 
 Media Room - News at February, 2005
 
Cumhuriyet Newspaper - February 16, 2005
Turkey and Trafficking in Human Beings
ANKARA (ANKA) - It is reported that Turkey is perceived as a "country of opportunities" in the surrounding countries consisting mostly of the former Eastern Bloc countries, but that the women who arrive from such countries and get caught in the net of human traffickers wish to return their home country at once after being saved from the sex trade trap. Mr. Allan Freedman from the International Organisation for Migration noted that Turkey's being viewed as a "country of opportunities" increases the migration to Turkey.
Turkish Daily News - February 13, 2005
Turkey eyes 'model' success in human trafficking fight
It is hoped that ongoing efforts to fight the human trafficking of women from former Soviet countries will make Turkey the country dealing most effectively with 'modern-day slavery' in the region and will improve its tarnished international standing
ANKARA-Turkish Daily News
Fatma DEMIRELLI
On Jan.11, Turkish newspapers published the appaling story of a 21-year-old Ukrainian woman, identified as T.L., who was rescued in a police raid on an Istanbul brothel, were she was forced into prostitution. The woman, reported the newspapers, came to Turkey in July of last year when she was seven months pregnant in hope of working as a babysitter before she ended up in the hands of a transnational human trafficking gang operating the brothel. Her captors were not moved by her plea that she could not have sex because of her pregnancy. A week after she gave birth to her baby, one of the captors pushed chewing gum into the baby's mouth and killed it because the mother was spending too much time taking care of the kid, rather than the clients.
T. is one of dozens of desperate women, mostly from former Soviet bloc countries, where unemployment is high and opportunities are few, coming to Turkey in hope of changing their lives for the better but eventually ending up being trafficked by crime gangs primarily for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Over the last few years, trafficking in persons, women in particular, has grown at an alarming rate in the region and Turkey, as a preferred destanation, has had its share from the surging crime.
Vast economic opportunities that are further increasing in parallel to growing prospects for eventual European Union membership and ensuing stability, geographic proximity and a liberal visa regime have attracted increasingly many would-be migrants from Eastern Europe and former Soviet bloc countries in search of better living conditions to Turkey over the past years. This situation, in turn, is heavily exploited by human traffickers, who sometimes lure young women with promises of regular employment but which ultimately results in forced prostitution, debt and various forms of abuse including forced confinement, control of personal documents and passports and threats.
Estimates of how many people are being trafficked in Turkey are difficult to locate. A total of 262 people, 239 of whom are foreigners, were identified as victims of trafficking by the Turkish police and gendarmerie in 2004, a figure that officials say is only the 'tip of the iceberg'.
Ready to take the challenge
Turkish authorities say they are aware of the problem and are prepared to accept the challenge to make Turkey the country dealing most effectively with the problem of human trafficking in the region. Pressure on Ankara to improve anti-trafficking efforts has increased in recent years in connection with its bid to join the European Union. Ankara admits international pressure but says its growing efforts are guided by a desire to combat one of the worst forms of human trafficking rather than simply to respond to an outside demand.
'We, as Turkey, are aiming at becoming a model country in the Caucasus, the Balkans and the Middle East in terms of combating human trafficking,' taking the most advanced measures among the countries of the region, said Ambassador Murat Ersavci, the director-general for consular affairs at the Foreign Ministry, who also heads a national task force in charge of coordinating anti-trafficking efforts. 'Our efforts towards this goal are very serious.'
In an annual report examining the situation in world countries in the fight against human trafficking, the U.S. State Department placed Turkey in Tier 3, the worst category of countries that do not comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so in its report in 2003. That assessment improved in the 2004 report, which placed Turkey on the Tier 2 watch list for its determination to make significant efforts at combating trafficking, waiting to see implementation of the pledged steps for a possible upgrade to Tier 2.
Ersvaci said Turkey hoped to be moved to Tier 2 in the 2005 report, expected to be released in the coming months, with the eventual goal of joining the Tier 1.
The International Organization for Migration, which Turkey joined as a full member in November 2004, is hopeful that Turkey is set for a better assessment after all the progress, it has recently achieved.
Commending the increasing efficiency of Turkish law enforcement authorities in identifying and referring victims of human trafficking to the IOM for assistance, Marielle Sander-Lindstrom, chief of mission of IOM's Turkey office, said Turkey's efforts are 'fantastic'.
