TRAFFICKING IN WHITE

TRAFFICKING IN WHITE

Every year there are thousands of Romanian women victims of international trafficking in persons. Thousands - according to various statistics even tens of thousands, most of them with the deception of a job - end up in networks of criminal organizations, which force them into prostitution in Western Europe.

  These women leave Romania to escape poverty and misery, but they quickly become "bargaining chip" in the hands of traffickers, who buy and sell them dozens of times. In Romania the price of a woman varies between 300 and 400 dollars, but in the country of destination can reach 5-10,000 dollars.

According to the IOM (International Organization for Migration) major destinations in 2006-2007, according to the statistics of returns were Macedonia (29%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (23%), Albania (11%), the Kosovo (11%), Italy (9%), Serbia and Montenegro (6%), 11% in other countries. They arrive battered, malnourished, abused and reduced to a state of slavery, paying dearly for their ignorance and naivety or simply their decision to make money at any cost.

But the statistics speak for a vast majority of Romanian women who end up in prostitution abroad because they are victims of international traffic, deceived by the mirage of a job as a waitress, nanny, maid or nanny.

In the period 2004-2005 the International Organization for Migration has assisted 781 women Romanian victims of trafficking in persons. In 2005, 24.84% of them were minors and 75.16% older. Three years later, the statistics indicate the 14,10% and 85,90% of minors of age, with a mean age of 21.23 years and with low level of education. In any case, poverty is the main cause that pushes them to leave Romania. In fact, their origin is mainly from the most deprived areas of the country, with Moldova in top of the list (35%). But there are also women of Transylvania (21%) of Muntenia and Bucharest (5%).

Once repatriated, women who are victims of trafficking in persons pass from Bucharest branch of IOM, which relies on NGOs specializing in the integration programs. For six months they receive medical care, psychological counseling, social and legal or may be eligible for qualification courses to learn a trade. Many of them, however, do not follow these programs, in most cases due to the intervention of their families. They are afraid of the authorities and especially the police, which hardly work together to declare what is their success.

The specialists see this behavior in one of the psycho-sociological consequences in case the victim has suffered serious abuses in countries where a prostitute, even by police accomplices of traffickers. Many do not want to go back in the families of origin, to the shame or hatred towards relatives or friends who have sold.

The Romanian authorities have at their disposal the law 678/2001 which establishes measures for the prevention and combating trafficking in persons. The law provides a penalty of imprisonment from 3 to 20

years for those found guilty of trafficking in persons. But the real problem is the inaction of the criminals or the protection they receive from organizations to which they belong, a kind of mafia gangs that protect their work in several ways: by providing them with false documents, false identities.

Romania has stepped up international cooperation in the field of organized crime, among other things, to meet the needs of the EU that it expects a safer country. More effort should come from the various ministries, such as the Work, which shall inform persons who wish to go abroad to work, the Ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs

  or Education. To do their part should also be regional NGOs, the protection of rights and the preservation of the role of women in Romanian society, charities, supported by concrete material existence of women and their children, facilities instead in this country are almost completely absent.