"Natasha" Trade

The “Natasha” Trade: Transnational Sex Trafficking by Donna M. Hughes Photo source: PhotoDiscPhoto source: about the author rafficking in women and Donna M. Hughes holds the Eleanor M. and Oscar M. Carlson Endowed Chair at the girls for the purpose of sex- University of Rhode Island. She is a research partner in the Ukrainian–U.S. Research Partnership, Tual exploitation is a shadow which is cosponsored by the National Institute of Justice and the Ukrainian Academy of Law. market valued at US $7 billion This article is based in part on work performed for NIJ grant 98–WT–VX–0032 and in part on annually. Women are trafficked to, the article “The ‘Natasha’ Trade: The Transnational Shadow Market of Trafficking in Women,” from, and through every region in Journal of International Affairs, 53(2) (Spring 2000). She can be reached at 401–874–5150 the world. This highly profitable or [email protected]. trade poses a relatively low risk compared with trades in drugs or arms. The moneymakers are valuable women are from Russia a universal meaning, resulting in transnational networks of traffickers and Ukraine. different estimates depending on and pimps who prey on women the definition used. This article This article focuses on the trade seeking employment and opportu- uses the following definition: nities. These illegal activities and originating in Ukraine. It examines related crimes not only harm the the scope of the problem, the Trafficking is any practice that women involved; they also under- factors that create a climate ripe involves moving people within mine the social, political, and for trafficking, the methods traffick- and across local or national economic fabric of the nations ers use, and the people who profit borders for the purpose of sexu- where they occur. from the trade in women and girls. al exploitation. Trafficking may It concludes with some strategies be the result of force, coercion, Countries with large sex industries to address the problem of trafficking manipulation, deception, abuse create the demand for women; and discusses the role that policy- of authority, initial consent, countries where traffickers easily makers, researchers, and law family pressure, past and present recruit women provide the supply. enforcement officers in the United family and community violence, For decades, the primary sending States can play. economic deprivation, or other countries were in Asia. But the conditions of inequality for collapse of the Soviet Union opened women and children.1 up a pool of millions of women Scope of the Problem from which traffickers can recruit. It is difficult to know how many This definition accepts that traffick- Former Soviet republics such as women have been trafficked for sex- ing occurs even if the woman Belarus, Latvia, Moldova, Russia, ual exploitation. The trade is secre- consents, which is consistent with and Ukraine have become major tive, the women are silenced, the the 1949 United Nations convention suppliers of women to sex industries traffickers are dangerous, and not prohibiting it. Narrower definitions all over the world. In the sex indus- many agencies are counting. Also, of trafficking require acts of try today, the most popular and the word “trafficking” does not have violence or coercion. Exact numbers are unknown, but international agencies and govern- mental bodies estimate that each year over 1 million women and girls “Can people really buy and sell women are trafficked for sexual exploitation in sex industries. and get away with it? Sometimes I sit here In the last decade, hundreds of thousands of women have been and ask myself if that really happened to me, trafficked from Central and Eastern Europe and the republics of the former Soviet Union into prostitution if it can really happen at all.” throughout the world. The U.S. State Department estimates that — A Ukrainian woman who was trafficked, beaten, raped, and used 50,000 to 100,000 women and in the sex industry in Israel. After a police raid, she was put in prison, children are trafficked into the awaiting deportation. United States each year for labor or sexual exploitation, primarily National Institute of Justice Journal I January 2001 9 business methods, which were based on corruption and protection The U.S. Response and Role schemes. The independent states that emerged lacked organized and Until recently, trafficking in women Secretary of State, the Attorney efficient regulatory agencies to hin- in the United States had never been General, and the President’s Intera- der the growth of crime networks. systematically studied, and the U.S. gency Council on Women to expand lagged behind Europe and Asia in their work against violence against In Ukraine, people who were no recognizing and addressing the prob- women to include work against the longer able to support themselves lem, especially as it occurred within trafficking of women. with one salary or who weren’t this country. In the last 2 years, the being paid for long periods sought The strategy to combat trafficking United States has vigorously respond- additional work. But the