Human Trafficking in [Russia Street Children in [Russia] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Russia] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Russian
Federation (Russia) [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The Russia is a
source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children
trafficked for various forms of exploitation. Men and women from the Russian
Far East are trafficked to China, Japan, the Middle East, and South Korea for
purposes of sexual exploitation, debt bondage, and forced labor, including in
the agricultural and fishing industries. Russian women are trafficked to
Turkey, Greece, Germany, Italy, Spain, Malta, the United States, Canada,
Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, and the Middle East
for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Moscow and St. Petersburg are
destination centers for children trafficked within Russia and from Ukraine
and Moldova for purposes of sexual exploitation and forced begging. Moscow
continues to be a significant destination for men and women trafficked within
Russia and from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Moldova, and
Belarus for purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor, including work
in the construction industry; in 2007, the number of Belarusian men
trafficked to Moscow increased for purposes of forced labor in the
construction, textile, and food industries. The ILO reported that an estimated
one million illegal migrant workers may be victims of labor trafficking in
Russia. Moscow remains a transit point for women trafficked from Uzbekistan
and Armenia to the United Arab Emirates for purposes of sexual exploitation.
Men from Western Europe and the United States travel to Western Russia,
specifically St. Petersburg, for the purpose of child sex tourism; however,
law enforcement authorities report a decrease in the number of cases of child
sex tourism and attribute this to aggressive police investigations and
Russian cooperation with foreign law enforcement. - U.S. State
Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2008 [full country report] |
|
CAUTION: The following links have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in Russia. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt has been made to validate their
authenticity or to verify their content. *** FEATURED
ARTICLES *** Merchants of Misery: Human Trafficking in Moldova [DOC] Silvia’s descent into the dark world of trafficking began when a neighbor told the 19-year-old that she could get a good job as a sales girl in Moscow. Her ‘home’ in Moscow was a grimy
hotel in a seedy section of the city. Actually, the entire hotel was a
brothel, filled with girls from Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus and other former Soviet
republics. “At first we were forced to walk the streets in search of
clients,” recalls Silvia. “If I didn’t return with clients, I was beaten. We
had to work in thin dresses even in the middle of the Russian winter.” CASE STUDY: SERGEY'S STORY - Sergey is 27 years old and from
Perm in Russia. In 2001 he saw an advert in a local newspaper for a job
agency recruiting construction workers to work in Spain. The salary offered
was US$1,200 per month. This was much more than his monthly salary of just
$200 and more than he could ever hope to earn in Perm. He applied to the
agency who booked his plane ticket to Madrid on the condition that he would
pay back the money when he started work. On arrival in Spain, Sergey was
picked up by a person from the "agency" who took his passport. He
was taken to Portugal and forced to work on a construction site without pay
for several months. The site was surrounded by barbed wire. Without his
passport he was afraid that the Portugese authorities would arrest him. One
day Sergey managed to escape and begged his way to Germany. Because he did
not have a passport the German authorities arrested him. He stated the police
beat him and took away what little money he had before deporting him to
Russia. ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children are trafficked globally for sexual exploitation from There are reports that rebel
forces in Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports
on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS –
According to the IOM, women have been trafficked to almost 50 countries,
including every West European country, the Reports indicated that internal
trafficking, fueled by poverty and unemployment, remained a problem. Women
were recruited and transported from rural areas to urban centers typically to
work in sex industries. There were continued reports of
child trafficking, primarily for sexual exploitation. The victims were
usually homeless children or children in orphanages. There are no reliable
estimates of how many children were trafficked. The country has become a
major producer and distributor of Internet child pornography, leading to
confirmed cases of child sex trafficking and child sex tourism. Information from foreign
prosecutions, academic researchers, and law enforcement sources suggested
that criminal groups carried out most trafficking with the assistance of
front companies and more established organized crime groups. Typically, the
traffickers used a front company‑‑frequently an employment
agency, travel agency or modeling company‑‑to recruit victims
with promises of well-paying work overseas. Many placed advertisements in
newspapers or public places for overseas employment, some employed women to
pose as returned workers to recruit victims, some placed Internet or other
advertisements for mail order brides, and some victims were recruited by
partners or friends. Once the victims reached the destination country, the
traffickers typically confiscated their travel documents, kept them in a
remote location, and forced them to work. Reports indicated that employers
