According to official statistics, in the years of independence 100,000 Ukrainian girls have wound up abroad, caught up in the sex business

The system of slavery has passed into memory this summer and serfdom abolished. Nobody could suggest that we are reminded here of the inherently cyclical nature of history. Contemporary slavers do not, after all, work alone, but in groups with a minimum of ten associates; it finds itself a donor-country, where it sends a spy or, in other words, opens an office. In general the choice falls on countries where difficulties exist such as high unemployment, low income of the population and whose rights are difficult to protect: in short, in places where victims do not have to be persuaded for long to exchange their native surroundings for uncertain streets of gold. The pay is stable — up to $5 billion a year — while the pursuit of law enforcement agencies of human-traffickers has proved much less successful than say the pursuit of drug dealers or terrorists.

Along with most post-Soviet republics, Ukraine is a member of this class of countries. At an international conference dealing with the problems of preventing human trafficking, organized by the US Agency for International Development, the following figures were cited: in the world as a whole there are 500-700,000 victims of human trafficking each year. As usual, in order to paint a realistic picture, international specialists have increased semi-official figures by approximately 300%. These figures, especially pertinent to the female population between 15 to 30, demonstrate new tendencies in the trafficking of children and men.

Vice Prime Minister Semynozhenko in unison with other government representatives and deputies attending the conference, noted that currently it is necessary to devote more attention to the question of gender. At present, among 449 parliamentary deputies, only 34 are women. The latter receive on average 73% of men’s pay, insofar as predominately poorly paid fields (public health, education, culture) have for the most part been feminized. 46% of Ukrainian women are unemployed, and they make up 70% of the nation’s total unemployed. According to the head of the State Committee on Families and Youth Valentyna Dovzhenko, it would be worth focusing attention on their qualifications, on the organization of study centers, on the system of employment and on increasing benefits and allowances for mothers with small children.

Western representatives at the conference were inclined toward the necessity to take decisions in the punitive field. In his report, the American ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual started by noting the fact that good laws without appropriate enforcement are no more than empty threats. He quoted interesting examples. When the US detained a group of human traffickers and the affair was linked with Ukraine, nobody in the country thought of launching a criminal case. Also, out of 107 people accused of human trafficking, only ten have gone to court. In his opinion, in Ukraine programs to protect witnesses in such cases are not adequately effective, while there are few competent judges or public prosecutors. The first deputy chair of the parliamentary committee on questions of legislative safeguards for law enforcement activity Aleksandr Bandurka cited figures that, on the contrary, indicate progress in the punishment of such so-called businessmen. While in 1998 only two criminal cases were brought, in 2001 89 were opened. And this is not counting those human traffickers who were caught for fraud or forging documents. According to Bandurka, we systematically check on firms organizing different kinds of foreign contacts: from job placement to the organization of tourist trips and foreign marriage agencies. Today of 570 checked, 80 were found to be violating the law, 32 firms lacked licenses, and the activity of 16 had been suspended. As well as the asserted state programs on the prevention of human trafficking, social organizations actively report on themselves, having gone to the criminal code for articles envisaging legal responsibility for this crime.

But such legalization of international agreements about work of Ukrainian citizens abroad is not enough, in Dovzhenko’s opinion of, what is necessary is the creation of state oversight structures to implement the exchange of workers with other countries.