BRATISLAVA, June 14, (WEBNOVINY) – Human trafficking features ever increasing number of cases of modern-age slavery, which start outnumbering the so-far biggest group of sexual exploitation cases, says Zuzana Vatralova who heads the office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Bratislava. Sexual exploitation prevailed until the end of 2010, featuring prostitution and pornography, but now about half of the people being trafficked are misused for purposes of economic exploitation, i.e., they end up as forced laborers, she said. The number of sexual exploitation cases is not on a decrease, but the number of slave workers is going up. While worldwide, about a million people are victims of human trafficking, in Slovakia it is about a hundred people annually. In 2008-2010, 53 such cases were disclosed here.
The destinations where Slovak victims of sexual exploitation end up most frequently are Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic while modern-age slaves work in Great Britain and Scandinavian countries, predominantly in Sweden. It is expected that also Slovakia will become a target country in the near future. Victims to human trafficking registered by the Slovak IOM branch are in most cases people who travel abroad to get job mediated by a private person or an agency, or they respond to an advertisement. They leave abroad voluntarily, they are not kidnapped from a street or a disco. In all cases recorded so far, the victims realized only abroad that they were cheated, forced to work at another place or to do a different job and they do not get any wage. The major problem with human trafficking is that people tend to become victims repeatedly. In Slovakia, a program of support and protection of victims of human trafficking has been active for six years. Its rules are voluntary participation and breaking off all criminal contacts. The victim has to clearly say it wants to be helped.
SITA
