SPECIAL ISSUES |
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IHF-HR: "A
Form of Slavery: Trafficking in Women in OSCE Member States" |
GREECE |
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INTERNATIONAL HELSINKI FEDERATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ''A FORM OF SLAVERY: TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN IN OSCE MEMBER STATES'' COUNTRY REPORTS: GREECE July 2000
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Women
victims of trafficking in Greece predominately come from Eastern countries
through the contact of international crime with local criminals. The age
of women victims ranges from childhood to late twenties, although the
average age is constantly getting younger. Increasingly, younger girls are
abducted or brought into Greece in order to work as prostitutes. In
November 1997, the European Network of Women–Greek section coordinated
the cooperation of women’s NGOs with the Ministry on Violence against
women and children, including the issue of trafficking. Prior
to the November ’97 seminar entitled “Ariadni”, the Marangopoulos
foundation for human rights had cooperated with the Pandios University to
publicise university research on the increase of the exploitation of
foreign women in Greece. Professor Psimenos also wrote a book on Albanian
migrants that included a special section on the sexual exploitation of
women.
Greek
legislation does not cover trafficking as such. It refers to crimes
against sexual freedom and the economic exploitation of sexual life (Penal
Code – Chapter 18, articles 336: rape;
337:insult to sexual dignity: 338: assault; 343: assault by abuse
of power; 344:indictment.). Further,
articles 348-351 deal with sexual exploitation. Court
decisions between 1991 and 1995 dealt mainly with articles 348, 349, 350
and 351 of the Penal Code. Dr. Agelos Tsigris found that out of 49 cases,
24 resulted in convictions (49%) and 24 resulted in a non-guilty verdict.
In one case, the court decided that they did not have the proper
authority. 18 of the 24 cases that ended in a non-guilty verdict concerned
the Press and advertisements through the Press. The penalties issued were:
Some
conclusions of the research: 1. The
massage centres or other forms of business that often hide the sexual
exploitation of women behind a legitimate façade use standardised
strategies for the promotion of their “services” and advertising (in
the media and through the internet). 2.
The persons involved belong to the lower socio-economic class and their
income usually comes solely or mainly from this form of crime. 3. Policemen
are often bribed or involved in receiving a lot of money to “look the
other way” or even participate more actively (which recently led the
Ministry to create a self-monitoring unit). 4.
Most of the perpetrators of sexual exploitation were Greeks who cooperated
with foreigners, whereas 60% of women victims of trafficking were foreign
women. (This percentage seems to have greatly increased recently). 5.
The offender and the victim often had a close personal relationship
(lovers, married couple, and in one case father and daughter). 6.
Very few cases reach the courts. 7.
Victims do not prosecute either because they are afraid or because they
have no residence documents. 8.
The vast majority of the offenders were men, whereas all the victims were
women, and a great number of them were under age. 9.
Most offenders were
married. Regarding
the coercion of victims, the
following methods were uncovered:
There
are seldom injuries or beating that could “spoil” the future
exploitation of the woman. Often, women are forced to see over fifty “customers” per day, to the
extent that they lose a sense of time and space and lose consciousness.
