Human Trafficking Around the World (58 page)

Yelena Burtina of the Moscow-based human rights group Civic Assistance says that foreign workers are often enticed by the assurance of good working conditions. When they arrive in Russia their travel documents are withheld, and they often face nonpayment and police harassment. “There is no need to force them to stay in their workplace because they have nowhere to go with no money and no documents,” Burtina told
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
. “As soon as they step out of the door, they are going to be detained by police. So there is no need to chain them and force them to stay” (Saidazimova, 2008). In June 2008 police raided a worksite and found 50 Uzbek migrant laborers forced to work 14-hour workdays without pay. The women on the site also reportedly faced sexual abuse (Saidazimova, 2008). Other examples of forced labor or exploitative conditions are employers who sell their laborers for a nominal fee (a little more than $100 each) or persons who obtain what seems to be legitimate employment but are simply not paid for their labor. One such example is a migrant laborer from Uzbekistan who was never paid for a job that he performed in Moscow. “Last winter, we built three cottages, but haven’t been paid yet,” the laborer told
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
(Saidazimova, 2008). Migrant workers from Tajikistan were recruited in 2008 through television advertisements that featured a Ministry of Interior of Tajikistan representative complimenting the employment agency Vostok-Farm. The workers signed agreements with Vostok-Farm to work in construction, but upon arrival their passports were withheld and they were forced to dig stones in quarries with mere hand tools. When some of the workers refused to comply, they were told: “Whether you want to work or not, you will work. We will deport you.” The victims worked in the quarries for 85 days without pay and were forced to live in an abandoned refrigerator truck and two cargo containers with dirty mats and cots. For the entire period they were given only two large containers of water; in desperation they frequently drank rainwater from puddles or water that they boiled from a nearby swamp. Workers who refused to work were not given food for two days. The IOM commissioned Yakub Marufov, a lawyer, to investigate the case, where he found slavery-like conditions. “I saw that indeed the conditions were horrible,” Marufov told Human Rights Watch. “The cargo trailers were not equipped for people to live in, and there was no potable water.” The next day a representative of the Migration Service of the Ministry of Interior of Tajikistan and Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) officials arrived on the worksite. The FMS fined the employer for illegal employment of foreigners and forced him to return the workers’ passports. However, when the General Prosecutor’s Office of Tajikistan opened an investigation into possible trafficking in persons, the case was closed for lack of evidence of a crime (HRW, 2009).

People are also trafficked to Russia for commercial sexual exploitation. Victims from Africa and Central Asia are lured with false promises of legitimate employment or educational opportunities; others are kidnapped (Chance, 2008; U.S. Department of State, 2010). Children from Ukraine and Moldova are subjected to forced prostitution and forced begging in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Russia is also a transit nation for those trafficked to the United Arab Emirates from Armenia and Uzbekistan for commercial sexual exploitation. In 2004 Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affair’s Department to Fight Organized Crime and Terrorism and police authorities in Armenia collaborated in the prosecution of an organized criminal group that trafficked women from Armenia to Dubai through Moscow for commercial sexual exploitation (Tiurukanova, 2006). Russia is a source nation for sex tourists and remains a destination for child sexual tourism. The sexual tourists who travel to Russia are primarily from the United States and western Europe (U.S. Department of State, 2008, 2010). In 2004 two British citizens and Moscow pimps made an agreement over the Internet regarding the sexual services of boys under the age of 14. The pimps were found guilty of enticing vulnerable male minors into prostitution whom they sold for a fee to men for sexual exploitation. In relation to this case Moscow’s Central District Prosecutor’s Office opened a criminal case for the offense of trafficking in minors as well other charges (Tiurukanova, 2006). Alexander Krasnov of the Ministry of Interior Police blames poorly controlled migration and lack of legislation on the trafficking scenario in Russia. “First of all, we have virtually open borders, and badly controlled migration flows from nearby countries,” Krasnov said. “Secondly, we still don’t have a basic law that defines victims’ rights. At the moment, it’s mostly aid agencies that deal with it” (Chance, 2008).

