Human trafficking in Bulgaria - interview with Nadia Kozhouharova

This interview was given by Nadia Kozhouharova from Animus Association/La Strada Bulgaria for the newspaper Lichna Drama. I'm translating it with Nadia's permission from Animus' website.

La Strada International is a European network of independent non-government organisations working to prevent human trafficking and support its victims. The members are based in Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Moldova, The Netherlands, Poland and Ukraine. La Strada's focus is on women from Central and Eastern Europe and its main goal is to advocate for the protection of their human rights, including the right to migrate, work abroad and be protected from violence and abuse. Nadia is the national coordinator of La Strada in Bulgaria. 

- Mrs. Kozhouharova, why is human trafficking so widespread? 

- In this time of globalisation more and more people become victims of human trafficking. The profits from this crime worldwide, according to UNODC, amount to 7-8 billion US dollars annually, which is only comparable to the profits from the illegal sale of drugs and arms. Bulgaria is considered one of the main countries of origin for people trafficked to Germany, Belgium, France and other European countries. The main root causes of human trafficking are poverty, unemployment, gender inequality, violence and discrimination. People migrate in search of a better life abroad and as a way to make a living and become vulnerable to exploitation. 

- How long have you been working on the La Strada programme in Bulgaria? 

- Bulgaria joined La Strada in 1998. In 2004 we were among the founders of the International La Strada Association, which is recognised by national and international institutions as the leading European NGO network in the are of preventing of human trafficking and supporting the victims. To Animus, La Strada is much more than a programme - it's a way of thinking, belonging and motivation for development. It's the framework in which we place all our activities against human trafficking. It makes us feel a part of the broader community of the European civil society, which develops contemporary policies and practices for combating human trafficking. Personally, I have been working at Animus Association since 1995. 

- Haven't Bulgarians become more informed, haven't they learned to protect themselves better from becoming victims of trafficking? 

- There are certain differences, but unfortunately mostly in the fact that nowadays more people become victims of labour exploitation abroad, while in the area of sexual exploitation there isn't much change. In the past, human trafficking was referred to as "white slave trade" or "trade in human flesh" and the attitudes towards the victims were very negative. Now the methods of recruitment of victims have changed. For example, in the past, they were mostly lured by newspaper job ads for dancers or waitresses abroad but today it's different - it happens mostly through a close romantic relationship. Nowadays trafficking happens not so much through severe violence or kidnappings but through a more subtle deception - as I said, often through acquaintances or a romantic relationship. Also, many victims of trafficking now know that they will be working in the sex industry abroad. But we need to make a clear distinction here - they leave with the intention of working in the sex industry and not of being exploited. The characteristics of human trafficking are very clear - deception, coercion, violence, exploitation...

- How do you help victims of labour exploitation? 

- Bulgaria has a serious problem with labour migration. We know that many people go for work abroad but are not aware of the risks of being exploited. Unfortunately many Bulgarians who migrate for work do not check carefully the source of the job ads or their rights in the destination country. Unlike women who've been sexually exploited, victims of labour exploitation don't always need accommodation in a crisis centre or psychological counselling, but they need to know their rights and claim them and we can help them with this and, if necessary, connect them with a lawyer. 

- How do victims come into contact with Animus? 

- Usually through our broad network of partner organisations abroad. There is usually a police raid, where victims are identified and referred to counselling centres. There they can stay for different periods of time and explore their options - whether they can and want to stay in the country or come back to Bulgaria. If they decide to come back, the partner organisation connects them to us. We meet them literally at the airport and take it up from there. Trafficked persons more rarely seek help on their own initiative. As you know, Animus Association manages the only crisis centre in Sofia for survivors of violence. In the past 15 years it has accommodated 1600 women and children victims of violence and trafficking and almost 3000 have used the crisis intervention and counselling programmes. 

- What kind of people are usually vulnerable to being trafficked? 

