Female migration and trafficking

Since early 1980s there was an increase in female employment in Europe. An important feature of female migration to Europe is the degree to which many of the women are recruited into the exploitation.Psimennos (Anthias, Lazaridis, 2000), examining female migrant sexual exploitation and prostitution in Greece, argued that “this is linked to new global economic formations and the resulting structuration of a new type of laboring force”. Indeed, the human trafficking is the most prominent example of forced labor nowadays.

As Anthias F. and Lazaridis G. (Anthias, Lazaridis, 2000), claimed “the feminization of flows to the Europe is linked to changes in women’s employment, with the restructuring of labor markets towards the service sector, however, the sex industry is also linked to continuing traditional maintenance of the family for migrant women”. Prostitution and sexual exploitation are hidden by some of these activities and has become very lucrative, sometimes for co-ethnic employers or pimps.

Traditionally women come from Asia and Africa. Today it is women from eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union who are increasingly used in this way, being preferred as well as being more available with the collapse of eastern Europe.

`The traffic in women is largely illegal and undocumented. Where women are not illegal entrants they may be documented as cabaret artistes and musicians (for example Cyprus) (Anthias, Lazaridis, 2000). Many of these women are promised jobs in clubs and other forms of leisure but find themselves forced into prostitution on arrival. If they are illegal entrants any attempt to avoid prostitution could lead to deportation. The status of immigrant also indicates the illegality of women and the fact that they cannot be protected by the state.

Migrant women who come to Europe from variety of countries are very often under the influence of multiple forms of oppression and exploitation. In the majority of cases they agree to go abroad because of beneficial job offer, without any suspicion - it can be a case trafficking. Every trafficking group has its own model of operation for the recruitment, transportation and exploitation of victims. The most common recruiting method used by Balkan-based groups consists of promises of employment. In Ukraine, traffickers entice 70% of their victims through promises of work, participation in beauty contests, modeling opportunities, affordable vacations, study abroad programmes or marriage services. Most convicted traffickers are male, as are convicts of virtually every other crime. Female offending rates are higher for human trafficking than for other crimes, however.

There is difficulty in assessing the full implications of migration and mobility for women immigrants. Statistics on migration, both internal and international, is inaccurate. Most data are collected by governments as part of their administrative management of migration flows, although useful surveys do exist in many locations. In recent years, the majority of human trafficking victims detected in Europe have come from the Balkans and the former Soviet Union, in particular Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Moldova. Victims from at least some of these five countries have also been located in all parts of Europe. But the dominance of these groups appears to be changing as new source countries emerge on the European scene (UNODC, 2009). Trafficking from Africa affects mainly West African communities, in particular Nigerian women and girls. The region of the North Africa (Morocco and Tunisia) is still very limited, but may be increasing. Trafficking from East Africa (Uganda and Kenya) is found mainly in the United Kingdom. East Asia has traditionally involved mainly Thai women. More recently, Chinese nationals are also affected, as are women from Viet Nam and Cambodia.

2.2. How to solve this problem?

There are a lot of scientific, statistic and governmental publications, journals, articles about possible solutions of the problem of trafficking. Dozens of strategies were created, but still the number of victims rises every day. Why does it happen? There are a lot of non – governmental organizations (NGOs further) who try to push governmental officials to the actions, however the number of victims stays on the same level and even rises.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-29