Trafficking Monitor is a blog I created and curate. It offers posts highlighting the multifaceted nature of human trafficking and forced/indentured labour. I draw on a diversity of sources for my posts. You are invited to recommend materials for posting.
13 Jun 12 10:20 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Six men on trial for trafficking Lithuanian women to Sweden and selling them for sex were sentenced to prison on Tuesday for running an elaborate trafficking andpimping operation estimated to have generated one million kronor ($141,000) in only ten months.
The men, all Lithuanian citizens in their twenties, were handed prison sentences ranging from one to three-and-a-half years and ordered deported from Sweden after serving their sentences.
The youngest of the men, aged 21, was given the stiffest sentence: 3.5 years in prison and a 10-year expulsion from Sweden following a conviction for human trafficking and aggravated pimping.
The two men who received the stiffest penalties were based in Sweden and served as local managers for the operation, while the four others are believed to have administered the pimping operation, including identifying clients, placing ads on the internet, and collecting money which was then sent back to their bosses in Lithuania.
According to prosecutor Lars Ågren, the men lured vulnerable Lithuanian women under false promises of the riches that awaited them if they came to Sweden to sell sex.
He estimated that the men's operation generated a turnover of one million kronor between November 2010 and August 2011.
However, the women who worked as prostitutes saw only a small share of the earnings.
One of the women, who recently turned 19, was promised 10,000 kronor a day when she was recruited from a small Lithuanian village.
She had never sold sex previously, but once in Sweden was forced to be with between five and eight clients per day.
According to the court, the 19-year-old had been a victim of human trafficking.
"She didn't get to keep a penny of what she earned. But she was so naive and willing that she followed the men here three times," Ågren told the TT news agency.
The woman has since been offered safe housing in Sweden and will be allowed to stay in the country.
Organised groups bring hundreds of people to Sweden every year. Photo: Leif R Jansson/Scanpix
Few who are charged with human trafficking offences are convicted, Swedish Radio News reports. In most recent cases the court ruled to acquit the suspect or convict them of less serious offences. The main problem, according to Thomas Ahlstrand, a prosecutor in Gothenburg, is that the victims often choose not to testify or that the court views their stories as less believable.
Facts:
An investigation by Swedish Radio News into 32 human trafficking cases show that:
19 of the cases where dismissed without leading to charges.
Seven were aquitted. In some cases the suspects have instead been convicted of lesser crimes.
Out of 32 cases 6 have lead to convictions.
“These are people who might not have a family to support them. They have no relatives who like them or friends who are not going to sell them out,” he told Swedish Radio News.
In order for someone to be convicted of human trafficking, the prosecutor needs to prove that a series of events have taken place and that the goal was to take advantage of one or more individuals, explained fellow prosecutor Christina Voight.
If a prosecutor fails to provide evidence for even one event in that chain, then a suspect will not be convicted of human trafficking.
Another reason for the small number of convictions is that human trafficking victims often cannot offer the kind of testimony that is conducive to a conviction, according to Voight and Ahlstrand.
“These are not perfect victims. They are not well educated, middle-class people, who can explain what has happened to them in a coherent way,” Ahlstrand said.
Police in Gothenburg have detained three men on suspicion of trafficking Romanian women.
“I will soon submit a remand request in regard to the three men current arrested," prosecutor Thomas Eliasson of the International Prosecution Chamber (Internationella åklagarkammaren) in Sweden told the local Göteborgsposten daily.
On Tuesday police in western Sweden brought in five men for questioning after a raid on a Gothenburg property. Three remain in custody and a preliminary investigation has been commenced.
Earlier this week a warrant for the arrest of another man was issued by the police. The 33-year-old Romanian national is however no longer on Swedish soil.
All the involved are originally from Romania and none have a permanent address in Gothenburg.
The men are under suspicion for trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation and aggravated pimping.
The men were brought in after a raid on several locations in the greater Gothenburg area carried out by the county police’s special unit for serious organised crime.
The sex crimes have mainly been carried out in the Rosenlund area of the city, which is generally associated with street prostitution.
The police operation was launched as a result of lengthy surveillance investigations and according to the prosecutor there are at least ten women that have been exploited by the men.
The police declined to speculate on how the investigation would develop but on Wednesday said that they do not rule out further arrests.
So far this year, the police have reported 170 incidents of sex purchasing in Gothenburg.