or traffickers withheld workers' passports or other documentation. They
threatened workers with deportation or prosecution if they demanded
compensation. One trafficking researcher indicated that some local police
cooperated with employers to "shake down" such workers to deprive
them of their wages. Traffickers often used their ties to organized crime to
threaten victims with harm to their families should they try to escape. They
also relied on ties to organized crime in the destination countries to
prevent the victims from leaving and to find employment for the victims in
the local sex industry. Trafficking organizations typically paid domestic
organized crime entities a percentage of their profits in return for
"protection" and for assistance in identifying victims, procuring
false documents, and corrupting law enforcement. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2005 [80] While welcoming the recent
introduction in the Criminal Code of norms prohibiting the trafficking of
human beings, the Committee is concerned that not enough is being done to
implement these provisions effectively. The Committee also expresses its
concern that protection measures for victims of trafficking of human beings
are not fully in place and that reported acts of complicity between
traffickers and State officials are not being fully investigated and
sanctioned. RUSSIA:
Where Migration Means Trafficking According to qualitative research
in CIS countries, trafficking for forced labour (other than forced
prostitution) is the main form of trafficking in the region, in particular
central Asia. Migrant workers are
most exploited in construction, agriculture, trade and informal economic
activities. Law enforcement responses, however, tend to focus on sex
trafficking which often involves young women trafficked to western Europe,
the Middle East and Russia. Uzbeks
Prey to Modern Slave Trade When Abror, an unemployed engineer
at the locomotive depot in Urgench, in northwest Uzbekistan, lost all hope of
getting a job at home, he left for the Volgograd region of Russia in search of a better
life. But he found no job that matched
his skills. Unwilling to go back to Uzbekistan, where his family and aged
mother depended on him returning with money, he took a job with a local
farmer. In return for weeding vegetable patches, feeding the poultry and
cleaning the hen house, the farmer promised him a small wage. Abror’s new life as a servant rapidly
turned into a form of slavery. Far from giving him any wages, the farmer seized
Abror’s identity papers and told him he was not going to pay him any money as
he would have “nowhere to spend it”. In spite of his grim experience in
Volgograd, Abror plans to hire himself out again this spring to repay this
debt. “Once it gets warm, I’ll sell myself
into slavery again,” he said. “What else can I do? Otherwise, my family of
four will be left to live off my sick mother’s pension.” NGOs
warn against plan to increase Russian visas However, Russia is considered a
transit destination for trafficking operations, with many men, women and
children from neighboring countries arriving there before being transported
elsewhere. Egypt has no visa requirements
for Russian visitors, and its border with Israel is considered to be a main
entry point for human traffickers. A spokesman for Aharonovitch told
the Post zthat the minister was aware of the problems of human trafficking in
Israel and that the issue needed to be tackled; however, he added that there
was little connection between the trafficking and the cancellation of visa
requirements for Russian visitors. He
also said that the number of women arriving from Russia was much lower than
those from other countries and that countries with border policies stricter
than Israel's still had to contend with women and men being smuggled in for
illegal work purposes. Stopping
sexual abuse of Russian kids Sexual abuse of children can take
several forms — from their use in pornographic materials for sale, to their
use in other countries and Russia itself as prostitutes. Lured by fake
promises in fashion magazines, some schoolgirls rate prostitution high on the
list of modern "professions" to pursue. They believe that
prostitution and contact with rich businessmen will provide them with the
kind of lifestyle that they could never expect otherwise. St. Petersburg and the northwest
region of Russia report a high incidence of sex tourism, which is widely
advertised on the Internet and aimed at people from neighboring Scandinavian
countries. Prostitution is the most common form of child exploitation in the
region. Frequent recruiting targets are
street children or children from dysfunctional families. Once they're
entrapped, they may end up in brothels and red-light districts as they get
older. Recruiters prey on these children's situations, deceiving them into a
life of dependency. - htsccp Four
Russians Arrested in Sweden Over Human Trafficking Swedish prosecutors have charged a
group of 24 Russians and Swedes with human trafficking, pimping and buying
sex from nine Russian women, the AFP news agency reports. The prosecutor said he was only
able to prove human trafficking in one of the cases and said the other eight
women had come from Russia to Sweden of their own will. Spanish
police arrest 7 for human-trafficking The arrests took place in the
northeastern Mediterranean coastal region of Costa Brava, where the gang
allegedly smuggled in women, mostly from Russia, forcing them to work
streetwalking or in roadside brothels, police said. Police said the group employed two people
based in St. Petersburg, Russia, who targeted women by offering jobs in Spain
in exchange for Ð2,000 (US$2,675). EU
Presses Russia on Human Trafficking Like many struggling young people
in the former Soviet republics, 17-year-old Maryam dreamed of a better life.
