Human trafficking is a time bomb ticking away in Europe

The public are complacent assuming that this happens elsewhere, and it’s ‘not our problem’. The truth is that it is everyone’s problem when children and other vulnerable people are subjected to inhumane practices by criminal elements. Romanian children and other vulnerable people in the world are equally entitled to their human and civil rights being acknowledged as anyone else in society. As with drugs, it is only when grassroot citizens become involved and say NO that human trafficking will be reduced. When men stop using women entrapped in slavery the profits will be diminished and sex tourism will fail. Poverty is the engine that drives this evil crime. Strong policing is essential and must be properly funded by national governments. This must be matched with public support reporting suspicious sightings. Co operation is essential. Ireland and the UK are listed among the receiving countries.

Women forced into prostitution are moved by the traffickers from house to house…apartment to apartment …town and city….. to new areas making it harder for police to catch them.. This way they will not have a chance to escape as they will be confused by their surroundings. Men also, are moved from place to place to carry out hard labour for contractors in the fishing industry, farming and building. These human slaves are also forced to act as drug mules thus fuelling the drugs industry.. Communities need to become aware that if something looks suspicious they should begin asking questions and talk with the police who must treat all information with respect and confidentiality. Investigative journalism can play a powerful role. Europol and Interpol need to keep pressure on traffickers suspected of human enslavement. Men caught using trafficked women should be made to pay with long prison sentences. They are colluding in a heinous crime.. Amnesty International was quite wrong in calling for prostitution to be legalised, Then the ‘John’ could not be charged and enslaved women continue to be used and abused like thrash. Young men also.

In Romania overall where human trafficking is rife, there are at least 3,000 minors who go unaccounted for each year.
Often parents who themselves ,especially in many rural areas are uneducated, don’t inform the Police that their child didn’t come home until several days after the non arrival home actual date. Thus hampering police in trying to find the missing minors. Many after the first hours, are trafficked out of the County. Then in border areas they are easily trafficked out of the country!

Swedish laws on prostitution are sensible as are their laws on illicit drugs. Swedish laws target the men using prostitutes not the women who are mostly forced into it through life’s circumstances. Swedish laws on drug use and possession have resulted in the country having the lowest drug use in the EU and beyond. Hopefully their new law on prostitution will bring the same result.

Trafficking can occur through the return of a young man from abroad showing off how well he has done. Flashing money and impressing a young girl or girls in his village. When they have been groomed they will be told that he can get them great jobs and they can send money home to their families. Little do the family know that their daughter or son will enter a dark and brutal world from which they will not return when they leave their villages. Sometimes, children are just snatched and never seen again. Can you imagine the effect this has on a family? Day after day…year after year? The internet is especially dangerous and young people should be supervised when using it.. SOS provides training to young people on avoiding the dangers of the internet. However, unsupervised internet use is not recommended for young people.

The EU have a moral obligation to defend it’s citizens against such criminality. The Romanian government are neglectful of it’s vulnerable citizens resulting in that countries staggering figures of missing persons . If EU money was withheld from the Romanian government until it complied with human rights those politicians responsible would be forced to comply. Compliance must then be checked by people of integrity.

In the last days the Suceava Police Inspectorate announced that the number of missing children who didn’t come home is a huge problem. In the 1st 3 months of this year there were 36 minors who simply disappeared also 3 children who have been missing since 10 years ago. They are Gheorhie Vasile – 04-04-2006 from Brosteni village, Lusciac Cristina – 24-04-2005 in Vatra Dornie town and Iordachie Iuliana missing from 1995 in Raduati town near the Ukraine border.

Preventive educational activities are organized with partners SOS Stamp out Slavery including educative films and PowerPoint presentations as well as workshops for vulnerable people in the age group 10 – 20 years especially. These workshops include education on safe internet and social website use and education on job offers that are simply false to the experienced eye, but not to a minor.

The scope of the ongoing campaign in Romania is to educate minors on the subject of human trafficking including in role play methods in the class room.

Stamp Out Slavery is a small voluntary charity operating in Romania. Suceava Police Inspectorate in northern Romania have given an outstanding commitment to help Stamp Out Slavery’s education programme aimed at prevention. Our Centre is there and we are proud to have been chosen as their Charity of the Year. With thanks to Eastern European SOS Director for his efforts there and to Suceava police inspectorate for their support and encouragement in caring for vulnerable Romanian citizens and others who are smuggled through their borders. They are an example of good policing.

See www.stampoutslaverysos.com an Irish/UK/Romanian voluntary NGO.

SOS Admin team.

See also : www.preda.org: Ireland’s Fr Shay Cullen founder of PREDA in the Philippines is dedicated to rescuing victims of trafficking. The Philippines is infamous for child prostitution.