Vladimir Ubeivolc

Our columnists: Another face of the human trafficking

Speaking of human trafficking, we are used to draw attention to three categories of people: victims, criminal organizations and the clients who purchase services from traffickers. These categories should be examined in detail because each has its own unique features which however refer to the same phenomenon and separate these ones from other groups of people. The trafficking issue concerns also the victim’s family members. They usually stay in the background but they deserve as well to be spoken of.

Victims’ relatives and friends

In fact, the victims of human trafficking invoke sympathy and the desire to help them regardless of their gender identity and the ways they fell into slavery. But how often do we think about those who remain at home waiting for their relatives and friends?

Over the past 10 years, about 30 thousand women, having left Moldova in search of a better life, are missing. None of the relatives saw their bodies, received a notice of death, while, on the other hand, none of them were told that their daughter (wife, mother, sister) is alive, still loves them, misses and hopes to see them soon.

Regina Pacis is an Italian organization working to prevent human trafficking and searching for the missing people. Almost every morning, groups of people gather at the gates of the organization in hope of good news. Most of them are aged women. Their clothes and language betray their provincial origin. Every morning these people are waiting for information about their missing daughters and sons. However, other sons and daughters continue to leave the country in search of new lives. Each month, about 10 thousand people emigrate from Moldova to European countries. This is 120,000 people a year. Our republic has a population of just 3.5 million ... It is easy to calculate what would happen to the country in 10 years. And there is no accurate data on migration from Moldova to CIS countries (mainly to Russia), because visas are not required. In Ukraine there is a similar situation.

Hundreds of thousands of abandoned parents, most of which elder people, are unable to take care of themselves. Hundreds of thousands of abandoned children live with aged people, neighbors, or on their own... Who will assess the damage inflicted to them? And how can it be assessed? By which criteria?

Psychological services just begin to be provided in the country and it will take a long time they reach the periphery. People are not used to go to a psychologist. They can not yet appreciate the help a professional may give. And farther from the capital people live, more distrustful they are. Even if there is an institute of social workers in the country, the number of employees is very limited, and the state salary paid for the job is ridiculously low. The thousands of abandoned mothers and children have nothing better to do than cry at night, witnessing their grief to God. But over time, their hearts are getting accustomed to the created situation, harden and remain deaf to any expression of emotion.

The other face of human trafficking is the face on which tears petrify...

Vladimir Ubeyvolk, chairman of NGO "Beginning of Life", Chisinau, Moldova

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TAGS: Human trafficking slavery Regina Pacis NGO "Beginning of Life"

[03/22/2010]

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