Albania blamed for human
trafficking
Gangs
use Albania to lure women into prostitution
Tuesday,
17 April, 2001
BBC, By
Claire Doole in Geneva
Albania
has failed to stem the tide of trafficked women entering the country and
criminalises the victims, according to a report.
The
report by the International Organisation for Migration is highly
critical of the Albanian authorities' response to what it calls an
horrific trade.
The
findings were based on the testimony of a 125 women repatriated by the
IOM.
Albania
is a key route in the smuggling of women from Moldova, Romania and Ukraine
into Italy and Greece.
But
appeals to the Albanian Government to start prosecuting the traffickers
have repeatedly been ignored.
Violence
Over
the past nine months, more trafficked women have been arrested and
prosecuted than the criminal gangs who recruit them with false promises
of work as waitresses and au-pairs.
Furthermore,
many of the traffickers work in collusion with the underpaid police
force, who turn a blind eye to the highly lucrative trade.
The
women are reported to be bought and sold several times, with an initial
price of about $70 doubling by the time they reach Italy. Most of them
have been intimidated, and around a third have been raped and beaten.
About one in five had been kidnapped.
A
separate report by Save the Children says teenage girls in some rural
areas of Albania are so scared of being trafficked that they no longer
attend school. It concludes that thousands of Albanian children have
been cheated, abducted and forced to work as prostitutes.