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Factbook
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Factbook on Global Sexual
Exploitation
Central and Eastern
European Countries
Trafficking
In 1994, 69 per cent of 168 trafficking cases
involved women from Central and Eastern European Countries. Half of the women come from
Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet Republics. Between 1993 and 1994, the number of
victims from these countries more than doubled. The number of victims from the Czech
Republic and Poland is high, increasing from 7 to 40 between 1993 and 1994. (STV reports,
"Trafficking and Prostitution: The Growing Exploitation of Migrant Women from Central
and Eastern Europe," IOM, May 1995)
Methods and Techniques of
Traffickers
Trafficked Women’s Condition of Work
| |
Central Europe |
Eastern Europe and CIS |
Developing Countries |
| passport taken away |
15 |
27 |
11 |
| restriction of movement/movement controlled |
20 |
22 |
8 |
| working hours: 9-12 |
5 |
10 |
3 |
| working hours: 13-18 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
| no freedom to refuse clients |
16 |
6 |
24 |
| forced to work without a condom |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| physical violence used against victim |
13 |
10 |
9 |
| victim threatened with violence |
13 |
5 |
9 |
| victim’s family threatened |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| regular circumstances |
2 |
1 |
1 |
| unknown |
16 |
28 |
14 |
Source: STV, 1995 ("Trafficking and Prostitution:
The Growing Exploitation of Migrant Women from Central and Eastern Europe," IOM, May
1995)
Victims of trafficking often enter Belgium, the Netherlands and
Switzerland legally using visas or permits for entertainers. In 1994 the highest number of
"dancers" permits to Switzerland went to women from the countries of the former
Soviet Union. (Swiss Federal Aliens Police, "Trafficking and Prostitution: The
Growing Exploitation of Migrant Women from Central and Eastern Europe," IOM, May
1995)
Prostitution:
500,000 women from Central and Eastern Europe are in prostitution
in European Union nations. (Roland-Pierre Paringaux, "Prostitution Takes a Turn for
the West," Le Monde, 24 May 1998)
Since the fall of the Soviet bloc and the instillation of democracy, the sex industry
in the Central and Eastern European Countries is booming. ("Trafficking of Women to
the European Union: Characterisitics, Trends and Policy Issues," European Conference
on Trafficking in Women, (June 1996), IOM, 7 May 1996)
Factbook Table of Contents
CATW
Homepage
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation
Donna M. Hughes, Laura Joy Sporcic and Nadine Z. Mendelsohn
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