1. How big is the problem in Moldova?
2. What is human trafficking exactly?
3. So everyone can be trafficked?
4. How does this trafficking work?
5. Where do these people get exploited?

1. How big is the problem of human trafficking in Moldova?

Moldova has a big problem with human trafficking. Exact figures on human trafficking are impossible to give. But estimations are that between one and two per cent of the people who go abroad experience some form of trafficking in their life.

In the past ten years more than a million people have travelled abroad, some leaving the country more than once. A modest estimate could be that around 10.000 people have been trafficked recently.

That Moldova has a problem, can also be concluded by the annual Trafficking in Persons report by the US State Department. In 2008 for the first time the country moved to the bottom category. The report states that the government is not making any effort to fight the trafficking, nor protecting victims of it.

2. But what is human trafficking exactly?

Trafficking is the business of moving people from one place to another without the legal papers. It includes the recruiting and transportation of persons, and forcing them to work without any rights. (Read the official, and complex, definition of human trafficking at the United Nations website)

Human trafficking is often associated with girls who end up in prostitution. Although this is true in Moldova for more than half of the cases, there are other forms of forced labour.

There has been an increase of men who are forced to work in construction and agriculture, earning almost no money while living in harsh conditions. Also kids and old people can be victims. They are, for example, forced to beg on the street.

3. So everyone can be trafficked?

Yes and no. Yes, because you can find victims in all social groups and all ages. But anti-trafficking organizations in Moldova do identify high-risk groups. Often the victims live in the countryside, with almost no working possibilities. They have only basic education.

In the case of women, they are often between 18 and 25 and come from vulnerable families. They might have only one, or no parents; grew up in a poor economic situation and often have experienced domestic violence.

For men the profile is not so clear. There is no specific age and background. Often they don’t have a (decent paying) job and take all offers to make some money abroad.

4. How do these traffickers work?

First of all, the victims don’t know they are being trafficked until they reach their destination. They are recruited in Moldova to work abroad. In two third of the cases this is done by friends, family or people they have met before.

On arrival in a country the victim is told that the promised job is not there. The passport and belongings are taken away. The person is threatened, both physically and mentally. In the end they don’t have any other choice but accept the situation to be exploited.

5. Where do these people get exploited?

The main destination for trafficked women is Turkey, followed by Russia and the United Arab Emirates. In these countries the women are mainly exploited in the sex business. In Western Europe labour exploitation is more often the case.

Russia is the top-country for men. Many of them work there in a non-trafficked way, but more and more stories about exploitation are reported by NGOs.

Because of the strict Visa-regime in the EU, Western Europe is not in the top destinations for Moldovans. Travelling to countries like Russia and Turkey is much easier for them – and so is being trafficked there.

“Everything about this example is true,” says Lilia Gorceag. “Except the name.” Gorceag worked with Natasha as a psychologist at the International Organization of Migration. The organisation has a shelter for victims of human trafficking in one of the suburbs of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova.

Gorceag’s goal is to help victims of trafficking to feel at peace with themselves . “It is very important to show the victims that they are not guilty. All that Natasha wanted was to help her family and get a better life. She trusted someone she thought had good intentions, but that person betrayed her.”

The example of Natasha is not an individual case. Every year hundreds, maybe thousands of Moldovan girls get trafficked and end up in forced prostitution. Although there are no exact figures on how many people get trafficked, estimations are that one to two per cent of the migrants will find themselves at a certain moment in a situation which could be defined as trafficking.

Returning after being trafficked

In the last decade the International Organization of Migration (IOM) Moldova helped more then 2000 people to come back to Moldova. People like Natasha, who worked in the sex business, or people who have experienced other forms of labour exploitation.

With help from other IOM offices, anti-trafficking NGOs or local police the victims of traffickers are directed back home. At the border they are welcomed by someone from IOM Moldova, who offers them help. “Often they don’t want it,” says Gorceag. “They are afraid that they will be locked up again. But after we show the facilities and explain what we do, most of them agree to stay at our shelter for a while.”

