Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published
reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Moldova.htm
Moldova is a source,
and to a lesser extent, a transit and destination country for women and girls
trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and men
trafficked for forced labor. According to an ILO report, Moldova’s national
Bureau of Statistics estimated that there were likely over 25,000 Moldovan
victims of trafficking for forced labor in 2008.Moldovan women are trafficked
primarily to Turkey, Russia, Cyprus, the UAE, and also to other Middle
Eastern and Western European countries. Men are trafficked to work in the
construction, agriculture, and service sectors of Russia and other countries.
There have also been some cases of children trafficked for begging to
neighboring countries. Girls and young women are trafficked within the
country from rural areas to Chisinau, and there is evidence that men from
neighboring countries are trafficked to Moldova for forced labor. The small
breakaway region of Transnistria in eastern Moldova
is outside the central government’s control and remained a source for
trafficking in persons. - U.S. State Dept
Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 Check
out a later country report here and possibly a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION:
The following links have been culled from the web to
illuminate the situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of particular
interest to you. Would you like to
write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to
the subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. HELP for Victims La STRADA ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** NGOs urge The At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8
September 2011] TOP EXPORT:
PROSTITUTES
- In Moldova, the situation is much worse. Although formerly one of the most
wealthy parts of the former Soviet Union, Moldova is today officially the
poorest country in Europe. With nearly total unemployment, the registered
daily income of 80% of the population is below a dollar per day. This fact
can explain why desperate people sell their organs for money and sex
trafficking is rampant. Moldovan prostitutes are now the country’s main
export. 40% of Moldova's
sex slaves are kids, and both the traffickers and the involved government
officials know that children are highly sought after for the sex trade. Government
officials behind record rise in Karen Ryan, The At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8
September 2011] There are villages
in the Southern region of ***
ARCHIVES *** Moldova should
improve access to justice for victims of human trafficking Council of Europe,
Press Release, 3 December 2020 [accessed 4 December
2020] Trafficking for the
purpose of labour exploitation has emerged as the
main form of exploitation in the Republic of Moldova, accounting to 66% of
all victims in 2019, followed by trafficking of sexual exploitation.
According to official statistics, 1,496 persons were identified as victims of
trafficking in the Republic of Moldova from 2015 to 2019. 47% of them were
female and 21% were children. The main country of destination of Moldovan
victims was the Russian Federation, followed by the Slovak Republic, Spain,
Ireland, Portugal and Turkey. One quarter of the victims was trafficked
within the Republic of Moldova. 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Moldova U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/moldova/
[accessed 17 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Men and women were
subjected to labor trafficking within the country and in other parts of
Europe and the Middle East. Internal trafficking occurred in all regions of
the country, focused mostly on farms and begging in larger towns. Internal
trafficking for begging and labor exploitation, particularly in the
agriculture and construction sectors, was steadily on the rise. Official
complicity in trafficking continued to be a significant problem that the
government attempted to curb by prosecuting those involved. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Parents who owned
or worked on farms often sent children to work in fields or to find other
employment. Children left behind by parents who had emigrated abroad also
worked on farms. The vast majority of child laborers worked in family
businesses or on family farms. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/moldova/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 3 May 2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Due to weak labor
rights protection and enforcement by state authorities and trade unions,
reports of exploitative practices in the workplace are common (long work hours,
low wages, fully or partially undocumented work or wages). The rural
population, women, and Roma are especially vulnerable to these practices.