only jobs has been implemented as a program ed, making the trafficking of women a available were in the privatized referred to as the three P’s: Prevention top priority. In 1998, a Memorandum criminal businesses. The result has of Trafficking, Protection and Assis- on Steps to Combat Violence Against been a criminalization of the econo- tance for Victims, and Prosecution Women and the Trafficking of Women my in general and an expansion of and Enforcement Against Traffickers. and Girls was issued that directed the organized criminal networks. By 1995, the shadow economy account- ed for 50 percent of Ukraine’s gross domestic product. from Southeast Asia, the Newly beyond local and state control. Independent States of the former Members of organized crime rings Transnational trafficking of women Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe.2 establish contacts with collaborators from the former Soviet Union had in diaspora communities and work its beginnings during perestroika in The Ukrainian Ministry of the within migrating populations to the mid-1980’s, when international Interior estimated last year that build criminal networks. Increased travel restrictions were eased. The 100,000 Ukrainian women were migration also serves as a cover for disintegration of the Soviet Union trafficked during the previous traffickers transporting women. opened borders for travel, migra- decade. The International tion, and privatized trade, all of Organization for Migration Privatization and liberalization which facilitated the operations of estimated the number to be four to of markets have created wider and criminal networks. Transnational five times higher. Popular destina- more open marketplaces. Computer crime networks from the Newly tion countries include Canada, the technologies also have enabled the Independent States organized to Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, increased volume and complexity meet the demand for women to be Hungary, the Netherlands, Turkey, of international financial transac- used in brothels, massage parlors, the United Arab Emirates, the tions, increasing opportunities for bars, and street prostitution in United States, and Yugoslavia. Large transnational crime and decreasing receiving countries. numbers of Ukrainian women are the probability of detection. This trafficked into Korea to be used as technological aspect of globalization prostitutes near military bases. In allows money gained through traf- Strategies some parts of the world, such as ficking in women to be transferred and Tactics Israel and Turkey, women from and laundered. Russia and other former Soviet Hundreds of trafficking victims In the former Soviet Union, the republics are so prevalent that have recounted their experiences state economy didn’t supply the prostitutes are called “Natashas.” to nongovernmental organizations, goods and services the public need- reporters, and police. Although indi- ed or wanted. The shadow economy vidual variations exist, the themes of Climate for began to meet those demands manipulation and violence from the Trafficking decades before the collapse of com- traffickers and further persecution munism. When the Soviet political by police appear repeatedly. The growth of shadow economies and economic system weakened and criminal networks in the Newly and collapsed, existing organizations Irina, aged 18, responded to Independent States of the former leaped to fill the vacuum. Privati- an advertisement in a Kyiv, Soviet Union arises from expanding zation allowed previously illegal Ukraine, newspaper for a train- economic, political, and social markets to operate legally and ing course in Berlin, Germany, transnational linkages increasingly expand, but they retained their in 1996. With a fake passport, The “Natasha” Trade: Transnational Sex Trafficking 10 she traveled to Berlin, where 3 years in prison for working advertisements in newspapers offer- she was told that the school in a brothel.5 ing lucrative job opportunities in had closed. She was sent on to foreign countries for low-skilled In addition, a number of trafficking Brussels, Belgium, for a job. jobs, such as waitresses and nannies. rings have been uncovered, revealing When she arrived, she was told Some advertisements promise good the tactics, financial rewards, and she needed to repay a debt of US salaries to young, attractive women transnational reach of such net- $10,000 and would have to earn who will work as dancers and host- works. the money in prostitution. Her esses. An estimated 20 percent of passport was confiscated, and In March 1999 in Sevastopol, trafficked women are recruited she was threatened, beaten, and Crimea, Ukraine, two men and through advertisements. raped. When she didn’t earn a woman were arrested for sell- Another method of recruitment ing 200 Ukrainian women and enough money for the first is through “marriage agencies,” girls, aged 13 to 25, for the sex pimp, she was sold to another sometimes called mail-order bride industry in Turkey, Greece, and pimp who operated in Brussels’ agencies or international introduc- Cyprus.

Load more