'To me, it proves what I thought at the beginning, that Turkey has so much capacity and potential to actually have a significant impact on human trafficking, that if we can support Turkey now, when we have that window of opportunity, then we can do something positive for the entire region,' she said.
Over the last couple of years Turkey has amended its penal code, the Law on Work Permits for Foreigners and the Citizenship Law, introducing a stronger legal basis to fight trafficking. The new Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which will become effectives as of April of this year, introduces heavier punishment for traffickers, up to 12 years in prison and a fine. Changes in the Citizenship Law make passage of a provisional period of three years compulsory before a foreigner can request Turkish citizenship for being married to a Turk, a step taking aim at the trafficking of women through false marriages. Through the changes in the Law on Work Permits, foreigners can be legally employed in some additional categories, including domestic service.
In another legal step to make the fight against human trafficking more effective, the Interior Ministry has allowed a humanitarian visa for identified victims of human trafficking if they do not want to return home immediately or if they agree to testify against traffickers in court.
Turkish authorities, working in cooperation with the IOM, have also organized a number of training sessions for law enforcement officers, the police and gendarmerie, and judicial personnel to raise awareness on trafficking and give them skills to identify a victim of human trafficking, the very first step in dealing with the problem.
Sander-Lindstrom said the number of victims referred to IOM for assistance went up to 62 in 2004, a dramatic increase from only two in 2002, a sign of the success of the training. The heightened awareness among law enforcement personnel will also hopefully save trafficking victims from being 'dumped' at the borders of the source countries as any irregular migrant, a practice, according to both the U.S. State Department and the IOM that would leave victims vulnerable to re-trafficking.
Hotline 157 for victims
On the more practical side, an NGO-managed shelter facility for victims of trafficking was set up in Istanbul in November, following a high-profile ceremony for the signing of a protocol on the establishment of the facility held in June and attended by then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. A similar facility is planned to soon be operational in Ankara.
The Turkish government is also in touch with those regional countries which most of the victims of trafficking come from, including Ukraine, Moldova, Russia Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Azerbaijan. The interior ministries of Turkey and Belarus signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in July 2004.
The cost of catching up
Despite the progress, the level of awareness among law enforcement bodies and the judiciary remains weak, and public awareness is even weaker. The 'fine line' between forced prostitution as a victim of trafficking and prostitution as such is for the most part blurred in the eyes of the public. Victims also often lack access to assistance they need, such as legal and psychological counseling, shelter, medical assistance, because they are lumped together with illegal immigrants for not having the proper legal documents and in some cases dumped at the border, only to be reinserted into the trafficking cycle by traffickers.
Implementation of the legal steps taken to raise awareness is a task that needs further effort and requires more financial resources. And allocating more money to fight against human trafficking is difficult for a country like Turkey, which not only faces trafficking but also must have enough resources to deal with dramatic flows of illegal migrants from Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Assisting the victims is also a huge task with a heavy financial cost. The IOM's advice is to build up the ability of NGOs to provide assistance for victims, including shelter, and to involve civil society in providing protection and health and legal assistance.
'It's a lot to ask of Turkey,' said Sander-Lindstrom, adding, 'But Turkey is taking its responsibility as a destination country.'
Campaign aims to build anti-trafficking capability
In an attempt to boost efforts and capabilities for combating human trafficking through information and stepped-up law enforcement, the government last week launched the "Counter-Trafficking Now" campaign. The $700.000 project is funded by the U.S. government and will be International Organization for Migration (IOM).
As part of the project some 100.000 women and girls aged 15-45 from source countries in the former Soviet bloc will receive leaflets with information about human trafficking and the number of a three-digit telephone hotline for emergency assistance. The leaflets will be in the form of passport inserts obtained upon arrival in Turkey.
The project envisages providing training to 150 police and gendarmerie personnel on the realities and causes of human trafficking as well as on key laws dealing with the issue. Some 150 victims will also receive shelter and medical and other assistance as part of the one-year project.
"Modern Day Slavery" preys on the vulnerable
Although its geographic location heavily exposes Turkey to the trafficking of persons from surrounding countries, it is by no means the only country suffering from this growing problem. The U.S. State Department estimates that between 600.000-800.000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders as modern-day slaves for forced prostitution, working in quarries and sweatshops and in general involuntary servitude. Millions more are trafficked within their own countries.
