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/Italy.htm
Italy is a
destination and transit country for women, children, and men trafficked
internationally for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced
labor. Women and children are trafficked for forced prostitution mainly from
Nigeria, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Albania, and Ukraine but also from
Russia, South America, North and East Africa, the Middle East, China, and
Uzbekistan. Chinese men and women are trafficked to Italy for the purpose of
forced labor. Roma children continue to be trafficked for the purposes of
sexual exploitation and forced begging. Men are trafficked for the purpose of
forced labor, mostly in the agricultural sector in southern Italy. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons
Report, June, 2009 Check out a later country report here
or a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in 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 ARTICLE *** Bruce Johnston in www.vachss.com/help_text/a2/italy_baby_sales.html [accessed 14
February 2011] The three-strong gang of Ukrainians, including the baby's mother, sold the boy for 350,000 euros (£250,000) while he was still in the womb, not realising that the successful bidders were undercover carabinieri police officers. 6,000 children
smuggled to the west each year for sex Philip Willan in www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jul/12/internationalcrime [accessed 15
February 2011] Researchers have
identified north-eastern There is a
particularly high concentration of juvenile sex slaves in the area between
Padua and Venice, with 20% of prostitutes under the age of 18, compared to 5%
in other Italian cities, the charity said.
Last year 250 girls managed to escape from their exploiters and seek
assistance from the Italian state. ***
ARCHIVES *** Romanian man jailed
in Italy over human trafficking ring Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo and Annie Kelly, The Guardian, 30 Dec
2019 [accessed 4 January
2020] Guardian investigation in 2017 revealed Romanian women
were being exploited on farms An Italian court
has sentenced a Romanian man to 20 years in prison for human trafficking after
a Guardian investigation revealed that thousands of women from Romania were
being raped and used as forced labour on farms in
Sicily. A court heard that
the women were forced to live in terrible conditions in outbuildings on farms
without heating, were not paid for their manual labour,
were given rotten food to eat, and were beaten and forced to have sex with
their employers and other men. “Women were
persuaded to move to Italy with the promise of a decent job and shared living
space with fellow Romanians,” she said. “When they arrived here in Ragusa and
then learned that they had been deceived, it was too late. They were forced
to work every day and to prostitute themselves. They were raped by members of
the gang, and everything they earned went to their torturers. They were
enslaved, in the true sense of the word.” 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Italy 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/italy/
[accessed 11 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Forced labor occurred.
According to NGO reporting, workers were subjected to debt bondage in
construction, domestic service, hotels, restaurants, and agriculture,
especially in the south. There continued to be anecdotal evidence that
limited numbers of Chinese nationals were forced to work in textile factories
and that criminal groups coerced persons with
disabilities from Romania and Albania into begging. In the southeastern
region of Sicily, 30,000 workers on approximately 5,500 farms worked through
the pandemic for as little as 15 euros ($18) per day. There were also reports
of children subjected to forced labor (see section 7.c.). PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT There were some
reports of child labor during the year, primarily in migrant or Romani
communities. In 2019 labor inspectors and Carabinieri
officers identified 243 underage laborers, of whom 210 were working in the
services sector. In March 2019 police arrested two parents whose underage son
was working in a carwash in Acate in the province
of Ragusa. He and his two sisters were not enrolled in school. The Ministry of
Labor and Social Policies recognized that unaccompanied minors were
vulnerable to becoming child laborers in agriculture, bars, shops, and
construction and worked to prevent exploitation by placing them in protected
communities that provided education and other services. The law also created
a roster of vetted and trained voluntary guardians at the juvenile
court-level to help protect unaccompanied minors. According to a report by
Save the Children, elements of the law have yet to be fully implemented
across the country, although significant progress was made. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/italy/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 8 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? The authorities generally
enforce legal protections against exploitative working conditions. However,
informally employed workers, including the many migrants and asylum seekers
who have entered the country in recent years, are more vulnerable to abuses.
The trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation also remains a
concern, and the 2019 US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report
noted that Italian government does not meet minimum standards for the
elimination of trafficking. Despite the government actively working to
identify and prosecute traffickers and fund services for victims, they have
decreased law enforcement and protection efforts and trafficking rings and
networks have become more sophisticated and violent. Italy also did not heed
or adequately assess referrals of victims of trafficking from international
NGOs and humanitarian organizations, returning victims to countries where
they would be at high risk of further danger. Thai woman jailed
for 14 years for human trafficking Agence France-Presse AFP, trafficking.org.ph/v5/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2104&Itemid=56 [accessed 28 August
2014] news.abs-cbn.com/world/06/17/08/thai-woman-jailed-14-years-human-trafficking [accessed 6 June
2017] [name
withheld]
from Woman, 19, forced
to swim with piranhas at circus Richard Owen, www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,341593,00.html [accessed 23
April 2012] www.envirolink.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6783&p=119345 [accessed 29 April
2020] Police have closed
down a circus in southern Italy after a terrified 19-year-old woman was
forced to swim in a tank full of piranha fish while her younger sister
endured the company of snakes and tarantulas. Three men have been arrested
and charged with holding the Bulgarian women in slavery and breaching
international human rights conventions. Police said that
the Bulgarian family had lived in the back of a cockroach-infested lorry used
for animal transport. The only meat they had been given since January was in
leftovers from the circus owners' Easter lunch last weekend. SOCIAL TRENDS:
Fighting modern-day slavery Laura Clarke, Wanted
in rome.wantedineurope.com/news/2000666/social-trends-fighting-modern-day-slavery.html [accessed 30 August
2012] Once in Trafficking for
sexual exploitation is only the tip of the iceberg – the most visible form of
the phenomenon in Italy that also includes forced labour especially in the
agricultural sector, begging and the sale of drugs. Up to ten per cent of
trafficking victims in Italy are children according to the 2007 Trafficking
in Persons Report; they include a growing number of Romanians as a result of
the forced closure of orphanages in Romania imposed by the European Union as
a condition for entry into the EU in 2007. However the more clandestine
nature of these activities and a lower level of public and political
awareness mean that figures are hard to come by and the victims more
difficult to reach. Combating
Trafficking for Forced Labor Purposes in the OSCE Region Mark P. Lagon, Director, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking
in Persons, Hearing Before the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in
Europe, Washington, DC, October 11, 2007 2001-2009.state.gov/g/tip/rls/rm/07/93496.htm [accessed 11 July
2013] Last year, press
reports indicated that in With scars that
will never heal, one woman fights human trafficking Elisabetta Povoledo,
The New York Times www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/world/europe/21iht-traffic.4.7597912.html?_r=2 [accessed 14
February 2011] "You can't
imagine before you come that you're going to end up a slave," Aikpitanyi said in an interview in the elegant main Once there,
however, many find that the organizations they used to handle the travel
arrangements had criminal intentions in mind.
Documents are withheld. Women find themselves isolated and are
frightened into thinking that they will be deported if they turn to the
authorities for help. Many are forced
into prostitution, especially - as Aikpitanyi
discovered to her horror - if there is a substantial travel debt to repay
(€30,000, or $42,000, in her case) and a large family back home to support. Falling Short of
the Mark: An International Study on the Treatment of Human Trafficking
Victims
[PDF] The Future Group,
March 2006 www.oas.org/atip/canada/Fallingshortofthemark.pdf [accessed 14
February 2011] lastradainternational.org/lsidocs/13%20Falling%20short%20of%20the%20mark%20(Future%20Group).pdf [accessed 4 February
2019] ITALY - RESIDENCE - Since 1998,
Italian immigration law has provided foreign victims of human trafficking
with a special residence permit for a 6-month period. New study shames
human traffickers Patrick Mathangani, Standard Online, May 11, 2007 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6
September 2011] International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) says Kenyans were also trafficked
to Its report,
‘Trafficking in Persons — The Eastern Africa Situation’, notes that women and
children were favourite targets for well-organised trafficking rings, which operate freely for
lack of solid laws against the vice. Italian police crack down on human trafficking Deutsche Presse-Agentur DPA, www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Italian_police_crack_down_on_human__01242007.html [accessed 11 July
2013] 'The trafficking
and forced prostitution of women, and minors in
particular, is one of the most ignoble crimes committed in Some girls were
'bought' by traffickers for 200 euros (260 dollars) in their home country and
were then brought to Italy, where they were forced to prostitute themselves.