Recently, a thirteen-year-old girl managed to get to the police and escape
her imprisonment and torture. She had been brought illegally and
forcefully from Albania in order to work as a prostitute. She had been
imprisoned for six months. There
is evidence that women resort to the use of drugs in order to become more
submissive. Regarding
the locations where foreign women are prostituted in Greece, the following
can be identified:
In
terms of Greek women, a distinction can be made between women who are
exploited as “registered” prostitutes and are known to the police and
those who are not registered and work as street hookers or in cheap
hotels, exploited by “boyfriends”. The exploitation of the former
group consists of very high “rental” fees – 50% of their earnings. Men
with knowledge of Greek and the language of the country of the victim’s
origin are usually involved in trafficking. Normally, such men are of
Greek ethnic origin but were born and raised in Russia, Albania or
Bulgaria etc. They usually offer to “assist” victims in finding a job
in Greece and bring them either as tourists or for a legitimate job,
persuading them that they can help. They give the victims presents, seem
kind and friendly, entertain them and in general spare no efforts to gain
their confidence. They may even try to make women fall in love with them
so that they can more easily convince the victims to prostitute themselves
when the time is ripe. If
the woman resists, noting that she is already in a foreign country and her
passport is retained by the “lover boy”, she is psychologically
tortured, threatened and even physically tormented, raped, deprived of
food or beaten until she gives in. Because the “lover” offered to pay
the woman’s travel and visa costs, he then tells her that she “owes”
him and must “work” for him. Usually, the man forms groups of 2-8
women who travel by bus in a larger tourist group. The women do not know
exactly where they are being taken or under what conditions they will be
moved about, but they feel confident because the dream of a better life
and opportunities has been methodically been instilled in them. Officer
Kyriakides reported that women become completely dependant on their
exploiters - their visas expire and they wait for the time when their
debts are paid in order to gain a bit of money for themselves. However,
they are usually arrested before this time, taken to court, convicted and
then expelled from Greece. A great number of these women are brought back
either willingly or by force. The police are aware that the crime rings
also involve public employees from various Greek authorities who provide
assistance in return for financial gains. A number of women express
gratitude for their arrest and they see it as a way out of their plight
and give information to the police on the terms of their exploitation, on
the identity of the traffickers and on the tortures they have suffered. A
number of women do not know the real names or identity of their exploiters
and/or fear revenge or blackmail. For this reason, they do not disclose
information even when they want to.
Unfortunately,
support for victims of
trafficking in Greece is minimal and only consists of medical care in
cases of injury or illness. There is not one single refuge or place where
victims can find psychological support. Victims are usually expelled as
quickly as possible to their country of origin, usually by train if it is
a neighbouring country, where they meet with people waiting to lead them
back either willingly or forcefully, through the same mountain paths or
with false passports. A
lot of women have met their death either on the freezing mountain trails
or by committing suicide (Winter 2000,Greek Mass Media). NGOs are
constantly lobbing to influence policies but unfortunately receive no
funding to be able to provide any systematic or substantial assistance to
the victims. Over
the last year, the Ministry of Public Order created a department to combat
corruption within the police force because there is so much money involved
and such great profits to be made from trafficking of women that
traffickers can easily use part of their huge profits to bribe the
authorities. Professor
Alice Marangopoulos has persistently noted the huge profits involved and
the extent of organized crime that creates the networks for this most ugly
modern form of slavery. STATISTICAL
DATA FROM 1994-1997
In
northern Greece, Macedonia and Thrace 314 women were arrested, the
majority of whom came from the former Soviet Union (141 women). There
were also arrests in the following countries: Rumania
(20 women), Albania (11 women), Russia (24 women), Bulgaria (56 women),
Ukraine (29 women), Czech Republic (1 woman), Georgia (18 women), Slovakia
(7 women), Kazakhstan (3 women), Santo Domingo (3 women), Moldavia (3
women), the USA (1 woman), Uzbekistan (3 women), Germany (2 women), former
Yugoslavia (2 women), and Hungary (1woman). Five
of all these women were under age. In
addition, 213 people were arrested for the sexual exploitation of these
women, 189 of whom were men and 38 were women. Most of the victims were
between 20-25 years of age, and the ages ranged from
16-33. Officer
Kiriakides noted that the majority of women fell into following
categories: a.
Young mothers, divorced or separated and without formal training b.
Unqualified young women from poor families
c.
Young women with divorced parents, a single parent, or no parents due to
accidents or war. d.
Young women from problematic family situations- such as alcoholic or
indifferent parents. The
offenders, usually men, take a “business” attitude towards the
victims, seeing their activities as “normal” and their profits as
rightful, especially when the women prostitute willingly. They also have
the impression that women, and especially whores, are less intelligent,
and believe that even if the women do not accept prostitution willingly,
nothing really terrible can happen to them. The
women get a maximum of 1/3 of the money paid by the “customer”. The
prices range from $3,000 to $23,000 and the woman gets between $1,000 and
$7,000 only after she has paid off the “expenses” of the man/men who
brought her to Greece. Officer
Kiriakides has stated that no matter how well the police coordinate their
efforts against trafficking in women, it can only be combated by the
social initiatives of many different institutions because the exploitation
of women has a complex socio-economic and political character making its
elimination difficult. PROPOSALS:The
police need to realise the importance of their role and become more
sensitised to the plight of the of the victims. The women usually have no
idea of the situation that will be forced on them, even
if they know that they will be prostituted.
