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SEX TRADE: POOR UKRAINIAN GIRLS TRICKED INTO SEX TRADE

Agence France Presse (AFP), Kiev, Ukraine, Jan 31, 2004

KIEV - It seemed like an offer too good to be true: Tetiana, a young Ukrainian, was offered 10 times her usual salary for working as an au pair in the Italian sun. But she found herself trapped in a grubby Istanbul room - a sex slave.

Lured by promises of earning good money, Ukrainian women find themselves sold into prostitution instead. More than 100,000 young Ukrainian women have suffered a similar fate since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

They dream of Eldorado but end up in the clutches of a pimp somewhere in Europe, Turkey, the Balkans or the Middle East, with their passports stolen, the Ukrainian branch of the international non-governmental organisation, Strada, said.

Lured by promises of earning good money, Ukrainian women find themselves sold into prostitution instead
AFP

'Most of the victims are unemployed women from the countryside aged between 18 and 28, tricked by small ads offering them work as house-cleaners or waitresses in western Europe,' Strada-Ukraine director Katerina Cherepakha said. 'It's hard to resist an offer of US$2,000 (S$3,400) a month when in your own country you're earning barely US$100 a month.'

In some cases the young women have been deceived by a neighbour, a friend or even a family member. Last year Ukrainian police investigated 300 cases of human trafficking, twice as many as in 2002, but 'only a tiny number of these were brought to court because of a lack of evidence', said Ms Alla Taran.

She heads the state committee that is coordinating the fight against trafficking with the police and non-governmental organisations. For the victims of the trade in sex slaves, the torment does not end even after they return home. They bring with them psychological scars, and in some cases serious diseases such as Aids, Ms Taran said.

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