Based on ASTRA’s experience and the calls we receive via our SOS Hotline, one of the most common methods of recruitment of trafficking victims is through promise of a job. Through job offers, found either on Internet or by word of mouth, alleged employers advertise their need for workers of various profiles, offer uncommonly high wages, visas and work permits (if needed), free accommodation and oftentimes no particular qualifications are asked for. These offers do not necessarily need to lead to a trafficking situation, but instead to unregulated work „in the gray zone“, jobs with very poor working conditions (in extreme cases labor exploitation), or simply financial fraud. According to ASTRA’s experience in the field, as well as the results of our studies show, young people are proven to be at major risk of falling victim to trafficking.
In October, ASTRA received a call from a young woman who found a job offer on the Internet for a waitress in Austria at the sort of a bar/casino. She contacted the man who announced the offer over a social platform and, via a video call, he showed her the bar, the clientele, as well as the waitress whom she will substitute. Based on all information she provided us with, and ASTRA’s contacts with partner organizations in the Austrian city of destination, members of ASTRA Victim Support Unit checked the legitimacy of the offer, employer and destination. We learned that in that Austrian city there is no bar under such name as advertised in the offer, instead, at that address, there is a private house with extensive surveillance system. Since the woman still insisted on accepting the offer, we forwarded her all the contact numbers of local organizations she could contact should she be in any danger or a problem. ASTRA’s contact with this client lasted for several days – as soon as new information regarding the offer would appear, she would try to find a justification for it and still insisted on accepting the job. After having the last talk with the potential employer, some „red flags“ arose. Namely, he mentioned that once she arrives it would be better not to leave the workplace, so „not to attract the attention“ (as she would be working illegally, without visa and other necessary documents). Also, the clients in the bar are known to be „quite pushy and flirty“ so she should know how to refuse them. Finally, the woman was supposed to share the room with her employer and besides being a waitress, she was expected to cook for him.
Once the client was at the disposal of all the necessary information, and once she was supported in her efforts to make an independent, well-informed decision, she decided to decline such a risky offer. In ASTRA, we firmly believe that access to information, patience and support empower people, most of the times it is the only thing that takes for people to take their life in their own hands.
Within SOS Hotline and Direct Victim Assistance Program, ASTRA provides preventive information on the problem of human trafficking, safe migrations, provides victims with various forms of help and support, but also informs citizens about possibilities and conditions for safe and legal work in the country/abroad and checks legitimacy of the employer, destination and the offer.
In 2018, 21% of all calls ASTRA received were of preventive nature.
Reintegration is one of the most important aspects of assistance to trafficked persons. After they leave the situation of exploitation and go through recovery process, which is hard, complex and might last for years, survivors of human trafficking, just like anyone else, want to be recognized for their personal and professional contributions, to be valuable and respected members of their community. A key part of recovery and reintegration process is economic empowerment – supporting survivors at realizing their economic potential, by finding a job or continuing education.
Unfortunately, most stories of survivors of human trafficking do not end in such a way that would bring them a sense of justice, and the cases of our beneficiaries who attain a job as a symbol of emancipation are extremely rare.
Recently, a woman whom ASTRA is assisting for four years now called to tell us that she finally found a job that matches her education, she was hired as a nurse in the local hospital! These were extraordinary news, and we knew how much hard work, together with the appropriate support system, was needed to make her goal a reality. This client contacted ASTRA in 2015, after escaping from Bosnia where she was sexually exploited. Being a single mom, in a very difficult financial situation, and experiencing many health problems, she was trying to find an employment for years, but she was either rejected due to her age and lack of experience or accepted temporary jobs in order to earn just enough money to live on. Over the years, ASTRA has provided her with continuous medical and psychological care, and recovery process was long and difficult, with many ups and downs. A year after contacting us, she expressed the wish to become a medical technician and ASTRA team has provided her with financial and other forms of support necessary to continue education. She successfully graduated from secondary medical school, passed the state exam and obtained a license, while at the same time being the sole provider for her family.
For her, as for many other people with trafficking experience, finding an employment or some other form of generating income, was the primary focus, both immediately after exiting a trafficking situation and as part of long-term reintegration process. It not only means survival and financial stability, but also reduces their vulnerability and the chance to repeat the cycle of exploitation. For her, the prospect of doing a job she loves, helping other people, is what gave her the motivation to deal with everyday problems, as well as to bravely face consequences that severe traumatic experience of trafficking had left on her.
ASTRA strongly believes that the most concrete way for survivors to reclaim their dignity and to thrive is to become financially independent. If you share our opinion, please donate and support us in our efforts to empower them, so they could, by relying on their own capacities and strenght, find an attainable path to safe employment.
‘’I thought that offenders should be brought to justice, but even though he and his collaborators committed a serious crime, they escaped justice without any satisfactory punishment. This is so devastating for me, ‘’ said ASTRA beneficiary.
This strong feeling of injustice and helplessness that have overwhelmed the survivor of human trafficking overlaps with the trend that occurs in criminal cases in the last few years. There has been an increase in the number of pre-qualification of the criminal offense of trafficking in human beings, to mediation in prostitution, or the increase of the plea agreement that the prosecutor's office arranges with traffickers, which gives them lower penalties. The victim is treated as a person who voluntarily engages in prostitution, not someone who was exploited and forced into prostitution, whose rights were seriously violated, who still suffers from the consequences of those traumatic experience. Victims are exhausted through the whole procedure, they are re-victimized by passing through the system of social protection and judicial procedures as at the end, the justice is not achievable for the survivors.