The money they earned, which averaged 5,000 euros per month, was kept by
their captors. Women who dared rebel were often beaten and abused. Police said one 16-year-old girl was forced
to have unprotected sex and was sent back on the streets until she was
six-months pregnant. Suspected human
trafficking gang leader nabbed in Poland Deutsche Presse-Agentur (German Press Agency) DPA, Warsaw, 15
November 2006 rawstory.com/news/2006/Suspected_human_trafficking_gang_le_11152006.html [accessed 27 January
2015] 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 The Advocates for
Human Rights, stopvaw.org/http_www_stopvaw_org_traffic.html [accessed 14
February 2011] Human Trafficking
Ring Raided in Associated Press AP,
articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-07-20/news/0607200423_1_trafficking-ring-arrests-labor-camps [accessed 28 August
2014] "Gangsters
working in A Human Trafficking
Victim Speaks With RFE/RL Ankica Barbir
Mladinovic, Radio Free Europe/Radio www.rferl.org/content/article/1069198.html [accessed 14
February 2011] Martina was locked
in a New arrests on
charges of human trafficking in Bulgaria The Sofia Echo, Jun
05 2006 sofiaecho.com/2006/06/05/642586_new-arrests-on-charges-of-human-trafficking-in-bulgaria [accessed 14
February 2011] The actions of
Bulgarian police were co-ordinated with Europe-Wide
Human-Trafficking Ring Cracked Associated Press AP,
Reuters, May 29, 2006 www.rferl.org/content/article/1068749.html [accessed 14
February 2011] Authorities across Trafficking in
Women from Jørgen Carling,
International Peace Research Institute, www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/print.cfm?ID=318 [accessed 15
February 2011] www.migrationpolicy.org/article/trafficking-women-nigeria-europe/ [accessed 29 April
2020] DESTINATION ITALY - The most
important European destination for Nigerian trafficking victims is Italy,
where there may be as many as 10,000 Nigerian prostitutes. The first Nigerian women who worked as
prostitutes in Mafia arms, drugs,
prostitution ring smashed AFX News, [accessed 15
February 2011] The network
allegedly forced eastern European women into prostitution in Italian Group Uses
'Street Units' to Protect Victims of Sex Trafficking humantrafficking.org,
September 2005 -- Adapted from: AdvocacyNet. News
Bulletin - Number 44. 24 August 2005 www.humantrafficking.org/updates/310 [accessed 15
February 2011] www.advocacynet.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/PR-46-TAMPEP-anti-trafficking-in-Italy.pdf [accessed 11
February 2019] TAMPEP's approach
is to send out unita di strada
(street units) that include 'cultural mediators' from the same background as
the trafficked women and girls. The units seek out likely victims of
trafficking, like Jessica, and offer them health education and testing. Once
inside the privacy of a health clinic, social workers set out the woman's
rights and options. Sex Traffickers
Prey On Eastern Europeans Ron Synovitz, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty RFE/RL, August
23, 2005 (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service contributed to this report.) www.rferl.org/content/article/1060878.html [accessed 15
February 2011] Maria says her
nightmare began after she and the other women arrived in Trafficked
Women in Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service CNS, Vatican City, June 22,
2005 www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0503678.htm [accessed 11 July
2013] archive.is/9iVii [accessed 1 February
2018] Women smuggled into
Italy and forced to work as prostitutes experience a "nightmare" of
exploitation and abuse that leave them intensely traumatized, said an Italian
nun who heads an anti-trafficking initiative.
Almost 90 percent of the African women forced into prostitution in 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 Bruno Moens, Country Isabella Orfano, et.al., Country Ruth Hopkins and Jan
Nijboer. Country Report, The www.childtrafficking.com/Docs/payoke_on_the_road_de_rode_.pdf [accessed 22 January
2011] At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 9
September 2011] biblio.ugent.be/publication/216832 [accessed 28 May
2017] [page 397] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - This project was
carried out in General
recommendations are provided in 14 clusters. However, in each country report,
the researchers offer an assessment of national laws and policies on THB as
well as their assistance programs. Italy, Nigeria Take
Action against Human Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation UN Information
Service UNIS, www.unis.unvienna.org/unis/pressrels/2004/uniscp460.html [accessed 15
February 2011] The main objective
of the programme is to contribute to the
formulation and implementation of effective policies in the field of criminal
justice and social prevention to curb human trafficking practices. The
project focuses particularly on improving judicial cooperation between the
Nigerian and the Italian Government, on strengthening Nigerian law
enforcement, prosecution and criminal justice agencies involved in counter
trafficking, and also on awareness raising activities, both in Nigeria and
Italy, in order to protect the victims of such crimes. Albania Mourns
Smuggling Victims Blendi Dibra,
OneWorld Southeast At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6
September 2011] Reining in Child
Trafficking in the New EU Lisa Kurbiel, UN Dept of
Peacekeeping Ops, Migration Information Source, Migration Policy Institute
MPI, July 2004 www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=238 [accessed 15
February 2011] www.migrationpolicy.org/article/reining-child-trafficking-new-eu [accessed 29 April
2020] In this underworld
of human trade, children are trafficked for prostitution, domestic services,
and begging, as well as for work at construction sites, markets, small shops,
and factories. Hidden from sight and beyond the reach of the law, these
children are sexually abused, exposed to hazardous working conditions,
confined to their workplace, and denied education, basic health care,
adequate nutrition, and the safety and security of their families and
communities. Treated like slaves, countless numbers are exposed to health
risks, such as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The
particular physical, psychological, and psychosocial harm suffered by
trafficked children in these situations, as well as their special
vulnerability to exploitation, require that they be dealt with separately
from adult trafficked persons in terms of laws, policies, programs, and
interventions. Is trafficking in
human beings demand driven?: a multi-country pilot study Bridget Anderson and
Julia O’Connell Davidson, Save the Children Sweden, ISBN:91-7321-069-2, 2003 [Long URL]
[accessed 17
February 2022] INTRODUCTION - Part I of this
report sets out to review current debates and existing research on “the
demand side of trafficking”. New danger for Tamsin Smith, BBC
News, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3103460.stm [accessed 15
February 2011] THREATS - "On 4
October 2002 a man brought me from Tackling the sex
slave trade Paula Dobriansky, Observer.co.uk, 2 March 2003 www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/mar/02/usa.gender [accessed 15
February 2011] Mercy escaped her
slavers last year. Like many Nigerian women smuggled or lured into Italy with
the promise of jobs, Mercy was forced into prostitution to earn her freedom.
But escape did not end her nightmare. Three weeks after speaking publicly to
human rights groups about her experience, her sister was reported dead in
Florence, true to the threats made by her former captors. Some pay to be
smuggled into Europe, but end up as victims. In one smuggling run to Italy
via Morocco, seventeen Nigerian girls died when their boat capsized on the
Mediterranean Sea. Forty died after reaching their destination in Italy: brothels
where women and girls are forced to pay off a $50,000 debt by servicing a
dozen men per night. Trafficking in
Women to Migration
Information Programme, International Organization
for Migration IOM, June 1996 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September
2011] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - The study
describes how women are trafficked to Slavery & Slave
Trade In The African Union African Unification
Front AUF At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6
September 2011] TRAFFICKING
NIGHTMARE FOR NIGERIAN CHILDREN - The children's ordeal begins in 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/italy2003.html [accessed 14
February 2011] [49] The Committee welcomes
the adoption of Act 269/98 against the exploitation of prostitution,
pornography, and sexual tourism targeting children and the establishment of
an Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Coordination of the Government Action
Against Child Abuse and Trafficking in Minors and Women for Sexual Purposes.
Nevertheless, the Committee remains concerned at the numbers of children who
are trafficked for sexual purposes in the State party. ***
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/2005/61655.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Organized criminal groups were responsible for most trafficking in the
country; prostitution rings routinely moved trafficked persons from city to
city to avoid arrest. Victims of trafficking
were usually lured to The following
reported 2004 trafficking investigations remained ongoing at year's end: a
Romanian father who was selling his 10‑year-old child for sex in the
outskirts of Milan; two Albanians, one Egyptian, one Pakistani, and one
Italian involved in trafficking women from Eastern European countries for
prostitution; six Bulgarian men who accompanied Bulgarian women into the
country who gave birth to children and then sold the babies to Italian
families for $13,500 (10 thousand euros) each; 12 persons, including 2 police
officers, who were arrested in Sassari and charged with trafficking for
prostitution and falsification of documents; and four persons who were accused
of organizing tours to Brazil that included the sexual services of girls ages
12 to 17. 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,
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