Modern-day slave trade rises in Europe, UN agency says
Source: Agencies |
June 30, 2010, Wednesday
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TRAFFICKERS who subject women and children to prostitution and forced labor are engaged in one of Europe's most lucrative crimes - a 2.5 billion euros (US$3.04 billion) a year, modern-day slave trade whose victims are growing 50 percent annually, a United Nations agency said yesterday.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that more than 140,000 people are currently controlled by organized gangs. Many victims are tricked into leaving lives of poverty in eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America with bogus promises of work.
"Europeans believe that slavery was abolished centuries ago. But look around - slaves are in our midst," UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa said.
Costa said one problem is that governments in industrialized countries have only recently passed tougher laws to crack down on trafficking in people.
"It is a very recent recognition of a very old problem," Costa said, adding that arrests and convictions of traffickers are rare. "I could count them on one hand."
Worldwide, his agency estimated several million people have fallen victim to traffickers. One Romanian woman was beaten so badly while being smuggled to Spain that her ribs were broken. She still had to service clients in a roadside brothel while she recovered.
The UN report said 51 percent of victims in Europe come from the Balkan countries or the former Soviet Union.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that more than 140,000 people are currently controlled by organized gangs. Many victims are tricked into leaving lives of poverty in eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America with bogus promises of work.
"Europeans believe that slavery was abolished centuries ago. But look around - slaves are in our midst," UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa said.
Costa said one problem is that governments in industrialized countries have only recently passed tougher laws to crack down on trafficking in people.
"It is a very recent recognition of a very old problem," Costa said, adding that arrests and convictions of traffickers are rare. "I could count them on one hand."
Worldwide, his agency estimated several million people have fallen victim to traffickers. One Romanian woman was beaten so badly while being smuggled to Spain that her ribs were broken. She still had to service clients in a roadside brothel while she recovered.
The UN report said 51 percent of victims in Europe come from the Balkan countries or the former Soviet Union.
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