A brothel in Turkey gets raided by the police. Everybody inside gets arrested. One of them is the Moldovan Natasha. Although she is forced to work as a prostitute, she ends up as a criminal in a terrible Turkish prison. The conditions are harsh. Natasha receives no medical or physical help. She has to pay for her food and to make things worse, she is humiliated by the guards.
“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.
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“Imagine you are an orphan in Moldova,” says Melody Cameron. “You grown up within four walls, you have never passed the gate you’re entire life and when you turn sixteen, you are sent away with twenty dollars in your hand. You have no idea where to go, how to earn money to eat, or where to sleep that night. So you’re sitting at a bus stop and someone in an expensive car and nice clothes comes by. He tells you that he has a job for you. Imagine the relief. Work means money, food and everything is going to be all right.”
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.
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