In addition, compensation for victims of trafficking in human beings remains an unresolved problem, as a property claim in the criminal proceedings is not used. Instead, the victims are referred by the decision of the first-instance criminal court to seek compensation in civil proceedings which is expensive, long-lasting procedure and is a further trauma for them. Since 2003, when human trafficking was introduced into Serbian criminal code, only 3 judgments for compensation for victims of trafficking were awarded, with only one implemented in practice.
ASTRA client, presented above, said that she doesn’t want to lose a few more years in another court process. According to her, offenders cannot compensate for what they've taken away from her and ''what they did is unforgivable, but the state let them with almost no consequences, so I do not have time for one more letdown ‘. She gave up on further prosecution in the lawsuit.
ASTRA strongly advocate and push institutions to adopt the practice of judges’ deciding about compensation in the criminal procedures, even partially, and introducing the Fund for Victims of Violent Crimes which would be able to respond immediately to the needs of the victim.
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Besides the direct victim assistance, the important function of ASTRA SOS Hotline is prevention of human trafficking and violation of workers right.
More and more citizens are contacting ASTRA on different and suspicious job offers for work in Germany, Slovakia, Czech, Croatia, Slovenia, China. Based on these calls, ASTRA has sent many written notifications to the labour inspectorate in order to check work of the agencies for mediation in employment and business entities, portals and Facebook page which are advertising job offers abroad. In many cases, these mediators were unregistered, and based on ASTRA warnings, Market Inspectorate and the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Police started a procedure before the misdemeanor courts against these companies for violation of the Law.
Recently, ASTRA SOS Hotline received calls from two workers who complained against a local agency offering allegedly legit job abroad to a larger group of workers from Serbia. However, due to the difficult and hazardous working conditions, without any protection and poor accommodation, workers have developed serious health problems. They contacted the employer, but unfortunately, they were not provided with health care. Wanting to return, they asked for their salaries, but the employer threatened them with migration service and detention if they do not leave in 24 hours.
ASTRA informed immediately the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take measures with relevant diplo-consular institutions regarding the safe return of workers, as well as to organize/provide adequate services to the workers upon their safe return. Shortly after returning to the country, workers gave a statement to the police and prosecution, as well as to the market inspection. They were pleasantly surprised and grateful that all relevant sectors with their services were immediately and jointly reacting to the problem.
This case is a good practice that shows that without closer inter-state cooperation and cooperation with civil society organization there is no effective fight against trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labor exploitation or degradation of workers’ rights. ASTRA is very proud that after long and consistent advocacy activities, such joint cooperation is happening more often. The ultimate goal is to provide quick and adequate support to victims and with valuable support of many people who cares and help us with funding of these lifesaving activities, we will continue our fight against trafficking and labour exploitation.
March was an important month for us, as we launched the portal 'Labour exploitation is real' https://www.radnaeksploatacijajestvarna.com/ . This site is created as an initiative for informing and protecting young people and citizens generally from abuse and labor exploitation. Another purpose of this portal is to help in a situation where the rights of workers are violated or if workers were exploited. We invite you to take a look and to contact us if you have questions. We will be happy to advise you, to check your contracts and help you, as exploitation is not a story – it is real and it can happen to all of us!
Ana contacted ASTRA in July 2018 and ask for help. Her story is shocking: she was still a girl of 13 when she was sold for the first time by her family for a forced marriage, to a family in a foreign country. She was in addition exposed to sexual abuse, psychological and physical violence by other family members and their friends, and during the several years of exploitation, she was forced into begging. She was never able and too frightened to talk to anyone. She was ashamed and thought that she is worthless: „...I thought that I was guilty and that I deserve it, it became my way of life, didn’t know for any better...“
After several years of starving and fighting for bare life, she managed by the occasion to escape the torture she had gone through. She met Bojan, a young man who was also a victim of trafficking. Together, Ana and Bojan, becoming her husband, managed to escape. They returned with their children in Serbia. But this was not the end of their suffers.
Upon return, Ana reported her case to the police. When she and her husband tried to apply for assistance at the social welfare center, an institution in charge of providing long-term assistance to victims, they were thrown out of the office! And then Ana found ASTRA.
ASTRA immediately provided food and hygiene packages and clothes to Ana’s family and their children. In addition, ASTRA then contacted local Red Cross to arrange other assistance such as soup kitchen. Another obstacle – Red Cross was not permitted to include Ana’s family on the list of beneficiaries without the assessment of the social welfare center! ASTRA’s case manager complained to the National Center for Protection of Victims of Trafficking, and the local center for social welfare finally scheduled an assessment meeting with Ana’s family. When they came, they were told to come the day after. ASTRA’s case manager then accompanied Ana’s family to the social welfare center in order to prevent further victimization and maltreatment. In spite of the interventions from a Center for human trafficking victims protection, the social welfare center did not contact Ana’s family for several months! Finally, Ana got one-time assistance -it took six almost months from the first contact with the public social welfare center until this family received even one-time assistance and entitled long-term financial assistance.
Half a year without an answer and any assistance by a public institution – imagine how long is this period for someone who has survived human trafficking and who is not yet integrated into society, who is unemployed and have no basic means for the living! What is the possibility of reintegration of victims of trafficking in human beings, when the social protection system does not recognize the urgency of the situation or when the basic needs of the users are not met? Ana told us: „ I cannot think of what could happen to my children if you didn’t help us. We were starving. You returned my hope for life.“ This is motivation to us to continue our work and never to give up! Each little step in this process, every little victory and every assistance is important to change someone life for the better!
Many nice things happened in the previous period:
Without your support, many Ana and Bojan would not succeed! Thank you for being a part of the change, making a life better for someone who survives human trafficking. Stay with ASTRA and follow our actions!
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