Flourishing trade in sex slaves

2008-11-21 14:06

Emmy Varley

Nicosia - Cyprus is the scene of a flourishing trade in young foreign women who are often reduced to sexual slavery, according to non-governmental organisations meeting in Nicosia on Friday.

The government has just abolished "artistes' visas" which facilitated the lucrative trafficking, but the sordid problem will not simply go away overnight, the NGOs say.

"Cyprus is a destination country for victims of trafficking, especially for sexual exploitation," said Rita Superman, head of the anti-trafficking unit of the Cyprus police.

She was a guest at the conference on human trafficking, staged from Wednesday to Friday by several Cypriot and international NGOs including the Nicosia Anti-trafficking Movement, Stop-New York (Stop Trafficking Of People) and Swiss-based Acees.

"The countries of origin of the victims are traditionally countries of Eastern Europe, such as Moldova and Ukraine. The pattern though is changing lately, since a lot of victims come from developing countries such as the Philippines, Latin America, Morocco and Syria," Superman said.

The number of victims is hard to establish but a refuge set up by Michaelides Savvas, a Cypriot Orthodox priest, has been sought out by more than 300 women since it opened in 2004.

This year alone, Cypriot police have identified 54 victims of sexual exploitation, including 11 on whom force was used to make them work.

Growing pressure

For the third year in a row, Cyprus is included on a US state department list of countries where trafficking in women is a concern.

Growing pressure from NGOs and the international community has led Cyprus's authorities to abolish the "artistes' visas", after issuing around 3 000 in 2007.

The associations welcome the scrapping of these permits, said to encourage forced prostitution in cabarets, where as well as dancing many foreign women have to have sexual relations with customers.

"The abolition of this unacceptable regime (from November 1) after a hell of a lot of effort by the NGOs is a big blow" to cabaret owners, lawyer Haris Stavrakis, STOP's Cyprus representative, told AFP.

The owners demonstrated against the abolition, categorically denying that their staff are ordered to do anything other than dance, while taking offence at any idea that Cypriot women should work in their clubs.

Stavrakis says vigilance is still needed because "they are so inventive and there is so much money involved they might find other ways of bringing them in".

A delegate from a Moldovan organisation reported a surge in advertisements inviting women to take advantage of tourist visas for Cyprus rather than coming as professional dancers.

Soft and obsolete laws

Rita Superman said prostitution at cabarets is "only part of the problem of sexual exploitation".

The organisations have also welcomed the introduction in July last year of tougher sentences for people traffickers - up to 15 years for an adult and 20 years for a child - as well as the opening of a government shelter.

"But that is not enough," said Androula Henriques, vice-president of Acees. "The police anti-trafficking unit must be strengthened. It only includes four people, compared with 11 in the anti-poaching unit!"

Stop's Stavrakis accuses Cypriot prosecutors of using soft and obsolete laws against the traffickers, which results in "too few and too weak" convictions, she said.

"Treatment of victims ought to improve too," Henriques urged, denouncing "social services which rarely visit victims and are slow to pay them the allowances to which they are entitled."

Sometimes they have to remain in Cyprus for "a year or even two, to give evidence in possible trials", the lawyer said.

- AFP