Trafficking in Human Beings in Southeastern Europe - Iom

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Trafficking in Human Beingsin Southeastern EuropeBulgariaof women took part in vocational training. Job placement has been implementedmainly through informal institutional contacts – IOM was able to assistdirectly in this regard to 10 percent of women. In general, according to theIOM in at least 50 percent of cases reintegration was successful – measuredby the fact that women were reinserted back into their families, relatives andfriends’ environment.1.4. HIV/AIDS and STIsThere are a few HIV/AIDS prevention programmes in Bulgaria. All of them arefocused on Bulgarian sex workers and do not reach out to migrant sex workersor trafficked women. Outreach workers try to limit themselves to health preventionissues as not to jeopardise the contacts and trust they have built withsex workers or pimps who allow access to sex workers.As in the Republic of Moldova and Romania, women work for pimps who useviolence to control them. However, unlike in Romania and Moldova, sex workersin Sofia and in the border area near Petrich can more easily be contactedby outreach workers from the HIV/AIDS prevention programmes, and aremore willing to take precautions against STIs and HIV/AIDS.1.5. ProsecutionIn 2000, according to data from the border and organised crime police, therewere eight organised crime groups involved in the trafficking or smuggling ofpeople. These were small groups, from two to eight persons each. During thesame period, 231 persons were identified as involved in the organisation andfacilitation of illegal border crossings and 175 of them were detained. 67 It isnot possible to estimate how many of them were involved directly in traffickingas the information refers to all border crossings and does not differentiatebetween smuggling of illegal migrants and trafficking in human beings.Since the beginning of 2000, there have been 16 police operations againsttraffickers/smugglers. In the first half of 2001, ten organised groups havebeen detected and 14 legal proceedings initiated. In June 2001, the SECI Centreco-ordinated a joint operation of Bulgarian, Moldavian and Ukrainian policeto break down an illegal channel of trafficking organised by criminal groupsfrom Greece.The Ministry of the Interior’s new Task Force to Combat Human Trafficking hasalready started initiatives to co-operate with neighbouring countries as well aswith the SECI Centre. This increased co-operation has resulted in several jointinvestigations and an increase in the sharing of law enforcement information.This has yet to yield prosecutions or concrete results.2. Current reponses2.1. National Plan of Action and co-ordinationSince 1999, Bulgarian government has focused its anti-trafficking initiativeson legal reform and law enforcement, led by the Ministry of Justice and theMinistry of the Interior. After the elections in June 2001 and a change of government,the new Prime Minister stated that trafficking would become one ofhis government’s priority issues.5467.Information provided by the National Co-ordinator to the Stability Pact Task Force, 2001.
Trafficking in Human Beingsin Southeastern EuropeIn June 2001, the Ministry of Justice appointed, its Chief Inspector, to lead aformal ministerial working group to draw up a comprehensive law to addresstrafficking in human beings. A special commission would be created to co-ordinateand oversee the actions of the state institutions dealing with trafficking.This legislation is also supposed to address the situation of the victims, financial,psychological and legal provisions as well as other measures of support. 68BulgariaThe development of the NPA was initiated and facilitated by Animus/La Stradawith the aim of uniting and co-ordinating the efforts of all institutions in onenational strategy against trafficking. The draft NPA was prepared by Animus/La Strada and contains ideas arising from the two inter-institutional roundtables, which they organised in 2000. Specialists and representatives of allinstitutions engaged in trafficking took part in the round tables – the NationalPolice, the National Service for Combating Organised Crime, the Border policeand the other structures of the Ministry of the Interior, the ministries of ForeignAffairs, Labour and Social Policy, Health, Education, Justice, the NationalHealthcare Fund, and representatives of municipal and county administration,as well as non-government organisations. The draft NPA was prepared by LaStrada in 2001 and presented to the Stability Pact Task Force on Trafficking bythe Bulgarian Government.The Ministry of the Interior has established a Task Force to Combat HumanTrafficking in Persons for Sexual Exploitation. This Task Force was formallyestablished on 18 June 2001 by an intra-ministerial Memorandum of Understandingto address human trafficking for sexual exploitation within theSoutheast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI) framework.Pursuant to Decision No. 608 of the Council of Ministers on 22 August 2001,a permanent expert group has been established to solve urgent problems arisingfrom the migration policy of the Republic of Bulgaria. This group includesrepresentatives of the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Finance, Transportand Communications, Labour and Social Policy, the Customs Agency and alsothe following services within the Ministry of the Interior: the National Servicefor Combating Organised Crime, the National Security Service, the NationalPolice Service, the National Border Police Service and the International CooperationDirectorate of the Ministry of Interior.2.2. Roles of government, international organisations andNGOsDuring the last two years Bulgaria has undertaken many actions to combattrafficking. Governmental activities were concentrated in the area of lawenforcement and legal reform. However trafficking has been treated almostexclusively as a trans-border crime and as part of the issue of illegal migration.Not much attention has been paid to the human dimension of the problemor to the rights of the trafficked persons.International organisations and donors, including USAID, IOM, UNDP and theUS Department of Justice are actively involved in anti-trafficking activities.They support the government in its anti-trafficking work, mainly by providingfinancial support for the government and NGOs. An informal working group hasalso been established to exchange information and to lobby the government.NGOs have been working on the ground with trafficked people for many yearsin the areas of prevention and provision of assistance. The La Strada Project68.Interview with Antonia Balkanska, Chief Inspector, Ministry of Justice, Sofia, 6 August2001.55
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Trafficking in Human Beings in Southeastern Europe - Iom

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