28 June 2011
Marinela Badea, 20, was forced to work in Britain as a prostitute by people traffickers who kidnapped her and held her prisoner. Photograph: The Observer/Petrut Calinescu
A US state department report criticises the Romanian government, police and judges for the way they handle human trafficking and for "contradictory signals" they sent about applying the law against human trafficking.
The report says that, "in a UK trial of Romanian traffickers, lawyers claimed that Romanian police had been aware of child trafficking for years, but had not taken action to suppress the trade until forced to do so by law enforcement in the UK." The report says the number of human trafficking cases dropped by 42 in 2010, and over 400 traffickers were indicted, over 200 convicted in 2010. The report says that some judges have a poor understanding of the trafficking phenomenon and some trials date back to 2005. The report also criticises Romanian authorities for failing to allot funds for non-governmental organisations which offer assistance for trafficking victims, and several victims shelters have been closed.
Romania is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and women and children subjected to sex trafficking, the report says. Romanian men, women, and children are subjected to forced labour in agriculture and manufacturing, as well as some forced begging in Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Greece, Finland, Israel, Germany, Slovenia, the United Kingdom (UK), Cyprus, Australia, France, Belgium, and the United States.
A large proportion of the children forced to beg in Western European countries were Romanian victims of Roma ethnicity. Men, women, and children from Romania are victims of forced prostitution in Italy, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Greece, Germany, Cyprus, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Denmark, Brazil, Norway, Hungary, Slovenia, and France. There were reports that ethnic Roma criminal groups in Romania exploited Romanians throughout Europe.
Romania is a destination country for a small number of women from Moldova, Colombia, and France who are forced into prostitution and for Honduran men subjected to forced labor. The majority of identified Romanian victims are victims of forced labor, including forced begging. The number of Romanian boys subjected to sex trafficking increased. The Netherlands is primarily a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labour. Women from the Netherlands, Nigeria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Sierra Leone were the top six countries of origin for identified female victims of forced prostitution in 2010.
Most trafficking victims identified in Norway in 2010 originated in Nigeria, while others came from Algeria, Lithuania and Romania, among others. Women and men are trafficked through Poland from Ukraine, Bulgaria, Belarus, Romania, and Moldova to Western Europe.
The government reported the identification of 1,154 victims in 2010, much more than the 780 victims reportedly identified in 2009. Out of the 1,154 victims identified, 544 received victim services; 451 victims received government-funded care, whereas 93 victims received care from independently funded NGOs.
Law enforcement officials sometimes coerced victims to participate in prosecutions. In 2010, 1,277 victims participated in prosecutions of trafficking offenders. This was a significant increase from the 158 trafficking victims who reportedly participated in prosecutions in 2009.
Source: Romanian Times.
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