- It's different for the different forms of trafficking. For sexual exploitation usually young women are recruited. I can't say that there is a clear tendency that they are Roma. It's more or less 50/50 from the people that our organisation has supported. These are women who want to improve their lives, who seek better future. When human trafficking for labour exploitation is concerned, the age group and the gender is usually different. Both men and women, also in their 30's and 40's, are exploited in agriculture, construction or as domestic help... Of course, children are also trafficked. Here there is a clear tendency that they are from Roma origin and are usually exploited for begging and petty crime, which is also a form of human trafficking. 

- Is there a specific case of a victim of human trafficking that particularly moved you? 

- I can say that lately we've been working with very difficult cases of women who have been trafficked because of their extreme vulnerability. We work more and more often with victims with mental illnesses that hinder their perception of reality and risks. They've been abused because of their illness. Other difficult situations are those where the victims are completely illiterate. They can't read or write, they don't know in which countries they've been or which borders they crossed. In both cases we are talking about people who don't know how to help themselves or claim their rights. 

- What advice would you give to people planning to go abroad? 

- Everyone has the right to be happy and to seek their happiness abroad. We do not judge anyone for the choices they make. When people strongly desire something, they are likely to forget about the risks or to underestimate even their own "gut feeling" that something is not right. People should trust their intuition and their support networks. If they have even the slightest suspicion of possible abuse, they should not ignore it but take precautionary measures. I would advise everyone to not be afraid to claim their rights and to contact the respective authorities. This is the only way to receive help, if in need. Our hotline +359 2 981 7686 is also always available. 

Slavery, sex trafficking, exploitation and child labour - some nuances

Slavery

In the latest episode of Game of Thrones (season 4, episode 10), an old man comes to Daenerys the Targaryen to share his grievance. Daenerys had recently freed the slaves of Mereen and become Queen of the city. However, the peasant doesn't find this action as noble as we and Danny would like to think... You should really see the scene, it's just 2.5 minutes, until around 3:05, because I don't want to type the whole thing and it's very interesting but embedding is disabled for this video, so I can't put it here. But in short, the man explains that when he was a slave, he had a roof over his head and was a teacher to his master's children. Now he's a free man but "he's nothing" and lives on the streets. The conditions in the shelters and food banks (or whatever they are called) that Danny set up, apparently are difficult. "With my master I was a teacher. I had the respect and love of his children", he says. "Your Grace, I ask you to let me sell myself back to Master xxx" is what he wants. "There are many outside, waiting to beg the same of you", he adds. In her infinite wisdom and heavenly gorgeousness, the Mother of Dragons agrees to grant him his request: "... But freedom means making your own choices. I will allow you to sign a contract with your former master..." The man is grateful and exits. (Seriously, though, see the scene, very interesting exchange).

Daenerys freeing the slaves of Mereen a few weeks ago was a beautiful and epic scene (you can see if from this moment or watch the whole video if you like GoT). And what she did was brave, noble and just and so on. And she gave choice and purpose to the previous slaves she freed - they now stand behind her as her soldiers on their own free will. But here in Mereen we have a moral dilemma. Is slavery wrong, degrading and against human dignity? - Of course! Was this man better off as a slave than as a free man? - I think he would say "Of course"!  Or to paraphrase Milton, is it really and always better to be a free man in Hell than serve in Heaven? Are freedom and independence a "one size fits all" solution? 

Similarly in the anti-trafficking world, I notice more and more often the nuances in the personal experiences of trafficked people. What is voluntary and what is forced? Should you submit yourself to exploitation when you have no other means to support yourself and your family? Is it a crime to help a person find a job and then demand payback for your time and efforts? Like the old man from GoT, are the Cambodian prostitutes rescued by Somaly Mam better off as garment factory workers than as "sex slaves"? Who defines the line between helping your parents, and by extension, yourself, and being "deprived of your childhood" through child labour? If people don't regard themselves as victims, why are we so quick to label them "victims", based on definitions and indicators? 

Of course I am fully aware of the cases of trafficking, exploitation, slavery and child labour involving violence, abuse and coercion, but I would like to share my thoughts here on the more grey areas, the nuances, the situations that are wrong from the point of view of the law, the outsiders and society in general, but are more complex from the point of view of the individual that we perceive as the victim. 

