we had just purchased her from a trafficker. A few days before, she had
passed New Years Eve chained and freezing in a dog cage. Human Trafficking
In Romania Maria Rusu, The Borgen Project, 9
February 2021 borgenproject.org/human-trafficking-in-romania/ [accessed 3 March
2021] The Global Slavery
Index shows that Romania, with 86,000 trafficking victims, has one of the
highest rates of modern-day slavery in Eastern Europe and most victims
experience sexual exploitation. However, modern-day slavery is common in the
following sectors including agriculture, construction, car-washing and
housekeeping. Human trafficking in Romania strongly intertwines with
migration and encompasses the following activities including prostitution,
begging, theft, forced labor and organ cropping. It is especially worrisome
that about 50% of the trafficked persons are minors who undergo sexual
exploitation, end up in forced labor or have their organs harvested. Victims of human
trafficking in Romania fall into it through numerous means. Sometimes,
traffickers will kidnap them or their parents will sell them. At other times,
traffickers will recruit them through the “lover boy method” or “a sham
marriage.” Altogether, it is a highly vicious circle because there is rarely
a way out, and it can sometimes involve multiple generations from mother to
daughter. Additionally, gangs may approach low-income families or the victim
and charge extremely high-interest rates on the loan they provided for
transportation costs and housing after luring their victims. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Romania 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/romania/
[accessed 22 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR According to the
Ministry of Internal Affairs, 16.5 percent of human trafficking victims
officially identified in 2019 were exploited specifically for labor purposes.
In June organized crime investigators detained five individuals on charges of
modern slavery. The individuals were accused of having kidnapped and detained
several persons with a vulnerable background or mental health problems; the
victims were used for agricultural work without pay, starved, and forced to
live in inadequate farm annexes. This case remained pending as of December. Men, women, and
children were subjected to labor trafficking in agriculture, construction, domestic
service, hotels, and manufacturing. Organized rings, often involving family
members, forced persons, including significant numbers of Romani women and
children, to engage in begging and petty theft (see section 7.c.). PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT According to
ANPDCA, 389 children were subject to child labor in 2019 and incidents of
child labor are widely believed to be much higher than official statistics.
Child labor, including begging, selling trinkets on the street, and washing
windshields, remain widespread in Romani communities, especially in urban
areas. Children as young as five frequently engaged in such activities but
were frequently underreported because official statistics are limited to
cases documented by police. Children whose parents worked abroad remain
vulnerable to neglect and abuse. Of the 389 documented cases of child labor
in 2019, authorities prosecuted alleged perpetrators in 20 cases, while an
additional 200 cases remained under investigation at the end of 2019. Between
January and June, 115 child labor abuse cases were investigated; out of
these, 78 were closed, 52 were still in progress, and criminal investigations
were started in three cases. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/romania/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 23 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? The law provides
basic protections against exploitative working conditions, though they are
unevenly enforced, particularly in the large informal economy. Economic
opportunity varies widely between urban and rural areas, and such disparities
limit social mobility for some. Human trafficking
for the purpose of forced labor and prostitution remains a serious problem in
Romania. Women and children from the Roma minority are especially vulnerable
to forced begging. After a shocking murder case in July 2019—in which police
took 19 hours to respond after receiving calls from a kidnapped teenager, who
was later found dead—human trafficking resurfaced as an area of public
concern, considered improperly addressed by law enforcement authorities. Organ trafficking:
a fast-expanding black market IHS Jane's, 05 March
2008 www.traffickingproject.org/2008/03/organ-trafficking-fast-expanding-black.html [accessed 26 June
2013] [LINK] [accessed 5 May
2020] 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. Community leaders
in Reuters, 28 August
2007 www.humantrafficking.org/updates/706 [accessed 19
