Slovakia still failing to end human trafficking.

In 1999 Eva was offered a job that would allow her to leave her native Slovakia and go to live in France. She would work as waitress, but would also have to do some sex work. She was aware of this, but was a single mother and the traffickers offered to buy her and her family a flat. She accepted, but when she reached France she was forced to work as a street prostitute, was beaten and raped by customers. She was threatened with violence if she tried to leave. Eventually she managed to escape.
The 2005 US State Department Trafficking in Persons report lists Slovakia as on its “Tier 2 Watch list” which means that if does not improve its actions against human trafficking it could slip into Tier 3 and face sanctions. Often now the country is not only a source country for women being trafficked, but also a transit country for traffickers wanting to move women out of Eastern Europe and into the lucrative sex market in the west.
The US State department report concludes that:
“Government victim assistance and protection efforts as well as trafficking prevention programs remained inadequate. The Slovak Government formed an inter-ministerial expert working group on March 31, 2005, to develop a coordinated national action plan to combat trafficking; however, there has been insufficient time to gauge the working group’s effectiveness.”
Slovakia as a member of the EU must bring its performance against the traffickers up to standard and stop being an entry point for human traffickers into western Europe.