Stanching
the Slavic sex trade
EU project aims to end trafficking of women
By
TODD PRINCE / The Russia Journal
FEBRUARY
24 - MARCH 02, 2001
Vol.7, No.7 (100)
The
European Union announced last week that it will allocate $450,000 for a
new campaign to help curtail the traffic of Ukrainian
women forced into prostitution abroad.
The
money will be directed through the EU’s TACIS program to the
International Organization for Migration (IOM), the main mover behind
the 12-month project. Officials said that depending upon results, the
project might be extended.
"Trafficking
of women is a major problem in Ukraine,"
said Ignacio Surez, the campaign’s TACIS coordinator. Thousands of
Ukrainian women are lured into European brothels each year, falling for
ads promising jobs abroad. Similarly, foreign men claiming to be looking
for wives trick women, who soon find they are being sold to sex clubs
and criminal gangs.
Traffickers
can fetch $1,000 for Ukrainian women in the Balkans and up to $25,000 in
Israel, according to some experts, who add that Germany, Holland,
Turkey, Israel and Yugoslavia are the most common destination points for
Ukrainian women forced into prostitution.
The
EU project will build on a similar $250,000 information campaign
financed by the U.S. State Department in 1998. However, Surez said the
EU program will focus on helping victims reintegrate into society as
well as improve their chances of successful prosecution.
He
added that the program would also focus on prevention through TV
documentaries and radio and newspaper public-service announcements
unveiling the tricks of traffickers. The effort will be coordinated with
the Ukrainian government.
"We
want to work with law enforcement such as the border police," said
Oksana Morhynova, IOM project coordinator in Kiev. "We want to
train them and inform them about trafficking because they don’t have
enough experience in this area."
The
Ukrainian government has, in recent years, taken measures against
traffickers, such as creating a special anti-trafficking law-enforcement
division last June. In March 1998, the government also passed a law
punishing traffickers with jail sentences of three to eight years.
But,
according to Morhynova, "the law has to be improved because it
doesn’t have a good definition of trafficking; it doesn’t say who
the trafficker is and who the victim is."
Since
1998, only two cases against traffickers in Ukraine
have ended in convictions, she said, adding that in order to increase
convictions, the campaign will focus on encouraging victims to testify.
"Most women refuse to testify because they are scared ñ they say
they have forgotten everything. We will work with law enforcement to
ensure their protection."