Ukraine is currently one of the largest exporters of women to the
international sex industry. ("Ukraine Film Warns of Forcible Prostitution
Abroad," Russia Today, 1 July 1998)
More than 100,000 Ukrainian women, many of them minors, have been trapped and enslaved
as prostitutes in the West. (International Organization for Migration, Piotr Bazylko
"Poland, Ukraine to fight sex slave industry" Reuters, 16 July 1998)
1,000 Ukrainian women are in prostitution in Poland. (Piotr Bazylko "Poland,
Ukraine to fight sex slave industry," Reuters, 16 July 1998)
Ukrainian women constitute the largest ethnic group of foreign women in Turkey’s
sex industry. ("Ukraine Film Warns of Forcible Prostitution Abroad," Russia
Today, 1 July 1998)
Ukraine is currently one of the largest "exporters" of women who enter the
international sex industry either under false pretenses or for economic survival. Many
women are fooled by false advertisements offering well-paying work as housekeepers,
dancers or models. Later, their passports are taken from them and they are forced, often
violently, to into prostitution. (Lily Hyde, "Ukraine: Film Warns Of Forcible
Prostitution Abroad from," RFE/RL, 8 July 1998)
Of 500,000 Ukrainian women who migrated to Western Europe over the past few years, more
than 100,000 end up in the sex industry. (Nina Karpacheva, human rights commissioner of
the Ukrainian parliament, "Ukrainian women - victims of sex industry," ITAR/TASS,
30 June 1998)
80 percent of women who go abroad for a better chance of work have no idea that they
will be forced into prostitution. ("Ukrainian women - victims of sex industry," ITAR/TASS,
30 June 1998)
70% of pimps who traffic Ukrainian women are women. ("Ukrainian women - victims of
sex industry," ITAR/TASS, 30 June 1998)
500,000 Ukrainian women have been trafficked under false pretenses to the West since
1991. At least 100,000 have been trapped and enslaved in the sex industry. (Steve Cook of
the International Organization for Migration, Chris Blrd, "100,000 Ukrainians slaves
of West’s sex industry," Reuters, 6 July 1998)
More than 100,000 Ukrainian women are being forced to work as
prostitutes in the West. (International Organization for Migration "Poland, Ukraine
to fight sex slave industry," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Newsline, Vol.
2, No. 136 Part II, 17 July 1998)
Ukranian and Russian women are the most valuable commodities in the sex trade. (Michael
Specter, "Traffickers’ New Cargo: Naive Slavic Women," New York Times,
11 January 1998)
As many as 400,000 women under age 30 have been trafficked in the past decade. (Ukraine
interior ministry, Michael Specter, "Traffickers’ New Cargo: Naive Slavic
Women," New York Times, 11 January 1998)
Cases
A Ukrainian woman trafficked to Brussels reported having 20 men per day buy her. (Lily
Hyde, "Ukraine: Film Warns Of Forcible Prostitution Abroad from," RFE/RL,
8 July 1998)
In 1996, in Serbia a Ukrainian woman, who tried to escape prostitution, was beheaded in
public. (Michael Specter, "Traffickers’ New Cargo: Naive Slavic Women," New
York Times, 11 January 1998)
Policy and Law
Ukraine has adopted a law making trafficking and forcing someone into prostitution
punishable by up to 15 years in prison. (Radio Liberty Prague Czech Republic,
"Ukraine Cracks Down on Sexual Slavery," RFE/RL Newsline, Vol2, No71,
Part2, 14 April 1998)
The governments of
Poland and Ukraine agreed on July 16, 1998, to cooperate in fighting prostitution and sex
slave trafficking to the West. "The Mafia has got engaged in [the trafficking of
women]. We must take preventive measures together," a Ukrainian Interior Ministry
representative commented on the agreement. ("Poland, Ukraine to fight sex slave
industry," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 136 Part
II, 17 July 1998)