STB TV, in Kiev, Ukraine in Ukrainian, 20 Jun 03
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Jun 24, 2003

Cash-strapped residents of western Ukraine are increasingly falling prey to human trafficking and sex slavery in other countries, the Ukrainian STB television has said in a special feature on illegal migration. Thousands of migrant workers are currently being recruited in Ukraine's Chernivtsi Region to be used as cheap labour in neighbouring countries, the TV said.

Many of the people are tricked into going abroad by promises of good jobs, but in reality are forced to work for peanuts as they have no legal status. Women are often made to work as prostitutes in countries like Germany or the Czech Republic.

The following is the text of the report aired in STB's regular programme on crime, entitled "K Hour", on 20 June; the subheadings are the television's own:

[Presenter] People without any rights who have come into conflict with their own destiny - that's a brief description of those Ukrainians who are forced to work abroad illegally. However, a majority of such migrants more often than not end up in real slavery. People get deceived not only by their foreign masters but also by their own fellow countrymen, who make quite a fortune on such migration. Those who are hustling in the so-called sex business are raking in profits that are just as high. Girls are simply being made to go into it while disobedience may cost them their lives.

About 2,500 Ukrainian have died abroad over the last two years. The "K topic" today focuses on the ways in which Ukrainian migrant workers are deceived and on the ordeals they go through in slavery.

The first wave of contemporary slaves emerged in the early 1990s. No-one knows how many Ukrainians are toiling away for foreign masters. According to unofficial sources, there are about 5m such people. According to other data, the figure is twice as high. The reason for such a gap is obvious. Migrants traditionally travel abroad almost incognito, for instance, pretending to be a group of tourists.

This is just a cover to cross the border unhindered. Once the tourist visas expire, the people stay behind as illegals. For example, in Bukovyna [Chernivtsi Region] alone, more than 100,000 residents have left their homes, i.e. one-tenth of the Bukovyna residents have gone abroad. Currently, the highest numbers of Ukrainian migrant workers are in Russia, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy. By the way, it is Italy that "boasts" the biggest market of contemporary slaves. It is situated in Naples, in historic Garibaldi Square.

[Anonymous man with a blurred face, captioned as operative of the Security Service of Ukraine [SBU] directorate for Chernivtsi Region] If the activities of organized crime groups that are engaged in human trade are to be analysed, one can talk of a high degree of their technical equipment and knowledgeableness.

[Presenter] According to experts, there are currently two ways of taking Ukrainians abroad: an illegal one and a semi-legal, or the so-called tourist, one. The latter is the more popular both with migrants and those who organize their travel. Migrants become illegals, i.e. turn into a kind of slaves once their visas expire. Masters or signors can exploit such people in any way they please. However, it is a fact that first and foremost this is cheap labour. The seekers of a better life are keen on any job.

[Anonymous SBU operative] Representatives of so-called travel agencies have been particularly active on this market. Since the late 1990s-early 2000s, they have been springing up like mushrooms. There are about 150 private businesses working on the tourist market in Bukovyna at the moment who base their activities on providing services to take our fellow citizens out of Ukraine for employment abroad.

[Presenter] Currently the businessmen who milk such migrants are making lots of money. The number of those willing to go abroad for cold hard cash grows year after year. People pay their guides in different ways. The price depends on the way of transportation. Those who go under the guise of tourists pay 1,000-1,500 dollars. The illegal way costs half the amount. Of this money, 70 per cent is pocketed by travel organizers.

[Anonymous SBU operative] For instance, a group of our compatriots is put together to go to Italy. If visas are officially obtained from the embassy, the travel agency hires a van for the people. Such groups normally travel in Mercedes vans - Mercedes-Sprinter vans. This van can take up to 10-12 people.

[Presenter] The businessmen can earn approximately 20,000 dollars on one shipment. You can go as many times as you wish. However, according to law-enforcers, instances of fraud are growing increasingly more frequent. The number of victims rises year after year. The mechanism used by the con men is fairly simple: first, they find a group of people willing to go abroad to work. The organizers promise them the moon.

However, in order to reach the desired country, it is necessary to pay. Ordinary people are strapped for cash, as is known. Therefore, people agree to get into debt. But the organizers of such trips will never reveal their real costs, thus conning people of huge sums of money. In turn, the future slave labourer may not be aware that the debt could be paid much quicker that he or she is told by the con men.

It is such con men that have recently been exposed by operatives of the SBU directorate for Chernivtsi Region. The cheats not only got their money back, but also made tens of thousands of bucks. At the beginning of this year investigators opened a criminal case against four Bukovyna residents on charges of trading in humans and other related illegal activities.

[Myroslav Trachuk, captioned as head of the investigative department of the SBU directorate for Chernivtsi Region] The essence of this case is that the people against whom the criminal case was instituted used their family links and took advantage of the situation in some parts of our region, including Putyla District and Vyzhnytsya District. In mountain villages there, people are jobless, and they were recruited to go to the United States of America.

[Presenter] Preference was given to men only. Employment was offered to residents of Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. The final destination was the USA. People were being sent to America in a semi-legal way. Documents for travel to Mexico via Poland were obtained without any difficulty. Then the Ukrainian migrants were secretly transported across the US border. The people received employment in the land of the free, but all their documents had been taken away from them beforehand.

[Trachuk] It was contemporary slavery. They took Putyla District residents there, handed them over to other people involved in the operation - for hard physical labour. Then they took away the money earned by the migrants.

[Presenter] Investigators say it was easy to lure people into going overseas to work. The old Ukrainian way of passing information from family to family also helped. That was how people leant about the opportunity to go abroad. As Putyla and Vyzhnytsya districts in Chernivtsi Region mainly consist of mountain villages, there was no shortage of people keen on going. Moreover, the offers were made by people they knew. By the way, this way of recruitment is deemed the most widespread among slave traders. They have the biggest ally on the their side - the factor of trust.

