BALKAN SEX TRADE

In a lengthy investigative piece, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) analyzes the sex trade occurring in the Balkan states. The report discusses the scope of the trade, criminal as well as governmental groups involved, methods of operation, and the predominant smuggling routes. One thing is apparent. The smuggling of women to populate the sex industry is massive.

In November 2002, an the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, conference on the trafficking of human beings estimated that some 200,000 women in the Balkans had fallen victim to a smuggling network that extends across the region into the European Union.

According to the latest figures from International Organisation for Migration, IOM, the four biggest exporters of girls to Western Europe are Moldova, Romania, Ukraine and Russia.

Two primary smuggling routes have been identified. Both starting in Romania, one traverses overland to the Adriatic where speedboats take the women to Italy. The other route goes directly south through Bulgaria to Greece.

The trade is a coalition of interests that crosses ethnic divides. Well-organised groups, familiar to each other from drugs or gun deals, trade across frontiers, as do lone traffickers.

War has made the Balkans a traffickers dream. Their illicit trade has been able to flourish as a result of the chaos of the last decade, which has weakened border controls and fractured and impoverished communities that were once held together by rigid moral codes.

Throughout the Balkans, checkpoints are badly policed by often corrupt officials, well used to taking bribes as guns and drugs moved through the region during the wars. Forged or stolen passports are easily available and visa regulations are flouted.

The girls are recruited by various methods. For example, newspapers advertise for girls to work in menial jobs in Western Europe and some are attracted by promises of marriage to EU nationals.

After luring the girls, the traffickers seize their passports, then take them to major regional sex trade centres, where they are forced to work as prostitutes.

Oddly, the trade flourishes largely because of the presence of international officials and military. The influx of cash by these groups sustains the sex industry.

Led by organized criminal gangs, the overland smuggling skirts minefields left over from the war and efforts to stem the flow are impeded because UN and local police refuse to enter minefields.

For those interested, follow the link and read the rest of the report. There's a lot more.

One comment I have relates to a previous post concerning the absolute idiocy of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius wanting to give driver's licenses and college education to illegals. Hey, Governor, there's a bunch of girls in the Balkans that need driver's licenses and college education and they meet your minimum criteria for qualification. They're not United States citizens.

[Addendum 9/25/03] The trading in sex is ubiquitous worldwide. Robert Koehler of the Marmot's Hole addresses the sex industry in Korea where cross-border activity resembles slave trading. There is an Anti-Prostitution Campaign in progress to "make a world without sex trafficking." So some people are concerned enough to act. The effectiveness of the campaign remains to be seen.