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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/Slovenia.htm

Republic of Slovenia

Slovenia, which on 1 January 2007 became the first 2004 European Union entrant to adopt the euro, is a model of economic success and stability for the region. With the highest per capita GDP in Central Europe, Slovenia has excellent infrastructure, a well-educated work force, and a strategic location between the Balkans and Western Europe.  [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Description: Description: Slovenia

Slovenia is primarily a transit country for men, women, and children trafficked from Ukraine, Moldova, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, the Dominican Republic, Thailand, and Iran through Slovenia to Western Europe for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. To a lesser extent, Slovenia is also a destination country for men, women, and children trafficked from Ukraine, the Dominican Republic, and Romania for forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation and a source of women trafficked for the purpose of forced prostitution within Slovenia. - 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 Slovenia.  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
1 434 73 51
Country code: 386-

 

*** FEATURED ARTICLE ***

A modern slave's brutal odyssey

BBC News, 3 November 2004

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3979725.stm

[accessed 22 December 2010]

EX-TRAFFICKER'S STORY - One former trafficker, now working with the authorities and living at a secret address, told Slavery Today how his former gang would operate.  "Most of the time we would use professional recruiters, but at times we would kidnap women and children ourselves," he said.  "The children were taken to be sold in Italy, and the better-looking women were kept as prisoners and made to work as prostitutes.

"I have heard that sick children are sold and made into beggars.  "The healthy ones are kept and trained to work for the Mafia, to deal drugs, to murder - whatever they are capable of.  Some trafficked people have their organs removed.  "I've also heard that some children were sold for organs. This also happened with men and women, depending on the demand."

And he admitted to often using force to capture people.  "If they didn't want to be separated from their families, we'd hit them until they did what we wanted," he said.  "Generally threats are made that another family member will be murdered if orders are not obeyed."  Working in Eastern Europe, the gang would drive trafficked men into Slovenia, from where they would be transported, to look for work on places such as building sites.

 

*** ARCHIVES ***

2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Slovenia

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/slovenia/

[accessed 24 June 2021]

PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR

There were reports men, women, and children were subjected to forced labor in the construction sector and forced begging. A government report found minors and migrant workers were particularly vulnerable to forced labor or trafficking conditions, while fraudulent employment and recruitment of migrant workers remained a problem.

PROHIBITION OF CHILD LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT

The government generally enforced child labor and minimum age laws effectively. Nevertheless, children younger than 15 in rural areas often worked during the harvest season.

Freedom House Country Report

2020 Edition

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

[accessed 10 September 2020]

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

Authorities actively prosecute suspected human traffickers and work to identify victims.

Many people at the beginning of their careers or nearing retirement are employed under precarious conditions. Additional legal protections against labor exploitation were enacted in recent years, but the scope of the problem is still being investigated.

Labor unions cite extended work hours and workplace quality as pressing issues, while experts say that the main problem is lack of oversight.

G3. DO INDIVIDUALS ENJOY PERSONAL SOCIAL FREEDOMS, INCLUDING CHOICE OF MARRIAGE PARTNER AND SIZE OF FAMILY, PROTECTION FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, AND CONTROL OVER APPEARANCE?

Individuals generally enjoy personal social freedoms. People entering same-sex partnerships enjoy most of the rights conferred by marriage but cannot adopt children or undergo in-vitro fertilization procedures. Marriage is still legally defined as a union between a man and a woman. Domestic violence is illegal, but remains a concern in practice. Up to 1,300 cases are reported annually, though nearly all reported cases are investigated.

Smuggler's Prey – [PDF]

www.docstoc.com/docs/72511272/Smugglers-Prey-My-life-is-no-longer-my-own---Lida_-an-orphan

[accessed 24 June 2013]

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.

The route from Serbia to Italy is either overland—through Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia—or through the Albanian seaport towns of Vlorë and Durres, where women cling to high-speed rubber dinghies charging across the Adriatic Ocean to the Italian coast.

