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

SLOVENIA

SPECIAL ISSUES

INTERNATIONAL HELSINKI FEDERATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

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

SLOVENIA

July 2000

Trafficking in women with the intention of sexual abuse is a crime under the Penal Code:

·         Article 387

        Whoever, in violation of international law, brings another person into slavery or similar conditions, or keeps another person in such conditions, or buys, sells or delivers another person to a third party, or brokers the buying, selling or delivery of another person, or urges another person to sell her/his freedom or the freedom of the person he supports or looks after is punishable by a prison sentence of 1 to 10 years. Prison sentences are also imposed on “whoever transported a person, held in conditions of slavery or similar conditions, from one country to another”.

Slovenia is primarily a country of transit, although it is also a receiving country.

        The media and NGOs do not report on the topic and it is very difficult to find any reports on trafficking, apart from a short notice in the “black chronicle”.

        From limited news in the newspapers, it can be concluded that trafficking is a matter of organized international crime. It is an existing network spread through different countries. The same network of offenders is also involved in other types of crime.

        Hardly any cases are reported to the police. Most of women staying in Slovenia received working visas as nightclub dancers. Women who are in transit in Slovenia are usually locked in flats without documents and have no opportunities. Between 1993 and 1996 only one such case was reported to the police.

        The main factors that contribute to trafficking in women include the very limited possibility for victims to make a “self-report”, the limited interest of the police in this kind of crime and the lack of any organization that would play an advocacy role for women involved in trafficking.

        There are no NGOs working on these issues and no known governmental program on the prevention of trafficking. One could assume that the Slovenian government would develop a policy if the EU were to demand it. (Slovenia is a candidate state for membership and such pressure is sometimes taken more seriously than pressure from NGOs in the country).

        There were reports in the newspaper that some of the women were returned to the country they came from, which was not necessarily their home country but could also be Austria or Hungary, which are neighbour states. However, this was a case in which the women were caught at the border without a visa or documents.

There are no support services apart from the embassies of the states from where the women come and there is no available research or data on the topic.