Regulations meant to prevent exploitative or unsafe working conditions remain
poorly enforced. Human trafficking
remains a problem, although the authorities make some efforts to prosecute
traffickers. 2017 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child
Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor
Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2018 www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/ChildLaborReport_Book.pdf [accessed 19 April
2019] www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 3 May
2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 685] Lack of information
limits an assessment of the types of work that children perform and the
sectors in which they work, including for the secessionist region of Transnistria. (1; 3; 8; 18; 13) Both boys and girls
are recruited for commercial sexual exploitation. (3; 4; 13; 5; 19) Traffickers recruited children as young as age 10 for
prostitution and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation. (5) Moldova
is also a destination for child sex tourism. (3; 4; 8; 9; 18; 13; 19) Sex
tourists continue to target orphanages by bribing orphanage administration
officials to obtain unsupervised access to children. (2) Child trafficking,
particularly of children suffering from familial neglect, continues to be a
concern in Moldova. (3; 10; 20; 21; 13) The number of children left behind by
migrant parents is increasing and these children may be particularly
vulnerable to child labor and human trafficking, especially those who are in
orphanages or boarding schools. (3; 15; 22; 23; 5; 24) Vulnerable children
from Transnistria were at an increased risk of
being trafficked through Ukraine’s Odessa region. (3; 25). Human trafficking:
The faces and sorrow at the heart of a UN report UN News Centre, 13
February 2009 www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29907&Cr=&Cr1= [accessed 21
February 2011] Anna (not their
real names) was beaten throughout her childhood in Ana spent five
years begging in Poland before she managed to escape and was returned to
Moldova by the local police. Moldovan sex slaves
released in The At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8
September 2011] A group of girls
from Moldova, Europe's
poorest country, is the continent's leading supplier of underage girls for
sexual exploitation. Human trafficking rings operate with impunity in
Moldova, where they are for the most part under government protection and
where a number of local government officials are involved as participants
behind the rings. Due to a climate of impunity, no government officials have
ever been charged with human trafficking and prostitution offenses in Moldova Professor visits fortmyers.floridaweekly.com/news/2008-03-13/Top_News/017.html [accessed 21
February 2011] fortmyers.floridaweekly.com/articles/fgcu-news/ [accessed 7 February
2018] Moldova is a small,
land locked, communist country sandwiched between the Ukraine and Romania. It
is the poorest country in Eastern Europe and one with the poorest record in
trafficking of women and young girls. Thousands of Moldovan women are
estimated to have fallen victim to human trafficking in that country.
Resistance from government agencies and corruption of officials make it
difficult to work together as a task force. Slavery In Our
Times Newsweek, March 08,
2008 www.newsweek.com/2008/03/08/slavery-in-our-times.html [accessed 21
February 2011] www.newsweek.com/emma-thompson-human-trafficking-84043 [accessed 7 February
2018] An intelligent girl
with ambitions, Elena had been enticed to London from Moldova with a promise
of a good job and a bright future. Once in the U.K., however, her passport
was taken from her and she was kept in solitary confinement to break her
will. She was warned that her family in Moldova would suffer harm unless she
did what she was told. And then she was put to work as a sex slave, servicing
a procession of men in the most appalling circumstances. Like Elena, these
victims may end up in the sex trade. Many others find themselves condemned as
slave laborers, forced to work in domestic service, in hazardous factories or
at grim sites like the cocoa plantations of West Africa. Thousands more, many
just children, become unwilling conscripts in bitter wars. Nearly all suffer
physical or sexual abuse, creating mental and physical scars they carry for
the rest of their lives. Organ trafficking:
a fast-expanding black market IHS Jane's, 05 March
2008 www.traffickingproject.org/2008/03/organ-trafficking-fast-expanding-black.html [accessed 26 June
2013] China, Causal Factors in
the Crime of Trafficking of Women for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation - An
exploration into push and pull factors relevant to women trafficked from
Moldova to Western Europe [PDF] Scharie Tavcer from www.freidok.uni-freiburg.de/volltexte/4426/pdf/Tavcer_Doktorarbeit.pdf [accessed 21
February 2011] [page 163] Table 2: Type of
Exploitation 2003
Trafficking in
women remains a global abuse Hans M. Wuerth,
Special to The Morning Call, October 2, 2007 articles.mcall.com/2007-10-02/news/3781642_1_human-trafficking-world-s-human-rights-abuses [accessed 21
February 2011] The June 28, 2007,
German weekly, Die Zeit, published an article on the growing problem of human
trafficking in Trafficking victims
prompt new Baptist ministry in Moldova Sue Sprenkle,
Baptist Press BP, Chisinau, Oct 2, 2007 www.sbcbaptistpress.org/BPnews.asp?ID=26535 [accessed 21
February 2011] www.bpnews.net/26535/trafficking-victims-prompt-new-baptist-ministry-in-moldova [accessed 22
September 2016] "Earn money
abroad. Waiters, housemaids and managers needed for world-renowned hotel
chain. Immediate openings. Potential to earn thousands." Natasha couldn't believe her eyes. She'd
been looking for employment ever since she graduated but there were no jobs
to be found in Moldova, a country in Eastern Europe. Seeing the newspaper