December 2010] Children with at
least one parent working abroad are considered at risk by the local
authorities. These children fall victim to trafficking more easily due to
neglect and weakened family relationships. Young men and women who leave
foster care centres are also at risk, as many of
them are unprepared to live independently and have not been taught how to
make wise decisions. Teenagers coming
from vocational schools are in danger of being trafficked. The majority of
these students has a lower level of education and comes from families with
little to no economic opportunity. With few life prospects, they commonly
seek work abroad, which puts them at risk of being trafficked. New Center in www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=201344 [accessed 19
December 2010] WHY v
The number of missing children reported missing in
Romania has steadily increased from 244 in 2003, to 660 in 2004, to 750 in
2005. v
There are an estimated 100,000 homeless children
throughout Eastern Europe, including 2,000 in Romania. Child trafficking and
child prostitution are problems in Romania and represent a large threat
throughout Eastern Europe. Homeless or "street" children are
frequent victims. An estimated 5 percent of the homeless children in Romania
are forced into child prostitution. v
An estimated 30% of sex workers in Bucharest are under
18 years of age. Romania, and in particular Bucharest, is one of the key
travel destinations in Europe for child sex offenders. v
Romania is a country of origin and transit for women
and girls who are internationally trafficked from Moldova, Ukraine, and other
parts of the former Soviet Union to Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Romanian Police
Break Up Human Trafficking Ring dalje.com/en-world/romanian-police-break-up-human-trafficking-ring/30589 [accessed 19
December 2010] arhiva.dalje.com/en-world/romanian-police-break-up-human-trafficking-ring/30589 [accessed 13
February 2018] Romanian
authorities have dismantled a human trafficking ring that transported women
to Germany and sold them to Turkish citizens for about 5,000 euros ($6,700)
each, border police said on Wednesday. Police said the
six-person gang recruited women in bars in villages in west Romania by
promising them well-paid jobs abroad. They took them out of the country
legally and sold them to Turks in the German towns of Stuttgart and
Ludwigsburg. Human Trafficking
Epidemic In Reuters, 27 Dec 2006 sofiaecho.com/2006/12/27/644776_human-trafficking-epidemic-in-bulgaria--reuters [accessed 29 August
2014] Human trafficking
and drug smuggling were epidemic in Expert on Human
Trafficking to Visit the Christian Newswire, At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 11
September 2011] The organization
Reaching Out operates a safe house in Dark side of
migration Ana Maria Smadeanu and Michael Bird, The Diplomat, 03 Oct 2006 www.mail-archive.com/romania_eu_list@yahoogroups.com/msg18419.html [accessed 19
December 2010] "I kidnap
girls from traffickers. That's my biggest pleasure,” says Iana
Matei, who runs Reaching Out, a programme
that shelters victims of human traffic.
“The traffickers don't know what's hit them. They're so used to people
being afraid of them. I take the girls from under their nose. In Romania, Matei finds out where a girl is being kept against her
will. Then she calls up the girl on her mobile, which the trafficked girls
keep for clients, and together they work out a free moment when the girl will
not be under the supervision of the trafficker. Then she plans the swoop. Reuters, uk.reuters.com/article/idUKL2864579420070228 [accessed 19
December 2010] Romanian
authorities are planning to legalise prostitution
as a way to help fight human trafficking and sex slavery, police say. Smuggler's Prey – [PDF] www.selfconnection.ca/Descriptions/9780143012597.pdf [accessed 19
December 2010] Chapter 1,
Smugglers' Prey -- The Natashas: The Horrific Inside Story of Slavery, Rape, and
Murder in the Global Sex Trade, [Book by Victor Malarek,
Skyhorse, Sep 1, 2011] [Found listed, 23
February 2019] Every day, scores
of young women throughout the former East Bloc are lured by job offers that
lead to a hellish journey of sexual slavery and violence. Despite the barrage
of warnings on radio and TV, in newspapers and on billboards, desperate women
continue to line up with their naiveté and applications in hand, hoping that,
this time, they might just be in luck. Mine for £1,300:
Ileana, the teenage sex slave ready to work in London David Harrison. The
Telegraph, 06 Nov 2005 Click [here]
to access the article. Its URL is not
displayed because of its length [accessed 19
December 2010] This is no ordinary
business deal. I have just agreed to buy Ileana Petrescu,
a 19-year-old Romanian woman. Ileana was forced into prostitution two years
ago. I am to be her third "owner" and the first to take her out of
