Human Trafficking in  [Germany]  [other countries]
Street Children in  [Germany]  [other countries]
Child Prostitution in  [Germany]  [other countries]
 

Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery

Federal Republic of Germany                                                  [ Country-by-Country Reports ]

The Federal Republic of Germany [map] is located in the center of Europe, bordering the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France (W); Switzerland and Austria (S); the Czech Republic and Poland (E); Denmark (N); and the Baltic Sea (NE).  Its capital and largest city is Berlin.  Germany's affluent and technologically powerful economy - the fifth largest in the world - has become one of the slowest growing economies in the euro zone.  Germany's aging population, combined with high unemployment, has pushed social security outlays to a level exceeding contributions from workers. Structural rigidities in the labor market - including strict regulations on laying off workers and the setting of wages on a national basis - have made unemployment a chronic problem.

Germany is a transit and destination country for men and women trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Victims are trafficked primarily from Central and Eastern Europe (mainly Romania, Russia, and Bulgaria) as well as Africa and, to a lesser extent, Asia. A significant number of victims - almost 18 percent in 2005 - are trafficked internally. In 2005, 51 of the 642 victims identified were children trafficked to Germany for the purpose of sexual exploitation; 28 of those children were German nationals.   - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2007  [full country report]

 

 

CAUTION:  The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Germany.  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.

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Exposed: the myth of the World Cup ‘sex slaves’

Last summer, lurid headlines claimed that 40,000 women would be smuggled by sex slavers into Germany to be prostituted to World Cup football fans. The truth is very different indeed. Newly unrestricted European Union documents reveal that the German police uncovered just five cases of ‘human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation’ related to the international football tournament.

 

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Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – The country was both a destination and transit country for trafficked persons. The BKA reported in their annual report on trafficking in persons that the numbers of known and registered victims in 2003 was 1,235, and the percentage of registered victims under age 18 continued to be in the 5 percent range. Of the registered victims, 80 percent came from Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union, primarily Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Moldova, Lithuania, Slovakia, Latvia, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic. Non‑European victims came mostly from Africa and Asia. The BKA reported that most trafficking victims were women and girls between the ages of 16 and 25 who were forced to work as prostitutes.

Traffickers used a range of intimidation techniques to ensure the compliance of victims, including threats to "sell" the victim, threats of deportation, misrepresentation of victims' legal rights and status, physical violence, and withholding travel and identification documents.

Expert: Germany Can Do More For Victims of Human Trafficking

WHAT SORT OF CHANGES WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE GOVERNMENT IMPLEMENT TO PROTECT WOMEN WHO HAVE BEEN TRAFFICKED TO GERMANY? - What we would like to see is women who have been trafficked become entitled to permanent residency in Germany. At the moment the legal conditions are quite strict when it comes to getting residency. Secondly, coverage of basic needs including medical treatment and psychological help is often not provided.

We would like them to have a legal right to this basic coverage. Another important point is access to further education, especially language courses, so that women who decide to stay here once they have been released have an opportunity to build a normal life. We are lobbying too for access to the labor market.

Falling Short of the Mark: An International Study on the Treatment of Human Trafficking Victims [PDF]

GERMANY - Germany is generally complying with international standards under the Trafficking Protocol for the protection of victims of human trafficking, and it is a signatory to the European Trafficking Convention. In addition to providing victims with a .reflection period. and the possibility of temporary residency, a network of government funded recovery centres has been implemented, together with provisions to address the unique needs of trafficking victims during investigations. However, Germany has yet to ratify the Trafficking Protocol and there are serious concerns that its recent legalization of prostitution will exacerbate the plight of victims of human trafficking

RESIDENCE - Amendments to Germany.s immigration and victims. rights legislation in 2004 grants a four-week .reflection period. for victims of human trafficking, after which those who agree to testify against their traffickers may obtain a temporary residence permit.

New study shames human traffickers

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) says Kenyans were also trafficked to Germany, Italy and South Africa for domestic labour and prostitution.

Its report, ‘Trafficking in Persons — The Eastern Africa Situation’, notes that women and children were favourite targets for well-organised trafficking rings, which operate freely for lack of solid laws against the vice.

Romanian Police Break Up Human Trafficking Ring

Romanian authorities have dismantled a human trafficking ring that transported women to Germany and sold them to Turkish citizens for about 5,000 euros ($6,700) each, border police said on Wednesday.

Police said the six-person gang recruited women in bars in villages in west Romania by promising them well-paid jobs abroad. They took them out of the country legally and sold them to Turks in the German towns of Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg.

Exposed: the myth of the World Cup ‘sex slaves’

Last summer, lurid headlines claimed that 40,000 women would be smuggled by sex slavers into Germany to be prostituted to World Cup football fans. The truth is very different indeed. Newly unrestricted European Union documents reveal that the German police uncovered just five cases of ‘human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation’ related to the international football tournament.

Human trafficking a Games pitfall, researcher warns

In its report, the Future Group said German authorities employed a coordinated effort to combat human trafficking related to an increased demand for prostitution during the 2006 World Cup of soccer. It involved public education, cooperation with social agencies and tight border controls. In the end, while officials did see an increase in prostitution, they did not detect a rise in trafficking.

However, in Greece, in 2004 -- the same year the country hosted the summer Olympics -- the country did not adopt measures that were as strong and a 95-per-cent increase in human-trafficking cases was recorded.