Sweden’s anti-prostitution policies are again a topic of discussion, but now the attention has turned to human trafficking. While the number of street prostitutes has fallen in that country since the government made the purchasing of sex services illegal in 1999, the number of trafficked sex workers appears to have increased. Sweden defends the effectiveness of its policies arguing that the increase observed in trafficked sex workers is small relative to their neighbors Norway and Denmark. I suggested a few weeks ago that Swedish law has to take some responsibility for the increase in sex work beyond its borders. If that is true, and the sex trade has simply relocated, then there is an incentive for neighboring countries to get on the prostitution abolition band-wagon, if for no other reason but to minimize negative externality created by the Swedish laws.
According to the U.S. Department of State, in 2010 there were more than 12 million victims of human trafficking worldwide. Human trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar business where women and men are recruited in their countries of origin and relocated to another country to be sold on the sex trade. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that in 2006 trafficking victims in the United States were imported from 66 different countries. Germany has trafficking victims from 51 countries. Japan has between 40,000 and 50,000 women trafficked into their sex industry annually. The problem of human trafficking is literally worldwide, with the highest concentrations in South Asia and the Middle East.*
In 2000 the United Nations introduced the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. The protocol introduced three important dimensions for policy that aims to deal with human trafficking: Prosecution, Protection and Prevention (the 3P’s). These three dimensions can be broken down further to policies that are observable. So, for example, protection includes no punishment of victims, no imposition of self-identification in order to prove their status as a victim, assistance for legal proceedings, providing residential permits, basic services for housing, medical training, job training, assistance for rehabilitation and assistance for repatriation.
In a new paper, researchers have used this protocol to create an index for 177 different countries that measure overall anti-trafficking policies with a scale of one to five given for each of the 3P’s. If you want to see that index, country by country, you can access it on their website. They use this index to determine what makes a country complaint with the UN protocol and find that while good policy neighbors makes for good policy, trafficking victim receiving countries appear to exert little influence over policies in trafficking victim sending countries.
The most likely explanation for this result (which, by the way, includes controls for other institutional variables like corruption and women’s rights) is that, like in the case with Sweden and Norway, stricter policies impose negative externalities on neighboring countries and trading partners. This exacerbates those neighboring countries' trafficking problems, prompting them to impose stricter policies themselves.
For example, if you have two countries that share a land border or are separated by less than 150 miles of sea and one country increases the strictness of their anti-trafficking policies by one point on the index then in the following year the second country will tighten its own policy by 0.232 points.
They also find evidence that countries learn from other countries with similar political views and countries that share similar cultural values. For example, if you have two countries that vote similarly on key issues at the UN General Assembly and one country increases the strictness of their anti-trafficking policies by one point then in the following year the second country will tighten its own policy by 0.536 points.
So, Norway has followed Sweden in criminalizing the purchasing of sex services. Maybe they did this because they learned from Sweden’s example or maybe they did it because the inflow of Johns from Sweden left them little choice but to deal with the problem. But, as I said before, once neighboring countries start to impose the same policies there is no guarantee that all nations are going to see their sex trades decline. In fact, Sweden might very well lose the benefit, in terms of reduced sex work, it experienced by being the first mover in the region. The abolition of the sex trades will only happen when they eliminate (as opposed to relocate) demand for sex workers.
* More information on the distribution of this particular form of slavery can be found in an interactive map at Free the Slaves.
**Dreher, Axel; Seo-Young Cho; and Eric Neumayer (2011). “The Spread of Anti-Trafficking Policies –Evidence from a New Index.”CESIFO Working Paper No. 3376.
BUENOS AIRES (IPS) - An Argentine government proposal to crack down on clients benefiting from the trafficking of persons for the purposes of sexual exploitation has unleashed a heated debate between feminist organizations that support the idea and sex workers who are opposed to it.
The proposal by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights has the support of organizations whose aim is to abolish the commercial sex trade. These groups want prostitution to be condemned as a form of exploitation, and are calling for measures like the promotion of alternative sources of employment.
The concept of going after the client has received the backing of the United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS), which will study it to recommend its inclusion in the national laws of each country.
The idea is to discourage demand by sending clients convicted of hiring the sexual services of a trafficking victim to prison.
Women's rights and human rights groups seeking to abolish the sex trade back the idea, although they express doubts because of the difficulties of implementing it.