The present General Secretary for Equality, Ms. Efi Bekou, made a proposal
in the past for a joint committee to include representatives of different
government departments, women’s organisations and the police in order to
achieve a more holistic approach to the problem. The
lack of an adequate legal framework is not as big a problem as the fact
that law enforcement is performed with male-centred approach with little
consideration for the human rights of women, and especially for women from
other countries. The
creation of support centres for victims, especially those who are in need
of physical and psychological treatment and those who want to testify in
court, is absolutely necessary. Currently, women are seen as the problem,
rather than persons in need the protection. NGOs
are closely connected to women victims but need infra-structures and
funding in order to be able to create networks that will inform potential
victims in their countries of origin and assist injured women in any
systematic way. (Thus far the only funding has been from the STOP and
DAPHNI initiatives of the European Commission.) Penalties
need to become more substantial because even for the police who work
properly and often risk their lives, it is a huge disappointment to see
the offender walk off with a fine that they can easily afford to pay again
and again. The police also need to combat corruption within their ranks. Trafficking
in women is on the rise because of underlying causes that are difficult to
combat. The sexual exploitation of women is still a high profit, low risk
“business” and the growth of sex tourism makes it seem glamorous to
the customers, and even to young and unsuspecting potential victims who
dream of a “better” life. Trafficked
women should be excluded from expulsion and should be offered assistance
where they have been tormented. They should not be sent back to their
countries unless they want to go back. New
strategies and methods should be developed in cooperation with the
countries of origin of victims: Informed public means – better
self-protection. As
the police officers themselves have recognized, Greek criminals cooperate
with criminals in the country of origin in order to trap the women. Surely
cooperation is needed at all levels, and such cooperation should be backed
and financed at the European level. Furthermore, refugee status should be
granted to women from certain areas who are at a high risk of being caught
in the webs of sexual exploitation, especially when they are under age.
A
brief resume of the most up-to-date international steps taken in combating
violence
against women, including trafficking: A
brilliant example of the work done to sensitise the International Police
Force, and more specifically with the Dutch Police Force and the Dominican
Police Force, was brought by the initiator of a prevention project for
women, Ms. Ceciel Brand, whose program’s focus was on trafficking in the
Dominican Republic(European
Conference on 11/13-06-1997, Noordwijkerhout-The Netherlands.) This
project illustrates how NGOs can sensitise the entire public and the
Governing Representatives’ and trigger positive actions in preventing
trafficking in women. The
fact that trafficking in women is now regarded as a
serious form of organized crime
is seen as a positive development, and other forms of crimes
against women (i.e. domestic violence) are continuously drawing the
attention of international governmental and non-governmental
organisations. Finally,
data gathered by an International Crime (Victim) Survey done in joint
cooperation between the Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands, UNICRI and
the Home Office of the United Kingdom from 1996-1997 in over fifty
countries around the world showed that, on average, women
in developing countries run a much higher
risk of sexual incidents than in the rest of the world. (Cited on the
report presented by Anna Alvazzi del Frate- Results of the International
Crime (Victim) Survey, Noordwijkerhout –The Netherlands.11/13-06-1997
p.2) REFERENCES
- “Ta
Nea” paper, (13-05-00) p.15. -
Results of the International Crime (Victim) Survey,(11/13-06-1997).Anna
Alvazzi del Frate. Noordwijkerhout- The Netherlands. -
“Eleftherotipia” paper,(11-03-1998).p.22
Hristos Megas., “Sexual Harassment:
Following legal ways in responding to the sexual harassment”. -“To
Vima” paper,(18-01-1998) p. A 50 Joanna Mandrou., “The children’s
violators are here”. -European
Conference,(12-06-1997) “Police Combating Violence Against
Women”[Opening address by the Dutch Minister of Justice] Ms. Winnie
Sorgdrager Noordwijkerhout-The
Netherlands. -European
Conference (11/13-06-97), “Police Combating Violence Against Women”
[Prevention is rewarding] Ms. Ceciel Brand, Noordwijkerhout-The
Netherlands. -Unicef Exhibition 1997,“The Progress of
Nations”.
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