Sex trafficking 

This part is pretty much just a shorter version of "Who are these human traffickers?" by Felicia Anna. Anna is a Romanian sex worker in the Amsterdam Red Light District and as such she cannot be dismissed as "unrepresentative" since everyone in The Netherlands will tell you that the majority of prostitutes come from Eastern European. In her blog Anna writes about another side of the Red Light District - one that you will rarely see in anti-trafficking studies. And about the nuances in "sex trafficking". Her post is quite detailed, so I will try to present the idea more concisely here. Whether this is Anna's story or not, I don't know, but I'm sure it's the story of a lot of women (and at least some men) who come to The Netherlands to sell sex. A low-level street/highway prostitute in, for example, my home country Bulgaria, doesn't make a lot of money - from what I've heard, it's 5-10 Euros for a blowjob, and not more than 25 for intercourse and because of the uncertain legal status, prostitutes are often arrested and forced to give sexual services to policemen to avoid being detained. So imagine that a friend or an acquaintance tells one such girl that in the Netherlands she can earn 10 times more and do her job legally. She wants to but she doesn't have any money to move, to settle down, doesn't speak a foreign language and doesn't know the procedures how to get started. He offers to help her - to lend her money, arrange documents, find a place for her to live, a place to work... for a certain price, of course. Now add together the price of a plane ticket, (at least) one month's rent and one deposit, costs for legalisation of a birth certificate, costs for the Chamber of Commerce, for renting a window and who knows what else, and you easily come to 3000 Euros or more, including the cost of the "friend's" time and help. And since she can't start making money as soon as she lands at Schiphol but at least one month later (if everything is to be legal and right) she actually starts off with a huge debt and has to work long hours and meet a lot of men to clear that debt. If, for whatever reason, she can't pay this debt regularly, the "friend" becomes abusive. Now personally I'm not prone to violence and I'm convinced that violence is not the answer but there have been occasions when friends have owed me 1000-2000 Euros for months on and I've really wished I were bigger, stronger and more violent! I mean, banks and other institutional creditors have their ways of getting their money back, right? And they have millions of Euros and plenty of time to wait, while private people - not so much.. Again, I don't condone violence, but I also think that when you borrow money you have to repay it or face the consequences. In anti-trafficking terminology we call this debt bondage and coercion, but in this case, is it really so much different in effect from other business transactions involving credit? 

In my previous job at an NGO providing services to victims of violence in Bulgaria, we would often meet victims of trafficking who refused counselling, shelter or any other services and refused to press charges - they just wanted to go back home (and in some cases probably find another way to migrate to sell sex). Perhaps they were deceived, abused and exploited but did they perceive themselves as victims? - No. And it wasn't necessarily because of dissociation or denial, the trauma, PTSD, Stockholm syndrome or threats of retaliation. It's because they saw the whole experience as going abroad to find a job and make money and ... failing. So then who are we to tell them they're victims more than any of us are victims of society, social prejudice or... capitalism? Why do we claim to know better than them who they are and what they need? 


In the interest of readability, I will continue about labour exploitation and child labour in another post (I've been told my posts are too long!:-) 

Trafficking in persons: Labour exploitation

I wrote this article originally in Bulgarian for dnevnik.bg: http://www.dnevnik.bg/analizi/2013/08/29/2127523_trafik_na_hora_trudova_eksploataciia/

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS: LABOUR EXPLOITATION

When we hear  "human trafficking", the first image that usually comes to mind is that of a tied, chained woman, beaten, bruised, in tears... and so on. We think of a young, naive girl who was kidnapped or deceived, sold, bought, forced to prostitute herself somewhere in Western Europe. In Bulgaria this image is probably complemented by the fact that the girl is poor, illiterate and Roma, who may have even been sold by her family or consciously decided to work as a prostitute in the West but pimps found her, began taking her money and beating her... and so on. This picture can be completely realistic, of course, and I don't intend to disprove it. But I would like to show why it can also be harmful and to turn your attention to one of the less known faces of human trafficking: labour exploitation.

