There
are thousands of desperately poor women from eastern Europe working as
prostitutes in western Europe, often controlled by gangs of criminals
making enormous profits. But the EU has no coherent strategy to help
these women, or internationally agreed laws to deal with their
recruiters, their pimps and their punters.
by FRANЗOIS LONCLE *
Irina
was 18 when she left her home in Chisinau, capital of Moldavia, lured by
the promise of a job as a waitress in Milan. She boarded a train with an
"escort" who accompanied her across Moldavia and Romania. Her
passport was then confiscated, and she crossed borders clandestinely or
with the collusion of customs officers, ending in Albania. Irina, sold
and resold, fell into the hands of an Albanian pimp who
conditioned" her by raping her repeatedly. When she refused to work
on the streets, she was beaten and sold to another pimp, who also
brutalised and raped her. She was then taken to Italy in a scafo, a
canoe undetectable by radar. There the Italian police questioned her and
sent her to a reception centre.
Irina
is one of many Natashas, as east European prostitutes are called, and
her fate is that of thousands of women from the region, a key recruiting
centre for prostitutes, along with Asia, the Caribbean and Africa.
According to Interpol's Bjorn Clarberg, "sexual commerce between
the two parts of Europe has exploded". The trade has gone global.
Its organised crime connections mean that procuring makes huge profits
(see box).
The
collapse of the Soviet empire and the break-up of Yugoslavia have
exacerbated a problem caused by poverty. Though there are occasional
volunteers, most women are abducted, abused or seduced; they hope to
earn enough to return home and support their families. Three-quarters
have never worked as prostitutes before.
The
trade in Europe relies on a distribution network of source countries
(Russia, Ukraine and Romania), transit
countries (Albania and the former Yugoslavian republics) and target
countries (Italy, Germany and France). Trafficking has grown enormously
and the business is booming. According to Gerard Stoudmann of the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, prostitution is
"a far less dangerous business than drugs trafficking since there
is no international legal framework to combat it".
Another
key recruiting centre is Moscow, which supplies German, Polish and Asian
markets (1). According to Eleonora Loutchnikova, a spokesman for
Moscow's city hall, some 330 Russian companies do prostitution-related
business, sending 50,000
women abroad every year. In Poland foreign
prostitutes are concentrated on the main roads to Germany, as they are
in the Czech Republic where Ukrainian and Russian women work. According
to Animus, a Bulgarian women's association, 10,000 women have fallen
into the hands of pimps in Bulgaria. They sometimes face extreme
conditions: two young women froze to death in January 2000 attempting to
cross the border into Greece, where they were to work as bar hostesses.
Reduced to slavery
For
Romanian and Moldavian women, the journey often begins in Timisoara
(Romania) where local pimps recruit them. Their next stop is either
Brcko's Arizona Market, the largest centre for contraband in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, or the Serbian city of Novi Sad. Romanian
traffickers auction women from Ukraine,
Moldavia, Romania, Bulgaria and Russia. Stripped naked on display, they
are sold for 1,000 German marks ($460) by Serbian pimps, who move them
closer to the Albanian border. Nicoleta, 17, a Moldavian student, was
beaten and raped by a Serbian pimp before being auctioned in an
abandoned Belgrade warehouse. Sold to another Serbian, she worked for
two months in a brothel in Podgorica (Montenegro) before being sold for
$2,500 to an even more brutal Albanian. The Swedish justice minister met
one young woman in Sarajevo who had been sold 18 times.
In
Kosovo, according to Pasquale Lupoli, head of the local office of the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM), brothels have mushroomed
with the influx of 50,000 KFOR soldiers, employees of the United Nations
Mission in Kosovo and personnel from various NGOS. Women from Moldavia, Ukraine,
Romania and Bulgaria are sold at auction to Kosovar
pimps who pay $1-2,500. "These women have been reduced to
slavery," says Colonel Vincenzo Coppola, commander of a special
unit of the Italian carabinieri, which rescued 23 women from brothels in
Pristina and Prizren (2).
Last
year only 460 women were rescued from Bosnia's 350 brothels although
10,000 women entered the country illegally. According to Stoudmann,
former Yugoslavia is a major centre for organised crime, which has
"infiltrated the structures of government up to the highest
levels". For Julia Harston, a UN representative in Sarajevo, Bosnia
is "a destination, a transit country and a
starting point for the trade in women". Trafficking is
"remarkably organised, without distinction of nationality,
ethnicity or religion," observes the commissioner of the
International Police Task Force, General Vincent Coeurderoy.
The
Macedonian village of Velezde, which has seven brothels, is a regional
centre for prostitution, dominated by the Albanian mafia (3). Pimps like
Bojko Dilaler can earn more than $18,000 a month there. Albania is
another leader in the trade. Christian Amiard, head of France's Central
Office for the Treatment of Human Beings (OCRTEH) says: "There are
slave camps where young women are raped and whipped into shape". If
they resist, their pimps use torture, including burning, electrocution
and amputation.