Monique Altschul with the Fundación Mujeres en Igualdad (Women in Equality Foundation) told IPS that her organization agrees with the government's proposal, which is similar to Sweden's law against the purchasing of sex services, and said "it would be difficult to implement, but not impossible."
In Altschul's view, which she shares with many other members of feminist groups, prostitution is not decent work, especially in the case of sexual exploitation resulting from trafficking, a modern-day form of slavery.
"Prostitution is not decent work, because people are subjected to humiliation, and they never know what to expect in each transaction," Altschul said. "And in the case of trafficking, it is obvious that sexual exploitation is involved."
Many women's rights groups thus believe that not only the clients of trafficking victims should be penalised, but anyone who pays for sex.
But the Association of Women Prostitutes of Argentina (AMMAR), which has more than 4,000 members, is opposed to the proposal and has promised to make its voice heard at the next OAS General Assembly, to be held in June in El Salvador.
"This confuses trafficking, which we condemn, with sex work, which is an option followed by some women, as consenting adults," Elena Reynaga, president of AMMAR, told IPS.
She also complained that the "abolitionist" groups have not listened to their concerns. "They don't respect us, they don't listen to us," Altschul said. "Bans only hurt us and expose us more than we already are."
The groups that want to abolish the sex trade argue that no woman really chooses prostitution of her own free will, and that women fall into it because of a history of violence and abuse, and a lack of opportunities.
But Reynaga rejects that argument. "Domestic workers or women who are scavenging for cardboard on the streets didn't have opportunities either, but no one is going after them. There are many women who did not have the chance to study, and we had to make choices."
The problem is that in Argentina trafficking in women is a hot issue. In its annual report, the U.S. State Department warns every year of the lack of effective measures to combat human trafficking in this South American country.
The organizations working against trafficking say women are lured or seized in other countries in the region, mainly Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Peru, as well as in Puerto Rico and the provinces of northern Argentina, the poorest parts of the country.
The media periodically report on raids of brothels in provinces in central Argentina, which turn up women from Paraguay or the impoverished northern provinces who denounce that they were deceived with promises of a good job, and ended up being sexually exploited.
There are also hundreds of reports filed of missing girls and women, who are assumed to be victims of trafficking rings.
In 2008, Congress passed a law to prevent and criminalize the crime of trafficking. But the legislation has many flaws and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, called for its "urgent" reform.
In a statement issued after her fact-finding mission to this country in September 2010, the special rapporteur said the current law stipulated that victims over the age of 18 had to prove they did not initially consent to engage in the activities they were subjected to.
Ngozi Ezeilo also called for stiffer sentences for convicted traffickers and improved assistance for and follow-up of victims, including adequate witness protection before and after trials.
"Trafficking in persons in Argentina is unfortunately growing in scale and repercussions. It is complex, dynamic and hugely underestimated, especially internal trafficking," the special rapporteur said in her statement.
In the meantime, other measures have been taken. The Attorney General's Office recommended that prosecutors seek to cancel the operating licenses of businesses that offer prostitution services, and some newspapers have stopped carrying sex-oriented ads.
Classified ads run in the main national and provincial newspapers frequently refer to the women's place of origin, young age or youthful looks, such as "hot Paraguayans," "blonde Brazilians," "new bunny fresh from the countryside," "just in from the north," "erotic little doll," or "wild university girls."
Both the abolitionist groups and the sex workers' associations agree that the underlying problem is corruption among politicians, judicial workers and police, who boycott and stymie measures aimed at cracking down on trafficking.
For example, when prosecutors show up at a brothel, they find that the place is "clean" because the police who were supposed to cooperate in the raid have already tipped off the owners.
Reynaga also said the laws are used to harass sex workers. "The police haul us in and bring charges against us, and force our clients to pay them bribes."
She also questioned the concept of clients being able to distinguish between sex workers in the trade of their own accord and victims of trafficking. "What, do they expect the clients to ask the women?
"The problem is corruption -- that is why the networks are mushrooming. The police already have tools and don't use them -- or rather, they use them against us."
Against all odds, this year’s publishing sensation is a trio of thrillers by a dead Swede relating tangentially to human trafficking and sexual abuse.
Nicholas D. Kristof On the Ground
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” series tops the best-seller lists. More than 150 years ago, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” helped lay the groundwork for the end of slavery. Let’s hope that these novels help build pressure on trafficking as a modern echo of slavery.