her home country. Balkans Urged To
Curb Trafficking Imogen Foulkes, BBC
News, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4397497.stm [accessed 19
December 2010] Countries in Rescued from Sex
Slavery - 48 Hours goes undercover Rebecca Leung, CBS
Broadcasting, Feb. 23, 2005 www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/23/48hours/main675913.shtml [accessed 19
December 2010] In a matter of hours, Van Sant encounters a husband and wife who claim to have a 17-year-old girl for sale. The girl is introduced as "Nicoleta" and touted by her owners as a highly skilled and profitable sex slave. Van Sant makes it clear he does not want to simply rent Nicoleta for the night, "You understand that if we come to terms, the girl is mine. She is mine. I will own her." The trafficker replies, "Yes, and then you can do whatever you want with her." Red light on human
traffic Emma Nicholson MEP,
Guardian, 1 July 2004 www.guardian.co.uk/society/2004/jul/01/adoptionandfostering.europeanunion [accessed 19
December 2010] As this
international trade in children grew, so too did the power of the criminal
gangs at the centre. Impoverished families were coerced and deceived into
giving up their children who were then effectively sold on to Western couples
under the guise of international adoption. Children from neighbouring countries were also torn from their families
as Romania became a regional focal point for this inhumane trade. Joint East West
Research on Trafficking in Children for Sexual Purposes in Edited by: Muireann O’Briain, Anke van den Borne & Theo Noten,
ECPAT Europe Law Enforcement Group, Amsterdam 2004 www.childcentre.info/projects/traffickin/dbaFile11169.pdf [accessed 19
December 2010] lastradainternational.org/lsidocs/223%20Joint%20east%20west%20research%20(ECPAT.pdf [accessed 13
February 2018] [page 34] The Romanian report says that depending on
the position of the trafficker within the criminal network, the price that
each receives for ‘selling’ a girl will vary. On the first sale, the
trafficker will receive from €100 to €400 (usually the transaction is made at
the border). The trafficker who sells a girl outside the country usually
receives up to €1,000. After this, the prices that the traffickers get will
increase with each sale. Some traffickers tend to look for children that are
already exploited in prostitution in their own country. Then they can just
buy the minors from the local pimps and sell them outside the country. Shopping for
Romanian babies BBC News, 3 March
2000 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/664916.stm [accessed 19
December 2010] She gives me three
to chose from - Andrei, Nico, or Liviu
- the ones she knows she can easily get permission for from their
impoverished parents. "I can
forge their signatures if necessary," she says. The sum of $20,000 is mentioned and she
says she can get the baby delivered, all papers intact (her daughter is a
lawyer) to my home in north London. Romania cracks down
on trade of orphan babies to the West Allan Hall, The
Scotsman, 04 October 2004 news.scotsman.com/world/Romania-cracks-down-on-trade.2569163.jp [accessed 19
December 2010] www.laborlawtalk.com/showthread.php?t=11962 [accessed 16 June
2017] Romanian
authorities have confirmed that scores of people, including at least three
British couples, are being investigated for allegedly using a legal loophole
to buy babies from In an effort to
enforce the ban, the government recently authorised
tough penalties of up to seven years in jail for families who accept money or
other goods in exchange for giving up a child. Sex and slavery John Gibb, The
Observer, 23 February 2003 www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2003/feb/23/features.magazine67 [accessed 19
December 2010] This is what she
told me: 'I am from The outreach
worker, a tall, angular woman in jeans and an English football jersey smiles,
'You mean you were selling black-market cigarettes?' 'Yes. Some men came
while I was there and they forced me to get into their car. They were
Albanians and they drove me to a hotel in Montenegro. After a while, an
Albanian man arrived and bought me. He took me to the border with Albania. He
drove me to a place called Shiak, where he sold me
to another Albanian for 3,000 Lek (£150). Human Trade, Slave
Markets, The Buying And Selling Of People Amnesty
International, October 5, 2005 www.angelfire.com/ultra2/lilja/action.html [accessed 13 June
2013] VIOLENCE AND THREATS – For most of
these women and girls, as soon as their journey begins, so does the
systematic abuse of their rights, in a strategy that reduces them to
dependency on their trafficker, and later their “owner”. The realization
grows that the work they have been offered is not what was promised; their
documents are taken away from them; they may be beaten; they will—almost
