Trafficking of Women on Increase

by Brian Kenety

They say the women work for little or no money under cruel, inhumane and violent conditions.

At a public hearing before the European Parliament last month, experts from the international police force, Interpol, and its European partner, Europol, agreed that while it was difficult to collect statistical data in this area, trafficking was a growing phenomenon.

The United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights defines trafficking as when someone is persuaded, tricked or forced into leaving their country for the promise of a "better life" only to end up in forced or slavery-like conditions.

As many as 500,000 persons are trafficked into Western Europe each year. In addition to the traditional flow from Third World destinations, experts spoke of an alarming increase in the number of victims coming from Eastern Europe.

Marco Gramegna, head of counter-trafficking services within the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told the hearing that trafficking should be approached not as an immigration issue, which has been the practice in many countries, but as "a human rights violation within our borders."

He said apart from shelter and protection in safehouses, rescued victims need extensive guidance from social workers in order to voluntarily return home and reintegrate into society.

However, if the victims lack valid travel documents, as is generally the case, they are primarily regarded as "irregular immigrants" who are very often subject to deportation in many receiving countries.

In some countries, this status excludes them from access to legal assistance and medical care.

Furthermore, even though they are entitled to safeguards under the legal system of the receiving country, most trafficking victims are hesitant to report crimes committed against them, says the IOM.

But first, the victims must break free.

In order to avoid detection by local police, criminal groups frequently move trafficked women working as prostitutes across international borders, 'selling' them to other gangs.

Traffickers profit from non-existent or relatively lax sanctions in many parts of the world, or, as in Europe, from an insufficient level of coordinated and effective measures across state borders.

"We lack an action plan at the European level: It exists on paper, but not in practice," Europol Deputy Director Dr Willy Bruggeman told legislators, stressing that 'the laws (of European Union member states) should be compatible, if not harmonized."

He said refusal of some police to work with their counterparts from other member states compounded the problem, as did a lack of controls at points of departure.

In December 1997, the Council of Europe launched a three-year "Police and Human Rights" program in which more than 35 of its 41 member states are participating.

The program manager, Anita Hazenberg of the Network of European Policewomen, said that police in the transit countries of Central and Eastern Europe often gave insufficient priority to trafficking, as they felt the problem and the women were "moving on."

The EU's executive European Commission and the United States in Nov financed IOM information campaigns in Bulgaria and Hungary to alert the public of the dangers trafficked women faced when living or working abroad. The IOM has carried out like campaigns in Albania, Romania and the Philippines.

But Central and Eastern European countries remain countries of origin, transit and, increasingly, destination for trafficked victims.

A report by the Global Survival Network said that 50,000 women leave Russia every year, while a recent study in the Netherlands showed that 75 percent of the trafficked women interviewed were from Central and Eastern Europe.

A 1998 report by the Center for Equal Opportunities found most victims interviewed in Belgium come from (in descending order) Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia.

Victim's rights groups say that trafficking tends to worsen in conflict or post-conflict situations: traffickers exploit the situation, in particular of the fact that many persons are in vulnerable situations, undocumented and separated from their families.

Jan Austad, a specialized officer from Interpol, said that before the war in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, gangs of ethnic Albanians abducted or lured women to Italy, for clients there and to points north. After the war, the gangs set up brothels to cater to the international armed forces stationed there.

"Some countries tolerate their armed forces visiting (Kosovo) brothels -- filled with women who were more than likely trafficked," he said, noting Western Europe's "lack of political will" to tackle the problem.

The Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE) last year agreed an action plan that seeks to strengthen the legal framework to punishing the traffickers and assist governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in providing greater protection for victims.