She thought she was on her way to one when she decided to leave her native
Kazakhstan to work as a shop assistant in Russia. Instead, she walked into a nightmare. When she arrived at her
destination, the shop she had expected to see turned out to be a locked cell
with barred windows and a metal door. Armed guards told she would be working
as a prostitute. NATASHAS
- The New Global Sex Trade SMUGGLER'S
PREY - Every
day, scores of young women throughout the former East Bloc are lured by job
offers that lead to a hellish journey of sexual slavery and violence. Despite
the barrage of warnings on radio and TV, in newspapers and on billboards,
desperate women continue to line up with their naiveté and applications in
hand, hoping that, this time, they might just be in luck. Merchants of
Misery: Human Trafficking in Moldova [DOC] Silvia’s descent into the dark
world of trafficking began when a neighbor told the 19-year-old that she
could get a good job as a sales girl in Her ‘home’ in Human
trafficking on the rise in Russia The official said her predecessors
had focused mainly on the sex trade, whereas she was determined to extend her
position's scope to other related issues, such as the trafficking of people
into forced labor. She also stressed the importance of addressing the
problems of forced marriage and trafficking in human organs Russian
Officials Surprised At Reports Of Human Trafficking Fresh arrests at Vaalimaa border
crossing - "The problem for the officials is that the illegal border crossings
take place legally." He says that
there are always people who will help in the acquisition of genuine travel
documents. It is only after the borders are crossed that the activities
become illegal. Authorities Turn Blind Eye On Far East Russia Women Trafficking “Young women sought for very well paid job
in Russian
Girls Eager To Work Abroad, Despite The Danger Of Sex Trafficking It is really difficult for such
girls to escape when they reach Human Trafficking In US Gets Tackled Russian-speaking women trapped
into sexual servitude in the Few Human
Trafficking Cases Registered in 2004 Only 25 cases of human trafficking and slave labor were registered last year, but an Interior Ministry official said this was only the tip of the iceberg and understaffed police forces and hesitant victims were hindering prevention efforts. Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 6 Civil Liberties: 5 Status: Not Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide Stop
Violence Against Women – Country Page U.S. Library of Congress
- Country Study ILO: 4
Million Enslaved in Russia A report published Thursday by the
International Labor Organization said that 80 percent of an estimated 5 million
illegal immigrants in Russia are involved in forced labor. The report, titled "Forced Labor in
Contemporary Russia," is the first in a worldwide campaign to raise
awareness of the problem. New
Forced Labour in Russia [PDF] The Russian chaotic market and
corruption among officials result in serious marginalisation of labour
migrants and the emergence of new forms of forced labour and slavery-like
conditions. The study examined a wide
range of data and identified different elements of violence – from deception
and blackmail to abduction - that are already present in the migration and
employment in Russia. In the process of work the wide-spread forms of exploitation
of migrants are: compulsion to work extra-time without pay (62%), highly
intensified work (44%), lengthy wage delays (39%), compulsion to perform work
for which consent has not been given (38%), compulsion to work without pay
(24%), compulsion to provide sex services (22% of polled women),
psychological violence, threats, blackmail (21%), restricted freedom of
movement - being kept locked up all the time or for some time (20%). Such
cases are now so wide-spread in the country that they are not perceived as
marginal or unlawful practices, but as a normal state of affairs. Aid Group
Alleges Massive Child-Trafficking in Russia An aid group says more than 30,000
children and teenagers go missing every year in Russia, and that at least
500,000 children are living on the country's streets. Leonid Chekalin, who heads the
organization Children are Russia's Future, gave the estimates at a news conference
in Moscow late yesterday. He said 190 child-trafficking networks have been
uncovered in the past five years. htsc Monitoring
the Stockholm Agenda for Action REGIONAL CONSULTATIONS - RUSSIAN NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON THE
COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN - Russia is now one of the main
producers of child pornography in the world, as new research on the commercial
sexual exploitation of children in Moscow, St Petersburg and Irkustk reveals.