TRAFFICKING WITHIN RUSSIA AND TRAFFICKING ABROAD

The Russian economy continues to grow, but with an average monthly salary of $737.50 (September 2011 estimate) the average Russian still struggles to make ends meet. The cost of living in Russia is high, and even the cost of essential food fluctuates. Fifty-three percent of the population earns only enough for food, clothing, and utilities (Alexandrova, 2011). Average monthly wages vary widely by location; for instance, the average monthly salary in Moscow is $1,219.26 compared to $406.20 in Orel. The minimum monthly wage in most regions is $145 (WageIndicator Foundation, 2011). Although the poverty rate has steadily declined, the progress has been slow. The poverty rate was 12.8 percent in 2011—affecting roughly 18.1 million people—compared to 12.6 percent in 2010, 13 percent in 2009, 13.4 percent in 2008, 13.3 percent in 2007, and 15.2 percent in 2006. The projected poverty rates for 2012 and 2013 are 12.2 and 12.3 percent, respectively (World Bank in Russia, 2012).

The weighty burden of poverty makes Russians vulnerable to trafficking within Russia and abroad. While there is often a focus on the instability that results from international migration, the adverse effects of migration also affect those who migrate from one part of a nation to another. Data suggest that the majority of women in the commercial sex industry in Russia’s large cities are migrants from other nations or from neighboring small towns and villages. It is estimated that more than half of Moscow’s commercial sex workers have lived in Moscow for less than one year, while the remainder have lived in Moscow for no more than two to five years. The lack of a network and support makes them more vulnerable to exploitation and human rights abuses, including human trafficking. Young girls are particularly vulnerable. One trafficking case revealed more than 20 girls from the ages of 15 to 17 recruited by criminal gang members in Borisoglebsk City, Russia, for waitress jobs in Moscow. Instead the girls were forced to work as prostitutes in brothels or along highways. Those who did not earn the requisite $2,800 per month faced physical and psychological abuse (Tiurukanova, 2006).

Russian men, women, and children are also subjected to debt bondage and forced labor in Russia’s agricultural and fishing sectors, the construction industry, and in textile shops. Russian children are trafficked to St. Petersburg and Moscow for forced begging and commercial sexual exploitation (U.S. Department of State, 2008, 2010). An estimated 560,000 Russian children are homeless, and thus at risk of abuses, including labor exploitation. Homeless and orphaned children are particularly vulnerable to involvement in the informal economy, such as prostitution, pornography, begging, and selling drugs or stolen goods. While involving a minor in prostitution and creating or circulating pornography depicting a known minor are punishable under the Criminal Code, the Criminal Code does not include a definition of child pornography, nor does it criminalize the possession of child pornography. The primary hubs for child trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children are Moscow and St. Petersburg (U.S. Department of State, 2008, 2010; U.S. Department of Labor, 2010).

Under the Labor Code, the minimum age of employment is 16. Children who have completed their general education and are 15 years of age may work; also, children 14 and older may work in the performing arts, so long as the work will not harm their health or moral development. Children under 18 are prohibited from engaging in night work, dangerous work, underground work, or labor that may be harmful to their health or moral development. This includes carrying heavy loads and the production, transportation, and sale of toxic substances, including tobacco, alcohol, and drugs (U.S. Department of Labor, 2010). Regardless of the law, children work on the street performing dangerous activities such as repairing cars, collecting trash, and carrying heavy loads. In rural areas children primarily work in the agricultural sector. As a result, many children are exposed to potentially dangerous machinery, tools, and harmful pesticides, and are made to carry heavy loads. The Federal Labor and Employment Service, which is responsible for enforcing child-labor laws, reported 10,000 violations in 2008 (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009, 2010).

Russian men and women are trafficked to Armenia, China, Japan, the Middle East, and South Korea, for forced labor. Women from Russia are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation in Australia, China, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Middle East, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam. Also, Russian women and children are trafficked to Kazakhstan and forced into prostitution (U.S. Department of State, 2008, 2010; U.S. Department of Labor, 2010).