Tana
de Zulueta, an Italian senator and member of anti-mafia parliamentary
committee, contends that "the Albanians have created a prostitution
cartel" by setting up shop with other criminal organisations and
diversifying their activities. The Italian police broke up a powerful
gang in the Abruzzi region that forced young east European women into
prostitution and was also active in the drugs trade. According to
Italy's ministry of social affairs, the country has 50,000 prostitutes,
half of them foreign nationals. The police say that prostitution
generates revenues of at least $83m a month.
East
European prostitution was noticed in France in November 1999 when Ginka,
19, a Bulgarian, was found dead on a Parisian boulevard, stabbed 23
times. East European prostitutes have arrived in huge numbers over the
past three years; according to Amiard, east Europeans account for more
than half of France's foreign prostitutes, who in turn represent at
least half of all French prostitutes. In Nice, these women are mainly
Croatian, Russian and Latvian; in Strasbourg, they are Czech and
Bulgarian; in Toulouse, they are Albanian. In Nice, the police broke up
a Bulgarian ring that had netted $27,400 a month; the funds were
converted into money orders and sent back to Bulgaria to be invested in
real estate. Half of the 7,000 prostitutes working in Paris are foreign
nationals, including 300 Albanians. Claude Boucher, a spokesman for Bus
des femmes, a French women's organisation, says that an east European
prostitute must have 15-30 clients a day to bring in $400-800 for her
pimp, and avoid being beaten.
Profiting from Schengen
Albanian
rings often set up in Belgium, especially in Brussels (where they battle
with Kurds and Turks to gain control of slaughterhouses that are then
converted into brothels), and in Antwerp, which has about 450 east
European prostitutes. From there Albanians oversee Albanian, Kosovar and
Moldavian prostitutes
working in Paris and other large French cities.
The
networks that exploit Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak and Bulgarian women pass
mainly through Germany. One group of prostitutes and pimps stays in a
hotel in Kehl, across the Rhine from Strasbourg, where the local police
are powerless to intervene since no crime is being committed on German
soil. Every day the women cross the Pont de l'Europe to work in
Strasbourg, where the number of prostitutes has doubled in five years.
To combat this, Strasbourg banned parking on certain streets in August
2000.
London
authorities have increased street lighting and imposed traffic
restrictions in red-light districts like Tooting and King's Cross to
discourage punters. These efforts have only shifted prostitution into
other areas, underlining the predicament of western countries grappling
with an overwhelming problem.
Prostitution
also thrives courtesy of the Schengen passport-free zone, exacerbated by
legislative disparities between the member countries and poorly
coordinated legal proceedings. An ill prepared western Europe is still
split between regulators and abolitionists (see box). The former see
prostitution as a necessary evil that must be controlled for social,
moral and public health reasons. The abolitionists see prostitution as
incompatible with the human dignity provisions of the United Nations
1949 convention against prostitution. Although European nations are
unable to reconcile these divergent views, they do agree individual
prostitution is not an offence.
Prostitution
reveals fundamental inequalities between men and women, rich and poor,
North and South, East and West. Yet public opinion in France seems to
reflect the indifference of government officials. As Martine Costes of
the Metanoya advocacy organisation has noted, the French are disturbed
more by for-profit organ removal and surrogate motherhood than by the
sex trade. According to a May 2000 survey by the public opinion firm
Sofres, 52% of French people consider prostitution inevitable and
believe that acts as a "defence against rape". This argument
ignores tragic reality: 80% of prostitutes reportedly suffered childhood
sexual abuse. Prostitution is not a profession; it is the exploitation
of women by men.
Jacques
Millard of the Mouvement du Nid anti-prostitution association says we
must turn our attention to the victims of prostitution, and end the idea
that prostitution is inevitable. Europe must create a broad-based
strategy to prevent and rehabilitate. A European observatory for
prostitution should be set up, modelled on the French Observatory for
Drugs and Drug Addiction. This would produce more information on a
complex, misunderstood problem, and define the necessary measures.
As
Jack Straw, former British home secretary, noted, "the only ones
who have anything to fear from increased European cooperation are those
criminals who exploit disparities in the laws". The priority should
be to standardise national legislation and criminal procedures by
providing a common definition of the crimes and bringing legal penalties
into line. Pimps currently face minimum prison terms of six months in
Germany, two years in Ireland, four years in Denmark and five years in
France.
Besides
specific programmes fighting the exploitation of women and minors (such
as the EU's Stop and Daphne programmes) the EU is using both Eurojust
and Europol to fight criminal networks, relying on joint investigative
teams. Last April a joint German, Ukrainian and Austrian police
operation broke a ring that had been exploiting Belarussian women,
confined to brothels in Saxony and Thuringia (Germany) before being sold to
establishments in Austria.