Another source for victims is the Moldovan police, who in the last few years have received special training on human trafficking. They might notice that something is wrong at the border control, when someone comes back. The local police also plays an important role. They might get suspicious when they see somebody that comes back after a few years with no money and behaving strangely. What that behaviour is? Gorceag: “For example they don’t come out of the house, or they have serious problems and fights with their family.”

When the victims enter the doors of the IOM shelter the work for Gorceag and her five colleagues starts. “First thing we do is sit down and talk about the experiences. This way the victim gets the chance to reveal all the stress, the emotions, the pain, the fears.”

Not only girls

The word girl or woman are carefully avoided by organisations of human trafficking. Instead they use victim or beneficiary. “Human trafficking is always associated with girls that end up in prostitution,” says Viorelia Rusu. “But that is not always the case. Men are trafficked as well, ending up in forced labour. And so do kids and old women, they have to beg for money on the streets.”

Rusu works as an analyst at the anti-trafficking organisation La Strada. The international organization is based in eight Eastern European countries, trying to prevent trafficking and helping people who are being trafficked to escape their situation.

The reason why the statistics of La Strada show that 95 per cent of the cases are woman and three quarters involves sexual exploitation, is clear for Rusu. “The Moldavian way for men to react is: They just cheated on me, it’s my own fault. The men don’t see themselves as victims of traffickers. They are ashamed to receive any psychological or medical help. ”

This is also what IOM experience. From the 19 people currently in the shelter, only one is a man. According to Gorceag men are afraid to get assistance. “But labour exploitation is not better than sexual,” she says. “They live in similar bad situations. There is a lot of violence, they are locked up and make awful long working hours. The men suffer from health problems, and in some cases they are also sexually abused.”

Start a new life

After Natasha arrived at the shelter, she received help in all kinds of fields. She got assistance on legal issues, from getting her papers done to the possible prosecution of her trafficker. She received medical treatment, social assistance and psychological counseling. The ultimate goal is to help a victim to start a new life.

In most cases all the help is done without the family noticing. “The biggest fear is that their relatives find out,” says Gorceag. “In 90 per cent of the cases the fact that they were trafficked is kept secret.” The reason for this is that the victims are afraid their families will abandon them, or that the whole community will find out and see her as a prostitute.

But the chances that a victim is able to get a normal life again, are variable. Some get reintegrated very well, while others have a hard time. “The rehabilitation goes well when a person has some decent education and when there is a family around which is supportive,” according to Gorceag. “But sadly that is not always the reality. In most cases one, and sometimes both factors are missing. If the latter is the case, there is a bigger risk they will be trafficked again.”

Informing about migration, instead of preventing

Sadly enough there will always be a chance that people get exploited as long as they are searching for a better life, believes Rusu of La Strada. But the organisation is not advising people not to go abroad. “That simply wouldn’t work,” says Rusu. “There are too many positive examples of migration. People want to leave the country as long as others are coming back with money to pay for the education of their children, to buy a house or drive a fancy car.”

The tactics of La Strada, and IOM, is to inform people about the risks involved with migration. Big television campaigns, posters, leaflets and school visits are all part of that. But the most important is the 24/7 hot-line, which La Strada runs to inform people. Daily it receives between five to ten calls from people who have questions because they have been offered jobs abroad, or relatives who are worried about someone.

“People do get more aware of dangers,” Rusu says. “Specially after we run campaigns, then we see big peaks in the number of calls.” But she also likes to refers to a survey La Strada held two years ago. 52 per cent of the responders said they where aware of human trafficking, the rest had heard about it, but couldn’t say exactly what it was. “And we have come far,” states Rusu. “When we started with La Strada in 2001, nobody knew anything about trafficking.”

Although all the information provided and growing awareness, there still is a chance things will go wrong. That’s why La Strada is these days also providing foreign contact details of local anti-trafficking organizations which can help victims. Rusu: “Just in case they end up in a bad situation.”

