/reportage-01Iana Matei, a psychologist by training, is the leading figure in Romania's fight against human trafficking. In an interview with SETimes correspondent Paul Ciocoiu, she describes her efforts to rescue young girls amid a flawed legislative system.
By Paul Ciocoiu for Southeast European Times in Bucharest -- 31/10/11
 Reaching Out founder Iana Matei. [Victor Barbu/SETimes] |
SETimes: Tell us how your organisation, Reaching Out, started.
Iana Matei: It was established in 1999, becoming the first such organisation directly protecting victims of human trafficking, at a time when the Palermo Protocol was not in place yet, nor did we have specific legislation in Romania. The first victims I worked with were under age -- we would call them abused children -- and had been trafficked in the former Yugoslav countries where they had been lured with the promise of well-paid jobs.
SETimes: A method which is still being used, isn't it?
Matei: Indeed, but now we also have this so-called lover boy method in which traffickers pick the future victims one by one after they spend a couple of months with a girl until they convince her they allegedly want to marry her. What is worse in these cases is they start recruiting girls at the age of 12 and13, when they are easy to manipulate and control.
SETimes: Are most of the victims under age?
Matei: At this moment, yes. Unlike the first years of our activity in 1999-2003, when 70% of the victims were over 18 years old, and 30% were under age. Now this percentage has reversed. At this very moment, the youngest victim in my care is 13 years old.
The first funds came from the US Department of State. Then an American partner organisation … a German governmental organisation, UNICEF, then came the European funds. Lately, we have received funds from Make Way Partners, a US organisation.
I started by raising awareness among the women and girls in the whole country about what human trafficking really was. I did that by means of a movie I myself shot with a hidden camera in Macedonia and that I showed in schools. The movie showed the entire route from recruitment, transportation to exploitation based on the testimonies of the girls I had saved.
SETimes: How many employees are there here? And how many girls have you saved so far?
Matei: Eight employees, me included. And we have managed to save about 460 girls since we started.
SETimes: Why did you choose to work with trafficked women?
I started doing prevention in the orphanages to talk kids out of running away. One day, the police called me and told me they had three prostitutes in custody and needed my help to take them to a medical examination. But when I got there, I found three scared girls still crying, with their faces smeared with mascara. They were 14, 15 and 16 years old.
 Reaching Out requires girls to go to school and to learn a skilled trade. [Victor Barbu/SETimes] |
When I asked them how they ended up in the street they told me pointblank they had been sold [by their parents]. I remember being furious for the following couple of months that something like that could happen in Romania.
When I started asking around, I realised no one wanted those girls, not even the Child Protection Authority, which said the girls would be taken to an orphanage. This is how I started my programme.
SETimes: How do the girls get to your organisation?
Matei: They are brought by the police, by the NGOs in the destination countries and girls we identify and take them away from traffickers. We currently have 12 girls at the centre, the most was 19.
SETimes: A small number compared to the proportions of the phenomenon.
Matei: I agree, but the assistance we give them is a complex process and cannot be done in haste, as happens in the state institutions. These kids have problems, have special needs; they need attention. They go out in the street because they lack love, care in their families; this is the starting point.
SETimes: How much time does a victim spend at your centre?
Matei: That depends on their age. Those who are above 18 integrate faster; we work with them more easily because they are mature. Those under age spend an average of one year here because otherwise they risk falling victims to human trafficking again.
SETimes: What exactly do they go through here during this reintegration process?
Matei: First, medical assistance. Then psychological assistance, individual and group therapy.
Also life skills: that is what they weren't taught in their families. Every day a girl is on duty, she cooks or cleans for the rest of the group. We also have a sewing workshop, then professional training and school.
If they are under age they go to school, regardless of the educational stage. I insist they graduate at least from primary school (8th grade) and professional training. We place a great accent on education because they have to know they can do something in this life, and they ended up this way because they were told at home they are good for nothing.
 Matei says family dysfunction is a root issue and anti-trafficking legislation is flawed. [Reuters] |
SETimes: How many of them do reintegrate in the end?
Matei: About 86%. These girls complete a school cycle, get a job and keep in touch with us afterwards.
SETimes: What is the main obstacle that prevents reintegration?
Matei: The flawed system, the lack of co-operation among state agencies. Then, even the school. We have to conceal the real stories of these girls when enlisting them back in school because they risk being discriminated against or even harassed.
SETimes: What about their families? Do they accept them back?
Matei: We always started from the premise children are born good. We do family counseling, negotiate the parent-child relationship and if all goes well, the child returns home and we keep an eye on her. But most of the time the obstacle resides in the parents themselves and that is the main obstacle in preventing them from reintegrating.
SETimes: Overall, what is the main cause of human trafficking?
Matei: Disorganised families, lack of education and information about human trafficking, an educational and health system that malfunctions, child protection that malfunctions. And all these components pass the responsibility to each other.
SETimes: What has been concretely done by state authorities to approach this problem? And what still needs to be done?
Matei: Anti-traffic legislation, a national strategy and an action plan, but all these have been done in haste, by fits and starts, because these measures were asked for by the EU and the US State Department. It was all put on paper to look good to the West but then we realised what was written there doesn't work.
