Fw: A New 'Commodity' In Kosovo: What NATO Has Wrought]

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg@tin.it>]

http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_world_8244182_12/06/2002_17507


Kathimerini (Greece)
June 12, 2002


A new 'commodity' in Kosovo
Young, ill-educated women lured and sold as sex slaves
for 700 to 2,500 euros, IOM reports


By Miron Varouhakis - Kathimerini English Edition
Young single women who have little education and are
victims of physical abuse by their parents are being
trafficked into Kosovo from across the Balkans and
ex-Soviet republics as sex slaves, according to a
recent report by the International Organization for
Migration (IOM).
"All around Kosovo trafficking in women for sexual
exploitation is happening," the IOM notes in its
Counter-Trafficking Report, adding that "women from
Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Albania and
Russia are forced into prostitution."
The report, released on June 7, is based on the
testimonies of 303 women and minors assisted by the
IOM in Kosovo from February 2000 to April 2002, and
establishes a detailed socioeconomic profile of the
victims.
In reference to the victims' country of origin, the
report notes that 52 percent of the women assisted by
the IOM came from Moldova, 23 percent from Romania, 13
percent from Ukraine, 5 percent from Bulgaria, 3
percent from Kosovo, 3 percent from Albania and 1
percent from Russia.
In terms of their age, the report reveals that the
average age of the women was 25, while 38 of the 303
victims were minors. Moreover, some of the victims
have a very basic education while only a few are
university graduates. More specifically, slightly more
than 50 percent of the victims had a primary-school
level of education, 16 percent had completed high
school and only 2 percent had been to university.
>From their in-depth interviews to the anti-trafficking
unit of the IOM in Kosovo, it appears that the
majority of them had been taken from urban areas in
their countries — as 14 percent of them came from
their country's capital city — 51 percent from urban
areas, and 33 percent from rural areas.
The majority, 65 percent, of the victims were single
when they were lured into trafficking, but almost 38
percent now have children which they are raising on
their own.
The report also found that almost 25 percent of the
victims had experienced physical abuse, and 12.5
percent rape within their family.
"A man from my neighborhood raped me when I was 15. I
went to the police, everyone knew what happened to me.
I started having problems with my friends and my
family. I was ashamed," a 16-year-old girl from Peja
told IOM fieldworkers. Like others, a friend later
told her about a job abroad, a chance as she said, "to
leave all the bad things behind." Little did she know
that the worst was yet to come.
Trafficking methods
The IOM notes that trafficking is often based on
deception and lies, while increasingly networks use
other women and friends to lure their young victims.
"The woman, my neighbor, told me she would find a good
family in Spain where I could work as baby-sitter. She
said I could earn $500 per month," one of the victims
told the IOM.
According to the report, 83 percent of the women fell
into the hands of traffickers as they were pushed to
search for a job abroad due to poverty and lack of job
prospects at home. Some 79 percent were lured abroad
under false promises for a job and almost 9 percent
were kidnapped.
"He is a friend of mine; he was! He invited me over
his place for a coffee and never let me go back to my
family. The day after he sold me to a woman for $200,"
another victim said in her interview with IOM staff in
Kosovo.
The report reveals that in almost 50 percent of the
cases the recruiter was a woman, and in 45 percent the
victim knew the person who tricked them into accepting
a phony job abroad.
"Women are usually offered a job as a baby-sitter,
cleaner, waitress, or as a carer for the elderly,
which normally do not require a high level of
education or language skills," the IOM underlines in
its report, stressing that 41.6 percent of the women
were offered a job in Italy.
A false job promise abroad is usually accompanied by
promises to arrange everything from travel documents,
visas and transportation, to a job and comfortable
accommodation. This in turn explains why 25 percent of
the women assisted by the IOM left their countries
without a passport. Some 47.9 percent of the women
helped by the IOM had never left their countries
before being trafficked.
According to the report, only 23.8 percent of the
women were partially or fully aware of the possibility
of being involved in sex-related activities.
Traffickers appear to prefer crossing into Kosovo from
routes inside the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia (FYROM), as 22.3 percent of the women
assisted by the IOM reported that they had used those
specific routes. Other less-preferred routes cross
into Montengero (5 percent) and Albania (4 percent).
In interviews conducted by IOM staff in Kosovo,
trafficked women declared that they were bought and
sold three to six times on their journey to Kosovo.
Many of them are sexually abused or exploited already
in the transit countries where they might remain up to
few months before arriving in Kosovo.
Their "commercial" value in Kosovo varied from 700 to
2,500 euros.
Working conditions
The living conditions while in Kosovo for the
trafficked victims are "dramatic" according to the
IOM, with 77 percent of the women reporting beatings
by their traffickers or exploiters, and 57 percent
saying they had been sexually abused by their
traffickers and exploiters.
"Accommodation is always collective and normally used
also to receive clients," the report states. "In most
of the cases the shared accommodation is in the bar,
sleeping on chairs or sharing a sofa between three to
four women. Hygiene conditions are usually poor and
access to food is limited."
In most cases, 74 percent, profits were not shared
with the women, who never received any payment during
their stay in Kosovo. Only 4 percent of the women
reported receiving regular payments for the services
provided.
Interviews also reveal that in many cases the women
are forced to have unprotected sex, while medical care
is scarce. Specifically, 62 percent of the women were
forced into unprotected sex, and a third of the
victims were completely denied medical care.
"Medical care is normally given on an emergency basis
only, especially when the symptoms could affect the
'performance'," the report states, adding that 33
percent of the women were denied medical attention.
The majority of the women assisted by the IOM were
found to have vaginal infections and other sexually
transmitted diseases when examined once back in their
countries of origin.
The report notes that more than 63 percent of the
victims were rescued during police raids on bars and
nightclubs which operate as brothels. At the same
time, an increasing number of victims, 33.6 percent,
managed to escape and seek help from authorities.