No rise in human trafficking in Germany due to World Cup

Researchers say German authorities boosted raids on sex shops and brothels ahead of the World Cup. The European Union, the U-S and the Vatican had pressured Germany to act.

IOM Battles Human Trafficking During World Cup

To warn about the risk of human trafficking and forced prostitution during the World Cup in Germany, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has launched a joint awareness campaign with the MTV-Europe music channel and the Swedish government. IOM spokesman Jean Philippe Chauzy says the campaign’s focal point is a public-service announcement (PSA), which directs viewers to a website where they can obtain information for anonymously reporting to the German authorities any cases of trafficking and forced prostitution they may encounter.

Europe-Wide Human-Trafficking Ring Cracked

Authorities across Europe say they have arrested 41 Bulgarians in recent days after Italian police uncovered a trafficking network that exploited hundreds of children.  The arrests were in northern Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, and Austria. Italian police say another 75 people have been placed under investigation. Charges against the suspects include enslavement, human trafficking, and drug smuggling.

Battling Human Trafficking in Germany

With German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on the hot seat for allegedly ignoring gaping holes in Germany's visa distribution policies, a major trial against a huge forced prostitution ring opens in eastern Germany.

Germans Bust Sex Smuggling Ring

German police smashed a major international human trafficking ring allegedly dealing in drugs, prostitution, extortion and money laundering.  Wrapping up a nearly five-year probe, investigators captured 21 suspects believed to be involved in a network smuggling women coerced into the sex trade into Germany and managing an underworld empire.

Woman judge 'ran sex ring that killed boy aged five'

The abuse took place in the back room of a pub run by the former judge, named only as Christa W. The bar was a well-known meeting place for drug dealers and prostitutes. Some press reports suggest that Christa W took money from customers for access to the children.

He was removed from her care after complaining that she, her partner and his own mother and her boyfriend sexually abused him. It is thought that Pascal, whose home was 100 yards from the pub, was beaten while being abused, to keep him quiet.  But, say police, he was hit so hard that he died. The abusers panicked, put his body in a car, drove across the border and buried it.

Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 1   Civil Liberties: 1   Status: Free

Human Rights Overview by Human Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide

U.S. Library of Congress - Country Study

Wikipedia: Prostitution in Germany - Trafficking in Women

The trafficking in women from Eastern Europe is often organized by gangs from that same region. (The BKA, the German equivalent to the FBI, reported in 2003 that 60% of the suspects in trafficking cases were foreigners, with another 8% being foreign born Germans. Most of the women know from the start that they are going to work in prostitution even though they often don't know about the working conditions; some others hope for a job as waitress or au-pair; some are simply abducted. Once in Germany, their passports are taken away and they are informed that they now have to work off the cost of the trip. Sometimes they are sold to pimps or bar owners, who then make them work off the purchase price. They work in bars, apartments or as escorts and have to hand over the better part of their earnings. Some women reconcile themselves with this situation, as they still make much more than they could at home; others rebel and are threatened or abused. They are often told that the police have been paid off and will not help them, which is false. They are also threatened with harm to their families at home.

Helping Victims of Human Trafficking

Dreams of a better life often end in a brothel for the victims of human trafficking, with the people smugglers and slave traders who bring them there making a lucrative living from their misery.

Women like Oxana (name changed), whose boss in the Ukraine told her he organized a job for her in a Spanish bakery, and that a friend of his in Germany would help her get a plane ticket.  EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT AWAY FROM HOME - But once in a foreign environment, the situation changes.

Human Trafficking: The Forced Labour Dimensions [PDF]

[page 3] We are also completing a report on this issue in Germany, based on extensive interviews with victims, and also with a range of law enforcement authorities and other experts. Once again our researcher has come out with a far higher figure for forced labour victims than we would have expected beforehand, mainly because of the extended interpretation given to forced labour practices. For example only 2.5% per cent of an estimated one million migrant workers (85% of these women) have experienced the use of open violence in order to enforce the acceptance of unfavourable conditions of work and pay. This is primarily the case of women in forced prostitution. But far higher numbers are seen to have submitted to sub-standards conditions of work and pay, because of the threat of arbitrary dismissal, reporting to the police, or some form of intimidation against workers and their families.

Sex slaves often come from Russia, go to Germany - UN

Russia is where people forced to become sex workers most commonly come from and Germany the place they most often end up working, the United Nations said Tuesday after studying thousands of cases of human trafficking.

Trafficking in unaccompanied minors for sexual  exploitation in the European Union [DOC]

[page 97] TRAFFICKING IN CHILDREN AND MINORS - The trafficking of UAMs with the intention of exploitation or abuse has been an issue in Germany but only sporadically during the last few years and the authors of this report believe, it is still widely considered to be of minor importance. The first signs of an increase in the level of trafficking of minors, mainly of very young children and infants from Asia or Africa to Germany, appeared as early as the 1980s with illegal adoptions. The opening of frontiers between the East and West, the breakdown of political, social and economic systems and the resultant social conflicts, has led to initial cases of trafficking in minors from Eastern Europe in addition to the trafficking in adult human beings (and in particular women). There are alarming incidents of such trafficking: the smuggling of young Eastern European girls to German brothels through prostitution rings, the exploitation of Romanian children as thieves in German cities, the exploitation of children of different nationalities as drug couriers, and especially of African girls as prostitutes. As yet however, no detailed analysis of all aspects of the phenomenon exists.

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Human Trafficking in  [Germany]  [other countries]
Street Children in  [Germany]  [other countries]
Child Prostitution in  [Germany]  [other countries]