Sex Trafficking in Eastern Europe

This journal highlights the problems faced by women who travel to Europe with the aim of ending their poverty.  There are two parts of the journal: information sheets and the funding sheets. The information sheets provide information about the trafficking of human beings in relation to the sex slavery which is increasing in Europe. The journal further explains the strategies used by the EU to prevent human trafficking and mitigation measures used to fight the traffickers. In particular, the journal highlights the ways of preventing trafficking of women. This involves various actions such as criminalization of human trafficking and collaboration with affected countries of the third world. The funding sheets part highlights specific actions carried out by the EU to help the victims of sex slavery through provision of the STOP Programme, the PHARE Programme and the DAPHNE Programme.

This article highlights the trafficking of human beings for sex in Greece. The report reveals the most affected victims as well as their countries of origin. According to the report, most of the victims are from Nigeria, Eastern Europe or Balkan.  Both women and young boys are coerced into prostitution through emotional abuse and the promise of a better life from poverty. Other than sex slavery there were victims of forced labor found in Greece primarily from countries such as Albania, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Romania, Bangladesh and Moldova. The report further adds that additional effort which has to be put into in order to fight the traffickers in Greece as the amount of the current efforts is not enough. The report further gives recommendations to Greece in curbing human trafficking in ways such as imposition of laws that ensure prosecution of the traffickers among other serious punishments. Protection of the trafficking victims and future prevention is important and has been highlighted in the report.  

Guériaux talks about the flourishing of sex trafficking in Eastern Europe and how it is gradually finding its way into Western Europe. According to her research, this kind of trade is currently the most lucrative thus attracting a lot of traffickers. She further explains the trafficking routes used by the traffickers and how the victims are lured into the trade. Her research shows that Ukraine is one common source of trafficked women and is also a destination where over 30 percent of girls in prostitution are aged between 11 and 18. She further demonstrates the new rising trends in the trade whereby the traffickers are now trafficking girls from other countries different from the common sources. The new sources include China, Paraguay, Sierra Leone and Uzbek. Guériaux concludes that it is a responsibility of political leaders and agencies at European level to tackle these problems and come up with viable preventive measures.

Mendenhall tells the story of a girl who was coerced into sex by her “owner” who forced her into slavery. The girl, Olga, further explains her fate as well as that of other girls in Macedonia and the entire Europe. She further reports that over 200, 000 girls in the entire Europe are smuggled in and out of different parts of Europe for sex slavery and for forced labor. The trade is rapidly growing in Western Europe where more than half of the women are transported to. Mendenhall further explains that approximately 200,000 to 400,000 women from Moldova have been smuggled out of the country for slavery. She demonstrates that the business is very profitable for countries such as Bosnia, where the profits have been estimated at margins of billions of dollars. The lack of laws in Bosnia makes it effective for the traffickers to use the country for trafficking women. The author also gives recommendations which would help in curbing the trade in Europe.