U.S. government takes steps to halt international trafficking in women (03/01/98)

U.S. government takes steps to halt international trafficking in women

USAID

KYIV - International trafficking in women is not a new problem, nor is it unique to the countries of the former Soviet Union. As is often the case throughout the world, women are particularly hard hit by economic and social upheaval. One of the consequences of recent dramatic changes in Ukraine is that women represent up to 90 percent of the newly unemployed. To many, the promise of a job abroad as waitress, dancer, model or au-pair is difficult to resist in the face of diminished opportunities at home.

In the past decade, as many as 400,000 women have left Ukraine for jobs in foreign countries. Once out of the country, instead of legitimate jobs, many women have found themselves being forced into a vast international sex trade.

When these women arrive at their destinations abroad their "sponsors" - who often are connected to organized crime - confiscate their passports and demand compensation for travel costs. Victims of this scheme then find themselves forced to perform sexual services for up to 15 clients per day to pay back the sponsor.

Threatened with violence and even death if they refuse, the luckier women are arrested and deported by local authorities. Others remain enslaved or languish in prison for months awaiting trial. When they return to Ukraine, frequently suffering with HIV/AIDS or sexually transmitted diseases and deep depression, they face ostracization by their communities.

In a November 1997 address in Lviv, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton denounced trafficking in women as a fundamental "violation of human rights ... nothing less than modern-day slavery." The U.S. government has identified this problem as a priority issue. The policy response is a three-pronged effort to prevent the problem through information campaigns and by providing employment opportunities, to protect young women through improved laws and policies, and to assist victims via crisis centers and shelters.

USAID's proposed role in this effort centers on three activities: a television "docu-drama" to be broadcast in Ukraine on the subject of trafficking, a series of information and education campaigns through existing projects with media components, and a network of crisis centers, linked to regional enterprise centers. The crisis centers will house hotlines and health, legal and psychological counseling referral services, while the enterprise centers will equip women with business skills.

These programs will complement ongoing or planned activities directed by the Department of State, U.S. Information Service, Peace Corps, Eurasia Foundation, Soros Foundation and Ukrainian NGOs. The new initiatives will also be closely linked with USAID's existing activities in support of women's NGOs (Winrock/NIS-U.S. Women's Consortium), and with other democracy, social sector and enterprise development activities.