The International Organisation for Migration is planning a new awareness raising campaign in Turkey to help combat human trafficking. The campaign is inspired by the disturbing fact that one in three women trafficked to Turkey are mothers. The crimes against the women therefore not only affect them, but also their children left at home.
“Trafficking takes an enormous toll, not just on the women and girls who have been trafficked to Turkey but on the children and families they are forced to leave behind,” said Marielle Sander-Lindstrom, the IOM’s chief of mission in Turkey. “Families and communities are paying an enormous price.”
The campaign will include a television advertisement which features the stories of four children from former Soviet countries, where most victims in Turkey originate, looking for their mothers.

Indian ambassador Balkrishna Shetty has promised to investigate claims that Indian women and children are being trafficked to Bahrain and forced into prostitution and pornography. The claim which was made in a recent Indian Institute of Social Sciences report on human trafficking in India has prompted several NGOs to call for a government investigation. The report claims that women and girls as young as 11 are being told they will be able to work as domestic servants or in factories, but in fact are sold into prostitution in Bahrain, Dubai and Oman as well as South Africa, Kenya and Thailand.
Sankar Sen, head of the Institute of Social Sciences’ human rights wing said “India is one of the most affected countries. The women and children are bought here and sent to some Middle Eastern countries, including Bahrain,”

Estonia has approved a major anti-trafficking action plan to be in operation between 2006 and 2009. Estonia’s Minister of Justice Rein Lang commented at the launch of the national strategy that he feared that human trafficking might become the worst social problem facing Estonia. He particularly feared what would happen in 2007 if Estonia joined the Schengen agreement by which people are only checked at the border of the Schengen area and then can travel freely across all nations who are part of the agreement. Estonia is planning to strengthen border checks and treat human traffickers severely. It is to be hoped, however, that they will also concentrate on upholding the human rights of the victims of human trafficking.

A report by the European Parliament has expressed concern that there may be an increase in sex trafficking during the World Cup in Germany and urges all EU member states, “especially Germany, to take appropriate measures in the course of the World Cup football tournament in 2006 to prevent trafficking of women and forced prostitution.” Prostitution is legal in Germany, but thousands of women and children may be trafficked into the country to be exploited by football fans from around the world. As the majority of football fans would be horrified at this human rights abuse, it is important that action is taken to prevent such crimes.
The same EU report which recommended action in Germany during the world cup also recommended educating “vulnerable members of society in the countries of origin, to alert and sensitize the public about the problem and reduce demand in the countries of destination.” Included in the report was also a specific recommendation of the Business Travellers against Human Trafficking campaign.

Twelve year old Bhavani (name changed) grew up in a poor farming community in the southern Indian state of Andrah Pradesh. Instead of going to school she helped her family in the fields, but there was never enough food to feed her parents and all their ten children. When a cousin came and told the family about a man who wished to marry Bhavani and take her to New Delhi and would demand no dowery, the family were overjoyed and agreed. When they married, however, and she went to the capital, it was suddenly revealed that her new home was to be in the red light district in a brothel. Her new husband had “married” twelve other brides and sold them all. The brothel had bought her for $1000. Bhavati refused to work as a prostitute at first, but after beatings and starvation she gave in . Only after she had suffered five abortions and numerous sexually transmitted diseases was Bhavani rescued by an Indian NGO.
Bhavani is one of thousands of Indian girls trafficked within India into forced prostitution. Much more needs to be done to fight this problem, including better co-ordination between law enforcement agencies and also a drive against the corruption which can link local police to the money made from trafficking, according to a recent report by the Indian Institute of Social Sciences.
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