UEHR WORKING PAPERS University Research Institute of Environmental and Human Resources Panteion University ATHENS Greece http://www.uehr.panteion.gr MMO Series MMO Working Paper No. 2, August 2001 Trafficking in Women and Children: Greece, a country of destination and transit by Ira Emke-Poulopoulos Trafficking in Women and Children: Greece, a country of destination and transit IRA EMKE-POULOPOULOS email:
[email protected] Published in collaboration with: Institute for the Study of the Greek Economy (IMEO) Greek Society of Demographic Studies (E∆ΗΜ) rafficking in migrants1 can be understood as an activity where the two phenomena of organised crime and illegal immigration intersect. It occurs because the possibilities of Τ regular migration to industrialised countries have declined: more stringent entry controls push migrants into using illegal channels and these involve severe forms of labour exploitation. Gender and age2 determine to varying degrees the risk, vulnerability and exposure to exploitation. Among the three categories of trafficking in migrants (men, women and children), women and children are more vulnerable during the trafficking process. According to the Convention on transnational organised crime and its Protocol on trafficking,3 trafficking in persons means «the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other form of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other form of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to services, servitude or the removal of organs».