advertisement, she thought to herself, Why not try it? Most of her friends
had found jobs in other countries, why shouldn't she? She picked up the phone
and made the call. Two weeks later,
Natasha was sitting in a small, windowless room with a foam mattress on the
floor and a bare bulb giving off insufficient light above her shaved head and
bruised body. When the door opens, a man quietly slips in and strips. Natasha
shrinks into a small ball -– this is not the job she applied for. Tricked and sold into slavery, Natasha has
nowhere to turn to for help. Kim Grizzard, The
Daily Reflector, July 15, 2007 At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8
September 2011] Since declaring its
independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, "The British
Helsinki Human Rights Group did a study in 2000, and they said 60 percent of
the girls that are being trafficked out of all of Eastern Europe are coming
out of Moldova," Davis said. "That would include countries much,
much larger than Moldova. Russia, Ukraine, Romania, countries that are
considered to have really bad trafficking problems, and here's little Moldova
... and more girls are coming out of here than anywhere." Human Trafficking
Booming in Gopalan, June 28,
2007 -- Source-Medindia [accessed 21
February 2011] UN's fight against Moldova
sex slavery, human trafficking The At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8
September 2011] SEX SLAVERY AMONG
UNDERAGE GIRLS FROM Data collected by UNODC
show that about 80 per cent of the victims of human trafficking, most of them
women and young girls, are forced into prostitution. The remaining 20 per
cent, usually the men and boys, face forced labor. About half are under the
age of 18. The International
Organization for Migration considers Moldova the main European source of
women and children for forced prostitution in Western Europe, the Balkans and
the Middle East. Typically, young women are lured overseas with the promise
of waitress or housekeeping jobs, only to be forced into the sex trade,
sometimes even sold two or three times. Moldova: Lower
prices behind sex slavery boom and child prostitution The At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8
September 2011] Two American TV
crews have investigated MAIN ORIGIN OF
FORCED CHILD PROSTITUTION - Organ trafficking and sexual slavery are mainstays
of Moldova's economy. Record numbers of Moldovan women are made into sex
slaves, forced into prostitution and lifelong servitude. Moldova holds a dubious world record: The
country is today the leading haven for pedophiles and for traffickers who
earn fortunes enslaving underage kids in a brutal international sex trade. Training Roma to
combat human trafficking Council of wcd.coe.int/wcd/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1056663 [accessed 29 August
2011] Through a
contribution of the Norwegian and Finnish governments, the Council of Europe
is organising training courses to prevent human trafficking of Roma from The route to hell Louisa Waugh, The
Scotsman, 22 August 2006 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8
September 2011] The advert in the local paper was brief. "Women and girls under 35. Well-paid jobs abroad." There was a contact phone number, and Olga rang the same evening. She was a 21-year-old single mother, living in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau and supporting her young son by working ten hours a day in an outdoor food market. Revealed: kept in a
dungeon ready to be sold as slaves David Harrison in [accessed 21
February 2011] The women, aged 18 to 24, are from across eastern Europe, lured from Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Bulgaria, with promises of good jobs as waitresses, au pairs and dancers. Instead, they have been forced into modern-day slavery in western Macedonia, locked in the dirty cellar and only summoned upstairs by their masters to perform sexual services for customers who are usually drunk and often violent. When they were found, the victims, some of whom had been "broken in" as prostitutes in other countries on the way to Macedonia, barely knew where they were. They had no idea what the future held but knew that it was beyond their control. Woman falls six
stories, now walking Inside Collin At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8
September 2011] The woman was kidnapped and left with a group of individuals who intended to sell her into forced prostitution. In November 2004, she fell six stories while trying to escape her captors and suffered numerous life-threatening injuries including a fracture of the pelvis and spinal column, causing her to lose the use of her legs. Merchants of
Misery: Human Trafficking in Don Hinrichsen,
Chisinau -- The State of World Population 2005 report, The Promise of
Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development
Goals, published by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/presskit/docs/moldova.doc [accessed 21
February 2011] femalereport.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/feature-article-sex-trafficking-in-moldova-silvias-story/ [accessed 7 February
2018] 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.
Unemployed, broke, with a baby daughter and no husband or job prospects in
her hometown of Ungheni, Silvia (not her real name) decided to travel to the
Moldovan capital of Chisinau where she was to meet two men who would arrange
her travel to Balkans Urged To
Curb Trafficking Imogen Foulkes, BBC
News news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4397497.stm [accessed 21
February 2011] Countries
in Young Women From
Rural Areas Vulnerable To Human Trafficking Eugen Tomiuc, Radio
Free Europe/Radio www.rferl.org/content/article/1055188.html [accessed 21
February 2011] Tens of thousands
of Moldovan women are estimated to have fallen victim to human trafficking.