Despite
pressure from pro-regulation countries, in December 2000 an important
step towards international cooperation was taken in Palermo, Sicily,
when representatives from 124 nations signed the UN Convention against
transnational organized crime. Although only 80 countries (including
France) endorsed the supplementary protocol on the sex trade, according
to Senator de Zulueta this protocol represents a new way of recommending
that victims of prostitution be granted residence permits.
The
European Commission is considering implementing such a policy, in effect
in Belgium since 1995 and in Italy since 1998. Belgian rehabilitation
organisations such as Payoke in Antwerp, Pag-Asa in Brussels and Serya
in Liege, have provided training and benefits to 700 prostitutes taking
part in studies. Residence permits granted by Italian authorities allow
these women to claim social service benefits, pursue study or seek
employment. Livia Turco, the former Italian social solidarity minister,
says that "600 such permits were granted in 2000".
Need
for protection
Police
investigations in France do not usually require prostitutes to file
charges against their pimps. Although this policy avoids reprisals,
foreign prostitutes remain vulnerable since they are illegal immigrants
who may face deportation. Hence the need to give them official victim
status to protect and rehabilitate them. This is not easy. Nicole
Castioni, now a deputy in Geneva's regional parliament, worked for five
years in Paris's red-light district. Yolande Grenson, director of the
Pandora organisation, worked as a prostitute for 17 years in Belgium.
How many other women are trapped by inadequate laws and personnel? There
is a need for social programmes providing counselling, accommodation and
assistance and involving governmental agencies and community
organisations. Such partnerships may be essential since prostitutes
often fear those in authority. French provincial agencies set up in 1960
working to prevent prostitution have been a failure; only five are still
operating.
According
to Mireille Ballestrazzi of France's criminal investigations department,
community associations have a useful role. It is time to reactivate the
French provincial committees which allow for coherent local action by
bringing together representatives from public services and organisations.
The French government has so far assigned responsibility for
rehabilitation to community organisations.
Although
their means are limited, French groups such as Cabiria in Lyon, Penelope
in Strasbourg and Le Pas in Dijon have proved generous, practical and
effective. But they have increased responsibilities with the arrival of
large numbers of people from foreign (and non-French-speaking) cultures.
The ALC (Accompagnement Lieux d'accueil Carrefour Educatif et social)
association in the Alpes-Maritimes had to hire a Russian mediator.
Subsidies
for community organisations must be maintained and increased by state
health services contracts, as French senator Dinah Derycke, a member of
the socialist party, has proposed. She also recommends increasing the
number of shelters and community-based operations, coupled with
financial aid, training programmes, career opportunities and a
moratorium on tax-collection proceedings.
Other
initiatives, notably in Italy, may well inspire French efforts. In the
Casa Regina Pacis in San Foca, a tiny seaside resort in Apulia, the
parish priest, Don Cesare Lodeserto, provides lodging for 60 east
European women rescued from their pimps. Don Oreste Benzi, a priest in
Rimini, has helped rehabilitate more than 1,000 prostitutes. In autumn
2000 the Italian government launched a television campaign to heighten
public awareness. According to Turco, this unique European experiment
had two main aims: potential clients were clearly warned of the violence
inflicted on prostitutes, and prostitutes were offered a way out via a
24-hour toll-free phone number, which received 47,000 calls in under two
months. A thousand foreign women have taken part in the rehabilitation
programme. The Italian government also committed itself to subsidising
the professional training of repatriated Nigerians; women at its centre
in Benin City learn computer and catering skill.
This
shows the importance of programmes that focus on the prostitutes'
countries of origin. It applies especially to preventive
measures. In Hungary the IOM used brochures and videos as part of its
public awareness campaign. In response to ads attracting Bulgarians with
false promises of jobs, the Bulgarian government published a list of
those companies authorised to recruit for work abroad.
But it
is not enough to warn women of the risks they face; men must be informed
too. Whether traffickers, pimps or punters, they all exploit women. If
pimps deserve punishment, should clients be penalised as well, as they
are in Sweden? Should they receive counselling, as they do in Canada?
Should they attend classes, as in California?
Our
approach must begin in school, where students in sex education classes
should be taught about the cruel realities of prostitution. Young people
must realise that prostitution is a serious human rights violation and
that the human body is inalienable. There are no happy prostitutes.
*
Journalist
(1)
Most of Berlin's 7,000 prostitutes come from eastern Europe.
(2)
Agence France-Presse, 24 April 2000 and Peter Finn, «Sex Slavery
Flourishes in Kosovo»,
Washington Post, 24 April 2000.
(3)
International efforts remain haphazard: police are sometimes stationed
in bars; two Danes were deported after being charged with being clients
of prostitutes; some American officers have been forced to resign; an
investigation was launched into German KFOR soldiers who frequented
brothels where teenage prostitutes worked.
Translated by Luke Sandford