The stereotype

It is neither surprising, nor a coincidence that this image that I described springs to mind most often when we hear “human trafficking”. For years NGOs and state institutions, which try to bring attention to the problem and to run prevention campaigns, have been concentrating on trafficking for sexual exploitation and targeting their campaigns, images and messages to young girls. The reason is that NGOs (both in Bulgaria and around the world) working on the problem of violence against women began raising awareness about human trafficking and naturally focused on the economic and sexual exploitation of women. Their initiatives influenced the government institutions which readily accepted that civil society can “take care” of these problem. Media, on the other hand, take on the idea and multiply it tenfold. Their priority is the old and tried motto “sex sells”. Besides, prostitution in principle, whether voluntary or forced, is a controversial topic which raises interest, polarises society and, in the end, brings readers, hotline calls, TV shows, debates, etc. After all, the image (or story) of a young innocent girl turned into a “sex slave” by fat bearded men is a lot stronger than that of a child picking cocoa beans, a seamstress in a textile factory or a construction worker (I will come back to these images later).

However, there are a few problems with this stereotypisation. On one hand, the people who see these campaigns, images and messages, are filled with indignation that there can be so much cruelty in this world, with pity for the “poor victims” and maybe the good intention “to do something about it”, but not with attention and alertness to the real problem. These images are so terrifying that our mind automatically decides that “this can’t happen to me”, that this only happens to other people – to women and young girls, to the poor and unemployed, to the Roma, to the uneducated, the careless, the naive...

Most people would not identify with this image because they wouldn’t think “I am uneducated, careless and naive and I should beware not to become a victim of trafficking”. In this situation all participants are “the others”, while we, the general public, are on the side, passive observers who have nothing to do with the whole process. On the other hand, the professionals who could come in contact with victims of trafficking in their work (police officers, border police, social workers, etc) also remember this image from the campaigns and the media and more rarely manage to identify victims who don’t fit into it.

The police knows where there are brothels in a city and makes raids there, social workers watch out for bruised women in the company of shady men, in other words – everyone looks towards the prostitutes. Lastly, but most importantly, on a world scale sexual exploitation is not the most common form of human trafficking.

According to data of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) presented last year, from 21 million people who are in a situation of forced labour (which equals trafficking) in the world, the victims of sexual exploitation are around 22%, while the victims of labour exploitation – 68%. The data for the European Union is only slightly different – the victims of sexual exploitation are 30% compared to 70% victims of labour exploitation. But in April this year, Eurostat published data about the identified victims of trafficking in the 28 member states plus Iceland, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey. While the ILO data was collected using a research methodology, that of Eurostat is about the actually identified victims in the studied countries and they show that 62% of them were trafficked for sexual exploitation and only 25% for labour. This huge difference in the data of ILO and Eurostat perhaps only confirms what I said above – that institutions and NGOs identify the victims of sexual exploitation a lot more often, because this is what they know and this is what they see.

Labour exploitation

We’ve been hearing for a long time about the terrifying working conditions in the Chinese branch of Foxconn, which produces and assembles parts for different electronics, including iPhone and iPad. Recently The Guardian published an article called “The woman who nearly died making your iPad”, in which it tells the story of the 17-year-old (at that time) Tian Yu who jumped off the fourth floor after she had to work 12 hours a day, six days a week for minimum payment and in bad living conditions. Children and adults in Uzbekistan are forced through threats by the state to pick cotton for little or no payment. An international campaign is requiring Kraft and other chocolate producers to stop buying the cocoa produced with child and forced labour in Cote d’Ivoir.

And if you’re thinking now that these things happen only in the “uncivilised” world of middle and east Asia or Africa, let me give you a few more examples, which are geographically and culturally closer to Bulgaria.

