Domestic violence is one
of the most widespread violations of women's rights in the world.
Due to limited legal mechanisms and support for abused women in
many communities, women often see few opportunities to end the abuse.
Research suggests that victims of domestic violence may also be
at risk to become victims of trafficking when they seek work abroad
in order to leave the abusive situation. Research conducted in Minnesota
Advocates for Human Rights on Trafficking
in Women in Moldova and Ukraine identified domestic violence
as a key factor that influences women's decisions to leave home
for work. A report by Save the Children on Child
Trafficking in Albania confirms these findings. The following
case studies, from the Save the Children report, illustrate how
women who are subjected to violence are vulnerable to being trafficked:
Case
Study 1: Personal Background of E.B.
"E. B., 20 years of age, grew up with her mother who [divorced
E.B.'s father] when E. B. was twelve years of age . . . Both parents
are re-married . . . Because of the frequent and increasing violence
of the stepfather towards her and her mother, E. B. decided to
run
away from home and sought shelter at her cousin's house. Her
cousin had worked in Italy as a prostitute, her husband being her
pimp.
Once back in Albania, she started to deal with the trafficking
of other girls, using her house as lodging for the girls who were
waiting
to travel to Italy.
These girls were fully aware of their final destination and of
the type of activity they would be undertaking in Italy, so E. B.
knew the nature of her cousin's 'job' perfectly well. What she did
not know and could not even imagine was that her cousin was preparing
the same treatment for her and that her plan was to sell her for
2 million liras. . . . Upon her arrival in Italy, she understood
that things were quite different from what she had expected, and
after refusing to work as a prostitute, she was savagely beaten
and maltreated, not only by her pimp but also by the other boys
and girls. . . ."
Case
Study 2: Personal Background of M.R.
"M. R. left Albania together with her sister X. G. of her
own will, and aware of what kind of activity she would be doing
in Italy. An Albanian citizen called I. P. helped to organize the
trip. He has been M R.'s boyfriend for approximately a year though
she was already married. The reason M. R. decided to [sic] this
was extreme poverty and also the conditions of her marriage where
she had been subjected to violence since the age of 14. Obviously,
her boyfriend only pretended to be in love with M. R. to convince
her to take the trip."
Women who have few means to escape abusive relationships may turn
to employment services, matchmaking agencies or other offers of
help to travel abroad in order to escape their current environments.
Organized
Crime
Organized crime rings operate throughout Central and Eastern Europe
and the Commonwealth of Independent States and are connected to
organized crime throughout the world. Organized crime in the region
includes activities such as money laundering, racketeering, extortion,
bribery of public officials, trafficking of narcotics and weapons
and trafficking of women and children. According to the United Nations
Center for International Crime Prevention, "Over the last decades,
smuggling and trafficking have become a major activity and source
of income of criminal organizations, at the national and international
levels. Different criminal networks, both local and transnational,
are facilitating and/or managing smuggling and sexual exploitation,
while making substantial profits. . . . An ever increasing networking
among different organized crime groups provides for economies of
scale and for full control of the smuggling-trafficking sequence;
from smuggling to the control of sex markets." From
Global
Program against Trafficking in Human Beings: an outline for action,
Center for International Crime Prevention and the United Nations
Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (1999).
The Center for International Crime Prevention also points out that
the development of effective counter-trafficking strategies, at
both the national and international levels, is hindered by the lack
of research on the "overview of the size, nature and development
of organized crime involvement [in trafficking]." The fact
that criminal enterprises conduct much of their recruitment activities
through legitimate front businesses, for example newspaper advertising,
local travel agencies or visa services, makes it difficult to track
who is conducting the illegal activity. Furthermore, local recruiters
may often be acquaintances or family members (frequently they are
women who were once victims of trafficking themselves) who have
little information about the structure of the larger criminal enterprise.
Thus, because of the difficulties in gathering high-level criminals,
people with low-level involvement in trafficking are most often
prosecuted.
The transnational and highly-organized criminal dimensions
of trafficking make it unique from other forms of violence
against women. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that
advocate for women's rights, therefore, must approach the
problem of trafficking with an understanding of the potential
danger involved, the possibility of government
complicity in trafficking and the need to cooperate extensively
with NGOs in other countries.
