The group of 48 Georgian women who were recently denied entry into Finland under suspicion that they were being trafficked (see our article “Georgian men arrested on suspicion of trafficking”) have demanded compensation from the Finnish authorities for the way they were treated. The Finnish authorities had become suspicious of the number of Georgian women being taken by bus through Finland and on into other EU countries. They were particularly suspicious of this bus as the women had not been told what their full itinerary would be. The women however are now suffering the stigma of being prostitutes and one woman was told by her husband not to return home as she was now a “whore.”
The case highlights the difficulty of dealing with trafficking effectively before women have been forced into prostitution or labour. At this stage, even if the women were being trafficked they may not have known it. The trip could also have been completely legitimate, but gave the Finnish authorities grounds for suspicion. It is important in the future that authorities at border stations are trained in how to deal with such cases and also to ensure that anonymity is given to the women so that they will not be stigmatised when they return to their home country.
The case also exposes the unjust situation in many countries where men in large numbers demand the services of prostitutes while at the same time stigmatising prostitutes. It is even more incredible that women who are forced into prostitution are treated as criminals and even women who might have been on their way to being forced into prostitution are rejected.

Mr. Gintaras Furmanavicius, Lithuania’s Minister of the Interior, has admitted that human trafficking continues to be a major problem for that country and that it is a problem fuelled by corruption amongst public officials. Speaking to the Baltic Times he said;
“It goes without saying that the problem of organised crime, in particular relating to grey economy and trafficking in human beings, is still present in Lithuania, though its negative effects may not be very obvious to the Lithuanian common folk.
On the other hand, serious problems are present in our services as well – corruption and other serious offences of law and discipline are frequent among officers.”
This state of affaires has lead to an increase in human trafficking after Lithuania joined the EU. Around 15 women are trafficked every month to Britain alone.

A former official with the Boy Scouts of America has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography in a case which the police say is linked to a German child pornography trafficking ring based in Düsseldorf. From the investigation in Germany in 2003 police traced 520 images including video clips to the home computers of Douglas Sovereign Smith Jr, former national programme director of the Boy Scouts of America. Smith was also chairman of the organisation’s Youth Protection Task Force which formulated policy to help the organisation’s volunteers and employees spot and protect against child abuse.
Women and children around the world are not only trafficked into forced labour and prostitution, but also to be used in the pornography industry.
Smith could face up to 20 years in prison. The trial continues in Austin, Texas.

Salgaa in Kenya used to be a truck stop with a reputation for mud and prostitution. Now due to investment in hotels, bars and restaurants it has grown to a population of 50,000. It still has hundreds of women working as prostitutes. With prices as low as US$2 for a prostitute and the ever present spectre of HIV/AIDS reducing the life expectancy of a prostitute to 7 years, this is a hard life for women. Given the situation of Salgaa on the main Kenya/Uganda highway it is not only a magnet for lorry drivers, but it is very likely that women are being trafficked there as well. The World Bank, the Kenyan and Japanese governments are now funding a new lorry park complex worth more than US$500,000 in Salgaa, the police need act to prevent more women being trafficked into forced prostitution in this area before the demand for such women increases.

Asker Mammedov, 31, formerly of Azerbaijan has been accused of running a prostitution and trafficking ring in Brooklyn, USA. FBI agents accused him of importing women from Azerbaijan and forcing them to work for little or no pay as prostitutes. He is accused of bringing several women into the US and then removing their passports and threatening them and their families that he would harm them if they ran away. It appears that the women knew that they would be involved in prostitution, but not that most of their money would be taken from them or that they would not be free to leave. One of the women was underage. Another has testified that she was in so much pain when forced to have sex despite having a vaginal cyst that she considered suicide. The case is continuing.