La Strada Documentation Center

Regional Sex Trafficking in the Balkans. Transnational Networks in an Enlarged Europe

Document number
1793
Date
2004
Title
Regional Sex Trafficking in the Balkans. Transnational Networks in an Enlarged Europe
Author/publisher
Nicole Lindstrom
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Women's rights; Women; Control and regulation of prostitution, Protection, Punishable forms of prostitution, Trafficking process, Recruitment, Transportation, Transit, Transfer, Consent, Palermo protocol; Definition of (trafficking), Root Causes, Risk Groups, Vulnerability, Pull factors, Push factors, Sending/Receiving countries,
Summary
Measuring the volume, scope, and patterns of sex trafficking is an extremely difficult process. The traffickers are very flexible, quickly changing routes to accommodate fluctuating supply and demand or to evade increased law enforcement measures. The two most common trafficking routes begin in Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania and move through Serbia, and on to West European markets, primarily through Hungary and Slovenia, or to destination points in Bosnia, Kosovo, or Macedonia. Trade routes in the southwestern Balkans change frequently. For instance, since police have disrupted the trafficking of women by speedboats from the Albanian port of Vlora to Italy, traffickers have moved their operations to the Albanian port of Dürres, Adriatic port towns in Montenegro, or overland through Greece and Macedonia. Assessing the number of trafficked women is also difficult. The criminalizing of prostitution and migration moves the trade increasingly underground, where women are shielded both from law enforcement and assistance providers.
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