Most victims come from rural areas, where economic hardships and ignorance
turn young girls into easy prey for traffickers. "During the
day, we were locked on the third floor of a house with iron bars on the doors
and windows. We did not have a TV or a phone. It was very strict. At night,
they would take us to a hotel, which had guards and a tall fence around it,
so we could not get out. There were people guarding us around the
clock," Alina said. Child trafficking
in Moldova International Labour
Organisation ILO, Chisinau www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/insight/lang--en/WCMS_075592 [accessed 28 August
2011] www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_075592/lang--en/index.htm [accessed 28 August
2011] One day, while at
the market here in the Moldavian capital, she met a woman from a neighbouring
village who listened attentively to her woes and proposed that she accompany
her to Ukraine where she could find a job. From September to
April 2003, Ioana was forced to sell goods on a market in Ukraine. As compensation,
she received a pair of winter clothes and food. Eventually, Ukrainian police
who had been searching for her at the request of her mother, found the girl
and returned her to her home. Paradoxically, Ioana reportedly told the police
she preferred life with the trafficker to her own home, believing life was
better on the run than among her alcoholic parents. Trafficking of
children for labor and sexual exploitation in Moldova Institute for Public
Policy IPP, eldis.org/go/home&id=17838&type=Document#.U_oHQKNuVCM [accessed 24 August
2014] This paper analyses
the problem of child trafficking from According to the
researchers, the single most important factor that contributes to the problem
of child trafficking is widespread poverty. More than one-half of the
population live on below-subsistence incomes ($30 per month per capita or
less). Joint East West
research on trafficking in children for sexual purposes in Europe [PDF] Edited by: Muireann
O’Briain, Anke van den Borne, & Theo Noten, ECPAT Europe Law Enforcement
Group, Amsterdam 2004 -- ISBN: 90-74270-19-0 www.childcentre.info/projects/traffickin/dbaFile11169.pdf [accessed 21 February
2011] lastradainternational.org/lsidocs/223%20Joint%20east%20west%20research%20(ECPAT.pdf [accessed 7 February
2018] [page 30] Other
countries see mostly the emigration of their young populations to service the
sex industry and labour markets abroad. The Belarus report says that of
Belarusian workers who went abroad in 2001, 70% of them were under the age of
24. Unofficial estimates put the number of Moldavians working abroad at
between 600,000 and 1 million persons. From some communities in Moldova up to
half the population has emigrated. The Romanian researchers point out that it
is a combination of economic and political factors at home that creates a
favourable climate in which young people want to emigrate. These include low
pay, insecurity of employment, and the inadequacy of the educational system
at home to respond to the labour market. But they also include the low level of
community and parental involvement with young people and the negative
perceptions that young people have about their futures in their own country
as important ‘push’ factors. The Moldova research quotes official polls as
showing that almost 90% of young people between the ages of 18 and 29 want to
leave the country. Trafficking
troubles poor Moldova Angus Roxburgh, BBC
News Online in news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3243679.stm [accessed 21
February 2011] NOT FOR SALE - The country is
the source of much of Bethany Bell, BBC,
Moldova, 23 May 2003 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2931646.stm [accessed 21
February 2011] Wandering through
Ana's village, it is not hard to understand why her daughter was eager to
leave. Few people here have running
water, which has to be hauled from local wells. Grinding poverty and chronic
unemployment since the fall of the Soviet Union has made many Moldovans
desperate to seek their fortunes abroad. But it does not always work out as
planned. Elena, who is 25 years old,
had been promised a job in Italy at a pizzeria by her best friend Marina. But
Marina sold her to a pimp who forced her to walk the streets of Bologna. Escaping brutal
bondage in Europe Preston Mendenhall,
msnbc.com, Droki www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3071966/ [accessed 21
February 2011] www.nbcnews.com/id/3071966/ns/us_news-only/t/escaping-brutal-bondage-europe/#.XGw29rhrxko [accessed 19
February 2019] TRAPPED - Ruslan, pretending to be her suitor, took Natasha to meet
some acquaintances and said they would take her to Italy. That was the last
Natasha saw of him. “I liked him, but I also needed a job. I had no money,”
Natasha said. “Ruslan sold me, and I didn’t even know. I cried. I wanted to
go home. But I couldn’t do anything. It was too late.” On buses and cars —
and crossing borders on foot — Natasha followed a path to sex slavery trodden
by thousands of other hapless women, passing, under the watchful eyes of a
gang of Balkans thugs, through Romania, Serbia and Kosovo before ending up in
the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. In struggling Peter Baker, archive.today/iXJP [accessed 24 August
2014] "Poverty and
personal problems force people to do this," said Adrian Tanase, head of
the renal transplant department at the gloomy, run-down hospital in the
capital of Chisinau. Every month someone walks into his office begging to
sell an organ, which the doctor turns down. "In developed countries,
that hasn't been done for a long time, but here you can buy or sell
anything." Int'l Organization
for Migration Data on Human Trafficking in Kosovo At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8
September 2011] The International
Organization for Migration (IOM) April 24 revealed new information about the
methods and the victims of human trafficking in Kosovo. At a briefing in
Geneva, IOM Spokesperson Jean Phillippe Chauzy told reporters that 85 percent of the victims left their home
countries in search of work when they were snared into a trafficking
scheme and forced prostitution. The data, published
by the IOM office in Pristina, Kosovo, was compiled from interviews with
victims who were helped by IOM last year. Sixty one percent came from Moldova,
19 percent from Romania, and the rest from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Albania and
Russia. Their average age was 21, and more than 60 percent had a secondary
school education or better. Journey
Into
Sex Slavery Richard Boudreaux,
Los Angeles Times, August 17, 2001 articles.latimes.com/2001/aug/17/news/mn-35129 [accessed 10 June
2013] Angela Slobodchuk,
25, has a story to tell. She offers it in a low monotone, in a near-whisper,
to anyone who listens. It begins in
her poor farming village in the former Soviet republic of Moldova with the
promise of a job as a waitress in Italy.
