Human Trafficking in [Belarus Street Children in [Belarus] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Belarus] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery
Belarus is a source and transit
country for women, men, and children trafficked from Belarus and neighboring countries
to Russia, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Austria,
the Netherlands, Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Egypt,
Ukraine, and the Republic of Togo for the purposes of commercial sexual
exploitation and forced labor. Authorities registered 591 trafficking victims
of whom 458 were trafficked for sexual exploitation (including 96 minors) and
133 for forced labor; 366 were female (including 42 minors) and 225 were male
(including 61 minors). - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2009 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** 500 human
trafficking crimes exposed in Belarus this year [2006] Some 500 crimes of human
trafficking were exposed in Belarus in the first nine months of this year,
including more than 160 cases when the victims were taken abroad. According to Belarussian
representatives, the problem of recruiting citizens for sexual or labor
exploitation abroad remains quite acute. According to an analysis of criminal
cases, Byelorussians are taken to 30 countries of the world for sexual or
labor exploitation The problem of labor exploitation
of Belarussians at construction sites in Russia has
also became topical recently. They are promised high pay, but, upon arriving
at the point of destination, Russian employers take away their passports and
force them to work 12 to 14 hours a day, using physical violence on those who
resist. ***
ARCHIVES *** Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 CHILDREN - Trafficking of children was a
problem. TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – NGO
sources estimated that 10 thousand citizens became victims of trafficking annually,
primarily for sexual exploitation in other countries. The country was both a
country of origin and transit for women and girls trafficked to the EU
(particularly Traffickers used force, fraud, and
coercion to traffic persons, mostly from economically depressed areas, for
sexual exploitation or for physical or menial labor. Traffickers used offers
of foreign employment or marriage and travel agencies to recruit victims.
More than half of the women trafficked were promised jobs as dancers or
entertainers without any mention of prostitution or sex work. Traffickers
often withheld victims' documents and used physical and emotional abuse to
control them. Employment agencies particularly
travel and modeling agencies and persons with connections overseas were
primarily responsible for trafficking. Some traffickers reportedly had links
to organized crime and drug trafficking. Concluding
Observations Of The Committee On The Rights Of The Child (CRC) - 2002 [51] The Committee is concerned about the information
that Government
of Belarus shows political will and determination to counter human
trafficking The government of Belarus has
showed political will and determination to counter human trafficking and has achieved
great results in this area, Director General of the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) Brunson McKinley said during a ceremony to
inaugurate the international centre for training and retraining specialists
in combating human trafficking and illegal migration today in Minsk. “The idea to open the centre
attests to the desire of the Belarusian government to share its rich
experience and best practices in the fight against trade in people and
illegal migration with specialists from all countries,” Mr. Brunson McKinley
said. 500 human
trafficking crimes exposed in Belarus this year [2006] Some 500 crimes of human
trafficking were exposed in Belarus in the first nine months of this year,
including more than 160 cases when the victims were taken abroad. According to Belarussian
representatives, the problem of recruiting citizens for sexual or labor
exploitation abroad remains quite acute. According to an analysis of criminal
cases, Byelorussians are taken to 30 countries of the world for sexual or
labor exploitation The problem of labor exploitation
of Belarussians at construction sites in Russia has
also became topical recently. They are promised high pay, but, upon arriving
at the point of destination, Russian employers take away their passports and
force them to work 12 to 14 hours a day, using physical violence on those who
resist. IOM
appraises Belarus’ efforts aimed to fight against human trafficking The International Organization for
Migration /IOM/ appraises Belarus’ efforts aimed to counteract human
trafficking, head of the counter-trafficking department of the IOM headquarters
in Geneva Richard Danziger told a press conference
in Minsk on October 25. He has noted that the work of the
government of Belarus in the field of fight against human trafficking meets
the world standards and is very efficient. According to Richard Danziger, Belarus has forged “a comprehensive regulatory
framework”, which takes into account the IOM recommendations and
international experience. Early in 2004, during a trip from his presidential palace to his residence, the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, decided there were too many faces of foreign women and girls on billboards. As a "preventive" step against human trafficking, he signed a decree that requires companies to use only Belarusian faces in their advertising. This is supposed to help more young Belarusian women get more modeling jobs in the country, instead of going abroad, where they may suffer an increased risk of being "trafficked". Committee
On Elimination Of Racial Discrimination Considers Report Of Belarus In connection with human trafficking, an Expert asked
what was being done to improve the situation of women and girls who were
forced into prostitution. The delegation said measures had been taken to
ensure that such activities were punished, as well as child prostitution.
Efforts were also taken to ensure that the victims were re-integrated into
society. A number of seminars had been conducted in both The
Protection Project - Belarus FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Women and girls are trafficked
from Belarus mainly for sexual exploitation. According to a representative of
the International Organization for Migration (IOM), some 10,000 Belarusians become victims of trafficking annually. According to data from the
Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, the average unemployed Belarusian is a
woman under the age of 30 with a general secondary education. Belarusian women are lured by newspaper
advertisements that promise legitimate work abroad; however, the women often
end up in prostitution and are kept against their will by threats of
violence. Several investigations
abroad have uncovered trafficking rings involving Belarusian women or girls.