The research also indicates that Russia is seriously affected by all forms of
commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), registering alarming
incidences of child prostitution and trafficking of children for sexual
purposes. U.S.
Diplomat Leads Charge Against Human Trafficking "We are not happy with what
is going on in Russia. They took some steps, they passed a new law with some
criminal provisions. They cooperated a little more with NGOs. But overall the
effort was weak …” Israeli
Minister Blames Russian Mafia for Human Trafficking Crisis He said that the mafia had
transported women to Egypt from their homes in the countries of the former
Soviet Union. Then they were smuggled across the border into Israel where
they were sold to so-called “health clinics” where they work long hours for
minimal pay in slave-like conditions, the website quoted the minister as
saying. Russian
president seeks stronger penalties for human trafficking On 27 October, President Vladimir
Putin submitted to Parliament a number of amendments to the Russian Criminal
Code which seek to introduce a maximum prison sentence of 15 years for those
convicted of trafficking. The maximum penatly will be reserved for cases
where the trafficking offence has caused severe damage to the health of the
victim, or any other grave consequences; posed a threat to the lives and
health of many people; or been committed by an organised group. CASE STUDY: SERGEY'S STORY - Sergey is 27 years old and from
Perm in Russia. In 2001 he saw an advert in a local newspaper for a job
agency recruiting construction workers to work in Spain. The salary offered
was US$1,200 per month. This was much more than his monthly salary of just
$200 and more than he could ever hope to earn in Perm. He applied to the
agency who booked his plane ticket to Madrid on the condition that he would
pay back the money when he started work. On arrival in Spain, Sergey was
picked up by a person from the "agency" who took his passport. He
was taken to Portugal and forced to work on a construction site without pay
for several months. The site was surrounded by barbed wire. Without his
passport he was afraid that the Portugese authorities would arrest him. One
day Sergey managed to escape and begged his way to Germany. Because he did
not have a passport the German authorities arrested him. He stated the police
beat him and took away what little money he had before deporting him to
Russia. Russia
moves to curb human trafficking After the break-up of the Soviet
Union in 1991, Russia emerged a major channel of human smuggling from Asia to
the West. International criminal networks made full use of Russia's porous
borders, legal loopholes and rampant corruption to haul illegal migrants, mostly
from China and Vietnam, but also from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan to
Europe. Russian consulates in Asian countries would rubberstamp hundreds of
tourist visas on the basis of fraudulent invitations sent in by non-existent
Russian firms, while Russian borderguards would look the other way when
crowds of "tourists" crossed the border. Russia’s
Willing Sex Workers Find Enslavement Abroad Through the Inostranets weekly, a
paper geared toward Russians looking to find employment abroad, the institute
polled women who already had job offers and were preparing to leave Russia.
The poll ran twice, revealing the same result — 25% of young women (5%
of all women) leaving Russia were prepared to become sex workers if it earned
more money. Unfortunately, since prostitution is illegal for migrants even in
countries where it’s legalized, that means involvement with the underworld.
Once they are absorbed into the shady illegal sex trade network, there’s a
good chance they’ll find themselves in conditions they hadn’t bargained for.