Women

[Presenter] Another wave of migration swept Ukraine in the mid 1990s. It is called the women's wave. Women leave their husbands and children in order to earn some money. Women accept both seasonal and more permanent jobs. Ukrainian women look after elderly people or work as servants. Lyudmyla's sister Svitlana went to the Czech Republic early this year. She left behind a 14-year-old daughter. Lyudmyla is now looking after her. The promise of a job came from a neighbour. The sisters could not possibly imagine that his words were hollow.

[Lyudmyla, captioned as sister of the victim] The man who did recruitment for foreign jobs is from these parts. We know him and his parents. So, he made the offer and she agreed. She filled out the application form - the application form alone because she already had her [foreign travel] passport. He said he would take the documents with him to Chernivtsi. Then he brought the documents back and gave her a date for departure.

[Presenter] And off she went. The trip was the first of a kind in her lifetime. The woman hoped for a brighter future, but shortly after arrival her dreams were dispelled. From then on the neighbour turned into a common con man to the sisters. It is now difficult to write about what exactly Svitlana went through. However, Lyudmyla could hardly keep from bursting into tears while reading the sister's letter.

[Lyudmyla] The conditions were very bad. They lived where they worked. There was no way for them to get out because, according to her, the master said her visa was valid for a mere 16 days instead of six months as she had been told. Once 16 days have passed, that's it: she has no right to go anywhere. She said her arms and legs were swollen because they peeled potatoes in the basement. They lived there as well.

[Presenter] However, people say Svitlana was luckier than others. Later on, she changed masters and supposedly found a fairly decent job. Lyudmyla took her time before answering a question whether she would agree to go to work abroad. Her reply was a somewhat indecisive "I don't know". Apparently, there was a glimmer of hope for a better life behind this "I don't know".

Sex industry

[Presenter] No-one doubts that the most beautiful girls are Slavs. International rings involved in the so-called sex business are aware of this beauty. The group that was formed and later headed by Petro Skazkevych, alias Skanya, will go down in Ukrainian crime history as a man who was not only rendered harmless, but also who landed where he belonged - in the dock - facing charges of conducting trade in humans. By the way, Skanya had already had experience of staying behind bars and was a well-known figure in the Chernivtsi underworld.

[Anonymous operative of the Security Service of Ukraine [SBU] directorate for Chernivtsi Region] Skazkevych attracted the attention of operations units of the Security Service of Ukraine in early 2000. At that time, a tip-off was being checked about a human trafficking channel opened to send our citizens abroad for their further sex exploitation.

[Presenter] Simultaneously, Skanya drew the attention of German law-enforcers. It was Germany where he sent our girls. German police also began to watch and record the crimes of the Ukrainian pimp. As for the group, it consisted of almost 10 people at that time. Two of them are Polish citizens. Their functions were to transport the girls across the border - the Polish-German border. The Poles made forged documents. Two Germans ran brothels. Three Ukrainians did recruitment and took care of paperwork to get the women across the Ukrainian-Polish border.

Their functions also included the collection of money for sex services in Germany. The criminals were making piles of money. For example, Skanya personally made 5,000-15,000 German marks on every girl. It is difficult to say how many there were in one year. Operatives are in no doubt that the criminal was making hundreds of thousands of dollars. According to the official case file, a total of 110 girls passed through Skanya's dirty hands. However, the real number of victims was five times higher, according to investigators. The girls are usually reluctant to recall what happened to them.

[Anonymous SBU operative] The brothels in Germany were run by our compatriot, a female resident of Chernivtsi. Recruitment in Ukraine was carried out by both men and women.

[Presenter] The role of the so-called mamma in Skanya's gang was performed by Nataliya Matsuyeva, a former prostitute herself, they say. [Video shows her mug shot.] It was her responsibility not only to watch the girls, but also to milk money from them. There was no shortage of work for her. She had to go from town to town in Germany as the girls were scattered in nightclubs all over the country.

[Anonymous SBU operative] The thing is that Skazkevych did not reside permanently in any single country. He would be spotted by law-enforcers in Ukraine, Russia, Germany and Poland, but because he was constantly on the move and because he constantly changed the tactics and methods of his illegal activities, he succeeded, for a while, to avoid criminal responsibility.

[Presenter] The technique used by the Skazkevych gang to control the girls is fairly widespread in this kind of business. If a victim refused to work as a prostitute, she was broken, i.e. beaten, tortured and then sent to earn money. If the method still did not work, the sex slave was put on a short leash, i.e. was told: if you don't work, your family will feel the consequences of your disobedience.

Threats like this did have effect on girls. As for Skanya, he was finally caught - quickly and noiselessly, as operatives say. Strange as it may seem, Petro was in the company of two girlfriends even when he was being arrested. He must really love his business. But now he and his cronies will have to grow to like a different kind of company.

That's all we have had time for tonight. Let's meet again in a week's time. Take care.

[0815-2230 Video shows people getting on buses in Chernivtsi Region, people in Chernivtsi streets, SBU officials being interviewed, checkpoints on Ukrainian-Romanian border, Ukrainian advertisements offering employment abroad, the building of the SBU directorate for Chernivtsi Region, map showing the route from Ukraine to Mexico and then on to the USA, the town of Putyla, mountain villages; presenter visiting the home of the sister of a Ukrainian migrant worker, a Czech town; pictures of Skazkevych, German nightclubs and brothels, a mug shot of Nataliya Matsuyeva, the arrest of Skazevych.]