How Greece's Prosecution System of Human Sex Traffickers is Flawed- CaptiveDaughters.org

http://captivedaughters.org Captive presents Country Reports -- a brief look at some of the worst offending countries in human sex trafficking. Today we are focusing on Greece. Greece is ranked at Tier 2 by the annual Trafficking in Persons Report. This means that the country has some laws regarding sex trafficking and they make some attempt to comply with the minimum standards to eliminate trafficking, but they could be doing a lot more, primarily in how they treat victims of trafficking as we will soon learn. Greece is a destination and a transit country for women and girls trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Women and teenage girls were trafficked from Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, other parts of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, Nigeria, and Brazil into forced prostitution and forced labor. Amnesty International reported in 2007 that the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation had increased tenfold since 1997. The report estimated that almost 90,000 people were trafficked in Greece in 2000, most of them were women trafficked for prostitution. Greece's policy towards victims of trafficking is highly flawed. Victims are expected to testify against their captors in order to receive protection and assistance. If they do not, then they are prosecuted as unlicensed prostitutes or for illegal entry and then deported.

Many victims will not testify against their traffickers for fear of retribution to them or their families, and many women and girls who are deported back to their countries without emotional, medical and financial assistance are often shunned by their community and families and end up back in the cycle of sex trafficking because they are left with no options. This cycle can be broken, however, if victims are protected from their captors, cared for emotionally and medically, and given options for repatriation into their hometowns or other economically viable options for work. Greece must change its laws on victim protection and break this cycle.Greece is displaying a disturbing trend with the increase of using female victims as predators. Often trafficking victims will be coerced into finding new girls for their trafficker in exchange for money or freedom or a trip back to their home country to visit family. In 2008 30% of sex traffickers in Greece were identified as female, a 24% increase from two years previous. Greece must toughen their laws and increase their efforts to combat sex trafficking. The country must also protect and assist victims instead of punishing them. Thank you for watching, and to learn more about international sex trafficking please visit our site http://CaptiveDaughters.org

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