Human Trafficking in Europe
The Sex Trade of Eastern Europe
“VELESTA, Macedonia - Olga winced as she drew back the bandage on her right breast, revealing an infected puncture wound that hadn’t healed since a man bit her in a fit of sexual rage. But the wound, for which the 19-year-old Moldovan lacked even basic medicine, is only a small part of Olga’s daily agony. For more than a year she has been held as a sex slave in this town in western Macedonia, where human trafficking flourishes and young girls are forced to endure the sexual whims of thousands of men.” This story, unfortunately, is reality to roughly 200,000 women and children from Eastern Europe. Sex trafficking simultaneously exploits both the best and the worst aspects of globalization- the champions of globalization flaunt the growing ease of conducting business across national borders. It is due to sophisticated communication tools and relaxed banking laws that it is now possible to exchange assets internationally with ease. Virtual enterprises can operate everywhere and nowhere, making themselves known only when and where they choose. “Generating around 32 billion dollars annually, human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal activity of today.” While the governments of the troubled countries as well as the European Union make laws and regulations, the perpetrators become smarter; little progress gets made in solving this problem. At the center of human trafficking is the sex trade. The growing sex trade, which is more than visible in most of Europe, plays on the notion of growth in the “world sex-market”. This market is made possible by the globalization of consumer capitalism in which commercial sex plays a big role. There are three sides to the issue: the victims, the perpetrators, and the governments, law makers, and groups who are trying to stop the epidemic. Together, over time, these people have built a crime market that is becoming harder to break. Women are being smuggled under the false pretense of a
“VELESTA, Macedonia - Olga winced as she drew back the bandage on her right breast, revealing an infected puncture wound that hadn’t healed since a man bit her in a fit of sexual rage. But the wound, for which the 19-year-old Moldovan lacked even basic medicine, is only a small part of Olga’s daily agony. For more than a year she has been held as a sex slave in this town in western Macedonia, where human trafficking flourishes and young girls are forced to endure the sexual whims of thousands of men.” This story, unfortunately, is reality to roughly 200,000 women and children from Eastern Europe. Sex trafficking simultaneously exploits both the best and the worst aspects of globalization- the champions of globalization flaunt the growing ease of conducting business across national borders. It is due to sophisticated communication tools and relaxed banking laws that it is now possible to exchange assets internationally with ease. Virtual enterprises can operate everywhere and nowhere, making themselves known only when and where they choose. “Generating around 32 billion dollars annually, human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal activity of today.” While the governments of the troubled countries as well as the European Union make laws and regulations, the perpetrators become smarter; little progress gets made in solving this problem. At the center of human trafficking is the sex trade. The growing sex trade, which is more than visible in most of Europe, plays on the notion of growth in the “world sex-market”. This market is made possible by the globalization of consumer capitalism in which commercial sex plays a big role. There are three sides to the issue: the victims, the perpetrators, and the governments, law makers, and groups who are trying to stop the epidemic. Together, over time, these people have built a crime market that is becoming harder to break. Women are being smuggled under the false pretense of a
Cited: "Association of Albanian Girls and Women: Anti-Trafficking Educational Curriculum: High School: Lesson 1." Association of Albanian Girls and Women: Home Page. http://www.aagw.org/Education/HighSchool/ (accessed April 23, 2010). Erez, Edna , Peter Ibarra, and William McDonald. "Transnational Sex Trafficking: Issues and Prospects." International Review of Victimology 11, no. 1 (2004): 1-9. Human Trafficking. u.s: Willan Pub, 2007. Human Trafficking in Europe: Character, Causes and Consequences. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. "Not For Sale: End Human Trafficking and Slavery." Not For Sale: End Human Trafficking and Slavery. http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/ (accessed April 23, 2010). Smartt, Ursula. "Human Trafficking: Simply a European Problem?." European Journal Cime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice 11, no. 2 (2003). www.heinonline.org/HOL/Pag?handle=hein.journals/eccc11.div=17&g (accessed April 16, 2010). Title. "Human Trafficking Worldwide ~ United Kingdom | Wide Angle." PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/dying-to-leave/human-trafficking-worldwide/united-kingdom/1473/ (accessed April 23, 2010). Waugh, Louisa. Selling Olga: Stories of Human Trafficking. New Ed ed. London: Phoenix Press, 2008. Weitzer, Ronald. "The Social Construction of Sex Trafficking: Ideology and Institutionalization of a Moral Crusade." Politics and Society 35 (2007): 447-475. [ 1 ]. Preston Mendenhall, “Infiltrating Europe’s shameful trade in human beings” msnbc. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3071965 (accessed March 12, 2010) [ 2 ] [ 3 ]. Ewa Morawska, “Trafficking into and from Eastern Europe” in Human Trafficking ed. Maggy Lee, 102 (Portland: Willan Publishing, 2007) [ 4 ] [ 5 ]. Louisa Waugh, Selling Olga: Stories of Human Trafficking(London: Phoenix Press, 2008), 20 [ 6 ] [ 7 ]. ABC, “Albanian Girls Trafficked for Sex: Albanian girls kidnapped, Devoured into a world of Prostitution”, http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=131011&page=2(accessed April 11, 2010) [ 8 ]