IHF-HR: "A Form of Slavery: Trafficking in Women in OSCE Member States"
  Country Reports

MACEDONIA

SPECIAL ISSUES

INTERNATIONAL HELSINKI FEDERATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

''A FORM OF SLAVERY: TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN IN OSCE MEMBER STATES'' COUNTRY REPORTS:

MACEDONIA

July 2000

The legislature of the Republic of Macedonia has no provision on the crime of the illicit trade in women.  This lack of legal regulation limits to a large extent the activities of the Interior Ministry. The police officers are quite often faced with the inability to properly classify certain criminal acts, which is reflected in their indictments to the Public Prosecutor and the Court, or try to find some other basis for it. They normally invoke article 140 of the Criminal Code on the "Unlawful Deprivation of Freedom":

According to a Verdict of the Macedonian Supreme Court, 339/74, an indicted person who deceived the aggrieved person, who was under 18 years of age, and brought her home, locked her up, undressed her, bit her and burned her body with a cigarette, commits the crime of unlawful deprivation of liberty stipulated in article 150 para. 4 of the Criminal Code in a severe manner.

According to the data acquired by the Ministry of Interior, the illegal trade in women in the Republic of Macedonia is constantly increasing.

Trafficking mainly concerns women coming from Eastern European countries (Romania, Moldavia, Ukraine), whereas the female population of the Republic of Macedonia is insignificantly involved. In the period from 1991-1997, the Republic of Macedonia served basically as transit country, while the destination was the Republic of Greece. Since 1998, the Republic of Macedonia has itself become a country in which these women reside. Particularly attractive places (besides the capitol, Skopje) include the cities in Western Macedonia (Tetovo, Gostivar, Struga and Ohrid) and their surroundings.

The Interior Ministry is in permanent contact with the diplomatic representatives of the concerned countries in relation to certain cases. Unfortunately, it is apparent that these representatives are not particularly interested in the illegal trafficking in women. Normally, they only act at the private request of concerned nationals in their countries.

According to the information from both the Interior Ministry and the mass media, Macedonia's increased attractiveness as a final destination for trafficked women is due to the presence of troops of the KFOR contributing nations, deployed either in Macedonia or in FR of Yugoslavia (Kosovo).

One contributory factor in the blossoming of public or entertainment houses in all the larger cities of Macedonia, and particularly Western Macedonia, is the high percentage of the Muslim population.

Islam tolerates polygamy, but to a large extent limits the freedom of its women believers. Therefore, it is a precondition that foreign women work in the “houses”. 

According to the acquired data, there are organized “networks” of the illicit trade in women. The chain begins with promises for jobs in restaurants and hotels. The vast majority of women “enter the procedure” on a voluntary basis. Afterwards, once they are “freed” and brought back to their countries, they return to the territory of the Republic of Macedonia.  An additional difficulty of informing the police of the illegal trade in women is the possible involvement of local police in the chain, as it is not easy to reach some of the higher levels of the central police. There are no specialized services through which the citizen could report on these issues.

Finally, illicit trafficking in women is not treated as a priority on either the governmental or non-governmental level. In the Interior Ministry, this matter is dealt with by the Department on Organized Crime and there are very little contacts with others willing to deal with these issues (NGOs, centres for social work etc.). There are no special Collecting Centres for the victims and no sort of support services at their disposal.  The dimension of the women’s issues concerning the illicit trade in women is almost beyond the interest and perception of non-governmental organizations. Out of the numerous women’s organizations, not a single one deals with these issues. As a result, there are no real efforts or research in this sphere.