Police in Georgia accuse Turkey of indifference toward human trafficking

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By Mika Parkkonen in Tbilisi
     
      Police in Georgia accuse Turkey of unwillingness to tackle the human trafficking going on between the countries.
      This year already 18 cases of human trafficking have been revealed in Georgia, 14 of which involve the sale of Georgian women under the age of 40 to brothels in Turkey. Police believe that as many as 100 Georgian women work in the brothels that have been brought to light, and that most of them are there against their will
     
Irakli Isiparteliani, head of the Georgian police unit for fighting human trafficking, says that Georgian officials are unable to help these women because Turkey has been unwilling to cooperate.
      "We do not have any possibilities to go to Turkey and free these women. We have met with Turkish officials and told them about the problem. So far, negotiations have not led anywhere. It is surprising that Turkey is not interested in helping in this matter", Isiparteliani said in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
      He says that a total of 13 indictments have been filed in the cases now under investigation, and seven criminals have been imprisoned, suspected of human trafficking. They face sentences of between 12 and 20 years.
     
However, no prison sentences have been handed down for human trafficking in Georgia, because human trafficking is a completely new category of crime in the former Soviet republic.
      A law against human trafficking was passed only last year, and the special police unit set up to fight the phenomenon was launched in January this year. The unit, comprising agents of the state security police, has proven to be quite necessary.
      In nearly all of the cases currently under investigation, the police have learned about human trafficking taking place after the victim had succeeded in fleeing the captors.
      One of the cases involves a man who thought he was getting a job felling trees, and ended up being used as agricultural slave labour in Svanetia in the north of Georgia. This remote mountainous region has Europe's highest-elevation permanent settlement.
     
"The victim was promised well-paid forest work, but the person offering the job sold him for 300 dollars. The man ended up doing heavy agricultural work for nearly two years. At times he was tortured", Isiparteliani describes.
      The man was saved by the farm family's illegal still. On a holiday, everyone in the house drank themselves under the table with homemade moonshine and the slave managed to escape.
      "After getting down the mountain, the man flagged down the first police car that he saw and was taken to safety."
      Irakli Isiparteliani says that all 14 cases of trafficking in women that are under investigation involve the sale of women to Turkey as prostitutes.
      Usually the victims are from poor rural areas, who are promised work abroad as waitresses, for example.
     
"Georgia has very high unemployment and many are interested in working abroad. When criminals hear through the grapevine about girls looking for work abroad, they show up to offer help. Finding a victim is very easy."
      Isiparteliani says that the women end up in brothels in many different ways.
      There are cases now under investigation in Georgia, where the women are first assembled in small groups in Tbilisi, where they are given forged passports, identification cards, visas, and then they are taken to brothels in Turkey. However, it is more common for them to cross the border legally, either individually, or in pairs. At the time they do not know that they are to end up as prostitutes.
     
"The people who recruit a woman are often women who accompany the victim into Turkey and hand them over to the pimp, who takes the victim's papers, locks her up, and forces her to do sex work. The going price for a young woman is 1,200 dollars", Isiparteliani says.
      His unit is also investigating a case in which the guide herself worked in Turkey as a prostitute, and forced the women she brought with her to work for her.
      "It is impossible to know how many Georgian women are working against their will as prostitutes in Turkey or other foreign countries. There are no official statistics. Our knowledge and assessments of the number of victims is based purely on the stories told by the women", Isiparteliani emphasises.
     
The sale of babies is a peculiar feature of Georgian trafficking in humans. In the first three months of the year, three mothers who have sold their own children have been caught. Under new legislation, they are being charged with human trafficking. Previously the charges would have been for giving a child away for illegal adoption.
      "One of these took place in Kutaisi. Four people were arrested. The remaining two babies were on sale in Tbilisi. An Israeli citizen has been arrested for organising their sale."
      Isiparteliani says that women who sell their children are victims of poverty, not rape.
      "One of the mothers sold her second child because she could not afford to feed a new member of the family. The price was 600 dollars. She had no idea if the child would get to live in a foreign home, or end up in the hands of an organ dealer."
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 7.4.2005


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Suspicions of human trafficking stigmatise Georgian women (30.3.2005)
  Georgian politician: Finland popular travel route to West (31.3.2005)

MIKA PARKKONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
mika.parkkonen@hs.fi