In April 2004, police in Luxembourg raided a nightclub, smashing a ring that
had trafficked approximately 150 women, most of them from Belarus, Russia,
and Ukraine, to Luxembourg for forced prostitution. In May 2004, the gendarmerie of Upper
Austria reported that 150 young Belarusian women had been forced into
prostitution in that province after being lured there with false promises of
jobs in restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. There are no direct or indirect
statistics on trafficking in children from Belarus. Experts from
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) know of individual cases and facts,
however, and they have confirmed that trafficking in children from Belarus
does exist. Those most at risk for child trafficking are children between the
ages of 11 to 18 who are from single-parent or dysfunctional families in
villages and small towns. Girls are more likely to be victims than boys.
Traffickers recruit children from youth clubs, at pubs, and in student
hostels with false promises of good earnings, though sometimes the victims
know they are being recruited for the sex industry. A widespread method is
for the trafficker to pretend that he has fallen in love with a girl in order
to gain her trust and then to sell her. Girls are used to provide sexual
services and for the production of pornography. Boys have been trafficked to
Russia for pornographic video production. Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 7 Civil Liberties: 6 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 BACKGROUND - Lukashenko
continues to repress those who are critical of the President and his
administration. Several prominent figures critical of the President have
disappeared including former Interior Minister Yury
Zakharanka, opposition leader Viktar
Hanchar, businessman Anatol
Krasousky, and Dmitry Zavadsky, a caeranman with
Russia's ORT television. Professor Yury Bandazhevsky, a fierce critic of the Belarusian
authorities' reaction to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, remains imprisoned
and is in poor health. However, journalists Viktor Ivashkevich,
Pavel Mazheyka, and Mikola Markevich, who had
previously been arrested and sentenced to hard labour
for slander, were freed in 2003. Belarus was classified as the only
"not free" country in Europe in a recent survey by New York based
NGO Freedom House. Efforts of
the Government of Belarus in fighting trafficking in persons Currently there are five projects
against human trafficking being implemented in Belarus. They involve
participation of governmental agencies, international organizations, national
NGOs, governments of the United States, Sweden and the Netherlands. The Government
of Belarus also implements comprehensive long-term program against human
trade and prostitution, adopted in 2001 and updated in 2004. Ministry of
Internal Affairs especially closely cooperates with the European Commission, UNDP Mission to Belarus, International Organization for
Migration (IOM), Belarusian Association of Young Christian Women, and others. Out of 555 crimes registered
during 11 months of 2004 17 are qualified as human trade, 72 – recruiting
people for sexual exploitation, 307 – keeping brothels and pimping (including
91 for trafficking people abroad), 27 – dissemination of pornographic
materials, 128 – inducing youngsters into asocial behavior (including 78
involving prostitution), and 4 – kidnapping with trafficking abroad. In all, 184
crimes related to trafficking people abroad were uncovered. About 400 women
were identified as victims of trafficking. Action
to End Modern-day Slavery - 2004 TIP Release Press Statement "Criminals and criminal
networks are targeting some of the most vulnerable people in Belarus,"
said former U.S. Rep. John Miller, who leads U.S. Government efforts against
human trafficking. "We're reaching out in the spirit of partnership to
encourage all governments to accelerate efforts to end this atrocity and
protect people from human trafficking schemes." Some
10,000 Belarusians victims of human trafficking
annually Some 10,000 Belarusians
become victims of human trafficking annually, according to Raman Pawlyuchenka of the International Organization for
Migration (IOM). The total number of Belarusian victims may have reached
50,000, Mr Pawlyuchenka
said at a three-day workshop last week. A typical Belarusian victim is a
woman from a low-income problem family resident in a small provincial town,
IOM experts say. They suggest that instruction in measures against sex
slavery should be incorporated in Belarusian school curricula. Bosnia: The
United Nations, human trafficking and prostitution According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) between 6,000 and 10,000
foreign women have been coerced into prostitution in Bosnia. Sources put the
figure of establishments where sex can be bought at 900. Figures compiled by
the IOM in May 2000 showed that more than 50 percent of the women came from
Moldova while the remainder originated from other former republics of the
Soviet Union such as Ukraine and Belarus,
and a significant number from Rumania. More than two thirds had never worked
in prostitution before. Many are lured by promises of
finding work in the West as waitresses or nannies. Once isolated from their
families, the sex traffickers take their passports and sell the women to
pimps for between $500 and $1,500. At some venues, like the nightclubs in Brcko, near the Bosnia-Serbia border, women are auctioned
like cattle to brothel owners. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [Belarus Street Children in [Belarus] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Belarus] [other countries]