Busload of Georgian women stopped at border

Four men arrested on suspicion of human trafficking

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A tourist bus from the former Soviet republic of Georgia was stopped at the Vaalimaa border station on the Finnish-Russian border on Tuesday on suspicion of trafficking in human beings.
      The passengers - 48 women from Georgia - were sent to the Joutseno refugee reception centre while officials began ascertaining the purpose of their trip.
      The women are not suspected of any crime: they arrived in Finland from Russia with legitimate travel documents. However, the four men - two drivers, an interpreter, and the leader of the tour, were detained. Some of them were reportedly familiar from previous cases. They are being questioned in Kotka on suspicion of human trafficking and links with organised crime.
     
Suspicions of passport control personnel were aroused by the Swedish Schengen visas issued to the passengers, and by the fact that they all were women.
      The women - aged 26 - 60 - did not have enough money for the trip which was supposed to take them from Helsinki via Copenhagen to Germany, and from there through Austria, Italy, and Greece, to Turkey and back to Georgia.
      The women are expected to stay at the refugee reception centre for a couple of days before they are sent back to Russia. Border officials note that it would have been legally possible to turn the women back at the border, however, for humanitarian reasons they were taken to Joutseno.
     
An estimated 1,500 women are believed to have crossed into Finland from Russia in tourist buses in the same manner in the past few years. The matter was brought to the attention of EU officials by Greece, where officials had noticed that many buses had been returning to Georgia through Greece with no passengers on board.
      Officials say that women taking such tours are often enticed by promises of jobs as waitresses, dancers, or in domestic service in Western Europe. However, it is believed that they often end up in the sex business against their will.
     
Finland's Minister of the Interior Kari Rajamäki (SDP), is proposing an EU directive, as well as national legislation which would allow the granting of residence permits to victims of trafficking in humans in exchange who help officials law enforcement officials in their investigations.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Russian officials surprised at reports of human trafficking (16.3.2005)
  Finland found to be transit point for traffic in women from east to west (11.3.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat