Sex Trafficking From the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

Human Trafficking

Sex trafficking and exploitation in Europe

Sex trafficking in Europe

Although globalization has been a boon in many positive ways to many people, it has also had the unintended consequence of facilitating the sex industry. According to the International Labor Office (ILO) "there are 12.3 million victims of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation worldwide at any given time. Forty-three percent are trafficked for purposes of commercial sexual exploitation," the majority of which are women and children (Hepburn & Simon 2010:2). "In terms of those trafficked for the purposes of forced commercial sexual exploitation, women and girls make up 98%" (Hepburn & Simon 2010:2).

Case study: Katya

As reported by the British newspaper The Guardian, the former republics of the Soviet Union and much of Eastern Europe are fertile sites of trafficking into EU nations. While still a young teenager, a Moldavian girl named 'Katya' and her friend were assaulted by an older man, "knocked unconscious, driven to Romania, blindfolded, taken across a river in an inflatable dinghy to somewhere in Hungary, dressed in dark clothes and made to walk through the forest across the border during the night, passing through Slovenia and arriving eventually in Italy" (Gentleman 2011). When she was able to return to Moldavia after being released from her situation by the Italian police, Katya's abductors found her, beat and raped her brother, and killed her dog as punishment. Such forms of intimidation are common with traffickers who use ostentatious punishments to terrify their young victims. The girl with whom Katya had been originally abducted with was thrown off a building when she tried to tell the authorities. "These experiences terrified her so much that for years she avoided doing anything that might upset her traffickers in case they acted on their threats to hurt her family" (Gentleman 2011).

After the brothel where she was working was discovered by police, Katya was imprisoned. Despite the fact she was known to have been trafficked, her abductors were allowed to visit her in prison and continue to intimidate her. She was returned to Moldavia where she was found again by traffickers and brutally assaulted -- as well as being raped her teeth were pulled out with pliers. Only after being trafficked again to Great Britain did she finally obtain refugee status. "Her legal team argued immigration solicitors should have investigated evidence that she was a victim of trafficking and that their decision to return her to Moldova, where she ran the risk of retribution and retrafficking, was a violation of her rights under article 3 (the right to freedom from torture and inhumane and degrading treatment) and article 4 (the right to freedom from slavery and servitude) of the European convention on human rights" (Gentleman 2011).

The fact that Katya came from Moldova is not entirely a surprise, given that it is one of the most fertile sources of sex workers of the republics of the former Soviet Union. In Moldova alone "since the fall of the Soviet Union between 200,000 and 400,000 women have been sold into prostitution -- perhaps up to 10% of the female population" (Mendenhal 2013). The women from the area are considered particularly 'in demand' because of their exotic appearance. The lack of viable job prospects also make young women particularly vulnerable, as many are willing to be lured with promises of work in Western Europe and families do not have the resources to find their children once they are abducted. Another example of tis is "Irina, a Moldovan who answered a want-ad to be a waitress in Italy, but ended up trapped in a Balkans brothel instead of working in a restaurant in southern Sicily" (Mendenhal 2013).

Trafficking from Eastern Europe

Although all trafficking is horrific and inhumane as Katya's representative story indicates, it is important to note that trafficking from Eastern Europe has been particularly pervasive. "Trafficking from the region for sexual exploitation has become so common since the early 1990s that it is considered by experts as a distinct wave in the global sex trade" (Synovitz 2005). The existence of a well-known and well-traveled route for traffickers makes it far easier for them to facilitate the passage of victims and also to track them down and punish them if they escape. "The so-called 'Eastern Route' through Poland and into Germany is a key overland corridor for smuggling women into the European Union from Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and the Baltics. The cities of Prague, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt also are common destinations. Large numbers of these women also reportedly end up in Italy, Greece, Belgium, Austria, and France" (Synovitz 2005). Other common routes include a Balkan route which recruits from Montenegro, Croatia, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo and a third via southern Bulgaria into Greece (Synovitz 2005).

Some women, like Katya, are taken by force. Others are lured with the promise of paid employment, only to find that they will be forced into sexual slavery upon arrival. "The vast majority of Eastern European women lured into the trade are not aware of the nature of sex slavery or the conditions they will work in" (Synovitz 2005). The prevalence of trafficked women from the Slavic countries formerly a part of the Soviet Union or Warsaw Pact is so endemic that many of them are called 'Natashas' regardless of their actual nationality or name -- they are assumed to be Russian.

Efforts to stop trafficking

The nations of Europe have with varying degrees of success attempted to erect legal barriers to stem the tide of 'Natashas' crossing over their borders. According to a 2012 report released in the UK, the "the UK law on human trafficking compares favourably with other EU countries… the UK can impose a maximum sentence of 14 years for trafficking offences under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004. This compares with maximum sentences of 10 years in Germany and Sweden, 15 years in Romania, and 18 years in the Netherlands" (Report on the internal review of human trafficking legislation, 2012: 11). The average sentence handed down in the UK for sexual exploitation was 62 months which also compares favorably with the rest of Europe but which seems shockingly low, given the nature of the crime (Report on the internal review of human trafficking legislation, 2012: 11).