It all started in August 2009 in a city in Eastern Bulgaria, says the Swiss “Neue Zurcher Zeitung”, quoted by DW. The then minor Mila (whose real name is different) had a problem with her family. The Roma Muslim woman had an unwanted pregnancy, and the only person who did not turn away from her at the time was a man she met on her birthday and with whom she lived a little later.
Mila’s friend, along with his cousin, persuaded the girl, who had just turned 18 at the time, to go with them to Germany. So, without notifying her parents, without money and without a phone, she set off by bus abroad – for the first time in her life.
Raped and humiliated
For nine years, the young woman satisfied the sexual whims of unknown men – not of her own volition, but because her friend Boris Ivanov (his real name is different) forced her. First in Germany, then in France, and then in Switzerland. For nine years he transferred her from one city to another, from one street market to another, subordinating her through confessions of love, humiliation, and gross violence.
In front of a Swiss court, the accused pimp later claimed in his testimony before the Swiss court that Mila agreed to prostitution. “For almost 10 years, he kept telling me that without him I was nothing,” Mila told the court. He made decisions on her behalf, threatened her family in Bulgaria, put pressure on everyone and threatened to kill her if she disobeyed.
At one point, however, the violence, humiliation, and psychoterror became unbearable. In 2018, Mila managed to escape from her tormentor. She is now a witness against the pimp in a Swiss court. On the eve of the trial, Mila’s father in Bulgaria was attacked by four men and beaten. The young woman is sure that this was ordered by Boris, who wanted to intimidate her so that she would not testify. “But I came,” she says.
She told the Swiss authorities horrifying things about the harassment she had been subjected to. Once the pimp left her standing in the snow in front of the door, without an outer garment and without shoes, until he fell asleep. She was forced to work in the brothels in Switzerland until she collected the amount required by her – 600 francs a day on weekdays and 1000 francs on weekends. That is why she was obliged to work without interruption – often 16-18 hours a day.
There are too many stories like Mila’s from Bulgaria. Trafficking in human beings and forced prostitution are a modern form of slavery, and perpetrators are too rarely convicted, according to another article in the Swiss daily. Trafficking in human beings even intensified during the pandemic, according to the Swiss Office for Trafficking in Women and Migration (FIZ).
The head of this service, Doro Winkler, says that this is due to the deteriorating living conditions and the difficulties of people in poor European countries to find a livelihood. And this makes them susceptible to extortion and fraud.
Bulgaria – among the countries with the most victims of trafficking
Most victims, according to the NCC, are from countries whose cooperation with authorities is often difficult, including due to corruption or the failure of local authorities to fight organized crime effectively. The Swiss Federal Police names Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Thailand as the countries from which the most victims of trafficking arrive.
Traffic organizers are criminal gangs that use several common methods to lure victims. Most women talk about the so-called Loverboy, who assured them of love and a desire for help. The victims are almost always those parts of society who live in poverty.
Doro Winkler claims that the men who lure such victims are intelligent and good connoisseurs of the human psyche, who quickly sniff out who could be caught.
There is another trap they use – they promise their gullible victims lucrative work abroad, and after taking them there, they force them into slave labor or prostitution so that they can allegedly pay their financial obligations to the “concerned” benefactor. However, these debts never decrease. Abusers often force women to use drugs – usually cocaine or crystal meth, which makes them addicted to pimps. From there, their game is easy.
The NCC reports that Switzerland has a special victim assistance program that provides them with shelter and financial support to assist in the investigation of crimes. Some of the particularly severe cases are given the opportunity to stay in Switzerland permanently. However, some women want to return to their home countries, and there they often face life situations that forced them to flee abroad. The Swiss publication concludes that anyone who wants to stop human trafficking must fight poverty, not prostitution.
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