| bukėpjekės | Pjesa mė poshtė qė merret me trafikimin e njerėzve vjen nga raporti vjetor i Departamentit Amerikan tė Shtetit, vt. 2007. Sapo u botua pardje nė faqen zyrtare (nyja nė fund). Do theksoj disa pjesė relevante. Citim:
Albania
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2007
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
March 11, 2008
Trafficking in Persons
The law prohibits trafficking in persons and provides penalties for traffickers; however, persons, particularly women and children, were trafficked to, from, and within the country. The government did not prosecute victims of trafficking and refrained from discriminatory treatment against them. It recognized the rights of victims and helps ensure their access to justice to the extent possible under the currently weak judicial system. The government has a national coordinator for trafficking in persons who functions also as deputy minister of interior.
Albania remained a source country for trafficking of women and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor, although less so than in recent years. Greece is the main country of destination for trafficked women. Traffickers largely used overland routes or falsified documents to transport their victims by airplane or ferry.
The trafficking of children to Kosovo and Greece for begging or sexual exploitation continued to be a problem, although the number of cases reportedly declined. Police and shelter representatives continued to report a trend of females being moved from villages and smaller towns to larger cities for forced prostitution in hotels and private homes. Some of these girls and women were then moved out of Albania for sexual exploitation in other European countries. During the year NGOs Terre des Hommes (TdH) and Arsis identified 337 Albanian children in Thessaloniki and Athens, Greece, as trafficking victims.
Traffickers internally trafficked children from all regions of the country, and typically trafficked them to either Tirana or Durres. According to TdH, the number of internally trafficked children, particularly from the Roma and Balkan-Egyptian community, increased during the year. TdH identified over 300 children in Albania who were suspected victims of trafficking, many of whom ended up as street beggars.
The main forms of recruitment of female victims of trafficking continued to be marriage under false pretenses or other false romantic relationships to lure victims abroad for sexual exploitation. Due to the poor economic situation, men and women from organized criminal groups also lured many women and girls from all over the country by promising them jobs abroad. Orphans and girls from poor families continued to be particularly vulnerable to the threats of traffickers. Traffickers typically confiscated victims' documents, physically and sexually abused them, and sometimes forced them to work as prostitutes before they left the country. Domestic organized crime networks abused, tortured, and raped both citizens and foreign women whom they trafficked. Traffickers also threatened many of the victims' family members.
Due to the ease of deception and movement, shelter social workers noticed an increase of mentally handicapped girls who were trafficked both internally and abroad.
The law provides for penalties of five to 15 years' imprisonment for trafficking in persons; seven to 15 years' imprisonment for trafficking women for prostitution; and 15 to 20 years' imprisonment for trafficking in minors. Aggravating circumstances, such as the kidnapping or death of a victim, can raise the severity of the punishment to a maximum of life in prison. Courts can supplement prison sentences with fines of $4,800 to $7,200 (400,000 to 600,000 lek) for sexual exploitation of a minor and $3,600 to $7,200 (300,000 to 600,000 lek) for sexual exploitation of a woman. The law provides that a government official convicted of exploitation for prostitution receive 125 percent of the standard penalty. The law also mandates the sequestration and confiscation of assets derived from organized crime and trafficking. The Agency for the Administration of Sequestered and Confiscated Assets administers such assets, including those of persons found guilty of trafficking related crimes. In 2006 there were several court-ordered seizures but no cases of forfeited assets successfully liquidated or of funds distributed to victims.
By year's end police referred 51 new trafficking cases to the General Prosecutor's Office, which investigated 65 persons on trafficking charges. Authorities referred 43 cases to the Serious Crimes Court; the court prosecuted 62, of whom the court convicted 57 of trafficking. The court sentenced four offenders to up to two years' imprisonment; 10 to between two and five years' imprisonment; 26 to between five and 10 years' imprisonment; and 25 to over 10 years' imprisonment.
Although the government has improved its Witness Protection Program, AI reported that witness protection continued to be weak and prosecutors complained that prosecutions often failed because at trial the victims of trafficking tended to withdraw their testimony under pressure from traffickers or their own families.
The government took action during the year against police officers, customs officials, and border police who facilitated trafficking by accepting bribes, tipped off traffickers, or furnished travel documents to traffickers. Early in the year authorities arrested and charged officers at the Kakavija border checkpoint with assisting traffickers. In a separate operation, authorities arrested the head of antitrafficking police in Korca and fired two of his inspectors on charges of accepting bribes to facilitate human smuggling. In July the Interior Ministry arrested 12 persons accused of being a "structured criminal group" dealing with trafficking of human beings and narcotics to Greece; six were police officers with direct responsibility for antitrafficking at the border. None of these cases had been brought to trial by year's end.
The government has a child trafficking strategy and action plan based on UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) guidelines that are intended to prevent recruitment of potential victims and protect victims, including those returned from abroad.
The government provided some limited services to trafficking victims, operating a shelter near Tirana. The government had a National Action Plan through 2007 to specify government actions to provide services to victims of trafficking, which was not fully implemented. It also managed the National Referral Mechanism, a partnership between the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, and local NGOs, to assist in the identification of victims and ensure that these victims were provided with shelter, medical attention, and reintegration services. During the reporting period there continued to be problems with the implementation of the National Referral Mechanism and the National Action Plan.
Coordination problems and lack of resources continued to hamper the complete implementation of the government's 2005 National Referral Mechanism, which partnered the government with local civil society and international intergovernmental organizations to provide a holistic approach to combating trafficking in persons. In addition the National Action Plan to combat trafficking expired at the end of the year, and as of year's end there was no new plan published. During the year official government statistics showed an 80 percent decline in the number of suspected victims of trafficking, but this number was not independently verifiable. The government reported 13 victims of trafficking during the year. In contrast, NGO statistics reported 140 victims, a number consistent with 2006 data.
Several NGOs were active in addressing victims' needs, including medical care, reintegration services, and temporary shelter. In response to a declining number of referrals of victims from the police, the NGO-managed shelters formed a coalition to advocate on issues of concern. The shelter coalition has been in active correspondence with the government to meet the needs of victims.
Victims of trafficking often faced significant stigmatization from their families and society. According to several shelters, the protection of returned victims who reported their traffickers continued to be a serious problem. Perpetrators continued to threaten victims and many victims were afraid to prosecute their cases in the judicial system because of this.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100544.htm | |