Search Search. Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan. Armenia Azerbaijan Georgia. Afghanistan Pakistan. Belarus Ukraine. Previous Next. February 15, GMT. By Alban Bala. International aid organizations in Albania are helping to establish new shelters for sexually exploited girls from Eastern European countries. It's all part of an effort to increase awareness of the social drama that has sent more than 40, Albanian girls to Europe's sidewalks.
That's from a country with a resident population of barely more than 3 million and with more than , citizens working abroad, mainly in Italy and Greece. The director of a shelter for repatriated Albanian prostitutes, Vera Leskaj, is in despair. Four years ago, she established the shelter, which caters to young Albanian girls and women who have been sexually exploited in Western countries. The shelter is supported financially by Save the Children, a U. Leskaj says that, based on interviews and queries made by her and her staff, she is convinced the flow of trafficked women has recently increased: "The trafficking has increased, compared with previous years.
For example, in I interviewed girls. In , girls. And during , I interviewed girls, while [in] the first two months of this year, it was 67 girls. I mean, the trafficking has grown, but it also is being dealt with better. In the final result, all these figures are girls either caught by Italian police and repatriated or else stopped by Albanian police while trying to leave for Italy. I mean, after all these years, no one can say, 'I don't know how the human trafficking works or how it is organized.
There are citizens who transport clandestine people [to Vlora] with their vans. There are the speedboat owners who carry them [to Italy]. This means the public perceives it as a well-organized operation, because we have it in our sight. We see it," Leskaj says. Every night, between 15 and 20 speedboats dart the 85 kilometers across the Strait of Otranto -- where the Adriatic meets the Ionian Sea and Italy is at its closest to the Albanian coast. The boats make two or even three roundtrips a night in good weather, transporting Albanian prostitutes and illegal migrants, prostitutes from elsewhere in Eastern Europe, and refugees from the Middle East and Asia, as well as drugs, tobacco, and weapons.
Every speedboat has its own crew. They include an assistant who finds the "goods," as clandestine travelers are called; a van driver who picks them up or who travels on a regular basis from Vlora to other big cities; and a guard service, which often includes the participation of corrupt police officers. Leskaj says the involvement of the police in trafficking is individual and not institutional. A study by Save the Children alleges that Albanian police were incriminated in 10 percent of trafficking cases involving sexual abuse.