SEECRANews 09 (IV) June 10, 2004 [DOC]

South East European Child Rights Action Network SEECRAN, June 10, 2004

www.seecran.org/news/seecranews/SEECRANews.09_IV.doc

[accessed 22 December 2010]

At the Meeting it was pointed out that Slovenia represents the country of origin, the country of final destination as well as the transit country in international trafficking of human beings. NGO Kljuc that was established in November 2001 is the first and the only NGO in Slovenia whose fundamental goal is to help the victims of trafficking in human beings in Slovenia. Before Kljuc was established the fight against trafficking in human beings involved only the prosecution bodies, while nobody paid attention to the victims. The main current activities of Kljuc are the following: provision of psycho-social help to the victims of trafficking, assistance with the victims` returning to their domicile country, implementation of advisory conversations on the 24-hour telephone line, encouraging the victims to co-operate with the prosecution bodies, accommodation in a “safe house” and crises intervention for the victims of trafficking.

Death of sex worker in Bosnia puts region on red alert

Slovenia Bulletin, Sobota, November 27, 2004

slo-bulletin.blogspot.com/2004/11/death-of-sex-worker-in-bosnia-puts.html

[accessed 22 December 2010]

Popik worked as a prostitute in Bosnia as well as in Slovenia and Serbia. Her official cause of death was tuberculosis, complicated by syphilis, hepatitis C and AIDS.

The question now is, how many of these men will now come down with any - or all - of the diseases she was carrying?

State and NGO to Tackle Human Trafficking Hand in Hand

Vesna Žarkovič, Government PR and Media Office, Slovenia News, ISSN 1581-4866, Issue #13, March 31, 2004

slonews.sta.si/index.php?id=1352

[accessed 22 December 2010]

Based on the agreement, victims of human trafficking - especially non-Slovenian citizens - will be provided assistance and the guarantee that they will be treated humanely and according to legal standards. The document sets down the legal framework for the victims' stay in Slovenia, giving them internationally comparable protection and the chance to exert their rights. Cases related to organised crime will be given special attention.

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

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 26 February 2004

sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/uncom.nsf/0/4bc10061499e3b6bc1256e2e003da598?OpenDocument

[accessed 22 December 2010]

www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?page=search&docid=41178c6f4&skip=0&query=concluding%20observations%202004&coi=SVN

[accessed 16 February 2018]

 [34] While welcoming the new Implementation of Fostering Activities Act of 2003, which provides for a more systematic regulation of fostering activities, the Committee is concerned that the mechanisms for reviewing and monitoring the placement of fostered children are not sufficient. Furthermore, the Committee is concerned at the lack of standards and regulations on adoption and of a national adoption register.

[62] While welcoming the measures taken by the State party to combat and raise awareness of the problem of trafficking in persons, including the establishment of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, the Committee is concerned about reports that Slovenia serves as a transit and destination country for trafficked women and girls. The Committee is also concerned that there is no specific prohibition in law of trafficking in human beings, including for the purpose of prostitution and other exploitative purposes.

*** 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/2005/61675.htm

[accessed 11 February 2020]

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – Organized criminal groups, nightclub owners, and local pimps were primarily responsible for trafficking. A 2003 study by the International Organization for Migration reported that traffickers lured victims from Eastern Europe and the Balkan countries through advertisements promising high wages, offers of marriage, offers of employment as entertainers and dancers, and offers of employment without indication that it would involve the sex industry. Harsh conditions in some women's home countries also contributed to their willingness to enter into prostitution and lack of awareness that they might become trafficking victims or be subjected to severe conditions.

Freedom House Country Report

2018 Edition

freedomhouse.org/country/slovenia/freedom-world/2018

[accessed 5 May 2020]

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

Men from other countries in Central and Eastern Europe can be found engaged in forced begging, and women and children are subject to forced prostitution. However, authorities actively prosecute suspected human traffickers and work to identify victims.

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