certainly if they start to protest—be raped. Although some women
are not aware until they reach their destination that they have been sold,
other have seen money change hands, or have been
raped by buyers when they “try the merchandise”. Women are often sold several
times before reaching their destination. Escape is almost impossible. Without
her travel documents, a woman is likely to be arrested for immigration or
other offences. But probably more pertinently, trafficked women are usually
trapped by threats, coercion, or literally being locked inside. “We worked from 9am
to 11pm. After that he said, ‘You do what you like’, but we were locked. When
we asked to go out he said no, that we had to be here. We slept in a room
together, me and another girl. All the windows had bars.” – Romanian girl
trafficked into Kosovo. Trafficking of
Women Olivera Simic,
University for Peace, Peace and Conflict Monitor, November 16, 2004 www.monitor.upeace.org/innerpg.cfm?id_article=219 [accessed 19 December
2010] BiH has become one of
the main destination countries for women mainly from The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/romania.htm [accessed 19
December 2010] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - There are indications that Romanian teenage boys and
girls are involved in the sex trade in the countries of Western Europe. Romania is a country of origin and transit
for internationally trafficked women and girls from Moldova, Ukraine, and
other parts of the former Soviet Union to Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro,
Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Italy, France,
Germany, Hungary, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain,
Portugal, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, and Cambodia for the purpose of
sexual exploitation Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 31 January 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/romania2003.html [accessed 19
December 2010] [58] The Committee
notes the establishment in 2001 of a national Task Force on Trafficking, the
adoption of a national plan of action on trafficking, as well as the
increased efforts of the State party to cooperate in regional programs to
prevent trafficking and assist victims. Nevertheless, the Committee is
concerned that Romania continues to be a country of origin, of transit and,
to a lesser extent, of destination for trafficked children. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61670.htm [accessed 19
December 2010] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– The IOM reported assisting 100 trafficking victims, of whom all were female
and 26 were minors. A number of NGOs believed that many girls from orphanages
were at particular risk of being trafficked because they lacked the job
skills and training necessary to support themselves independently. Most
victims were women trafficked for sexual exploitation who
had been recruited by persons they knew or by newspaper advertisements. A
friend or relative made the initial offer, often telling the victim that she
would obtain a job as a baby sitter or waitress. According to IOM, most women
were unaware that they would be forced into prostitution. A minority of
trafficked women was sold into prostitution by parents or husbands or
kidnapped by trafficking rings. There were reports of young Romani women and
girls being sold into marriage, a traditional custom in Romani communities. Trafficking victims
endured poor, cramped living conditions. Traffickers ensured the victims'
compliance through threats, violence, and the confiscation of travel
documents. Human Rights
Reports » 2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41703.htm [accessed 10
February 2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– As of June, the country had approximately 34,000 children in orphanages,
some of which reportedly paid insufficient attention to the dangers of girls
being trafficked from their facilities. Persons forced out of orphanages
between the ages of 16 and 18 often had no identity documents, very little
education, and few, if any, job skills. NGOs believed that many girls from
orphanages were unaware of the danger and fell victim to trafficking
networks. Women were
frequently recruited by persons they knew or by newspaper advertisements. A
friend or relative would make the initial offer, often telling the victim
that she would obtain a job as a baby sitter or waitress. According to the
IOM, most women were unaware that they would be forced into prostitution. A
minority of trafficked women were sold into prostitution by parents or
husbands or kidnapped by trafficking rings. Government officials reported
that trafficking rings appeared to be operated primarily by citizens; several
domestic prostitution rings were active in trafficking All
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