Modern-Day Slavery




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  • 2018-03-01 21:30:57
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  On Feb. 26 a guest lecture on the topic of human trafficking took place in BAC Andrey Delchev Auditorium organized by the Logos Club. The speaker, Nina Nikolova, is a representative of the organization A21 which has set its goal to fight against modern-day slavery. The name of the campaign is an acronym combination of the term "abolishment" and the fact that it was launched in the 21st century. A21, with offices all over the world, was founded ten years ago by an Australian of Greek origin. The representatives in Greece realized that most people who were caught in this trafficking process were Bulgarians. This also necessitated the opening of an office in Sofia about two years ago. [caption id="attachment_38527" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]Steliyana Yordanova for AUBG Daily At the screened presentation in BAC Andrey Delchev Auditorium; Steliyana Yordanova for AUBG Daily[/caption]
“I invited Nina [Nikolova] here because most students in AUBG go to Work and Travel and I believe they should be aware of what might happen to them,” commented Veselina Jdrakova, a second-year student at AUBG who is also part of A21. “Another thing is that some foreigners in AUBG find a part-time job in Blagoevgrad. They do not know the language and because of that are more vulnerable. They should be aware of the problem and have it in mind before taking up job opportunities.”
Nikolova talked about the different types of human trafficking, how they operate and showed global statistics for each type. On first place comes labor exploitation at 42.5 percent.
“You apply for a job, but it is not the job you applied for. When you get there, they take your passport, they threaten you, and you work for free basically. You are lucky if they feed you, otherwise, you are anorexic when you leave,” commented Nikolova.
She said that men are also vulnerable to this type of human trafficking because they leave Bulgaria and go to Eastern Europe to work in construction and agriculture. [caption id="attachment_38528" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]Steliyana Yordanova for AUBG Daily The attentive audience in BAC Andrey Delchev Auditorium; Steliyana Yordanova for AUBG Daily[/caption] The second most represented type is sexual exploitation or the so-called “prostitution”. The global statistics show 9.6% but Nikolova thinks that 50% of the human trafficking is based on the so known "loverboy scheme". This is a practice where the scammers make profiles of their victims and usually target girls and women who come from cheap labor families or are abused at home. Their tactic is to send a handsome guy who is dressed well, drives expensive cars, buys the girl gifts and takes her to nice places. The girl falls in love and soon she is willing to do anything for him.
“This goes on until one day the money stops… he says: “Listen, we are out of money, I have some debts, and they are going to kill me if I don’t pay it back. There is this really quick way that we can make a lot of money, but you have to make a sacrifice.” And what do you think that is? Prostitution,” explained Nikolova.
At this point, the guy starts selling the girl and if she refuses, the abuse starts. If this situation started with a job application, the girl could have tried to find a way out. According to Nikolova, the problem with the loverboy scheme is that when the girl is too in love, she doesn’t even realize that she is a victim of human trafficking and she will not think of seeking for help. Nikolova even interviewed a criminal who told her that the loverboy scheme works unmistakably. “Just go to any club in Studentski grad [Sofia neighborhood],” said the trafficker to Nikolova. Girls who are new in Sofia and have never been to the capital are the easiest target. The third type of human trafficking is babies sold by their families and it rates at about 11% globally. The biggest percentage of people in Bulgaria who sell their children are from the Roma communities with their babies transferred to Greece.
“Imagine you are in the poorest part of a Roma neighborhood. You are a single mother of five, your roof is falling apart, and this guy comes and offers you to fix your roof in exchange for you getting pregnant and giving him the baby,” explained Nikolova.
The scenario continues with the baby being given to a wealthy Greek family, which further tempts the mother into the offer. The truth is that there is no guarantee that the baby will be given to this family. In fact, there is a bigger chance that it becomes an organ donor. There are a lot more types of human trafficking. One of them is organ selling. It usually happens in poor communities in Asia and Africa where there are people who have no identification documents, not even birth certificates, which helps cut them off from relatives that might miss them. Another type involves paupers. They are offered a job in Eastern Europe and since they have nothing to lose, they go, but they do not speak the language there. The last type is the forced marriages in Roma communities. Some people say that this is their culture but Nikolova thinks that the traditions should change with time. This falls as a category of human trafficking because money is exchanged between the family of the bride and the family of the groom without the bride being asked for her opinion.
“If the marriage is consummated, but the husband doesn’t like the goods, he can return her back to the family but know she is “damaged goods”. So if they try to sell her to the next husband, her value goes down,” commented Nikolova.
A21 made an experiment where they put flayers in Pazardzhik and Sliven about a job offer for nannies in Greece with a salary of €1000 and added their phone. They couldn’t believe how many women called them and said: “I can leave tomorrow”. The organization explained to each person that this was an experiment and told them how they should always beware of who they are calling. The organization offers the option of scanning contracts to see if the company exist and whether the written names belong to real people. They have already saved a few women. [caption id="attachment_38526" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]Steliyana Yordanova for AUBG Daily Nina Nikolova talking the specifics of human trafficking; Steliyana Yordanova for AUBG Daily[/caption] The representative of A21 invocated the audience to join the organization in their fight against human trafficking. Volunteers are wanted for spreading the word of the cause around Bulgarian high schools and help bring awareness to different events.
“I came to the event because I was interested in human trafficking specifically in Bulgaria and I know it is a big problem here,” said Georgi Leshkov, a second-year student at AUBG who showed interest in spreading the word for the cause of A21. “I feel very passionate about Bulgarian women being exploited by other people. This is something I am very much against. I wanted to hear some more information about it and probably see how I can help”.