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Global Traffic |
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Organised crime is flooding Europe with migrant sex workers |
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By DAVID STEWART |
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Posted Sunday, October 12, 2003; 18.23BST
The Brazilian women working in Bragança these days are only one wave in the flood of migrant sex workers washing up on European shores. An estimated 500,000 women and children — mainly from Eastern Europe, Africa, South America and Southeast Asia — are trafficked to E.U. countries for sexual exploitation every year, according to the European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control. The International Organization for Migration says this trafficking generates $8 billion each year. Trafficking volume is soaring in Europe, impelled by increasing demand for prostitution in the E.U., the rise of organized crime in Eastern Europe, and the desperation of the migrant women themselves. "Without working papers, prostitution is one of the only ways that these women can earn an income here," says Helen Ward, coordinator of Europap, a European Commission-funded NGO that works to reduce HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases among sex workers.
But cracking down on trafficking is difficult, as Czech police found out Friday, when nationwide raids designed to free women from sexual slavery fell flat. Despite questioning 4,000 people — pimps, prostitutes, clients — police were able to charge only 15 with trafficking, and three women have asked to be repatriated. The country's police chief interpreted the low number as proof that forced prostitution in the Czech Republic is not as big a problem as many believe. But one detective familiar with the operation told TIME that traffickers are using subtler ways to control their prostitutes, sometimes even impregnating them. "The logic is that a woman is not going to rat on the father of her child," he said.
Because the migrant sex industry is an underground economy, its true scope is difficult to determine. But a soon-to-be-released study by Europap estimates that well over half of all prostitutes in the E.U. were not born in the country where they work — the figure has doubled since 1990. Back then, most foreign-born sex workers were from other E.U. countries, but today, three-quarters have traveled from outside the E.U. Thousands are deported each year, but many return, lured by rates that can range from €30 to €1,000 for an hour's work. When traffickers find profitable new routes — Nigeria to Belgium, or Brazil to Portugal — they can supply hundreds or thousands of women and children within months, resulting in what is known among social workers as "clustering." The area around Bragança is one such cluster. Despite the widespread belief that migrant sex workers in Europe are driving the spread of HIV and other STDs, Ward says her research has found no evidence of this, and a recent study in Portugal reveals that migrants are actually less likely to carry HIV than domestic prostitutes. Social workers say the foreigners generally insist on condoms and are less likely to use drugs than their domestic counterparts.
With reporting by Jan Stojaspal | Prague
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