A rare success story in the world of trafficking in women

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - There are no completely happy endings to stories about the hellish world of trafficking in women, but the recent rescue of seven young Ukrainian women from a brothel in Montenegro comes about as close to it as is possible.

The story began, as most similar cases do, with a promise of legitimate employment outside Ukraine that turned into a nightmare of forced prostitution. But, unlike most similar cases, it ended relatively quickly with freedom, thanks to a flurry of communications and action on the part of their families, for the women, private voluntary organizations and governments.

The story came to light during an interview with Oksana Horbunova, vice-president of La Strada in Ukraine, who was in Washington in mid-February to attend a conference, Vital Voices Global Exchange, which brought together 15 women activist leaders in various fields from around the world.

And it was the inter-personal and inter-organizational networks established during earlier Vital Voices meetings that appeared to have played a role in the successful resolution of the case.

As Ms. Horbunova recalled, La Strada in Kyiv received an urgent appeal in January from the mothers of seven students who were supposedly hired to be waitresses during the holiday period in Montenegro but were forced to work as prostitutes in a brothel there.

The organization La Strada (The Street), with offices in a number of East European countries, for the past few years has been in the forefront of combating the spread of trafficking in women from this economically deprived region for sexual and economic exploitation in other parts of the world.

"We couldn't find anyone in Ukraine who would help them," Ms. Horbunova said, "so I contacted the International Human Rights Law Group in Washington, which, in turn, passed our information to Congressman Christopher Smith (R-N.J.), who chairs the Helsinki Commission (the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe)."

According to Maureen T. Walsh, general counsel at the CSCE, after it was alerted to the situation by the International Human Rights Law Group, the commission faxed an urgent letter to the prime minister of Montenegro, Filip Vujanovic, on Friday, January 14, relaying the detailed information it received from La Strada about the women and their whereabouts. It asked that the Montenegran government verify this information and take appropriate action to help them.

A few days later the commission received a fax from the prime minister's office, stating that the seven women were found and rescued by Montenegran authorities that same weekend. They were placed in the care of a non-governmental organization, and on the following day, with train tickets bought by Ukrainian Embassy officials, the seven women were on their way home to Ukraine, Ms. Walsh said.

As Ms. Walsh pointed out, other organizations also were involved in the effort, among them the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Warsaw, which was pursuing the matter through its contacts.

The ending, for all concerned, was bittersweet, however. There was an eighth woman from Ukraine, but, sometime before the rescue, she had been resold and spirited out of the country - to Albania, at first, and later, possibly, to Italy.

The Vital Voices conference, which brought Ms. Horbunova and 14 other women activists together February 11-18, was organized by the President's Interagency Council on Women and the Stanley Foundation.

The program included two days of discussions at the Airlie House conference center in Virginia and four days of meetings in Washington - with First Lady Hillary Clinton in the White House, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright at the State Department, members of Congress, and representatives of the World Bank, the Department of Justice, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"It was an opportunity to discuss the problems we face and meet with people who can help us with these problems," Ms. Horbunova said.

The Vital Voices initiative was started in 1997 at a U.S.-organized conference in Vienna which brought together women from Central and Eastern Europe as part of the U.S. government's commitment to improving the status of women in every aspect of life.

Since then, the organization has held three more regional conferences, in Montevideo, Belfast and Reykjavik, as well as roundtables in Palermo, Reykjavik and Istanbul.

Addressing this year's participants at the White House on February 15, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton hailed them for raising their voices against violence and corruption and for economic empowerment, social justice, peace, democracy and progress.

The first lady also noted the many "horror stories" discussed by conference participants from Ukraine, Russia, Cambodia and India about how their women and girls "were being lured away from their countries with the promise of economic opportunity, shipped like drugs by an international crime network, and sold into slavery."

"Others talked about what it's like to be a destination country, home to sweatshops, prostitution rings and domestic bondage that steal the freedom and dignity of women and girls," Mrs. Clinton added.

"What became clear during the dialogue," she said, "was that this is a global problem, that the U.S. and every country has a role to play."

Secretary of State Albright also spoke about the trafficking problem during a discussion at the State Department, noting that the Clinton administration has undertaken "a major diplomatic and law enforcement effort to halt trafficking in women and girls."

"After all," she said, "if we believe in zero tolerance for those who sell illegal drugs, we should feel even more strongly about those who buy and sell human beings."

Melanne Verveer, the first lady's chief of staff, recalled in an interview that Ms. Horbunova was in a group of Ukrainian women who approached her during the Vienna conference to tell her about the trafficking problem.

"It was that conversation and subsequent conversations with Mrs. Clinton that led to the bilateral agreement between our two countries to tackle this issue," Ms. Verveer said.

"And Oksana has been in the forefront in really trying to address it at home," she added, pointing out that Ms. Horbunova was having a "real impact" during her meetings in Washington. "She has been in a very key position to explain why our legislation is necessary."

Anti-trafficking bills are currently making their way through the legislative process in Congress. A House bill, HR 3244, a combined version of separate bills introduced earlier last year by Rep. Smith and Rep. Sam Gejdenson (D-Conn.), has already passed the International Relations Committee, but it still needs to go through the Judiciary and Banking committees.

The Senate reportedly also is moving in the direction of combining two existing pieces of legislation into one bill that would coincide with HR 3244.

Following the conference, Ms. Horbunova remained in Washington for a few days for meetings individuals and organizations concerned with the problem of trafficking, including Rep. Smith, and to attend a Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee hearing on trafficking February 22.

At the root of the trafficking problem, Ms. Horbunova said in an interview with The Ukrainian Weekly, is the catastrophic state of Ukraine's economy, in which women comprise more than 70 percent of those unemployed.

"And that's why our women eagerly accept these offers of work abroad," she said. Most offers are illegal because Ukraine has agreements about the legal employment of its citizens abroad only with Slovakia, the Czech Republic and the former Soviet republics.

"But our women are offered jobs in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Holland, Israel and other countries," she added. "Not knowing what's involved, they jump at the chance and end up being sold for large sums of money."

The operation is being run by the mafia, which, in many cases, she said, is in cahoots with the local police. And so far only two countries - Holland and Belgium - have taken concrete steps to help these victims.

Statistics about how many Ukrainian women have fallen victim to this crime are hard to come by, she said, because the victims, when freed, are both ashamed to admit what they experienced and afraid of reprisals from the mafia if they talk.

The victims are not limited to less-educated, naive women, she added, recounting a case of a young woman physician who was lured into this trap by an offer of a care-giving position in Italy.

After the young physician's rescue, Ms. Horbunova asked her if she would be willing to testify against those who had so traumatized her. The young woman physician replied: "I don't want to start anything; all I want is closure, to forget." And she then urged La Strada not to pursue the case because it involved both the Ukrainian and Sicilian mafias.

Every week, she said, about 200 men, women and children are bused to Italy from the former Soviet Union countries, many from Ukraine, to be exploited as slave laborers, in the sex industry and in illegal adoption schemes.

Back home, Ms. Horbunova said, people hear mostly only the glowing accounts of high earnings from the lucky ones. They rarely hear the stories about the students in Montenegro or the physician in Italy, she added.

More information about La Strada Ukraine can be obtained at its website: http://www.brama.com/lastrada.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 12, 2000, No. 11, Vol. LXVIII

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