Human trafficking tends to get ignored because it is an indelicate, sordid topic, with troubled victims who don’t make great poster children for family values. Indeed, many of the victims are rebellious teenage girls — often runaways — who have been in trouble with their parents and the law, and at times they think they love their pimps.
Because trafficking gets ignored, it rarely is a top priority for law enforcement officials — so it seems to be growing. Various reports and studies, none of them particularly reliable, suggest that between 100,000 and 600,000 children may be involved in prostitution in the United States, with the numbers increasing.
Just last month, police freed a 12-year-old girl who they said had been imprisoned in a Knights Inn hotel in Laurel, Md. The police charged a 42-year-old man, Derwin Smith, with human trafficking and false imprisonment in connection with the case.
The Anne Arundel County Police Department said that Mr. Smith met the girl in a seedy area, had sex with her and then transported her back and forth from Washington, D.C., to Atlantic City, N.J., while prostituting her.
“The juvenile advised that all of the money made was collected and kept by the suspect,” the police department said in a statement. “At one point, the victim conveyed to the suspect that she wanted to return home, but he held her against her will.”
Just two days later, the same police force freed three other young women from a Garden Inn about a block away. They were 16, 19 and 23, and police officials accused a 23-year-old man, Gabriel Dreke-Hernandez, of pimping them.
Police said that Mr. Dreke-Hernandez had kidnapped the 19-year-old from a party and had taken her to a hotel room. “Once at the hotel,” the police statement said, Mr. Dreke-Hernandez allegedly “grabbed her around the throat and began to choke her. Hernandez then pushed her head against the wall several times before placing a knife to her throat and demanding that she follow his commands.
“The female further advised that all of the money made was collected and kept by the suspect. At one point, she indicated that she would not prostitute any longer and the suspect subsequently pulled her into the bathroom and threatened her again with a knife.”
Police officials did not release details about the 16-year-old and 23-year-old, though they said customers for the teenager had been sought on the Internet.
There’s a misperception in America that “sex trafficking” is mostly about foreigners smuggled into the U.S. That exists. But I’ve concluded that the biggest problem and worst abuses involve not foreign women but home-grown runaway kids.
In a typical case, a rebellious 13-year-old girl runs away from a home where her mother’s boyfriend is hitting on her. She is angry and doesn’t trust the police. She goes to the bus station in hopes of getting out of town — and the only person on the lookout for girls like her is a pimp, who buys her a meal, offers her a place to stay and tells her he loves her.
The next thing she knows, she’s having sex with four men a night and all the money is going to her “boyfriend.” If she voices reservations, he puts a gun in her mouth and threatens to blow her head off.
Her customers, often recruited on the Internet, may have no inkling that her actions are not completely voluntary. Some mix of fear, love, hopelessness and shattered self-esteem keep her from trying to run away.
No strategy has worked particularly well against human trafficking, and commercial sex may well exist 1,000 years from now. But a starting point is for law enforcement to go after pimps rather than the girls. That’s the only way to break the business model of forced prostitution.
Sweden offers us not only the summer’s top beach paperbacks, but also a useful strategy for dealing with trafficking. The Swedish model, adopted in 1999, is to prosecute the men who purchase sex, while treating the women who sell it as victims who merit social services.
Prosecution of johns has reduced demand for prostitution in Sweden, which in turn reduces market prices. That reduces the incentives for trafficking into Sweden, and the number of prostitutes seems to have declined there. A growing number of countries are concluding that the Swedish model works better than any other, and it would be wise for American states to experiment with it as well. It’s not a panacea, but cracking down on demand seems a useful way to chip away at 21st-century slavery.
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A version of this op-ed appeared in print on July 15, 2010, on page A31 of the New York edition.
A major conference on sex trafficking being held in Dublin today has heard that the only way to end the exploitation of women is to criminalise the buyers of sex.
International approaches to policing sex trafficking are being discussed at today's event, which is being held by the Dignity Project.
Sweden, Iceland and Norway have all introduced legislation criminalising the purchase of sex and the Irish Government is being urged to do the same.
"We have a policeman from Stockholm police where, in Sweden, they have introduced legislation 10 years ago where they have criminalised those who purchase sex," said Grainne Healy, project co-ordinator of the Dignity Project.
"They've had great success with this; they've seen a drop in the demand for sexual services and more importantly they have seen a fall in trafficking of women for sexual exploitation into Sweden."
