Bucharest –
From the outside, with chimneys and red bricks, the building looked like any other house. But when the police broke into a house in the city of Birmingham, the contents were not like a typical family home.
In the middle of a half-empty room, which only contained a mattress and some used items, the police found four young Romanian women who were only underclothed. They can only speak a little broken English.
Sex toys, beauty tools, cigarettes, drugs, and condoms are seen scattered in the corners of the room.
Although they denied it, the police suspected the women were victims of child sex trafficking.
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The house that was used as a place of disguised prostitution was only equipped with a mattress and makeshift furniture. (BBC)
Since sex work is legal in the UK, police have no choice but to return the women to where they were found after questioning in a safe place.
The situation was alarming, but sadly familiar. In various parts of England, women were held as slaves and sold for sexual relations.
Of all the alleged victims of sex trafficking in the UK in 2021, most of these young people are from Romania.
The BBC’s Jean Mackenzie travels to the southeastern European country to understand how these girls ended up in the human trafficking and prostitution business, and why they were so reluctant to accept help from the police while trying to save them in the UK.
How are they recruited?
“They are recruited on the school grounds,” Iana Matei, who runs the country’s only shelter for girls who are victims of sex trafficking, told the BBC.
Ian Matei (BBC)
Last year there were 429 victims of sex trafficking in Romania, according to government sources. Half of these are girls.
“Recruiters go to the school grounds and say, ‘You are beautiful, you are smart, I want to marry you.’ And they believe it. They’ve been brainwashed.”
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The usual modus operandi of recruiters for their victims is to first convince the woman in question that she is in love with him and wants to build a future together.
After the victim was persuaded, recruiters ensnared him through drugs, alcohol, and prostitution.
“I have a girl here (Daniella*, 13) who really wants to get back together with her 52-year-old ‘boyfriend’.”
“When he managed to escape, he [Daniella] said to the police that she wanted to go with the man. ‘I love him,'” said Matei, who believes that human trafficking is not solely a result of poverty as many think, but also of a lack of affection at home.
“If her boyfriend says, ‘I love you,’ and the next day he beats her so she goes to work on the street, what difference does it make? The victim has been beaten many times and has been deeply humiliated.”
“She’s been through everything you can imagine, but she’s never met anyone who truly loved her,” Matei said.
This highlights that recently more and more young girls are being recruited, some as young as 12 or even 10 years old. When they arrived in England, at the age of 18, Matei continued, “that was the only life they knew.”
Persecuted until left to die
Elena is abandoned by her smugglers in England and left to die after she bleeds.
Many women who are victims of sex slavery are trying to start a new life. (BBC)
When police found him in an apartment in the West Midlands, central England, he was immediately transferred to a hospital.
Doctors believe he doesn’t have more than 48 hours to live. She was persecuted until she suffered burns and was malnourished.
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Now recovered, he admits he had no choice but to accept being traded. “[Penyelundup saya] threatened to harm my son and kill my mother,” said the young woman who had to leave her child when she was only one year old.
Upon his arrival in England, he said, they put him in a house with other young women.
“There are only three of us. I have to serve several men every day.”
“There are between 10 and 20. Sometimes I get around US $ 1,300 [sekitar Rp 18,6 juta] and I have to give it my all.”
Through the internet, away from the public spotlight
Elena, like many other young women, is forced to offer her services over the Internet, on legal sites.
Ward said because the search for clients was done via the internet, it was very difficult for police to find women victims of sex slavery. (BBC)
“(This activity) moved from brothels to the internet,” Colin Ward, a police inspector in Greater Manchester, northwest England, told the BBC.
“Now they live in ordinary houses, anywhere.”
They no longer hit the streets looking for clients, making it harder for the police to track down.
“We don’t know where to look for them,” added Ward, adding he believes the UK sex trade business is thriving and it’s not clear how widespread it is.
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Distrust of the police
Almost all the young Romanian women refused to accept the help offered by the British police. Ward believes it may be because of their experience with police in their home country.
“I’ve been on this case for 14 years, and I can probably count on the fingers how many of them confessed, ‘Yeah, I’m a victim, I need help.’ That didn’t happen,” he said.
Part of the reason is that in many cases recruiters ensnare victims when they are just 10 years old and that’s why many don’t realize they are being exploited.
Andrea was not sold once, but twice. (BBC)
But above all, the lack of action by the Romanian police created deep distrust in them, as the BBC’s Jean Mackenzie found out when she spoke to Andrea*’s parents.
The woman was trafficked not once but twice.
“When I went to the police they told me there was nothing they could do, that they didn’t have officers to look for him,” his mother recalled.
It was he who ended up saving his own daughter by posing as a drug dealer and making a deal with the man who held his son.
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Police told the BBC they were investigating Andrea’s case and referred her to a specialist unit.
However, that is not the only story where parents report that the police turned a blind eye.
Taking advantage of legal loopholes
Cosmin Andreica, head of the police union in Romania, admits that the number of trafficked young women in his country has increased.
“The system is already overwhelmed,” he said.
Andrea’s mother managed to save her daughter on her own the first time she was trafficked. (BBC)
“We have more than 100 cases of disappearances every day in a district, and we only have between one and five police officers investigating this kind of case. It’s impossible to investigate.”
But that’s not all, the problem is because the traffickers are using “as girlfriend” tactics to attract the girls.
They took the opportunity to take advantage of a legal loophole: when a minor leaves voluntarily, the police cannot treat the situation as a crime.
“The Romanian state doesn’t care about children’s lives. That’s the point,” says Andreica.
Meanwhile in England, despite the police’s efforts, the results are far from optimal. Most of the cases don’t make it to court.
BBC
According to official figures, of the 6,000 sex trafficking victims identified in the country between April 2018 and December 2020, only 95 cases made it to court.
For Matei, the only way to bring about change is to make this crime more punishable.
“Human trafficking is an organized crime. Judging from the current situation, the profit is high and the risk is low,” he said.
“But if they want to turn things around, imprison traffickers for a long time and confiscate everything they have, then their crimes won’t be easy anymore. They’ll think twice. [sebelum melakukannya].”
*Name-name in article this has been changed to protect the identities of the victims.
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(nvc/nvc)
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