Economic hardship, political instability and civil war at home are driving forces behind the 21st century slave trade. The trade, in turn, feeds a global demand for cheap and vulnerable labor. Women and children are particularly vulnerable. Estimates show that of 600.000-800.000 people trafficked across borders each year, 70 percent are female and 50 percent are children. Traders' ploys are creative and ruthless, ranging from promises of marriage to regular employment or just a 'vacation' in another country.
Turkish Daily News - February 12, 2005
Turkey launches campaign for trafficking victims
ANKARA - The Turkish government yesterday launched a campaign to help victims of human trafficking by setting up an emergency telephone hotline and distributing leaflets to some 100.000 women and girls aged 15-45 from former Soviet countries that include information about human trafficking. The leaflets will be in the form of passport inserts obtained upon arrival in Turkey.
The $700.000 project is funded by the U.S. government and implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), officials told a press conference. The 157 line will operate 24 hours a day and will be staffed mainly by Russian speakers for women who are forced into prostitution in Turkey by organized trafficking gangs.
The project is the latest in a series of steps Turkey has taken to improve its efforts to combat trafficking after it was placed on a special watch list by the U.S. State Department last year. The number of victims of trafficking was 239 in 2004 according to official data, but the figures may be far from reflecting the real situation.
The "Counter-Trafficking Now!" campaign also includes plans to train Turkish law enforcement officers on the realities of human trafficking.
Many women from the ex-Soviet Union, notably from Black Sea states such as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, work as prostitutes in Turkey, especially in Istanbul and the coastal resorts.
The lucrative trade in women and children for sexual purposes by criminal gangs has become a major problem across Europe in recent years.
Anadolu Ajans - February 11, 2005
Joint project from turkey and the usa for preventing trafficking in human beings
The project introduced at the ministry of foreign affairs
ANKARA (A.A) - 11.02.2005- A project prepared with joint financing of Turkey and the USA in order to prevent trafficking in human beings and to raise public awareness on this matter was introduced at a meeting arranged at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Giving a speech at the meeting, Mr. N. Murat Ersavcý, General Director of Consulate Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that human trafficking is one of the important subjects in the process of alignment with the EU and that this matter is gaining increasingly more importance also in such organisations as the European Council, OSCE and NATO in which Turkey is a member.
Stating that Turkey will continue to take effective measures on this matter, Ambassador Ersavcý noted that a special unit has been formed within the body of the Ministry within this framework and that an Action Plan approved by the Prime Minister's Office has been put into application.
Ambassador Ersavcý said that required legal infrastructure has been completed to prevent trafficking in human beings and that the first shelter home entered into service in November in Ýstanbul and that it is targeted to open shelter homes in other provinces as well, particularly in Ýzmir, Antalya and Ankara.
Outline of the project
Ms. Marielle Sander-Lindström, Ankara Mission Chief of International Organisation of Migration (IOM) who participated in the meeting and gave information about the project said the project that will last for 12 months has three basic objectives. Accordingly, the first objective is to prevent formation of trafficking in human beings; the second objective is to ensure that penalties imposed on traffickers are increased, and the third objective is to provide protection and assistance to the victims of trafficking.
Under the scope of the project with $ 700,000 budget, for which the USA earmarked $ 600,000-worth finance and to which Turkey contributed $ 100,000, it was decided to establish firstly a free telephone line accessible to the victims who are made to work by force in the sex industry or in another area and who suffer from violence and pressure. The number of this line has been determined as 111 and the line will remain open on a continuous basis. At the other end of the line will be persons who have received required education in psychology and who speak Russian or Romanian, considering that a big majority of the victims speak the said languages. The line will become operational in the spring months.
In addition, brochures will be kept at airports and at other key points in order to ensure that those who are under the risk of trafficking in human beings are aware of the existence of such an assistance.
Victims will be provided with psychological support as well as medical and legal assistance, and such persons will be assisted to return their home countries in a safe manner.
Ms. Sander-Lindström pointed out that testimony of the victims plays the most important role in punishing the persons engaged in human trafficking and noted that a strong relationship of trust should be established between the victims and the security forces and the persons involved in the judicial process and said they will continue with training activities in order to raise awareness at every stage of the judicial process to this end.
Ms. Sander-Lindström noted that the capacity and the political will required for solution of the problem of trafficking in human beings exist in Turkey and that activities would be carried out to raise public awareness.
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