It was during the fading existence of the Soviet Union that, according to Louise I. Shelley, professor at George Mason University and founder and director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center, there was a startling increase in prostitution at hotels and restaurants. “But this was not the familiar sight of poorly educated prostitutes soliciting men on the streets. Often the women were multilingual and educated. Never alone, they were always accompanied by highly visible thugs, the most typical gangster element of organized crime” (Shelley, 2010: p. 18). There is a close relationship between organized crime and the commercial sex industry in Russia, and experts believe that many of the women involved are victims of trafficking. In 2001 Russian and French authorities discovered an organized criminal group in Russia that recruited Russian women to work in France as dancers and waitresses at variety shows and strip clubs. The traffickers use forged documents to get the women into France and then, through threats and physical abuse, forced them to prostitute on the street without pay. The traffickers were from Armenia, France, Georgia, Russia, and the former Yugoslavia. After the fall of communism there was a flow of women and girls from Russia and other eastern European nations dispersed globally into the sex trade. Common points of transport out of Russia, among others, were the Baltic route through Lithuania, the central European route through Warsaw and Prague, the Caucasus (or Georgian) transit route, routes through Egypt, and the China-Siberia and the China–Primorsky Region routes (Tiurukanova, 2006). The women were dubbed “the Natashas”; in fact any woman from eastern Europe—regardless of whether she was from the Czech Republic, Moldova, Romania, Russia, or Ukraine—was given the name (Malarek, 2004). A 2006 report estimated that between one-fifth and one-third of the 175,000 women who left Russia each year—between 35,000 and 58,333—were victims of trafficking (Tiurukanova, 2006). Shelley stated that unlike in China, where the trafficking style lends itself more to long-term business activity, the human trafficking business in Russia is more oriented toward immediate profit. “The Russians, who historically have been sellers of natural resources rather than traders, treat their trafficking business as a commodity market,” wrote Shelley in a 2005 book. “The human resource of women is plundered like the precious metals, oil, and gas of the former Soviet Union with no thought to the investment of the profit of this trade in the domestic economy” (Stoecker & Shelley, 2005).

More recently the number of Russian citizens identified as international trafficking victims has decreased, at least in Europe and Turkey. In Germany, Russian citizens accounted for a large share of the trafficking victims identified from 2002 through 2005, ranging from around 11 percent to 25 percent. This decreased in 2006 and 2007 to a little over 5 percent. A similar pattern is seen in Turkey, where from 2004 through 2008 the number of identified Russian trafficking victims decreased from more than 25 percent to 5 percent. In Spain, identified Russian trafficking victims decreased from 9 percent in 2001 to 3.5 percent in 2006 (UNODC, 2009b). Despite the decrease, the trafficking of Russian citizens abroad is still a significant problem. Some victims are lured by supposed well-paid jobs such as nanny or waitress positions that are advertised in local Russian newspapers. Other victims are approached and offered employment. One such victim was offered a nanny position while she stood at a train station. “A woman came up to me at the train station,” the victim (“Natasha”) told
BBC News
. “She offered me part-time work in Germany as a nanny. I said ‘yes.’ When I got there, though, she took away my passport. Then she drove me to a bar on the edge of town” where she was forced to prostitute (Rosenberg, 2003).

Mariana Solomatova of the Angel Coalition said that legitimate employment is a common tactic. “Natasha’s no exception,” Solomatova told
BBC News
. “Most women don’t expect to be enslaved—they think they’re going for legitimate work, like nannies or waitresses. In most cases their passports are taken away. They’re threatened. They’re told they’ll go to prison. They’re too afraid to complain” (Rosenberg, 2003). In order to uncover the workings of the Russian trafficking mafia, reporter Yaroslava Tankova went undercover and attached herself to a group of women who had been offered waitress positions overseas. The women were trafficked through Egypt and smuggled across the desert into Israel. Upon arrival the women had their passports confiscated and were sold into the Israeli sex trade. “One of the girls nearly died from sunstroke,” Tankova told
Russia Today
. “Another was raped by an Arab guard. He used a plastic bag instead of a condom. We were treated like meat. One man hit me, but the other guards intervened. They didn’t want the commodity spoilt before it was sold” (Russia Today, 2008).