It takes her on an odyssey of torment through Turkey, Bulgaria,
Romania, Yugoslavia and Albania. She is raped, beaten, forced into
prostitution, smuggled across borders and sold 18 times from one pimp to the
next. It ends 11 months later when
police along Italy's Adriatic coast rescue the weeping woman with the
miniskirt and bruised legs and arrest her 21-year-old Albanian captor. Sex Slaves: Trafficking
in human beings from British Helsinki
Human Rights Group BHHRG At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8
September 2011] Indeed, the country
is so poor that the local police are quite incapable of dealing with the
trafficking. The Vice Squad in the
Moldovan capital, Chişinău, consists of seven policemen who have no
car nor any other dedicated equipment.
This is no match for the powerful criminal networks who control this
lucrative trade Trafficking in
Women: Moldova and Ukraine [PDF] www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org/sites/608a3887-dd53-4796-8904-997a0131ca54/uploads/traffickingreport.pdf [accessed 21
February 2011] www.popline.org/node/242852 [accessed 7 February
2018] https://books.google.com/books/about/Trafficking_in_women.html?id=HjqLAAAAIAAJ [accessed 13 January
2020] II. CURRENT
CONDITIONS - A. BACKGROUND - In Moldova and Concluding
Observations Of The Committee On The Rights Of The Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 4 October 2002 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/moldova2002.html [accessed 21 February
2011] [45]
The Committee notes that some measures have been developed to combat
trafficking, but is nevertheless deeply concerned about the serious
proportions of trafficking of girls from ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/moldova/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 3 May 2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Human trafficking
remains a problem, although Moldova has stepped up its efforts to prosecute
traffickers. The number of trafficking cases sent to court increased from 33
in 2016 to 85 in 2017. While women and children have long been subject to
trafficking, in recent years, the trafficking of males has increased. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61664.htm [accessed 10
February 2020] TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – While many different individuals have become trafficking victims, the primary target group was the female population between the ages of 15 and 30. In 2004 the IOM reported that 12 percent of the victims they assisted were minors at the time of return, and 40 percent were minors at the time of their initial trafficking. Victims often came from rural areas where economic desperation had already driven many residents to look for work abroad. According to the IOM, most victims had already suffered some form of physical or sexual abuse at home and were willing to face significant risk to escape unbearable circumstances in their families. Women and girls typically accepted job offers in other countries, ostensibly as dancers, models, nannies, or housekeepers. In many areas, friends, relatives, or acquaintances approached young women and offered to help them find good jobs abroad. The IOM reported that former victims frequently acted as trafficking recruiters, sometimes under coercion, and that over the past two years women had recruited most of its caseload victims. Newspaper advertisements promising well-paying jobs abroad also lured many victims. The IOM also noted that traffickers themselves were mainly foreign men, and the International Labor Organization's (ILO) program for the elimination of child labor reported that in many cases traffickers of children have been Roma. Another trafficking pattern involved orphans who were required to leave orphanages when they graduated from school, usually at the age of 16 or 17, and had no funds for living expenses or continuing education. Some orphanage directors reportedly sold information on when orphan girls were to be turned out of their institutions to traffickers, who approached the girls as they left. According to the Center for Prevention of Trafficking in Women, parents or husbands pressured some young women to work abroad. Traffickers commonly recruited women from rural villages, transported them to larger cities, and then trafficked them abroad. The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/moldova.htm [accessed 21
February 2011] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - According to the IOM, Moldova is considered the
primary country of origin in Europe for trafficking of women and children for
prostitution to the Middle East, Balkans, and Europe. A December 2003 UN report reveals that
Moldovan children are also being trafficked to All
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