In 2009 one of the biggest cases of trafficking for labour exploitation in Europe was uncovered. OSCE and ASTRA (a Serbian NGO) alerted The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) about 700 workers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Macedonia who were hired by the Azerbaijani company SerbAz to work in construction in Azerbaijan. Upon their arrival in the country, the workers received tourist visas and their passports were taken by the employer. They never received legal work permits, which immediately made them undocumented migrant workers. Since the summer of 2009  their salaries were always late and reduced and in October they received no payment at all. Apart from that, they lived in terrible conditions, without water, food or medical services, which also led to two deaths. According to workers’ testimonies, besides receiving no payment, they were subjected to systematic physical and psychological abuse. After October, SerbAz began organising the sending of the workers back to their home countries in such a way as to cover all traces of exploitation. Trade unions, international organisations, NGOs and consulates helped in the repatriation and assistance process. Some of the returned workers reported that SerbAz then employed 50 workers from Bulgaria. The Bulgarian trade unions were informed and information materials were published in Bulgarian language, but there are no indications that the Bulgarian workers were exploited too. The authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Azerbaijan began an investigation. (source: ITUC).

In 2009 and 2010 several Czech companied hired hundreds of workers from Vietnam, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia for tree planting and other forestry work in the Czech forests. These companies were subcontractors of Less Forest, one of the biggest forestry companies in the Czech Republic, which had won a tender from the state-owned “Czech Forestry”. For months the employees did hard physical labour of 10-12 hours a day, six-seven days a week. Instead of the promised 800-1000 Euros a month they received nothing or very small advances which weren’t enough to cover even food costs. When the employees decided to stop working or to report their situation to the police, they were threatened with violence. According to La Strada (a Czech NGO), up to 1500-2000 workers may have been exploited. This is a typical example of human trafficking because it has the elements of deception, coercion through threats of violence and deportation, withdrawal of wages and abuse of position of vulnerability (many of the workers, especially the Vietnamese, had taken loans to come to the Czech Republic). “I thought I was coming to civilised Europe but I don’t believe anymore that I can receive any kind of justice”, says one of the Vietnamese workers. In 2010 lawyers, with the support of La Strada, filed over 60 lawsuits on behalf of the victims. The first conviction became a fact only in 2012 and the main difficulties come from a misleading interpretation of the Czech law on combating human trafficking and the insufficient knowledge of the prosecutors and judges on the topic of labour exploitation. A documentary was made to raise awareness for the case. (source: La Strada)

In 2008 the court in Laufen, Germany, sentenced a 48-year-old disabled woman to one year and three months in prison for the exploitation of four Romanian women. The women worked 13 hours a day, seven days a week as cleaners, cooks and maids in a holiday apartment complex, although they had no valid work permit for Germany. Instead of the agreed salary of 850 Euros for a 40-hour week, the women received no payment at all. They did not speak any German, had no social contacts and were accommodated in a makeshift room with no beds and normal sanitary conditions. (source: German Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the network KOK).

In 2011 the Dutch Labour Inspectorate found that a mushroom-growing company had been exploiting 70 Bulgarian workers, who also had no legal work permits. The workers had to work long hours every day, sometimes also in the weekend, and with dangerous chemicals for a net payment of only 3 Euros an hour, which is less than half of the minimum hourly wage. In addition, they complained about the bad living conditions with six people having to sleep in the same room. The police arrested two Bulgarian middlemen who tried to thwart the investigation. (source: Nu.nl)

How many slaves work for you?

Human trafficking is sometimes called “modern-day slavery”. The victims are held in submission, isolation, beaten, threatened, manipulated. Once they fall into this situation they become someone’s property.

I began this article with the campaigns against trafficking for sexual exploitation and how we usually think of trafficking as a problem mostly related to prostitution. And while most of us probably would not use the services of a prostitute, especially if they suspect that she may be forced into it, to think about labour exploitation means to look at ourselves and how the goods and services that our consumer society loves collecting so much, may have been produced with forced labour. This means that trafficking flourishes not only because of those others – the fat bearded men, loverboys or members of organised crime. We, the users, the consumers, bear our responsibility too.

The website Saveryfootprint.org calculates how many “slaves”, i.e. people in a situation of forced labour or exploitation, were necessary to make the products we have in our homes. The methodology is prepared together with the US Department of Labour and ILO and is based on information about the processes through which these products were made and investigations in countries known for their use of forced labour. The supply chains of more than 400 of the most popular consumer products on the market have been studied.  

Although chances are that far not all clothes, jewellery and electronics that we possess and use in our everyday life, are produced through exploitation, the website gives us enough of a reason to think about our behaviour and how we can be more responsible.