But the truth is far from that. In fact the orphan will be trafficked, ending up in forced labour. “These guys take advantage of the fact that these kids don’t have many social skills,” says Cameron. For the past six years she’s been trying to prevent young girls ending up in the sex industry. How? To provide orphans with a place to stay, after they are forced to leave their shelter at the age of sixteen.

Stella’s House

That place to stay is a big bright yellow house in a small town 15 kilometers out of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. “Welcome to Stella’s House,” Cameron says. She takes a seat in one of the comfortable leather sofas. In the corner of the room stands a laptop, on the other side a brand new music centre. “We try to give these teenagers a good life,” she says.

Not much later two of the in total of 19 girls living at Stella’s House, enter the room. “Oh, my legs hurt,” says Liuda, who is one of them. “And my belly too.” She drops on the couch like only teenagers can do. “You’ve been working out?,” asks Melody Cameron. “No, I was just playing football.”

On the other side of the couch sits Melody’s father, Philip Cameron. He is a minister from the US who’s been working with orphans in Moldova since the fall of Communism twenty years ago. When he found out that kids were sent away when they turned 16, he decided to build a place for them; Stella’s House. Since that time he has travelled several times a year between the US, where he does the fundraising, and Moldova where the actual help takes place.

Preventing trafficking

The original idea of Stella’s House was to keep the girls out of the hands of human traffickers. “Those people will ruin their whole life,” says Philip Cameron. “And you know, these people who do this, they hardly get any punishment.” He gets visibly irritated by that. “Oh no, if I could decide…” He’s quite and thinks for a while. “Well, let me say it this way. I would put my Christian beliefs aside for few minutes.”

The dangers of being trafficked is something that worries Philip Cameron a lot. “I keep telling these girls to be careful, that there are guys out there that don’t mean well.” This is also why the house has strict rules. Every girl needs to go to school. Alcohol and cigarettes are not allowed and neither are boys.

“If they get involved with men, they might get in trouble,” according to Philip Cameron. “They can get be sold and end up in terrible situations.” According to statistics most people were trafficked by people they knew before, like lovers and acquaintances.

Family life

But the girls at Stella’s House are much more then just orphans who are being saved from traffickers. “They are my kids,” says Philip Cameron. “I have invested my life in them. We try to be a family for the kids.” He points to the piano where a picture of him and his wife stands. “Life here is not like in an orphanage. They learn the dynamics of being in a family. Now they have a mom, dad, and older sisters.”

Liuda just loves her new life in Stella’s House. “It’s a great thing, you don’t feel like an orphan here because we live like a real family and we help each other.” That is something new for the orphans, they never had any responsibilities. “Everything was done for them,” says Melody Cameron. “But now they have chores. Cooking, cleaning, and so on.”

And like most teenagers, Liuda thinks that isn’t always fun. “Sometimes we don’t obey the rules,” she says. But then the whole house will make sure you do the job. “They will all just keep on telling that you must do it,” she laughs. “Then you don’t have much choice.”

The best possible life

The girls’ lives are changed by the foundation. “They come here with no self-esteem, poor education and some in even in poor health.” But in the house they receive the best possible life and opportunities they could wish for.

The twenty year old Galina has been in the house now for almost a year. “This house is the best possible conditions to live if in for a Moldovan person.” She looks around the modern, western-style house, with all its equipment. These are living conditions not many people in Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, can afford.

Liuda loves being in the house as much as Galina. “It is just great being here.” She enjoys the luxury of the house, but even more the atmosphere. “Finally I don’t feel like an orphan anymore.” But the best things are the opportunity she has had since she came to the house. In the future Liuda wants to become a lawyer. “That’s something I’ve always been dreaming of.”

The greatest achievement of the house is that the girls believe in their own future, agree both Philip and Melody Cameron. “If you told Liuda when she was in orphanage that she could do whatever she wanted,” says Melody Cameron. “She would have said: Yeah right, I am just an orphan, with no money for school, nor nice clothes to wear to work. Here we remove all the excuses to not succeed in life.”