The number of male victims of trafficking in persons in Moldova has almost doubled during the last two years. Such a conclusion was reached by authors of the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Worldwide, trafficking in persons remains topical, the women being usually exploited in the sex industry, while the men for forced labor, IPN reports.
Until 2014, about 70% of the victims of human trafficking in Moldova were female, while in 2015-2016 each second victim of trafficking in persons was male.
Statistics show that over 1,000 persons in Moldova became victims of trafficking in January 2011 - July 2015. Of these, four persons were trafficked for the purpose of taking their organs, 520 for sexual exploitation, while the others were imposed to beg or work without being paid. Usually, victims of trafficking in Moldova are found in Russia, the United Arab Emirates and in countries of Western Europe.
Ana Revenko, head of the International Center “La Strada”, said there are preconditions in Moldova for the trafficking ‘industry’ to acquire new tendencies during the next few years. Thus, there is always the risk that the phenomenon will get out of state control, if the authorities do not adjust the approaches and legal and regulatory framework in the field beforehand.
“One of the imminent dangers is related to the regional migration crisis that requires assessing the risk of human trafficking in Moldova or through our state. To avoid such a situation, we recommend the central authorities to assess this risk and to take the relevant measures. We also ascertained that the number of work agreements between states is inadequate. Even if these exist at formal level, they are not implemented,” stated Ana Revenko.
Experts of “La Strada” also determined that most of the programs to assist victims of trafficking are not durable in Moldova because they depend mainly on foreign financing. The economic empowerment component is found only in state documents, while in reality the victims are not provided with jobs or sources of livelihood that would satisfy their needs. Director of the Women’s Program of “La Strada” Daniela Misail-Nichitin said the programs to support human trafficking victims have an economic empowerment component at declarative level, but the implementation leaves to be desired.
