BELGIUM: INCREASE IN ALBANIAN PROSTITUTES FORCED BY THEIR PIMPS TO APPLY FOR FALSE "REFUGEE" STATUS FOR ALLOW THEM TO WORK IN WEALTHY BELGIUM
Record ID:
566004
BELGIUM: INCREASE IN ALBANIAN PROSTITUTES FORCED BY THEIR PIMPS TO APPLY FOR FALSE "REFUGEE" STATUS FOR ALLOW THEM TO WORK IN WEALTHY BELGIUM
- Title: BELGIUM: INCREASE IN ALBANIAN PROSTITUTES FORCED BY THEIR PIMPS TO APPLY FOR FALSE "REFUGEE" STATUS FOR ALLOW THEM TO WORK IN WEALTHY BELGIUM
- Date: 15th November 1999
- Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (NOVEMBER 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. EXTERIOR OF NIGHT TRAFFIC AND CITY LIGHTS OF BRUSSELS 2. SEVERAL SHOTS OF PROSTITUTES IN RED LIGHT ZONE AROUND GARD DU NORD 3. SEQUENCE OF BLOND ALBANIAN PROSTITUTE TALKING TO POLICE WOMEN FROM SAINT JOSSE-TEN-NOODE POLICE STATION 4. A GROUP OF YOUNG ALBANIAN PROSTITUTES ON
- Embargoed: 30th November 1999 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
- Country: Belgium
- Reuters ID: LVASWNRR12IZDPTSHZQ11LK3EEH
- Story Text: A growing number of young women from Albania are
arriving in Brussels to work as prostitutes.
Victims of human trafficking, these women, some as young
as 14 or 15 years old, are forced into prostitution by the
human traffickers who bring them here.
Police say the traffickers tell these women to declare
themselves as refugees from Kosovo in order to obtain false
political asylum status.
Brussels has long been a destination for migrant
prostitutes looking for streets paved with more gold than
their own.
Local girls work the red light zones along side
Ecuadorian transvestites, Nigerians, Congolese and
Europeans.
Recently a new migrant prostitution community arrived in
Brussels from Albania.
Public Prosecutor, Eric Van der Sypt says "Some of the
girls are just simply kidnapped in schools, at home, in the
streets of Albania.Some have been made false promises some
have been seduced.But everyone wants to leave Albania so it
doesn't take a lot to seduce or to get those girls over.
They work as a prostitute for some time in Italy and then
they are brought over to Belgium or another Western European
country."
Public Prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt estimates that 95%
of the young Albanian women engaged in prostitution in
Brussels did not know they were coming for this purpose.
Victims of human trafficking, Albanian women, many who
are minors, now constitute about half the foreign
prostitutes in Brussels.
Local residents of Stain Josse-Ten-Noode say "There's
definitely been a change in the ethnic mix and as soon as
there's a problem somewhere such as during Kosovo or the
Serbian crisis or anywhere where the borders start going
down or there's a problem you start seeing them appearing on
the streets here."
A harsh rebound for the city that is home to NATO which
bombed Kosovo for 31/2 months this year.A war which has
served the traffickers trade by opening the door to false
claims for Kosovan refugee status.
Anne Vauthier coordinator at Pag-asa says: "The
traffickers they say to the women you have to tell to the
ministry that you are from Kosovo so you will get the
refugee status in Belgium usually they use that and they get
a false identity and so begins it."
These Albanian-speaking prostitutes claim to be Kosovan.
A false status which officers at Saint-Josse police station
working on the streets with these young women see
increasingly.
Christian Van Wassenhoven, an officer with the
Judiciaire Brigade at Saint Josse Police Station says: "The
advantage for them is that by saying they come from Kosovo
they can get a refugee status -- one of political asylum --
allowing them to get papers that will allow them to stay in
Belgium and work in Belgium for longer on the streets and
make more money for their pimps."
Local prostitutes who work independently, pay taxes and
enjoy good relations with local police.Albanians and other
foreign girls cut prices to attract business.
A local prostitute says: "They do pretty much anything.
They cut prices, they work any old way, they do anything to
bring money in.It's a whole network that's developing.
There are more and more problems.They have nothing to lose
those people.They're used to killing.They don't worry
about putting little girls on the street.For them two or
three thousand francs are a luxury."
Pimps and traffickers use emotional seduction, sexual
brutality, blackmail and physical torture against the women
they control.
Sara, a 22 year old woman smuggled out of Albania was
violently forced to work as a prostitute by her
pimp-boyfriend.
Sara says: "He beat me, covered me in bruises.I would
cry.He would leave the house and be gone for two days.I
would sit there and cry.Then one day he came back and asked
me if I loved him.I said 'no.It's over.I'm not working
for you anymore.You can do anything you want to my child,
my family.I'm not working any more.I'm out.' I used to
think that a lot.But I was scared.Until the last day when
I did it."
Pimps demand a minimum of $500US a day from each woman
they control.Police have even heard of demands for $1000US
a day.
With sex and hotel costing $50US, these women, some as
young as 14 or 15 years old may see 10-20 clients a day.
Recognizing that these victims are caught in a no win
situation between exploiters and authorities, Belgium
introduced a law against human trafficking in 1995.
Under this law the women are granted temporary residence
for 45 days as well as support and protection.
This support is provided on the condition that victims
leave the abusive world they are in which leads to this
holding cell at Saint Josse police station with unfailing
regularity.
Within the forty five days the prostitutes are given an
opportunity to either go back to their country of origin or
to collaborate with authorities against the person or
network that has exploited them.
The system also offers victims the chance to gain
permanent residence and increases the options available to
authorities to pursue traffickers.
Belgium has made great efforts against the problem of
human trafficking.Albanian gangsters have been brought to
trial on the basis of victims' declarations and women caught
up in a world of abuse and exploitation have been supported
in building new lives for themselves.
Despite these efforts the trading of young women from
Eastern European countries is increasing, especially from
Albania.
With much of Europe border free, traffickers can move
swiftly and undetected, basing themselves in Italy or
Belgium before moving on to Germany, the Netherlands or
other western European countries.
Anne Vauthier, coordinator at Pag-asa, the
Brussels-based organization set up to support victims of
human trafficking believes more initiatives need to be
taken.
She says: "There is not enough protection for the
victims, I think one protection is to give them a temporary
stay and help them here, but when they choose to go back to
their country there we are not helpful, we cannot do
anything.The girl is with her family and can have pressure
and from here we cannot do
anything.That could be a new initiative to collaborate with
the country of origin to instance protection for the victim
when they choose to go back."
Perhaps it will take such collaborative efforts to curb
the traffickers tide.
Until then, young women working the streets of Brussels
and other cities throughout western Europe know that when
your nation offers little more than poverty, lawlessness and
corruption, others like themselves shall continue to be
kidnapped from villages or fall for handsome seducers
waiting at the school gate in foreign cars, offering a taste
of honey in a far off land."
How distant a dream from the reality which befalls them.
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