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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/SlovakRepublic.htm

Slovak Republic (Slovakia)

Slovakia has made significant economic reforms since its separation from the Czech Republic in 1993. Reforms to the taxation, healthcare, pension, and social welfare systems helped

Slovakia's economic growth exceeded expectations in 2001-08 despite the general European slowdown. Unemployment, at an unacceptable 18% in 2003-04, dropped to 8.4% in 2008 but remains the economy's Achilles heel.  [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Description: Description: Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a source, transit, and limited destination country for women and girls from Moldova, Ukraine, Bulgaria, the Baltics, the Balkans, and China trafficked to the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain, Croatia, and Slovenia for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Roma women and girls are trafficked internally for sexual exploitation and Roma children are trafficked to Austria, Italy, and Germany for the purpose of forced begging. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009   Check out a later country report here and possibly a full TIP Report here

 

CAUTION:  The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the Slovak Republic.  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.

HELP for Victims

International Organization for Migration
0850 211 478
Country code: 421-

 

*** FEATURED ARTICLE ***

Trafficking In Human Beings In Slovakia - Country Assessment [PDF]

International Organization for Migration IOM, 2003

www.iom.pl/res/files/traffickstop/lf_nl_7slovakia.pdf

[access date unavailable]

INTRODUCTION - TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS - Trafficking in women first appeared in Slovakia after 1989. The new freedom of movement was generally positive but, on the other hand, it also coincided with some negative phenomena such as growth of trafficking in human beings mainly for the purpose of sexual exploitation. According to the police statistics (which provide figures only in terms of “number of cases”), trafficking in women from Slovakia is continuously growing. Also, due to the lack of job opportunities in Slovakia and the poor economic situation, labor migration, legal or illegal has been on the rise especially among young people. Therefore there is an essential need to take necessary steps in order to alleviate the problem as well as to adopt adequate preventive measures, which would eliminate the risks connected with working abroad.

 

*** ARCHIVES ***

2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Slovakia

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/slovakia/

[accessed 23 June 2021]

PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR

There were reports by NGOs of male and female migrants forced to work in the country under conditions of forced labor, including nonpayment of wages. Migrant workers in the retail and construction sectors or employed as household help were considered particularly vulnerable. Underemployed and undereducated Roma from socially segregated rural settlements were disproportionately vulnerable to forced labor. The government carried out extensive awareness-raising campaigns on the dangers of trafficking in persons with a focus on forced labor and organized joint inspections of business entities to identify illegal employment and forced labor. Courts continued to issue light and suspended sentences for the majority of convicted traffickers that failed to deter trafficking offenses or protect victims.

PROHIBITION OF CHILD LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT

There were reports Romani children in some settlements were subjected to trafficking for commercial sex or forced marriage (see section 6, Children). NGOs reported that family members or other Roma exploited Romani victims, including children with disabilities. Child labor in the form of forced begging was a problem in some communities.

Freedom House Country Report

2020 Edition

freedomhouse.org/country/slovakia/freedom-world/2020

[accessed 8 July 2020]

G4. DO INDIVIDUALS ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION?

Severe marginalization of Roma harms their opportunities for social mobility. According to the 2019 US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report, human trafficking is a problem, and mainly involves the transport of men, women, and children to countries in Western and Central Europe, where they are engaged in forced labor, sex work, and begging. The government has recently increased antitrafficking efforts, including with more frequent investigations and prosecutions of organizers. However, sentences are sometimes light, and victim identification and services are inadequate.

Training Roma to combat human trafficking

Council of Europe Press Division, Strasbourg, 30 October 2006

wcd.coe.int/wcd/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1056663

[accessed 28 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 Albania, Moldova and Slovakia.

UNICEF documents sexual exploitation of children at German-Czech border

UN News, New York, 29 October, 2003

www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?newsid=8713&cr=&cr1=

[accessed 24 June 2013]

The study says it has proof of the existence of organized international trafficking in children for sexual exploitation.  ”Children from other regions of the Czech Republic and from Central and Eastern European States are trafficked to the border regions, or from there to Germany, in order to be sexually exploited. Children from remote areas of the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and other countries such as Moldova, Ukraine, Lithuania and the Russian Federation were observed and questioned. Their statements and, in particular, the interviews with adult prostitutes, made it clear that gangs of pimps systematically drag minors to the German-Czech border regions and force them into prostitution,” it says.

The Department of Labor’s 2003 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2004

www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2003/slovak-republic.htm

[accessed 22 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 - Girls from Slovakia are trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation, and Slovakia is a country of origin, transit and a destination country for such victims of trafficking.  The Committee on the Rights of the Child has expressed concerns over several issues related to children. In particular, the transit of trafficked children through Slovakia for the purpose of pornography, prostitution and sex tourism has drawn attention to the need for protecting children.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 6 October 2000

www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/slovakia2000.html

[accessed 22 December 2010]

[29] Noting that the State party has signed and is in the process of acceding to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption of 1993, the Committee is concerned at the absence of clear legislative measures in this area

[49] In line with the observation of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography, the Committee is concerned that Slovakia has become a transit country for the transport of children for pornography, prostitution and sex tourism.

*** EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE ***

Human Rights Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006

2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61674.htm

[accessed 11 February 2020]

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – The International Organization for Migration estimated that between 100 and 200 persons are trafficked annually from or through the country, mainly for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Most of the victims trafficked through the country came from the former Soviet republics (especially Moldova and Ukraine) and Balkan countries. Victims were typically trafficked through the Czech Republic or Austria to Western Europe. Victims were typically between the ages of 18 and 25, from various social backgrounds, but particularly from areas with high unemployment. Some experts alleged that Romani women and persons raised in state institutions, because of their socioeconomic situation and less freedom of mobility, were more vulnerable to being trafficked by organized criminal gangs. Romani women were reportedly more at risk of being trafficked by known and trusted people from their communities. Other high‑risk groups included men and women looking, sometimes illegally, for seasonal work abroad and those who were ill-informed of the potential dangers.

Traffickers lured women with offers of employment, often relying on personal connections with women. Activists who worked with the few victims forced to work while transiting the country reported that most were placed as prostitutes or as exotic dancers in nightclubs. Such activity was concentrated on the border with Austria and close to Ukraine and along trucking routes with a prevalence of nightclubs. Traffickers closely monitored victims, withheld their documents, and used violence in order to ensure their compliance. Some victims allegedly were threatened with violence or even death if they attempted to escape.

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 – Slovak Republic", http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/SlovakRepublic.htm, [accessed <date>]