Conflict
Zones and Militarization
Internal conflict destabilizes a country's economy and disrupts
social patterns. Conflict situations can force women to prostitute
themselves in order to support their families. In some cases,
women are forced into prostitution when rape is used as a
weapon of war by enemy soldiers. Conflict and the resulting
instability weaken border controls and facilitate the movement
of women from country to country. High levels of corruption
are also found in conflict zones where separatist regimes
may be funded by such activities as kidnapping, trade in narcotics
or trafficking in people.
Combat results in an increased military presence. The stationing
of troops in both conflict and post-conflict areas is often
followed by the development of the sex industry there. This
phenomenon has been recognized around the world during every
war. Victims of trafficking are sometimes delivered to brothels
that serve military bases. Military involvement in trafficking
and prostitution ranges from ignoring the problem and failing
to discipline troops to actual regulation of the sex trade.
As Isabelle Talleyrand explains in Military Prostitution:
How the Authorities Worldwide Aid and Abet International Trafficking
in Women the military's involvement in trafficking includes
"regulation of the prostitution industry in "officially
approved brothels," ensuring a steady supply of available
military prostitutes, acting as procurers, keeping track of
the prostitutes that had contracted sexually transmitted diseases
(with the intention of protecting the servicemen and not for
the purpose of informing the prostitutes), and in some instances,
government to government agreements that keep track of prostitutes
through identification."
In December 2001, the international media reported on a United
Nations investigation into whether members of the UN International
Police Task Force (IPTF) in Bosnia directly participated in trafficking
in women for forced prostitution. The Washington Post reported that
among the various charges under investigation, two policemen with
the peacekeeping forces were accused of recruiting Romanian women,
purchasing false documents for them and selling the women to Bosnian
brothel owners. Ultimately, the UN halted the investigation, and
the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina issued a statement that
"no U.N. international police officers had been found to be
involved in the trafficking of women in Bosnia and Herzegovina."
Government
Policies and Practices
Trafficking in women persists, in part, due to the fact that many
national governments neither control nor prevent the problem. Government
policies and practices may actually facilitate trafficking. The
connections between national government practices and trafficking
vary. At one end of the continuum, government inaction and lack
of attention to the matter make it possible for trafficking to exist.
At the other end, corrupt government officials may be actually involved
in the trafficking process.
At a minimum, a government may lack legislation on trafficking
or existing regulations may be out-dated and thus ineffective
in
addressing the problem, particularly in the case of trafficking
perpetrated by transnational crime rings. Combating organized
crime
at this level requires sophisticated investigation, monitoring
and prosecution procedures as well as constant cooperation with
colleagues
in other countries. Related to the lack of legislation, government
agencies, especially those involved in law enforcement, border
control
and immigration must receive specific education and training to
effectively work against trafficking. Many national governments
do not provide this type of support for government
servants. Likewise, many governments have not implemented national
policies that coordinate the work of the various branches that
deal
with trafficking, including law enforcement, immigration and social
welfare agencies. Many countries lack the capacity to respond
to
trafficking, either due to infrastructure weaknesses or lack of
material resources.
In the middle of the continuum, a government's national immigration
policy can inadvertently impact trafficking routes. Weak border controls
and untrained immigration officials make it possible for victims of
trafficking to be transported both through transit countries and to
destination countries without detection. On the other hand, strict
border controls and entry requirements limit the possibility of legal
migration. In such situations, women seek out agencies that will aid
them to travel, and the agencies themselves are often fronts for traffickers.
In extreme cases, individual government officials, such as border
guards, police officers, court officials, participate in or benefit
directly from trafficking. Government corruption may take the form
of receiving bribes from traffickers or profits from the trafficking
industry, cooperation with traffickers or refusing to provide trafficking
victims with assistance. Non-governmental organizations have raised
concerns about reports of government officials demanding bribes
from trafficking victims in order to begin investigation, police
colluding with traffickers to return women to brothels and of border
guards assisting in the abduction of women. Strategies for fighting
government corruption can include the creation of internal affairs
departments within the government structure as well as prosecution
of members of the government who are found to have been complicit
in trafficking.