The police
have smashed a gang of Bulgarian livers from immoral earnings which was
active in the vicinity of Grojec, near Warsaw. A dozen or so Bulgarians
have been arrested. Women also acted as pimps. Sixteen prostitutes were
detained who had been seeking clients along the main transport routes in
the area.
On 15th
June, the [Roman Catholic] Polish Episcopate sent a letter to the
minister of internal affairs in which the bishops asked for the
consideration of the removal from Poland of the foreign women who are
engaged in prostitution on the Polish highways.
[Reporter]
The detained women include Romanians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians and two
Poles. It transpires that our countrywomen had long been on the missing
persons register.
[Subcommissioner
Jacek Raczkiewicz, Mazowsze Police Command] The women who did not want
to subordinate themselves to the instructions of their pimps were
beaten, maltreated and even had their legs broken.
[Reporter]
We have discovered unofficially that one more girl is still being
sought, both of whose legs were broken by her pimps.
The whole
affair began a few weeks ago, when the family of one of the girls
discovered that she was being held in Poland. Relatives asked the
embassy of Ukraine for help.
[Andriy
Sybiha, deputy consul, embassy of Ukraine] The embassy of Ukraine turned
for help to the police of the Polish Republic. As the result of an
excellently organized action by the police, the kidnapped girls have
been got back and they are now under the protection of the embassy of
Ukraine.
[Reporter]
Policemen from the Mazowsze command do not remember such a large-scale
action.
[Raczkiewicz]
We have had to put those detained in several other jails, belonging to
district commands elsewhere. We have also made use of the services of
the Capital Police Command.
[Reporter]
There is now calm on the roads of Grojec District. Unfortunately, only
here. In the neighboring district it is [roadside prostitution] business
as usual.
Source: TV
Polonia, Warsaw, in Polish 1730 GMT 12 Jul 00
(C) 2000
BBC Monitoring