They are threatened, held responsible for travel costs, and in general are
kept ignorant about their legal options. Supplying
Women for the Sex Industry: Trafficking from the Russian Federation [PDF] INTRODUCTION - The Russian Federation is a
major sending country for women trafficked into sex industries around the world.1
Russian women are known to be in sex industries in over 50 different
countries (Global Survival Network, 1997). The number of women who have
become victims of this criminal trade is unknown, but are estimated to be in
the hundreds of thousands (International Organization for Migration [IOM],
2001). Women are recruited from
sending countries, such as Russia, by various means, but upon reaching the
destination country, they find that the promised job or circumstances is
really prostitution under brutal and exploitative circumstances. The
traffickers and pimps control women by confiscating their travel documents,
battering, rape, threats to harm them or family members, and debt bondage
(Hughes, 2000). Trafficking is an activity of Russian organized crime groups
and their partners that operate prostitution and trafficking rings throughout
Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North America (Global Organized Crime
Project, 2000, p. 42). Corruption of officials through bribes and even
collaboration of officials in criminal networks enables traffickers to
operate locally and transnationally. For the last two years, Russia has
received a failing grade from the U.S. State Department for its efforts to
combat human trafficking. That's the grade it deserved, because each year,
thousands of women and girls are trafficked for prostitution in Russia. The
total number over the past decade is estimated to be over half a million.
Organized-crime groups run the trafficking networks that have sold Russian
women and girls into prostitution in over 50 countries around the world,
including the U.S. Trafficking
for Sexual Exploitation: The Case of the Russian Federation [PDF] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - There are a multitude of
reasons why the trafficking business thrives in Russia, including great
profits which can be made by the traffickers, corruption of officials and
police at many levels, and reluctance of lawmakers to intervene due in part
to fear of reprisals by violent criminal syndicates. Many women have few choices
because they have become impoverished and find themselves devoid of options
for jobs or means of survival. This is the plight of many women in poor rural
and remote areas in Russia or those attempting to survive urban poverty. For others, such as the new groups
of street children and orphans which did not exist in Russia ten years ago,
they are recruited at an early age, virtually sold into slavery, and may
never know another way of life. This is true for countless young Russian
girls and boys, some as young as 12 years of age, who may later become a part
of criminal syndicates themselves and perpetuate this phenomenon. In this
way, more and more people without options are lured into sub-human and
degrading conditions, often for the rest of their lives. - htsccp Russia: With
No Jobs At Home, Women Fall Victim To Trafficking (Part 2) According to a recent survey
conducted in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg, as many as 70 percent of
women between the ages of 18 and 30 would like to leave the country to find
work abroad. Visa restrictions, however, make it almost impossible for young
women to gain legal working status abroad, leaving them only one option --
buying visas from so-called "employment" services who force them
into prostitution and slavery once they cross the border. In this second of a
two-part series, Galina Stolyarova reports for RFE/RL that economic and
social conditions in Russia have allowed the women-trafficking trade to
flourish. Forced
Labour In The Russian Federation Today: Irregular Migration And Trafficking
In Human Beings [PDF] -
Elena Tyuryukanova [page 107] APPENDIX I
- INTERVIEWS WITH VICTIMS OF
FORCED LABOUR [page 116] CASE 6 - A 17-year old man from Novosibirsk in Russia was
kidnapped and coerced into construction work. The interview took place in
Omsk I am from Novosibirsk. At present
I live in Omsk because I do not want to be traced. I am seventeen. Half a
year ago they kidnapped me. It happened as follows: I was going home, a
foreign car approached me, and they put a sack on my head, drew me into the
car and then injected me with something.
I remember nothing. I do not even remember how they took me away. It
seemed as if we were flying or if it was a car, it was shaking. It was dark,
like a bunker - they covered me up with something. I only came to when we
were somewhere in the East. They watched. There were no
hand-cuffs, but guards with guns were present, and a supervisor with a stick
was there. If somebody fell, he beat then until they stood up and collected
the things that they had dropped. There were ten of us. We were not allowed
to speak. They kept us in pairs, even at night we weren’t allowed to speak.
The supervisors walked around to check that nobody was speaking. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Russia Street Children in [Russia] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Russia] [other countries]