La Strada Documentation Center

Rapid Assessment of Trafficking in Children for Labour and Sexual Exploitation in Moldova

Document number
1225
Date
2003
Title
Rapid Assessment of Trafficking in Children for Labour and Sexual Exploitation in Moldova
Author/publisher
International Labour Organization (ILO)
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Child Trafficking, Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, Best Interests Principle, Child Victims of Trafficking, Separated Migrant Children, Unaccompanied minors, Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Child protection systems,
Summary
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This report presents the results of a Rapid Assessment survey into child trafficking from Moldova to other countries for labour or sexual exploitation. It was undertaken in the framework of the subregional prevention and reintegration programme to combat trafficking of children for labour and sexual exploitation in the Balkans and Ukraine, of the International Labour Organization’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (ILO-IPEC). The counties participating in the programme are Moldova, Romania, Albania and Ukraine. The report describes the socio-economic context, types and processes of trafficking in children from Moldova, as well as factors favouring this phenomenon. It explores also the situation of children released from trafficking. The study includes boys and girls under 18 who have been trafficked or exposed to trafficking both abroad and within Moldova. It attempts to throw light on the socioeconomic environment of trafficked children, those at risk and their families and to describe how and where they are recruited, how they are encouraged or persuaded to relocate, and what happens to them during trafficking and afterwards. Trafficking in children seems to have increased in the second half of the 1990s with the deepening economic crisis in Moldova, and by 1997 had become common in Moldova and widespread. Children are recruited from the entire territory of Moldova: from rural areas and from large cities (Chisinau, Balti, Orhei) and small towns (Straseni, Ungheni, Hincesti, Cahul). Despite this, trafficking in children is still generally approached as part of the wider phenomenon of trafficking in human beings. Unofficial data provided by law enforcement bodies suggest that every year approximately 5,000 minors are transported to Russia and forced to provide sexual services. In general, trafficked children end up in sexual exploitation and forced labour, including begging. An analysis of the survey results shows that most often it is boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18 years who are trafficked, the greatest number of victims being 15-18 years old. Boys are recruited mostly by members of the Roma ethnic group who exploit them in agricultural labour, begging, selling fake gold etc. Girls are also often recruited for these jobs and may also be sexually exploited. […]
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