Another obstacle is Article 44 of the Romanian Constitution, which says all the assets are legally obtained. We are interested in confiscating a trafficker's fortune because this is how we deal him a serious blow. Money is the very reason he does human trafficking.
But in Romania, it is the prosecutor who has to prove this money was illegally obtained, unlike the legislation in many Western countries, where the defendant has to prove he got his assets in a legal manner.
In Romania, human trafficking occurs at low risk, with high profit.
 Photo: Nicholas Reader/IRIN Child labour is common in Guinea (file photo) |
INTERNATIONAL REPORT—A global problem has been receiving more media attention lately and puts hotels in the epicenter of discussions around the prevention of sex tourism and human trafficking.
Human trafficking is the third largest crime industry, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, accounting for US$15.5 billion in profits annually in industrialized countries.
Globally, some 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year, according to a 2007 report from the U.S. State Department. Of that group, more than 70% are female and 50% are children. A separate 2009 United Nations report, however, stated approximately 20% of all trafficking victims are children. Actual figures can be difficult to pinpoint because the victims are, by definition, hidden and a common definition for “slavery” has not been established.
The travel and tourism industry has established a formal code, recognizing that it can be proactive at the forefront of trafficking of children in particular.
The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism (“the Code”) is an initiative funded by UNICEF and supported by the UNWTO. It was founded in Sweden in 2002 and has grown into a global mission.
According to the organization: “The problem of commercial sexual exploitation of children and its connection with the tourism trade is extremely complex. While the tourism industry is not accused for encouraging this un-wanted phenomenon, it has been asked to collaborate and to react against the use of its networks and establishments for this purpose.”
Minneapolis-based Carlson has long been affiliated with the Code.
“The issue of child exploitation and child trafficking is a new crime which has increased and spread to all over the world—even in our neighborhood,” said Beathe-Jeanette Lunde, executive VP, people development, responsible business, safety and security, Carlson. “We see it as an opportunity to be open and proactive about this crime so all our stakeholders, be it employees, guests or suppliers, can feel safe while working or doing business with us.”
Bill Ford of Cape Town, South Africa-based Protea Hospitality Corporation, said via email he would like to see hotels help solve the problem rather than simply sign the Code: “I would rather see the global tourism industry actively working to eradicate child sex tourism than for everyone to line up, sign a document and feel that by doing that, their responsibility ends. The fight against this scourge will probably never be won, but actions always speak louder than words.
“Hotels are the tourist accommodation mainstays in most global destinations, and it is therefore essential to confront this possibility head on, no matter how distressing,” said the group operations director for Protea. The company is in the process of becoming a member of the Code.
Michelle Guelbart, interim secretariat coordinator at ECPAT-USA (the U.S. based organization that helps manage the Code), approaches hotel companies to educate them about what might already be going on, understanding that “they might not know that there is sexual exploitation of children on their properties. This may be because it is not directly in their faces or they do not have a word for what they are seeing.”
Guelbart said she emphasizes awareness: “It is important for (hotel operators) to know that traffickers and pimps are taking advantage of their lack of policies and staff training by using their properties for selling and abusing children. … This may be the only opportunity for exploited children to be saved, as they are often isolated from mainstream society by their traffickers.”
On board
Hilton Worldwide signed the Code last year after it was involved in reports that the Chinese police found a brothel operating in an independently owned karaoke club in a Hilton hotel in southern China last summer, according to a story in the Washington Business Journal.
More recently, Wyndham Worldwide committed to joining the Code in July and vowed to improve its staff training and procedures after reports of gang-led child prostitution rings in California hotels drew media and activist attention to the company’s hotels, CNN reported. Wyndham’s hotel system consisted of approximately 7,220 properties and 612,900 rooms, as of 30 June 2011.
Also in July, the Minister for Tourism and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India, launched the Code of Conduct for Safe and Honorable Tourism through the support of UN.GIFT. The code was drafted by UNODC with the Ministry in collaboration with Save the Children India and the Pacific Asia Tourism Association.
Roma Singh, Regional Director (Western & Central Region), Indiatourism, Mumbai told Travel Talk India: "We are going to educate major hotel players in western and central region of India this year. We are also encouraging hotels from all categories to implement practices for safe tourism. Hoteliers can also approach us for training their staff on Code of Conduct."
Carlson makes the issue a part of its training.
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| Bill Ford
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“We include a video clip from the newly released ‘Not my Life’ documentary as well as an internal video showing scenarios our employees might come across,” she said. “After each situation, we stop and discuss with the employees how to deal with a possible situation like the video describes. The program also includes a message from Carlson Chairman Marilyn Carlson Nelson and her view and expectation to our employees.”
“Not My Life” is a part of CNN’s Freedom Project: Ending Modern Day Slavery and received support from The Carlson Family Foundation.
Ford said staff empowerment is essential.
“One of the cornerstones of this culture is the empowerment of all members of our STAFF who are expected to act with responsibility and vigilance in everything they do. To this extent where a STAFF member becomes aware of any untoward activity happening on one of our premises, this will be brought to the attention of senior management who will act in the appropriate manner.
Source: hotelnewsnow.com
