Länderberichte BULGARIEN:

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Bulgaria's working girls



09:00 Mon 13 Aug 2007 - Libby Gomersall


The drive along the main road from Varna to Bourgas is beautiful. It winds its way past some beautiful scenery. Lush forests, golden fields of corn and occasional glimpses of the shimmering Black Sea abound. About 20km outside of Varna, close to the village of Avren, there is scenery of a different kind. Attractive young girls line the roadside touting for trade from passing drivers. The first time I saw a girl standing alone near a lay-by, I thought she was waiting for a bus. Admittedly, I thought her dress sense needed some attention, but it was a boiling hot day and so hot pants were not that out of place. A kilometre further on I saw another girl wearing a bright red mini dress and she beckoned the car in front to stop. After that, I knew that these young ladies were prostitutes, not local girls on a shopping trip to Varna.

In Bulgaria, prostitution, like corruption, is much more open. It does not confine itself to seedy ghettos or ads in phone boxes, nor is it organised into a “red light area” as it is in Amsterdam and Hamburg. Most of the girls come from the destitute Roma population. They are usually organised by a local pimp, who takes a percentage of their earnings and chauffeurs them to and from their spot on a busy main road each day. They stand there for hours on end in freezing winter winds and burning hot sunshine. They relieve themselves in nearby hedgerows and are responsible for taking along their own food and beverage. A 2006 poll carried out by the Bulgarian Centre for Gender Studies suggests that the lack of cash and job alternatives is the leading motive for girls who take up prostitution. In the resorts, the pimps are often nightclub bouncers, hotel workers or cab drivers.

All of the girls I have seen soliciting are over the age of consent, which is 14 in Bulgaria, most are in their late teens and early 20s. Many are exceptionally attractive making you double take as to whether they are actually “on the game” or just innocently waiting for a lift. All of the girls I spoke to were extremely friendly. “We work out of need,” 19-year-old Sonia recounts. “I can earn more money doing this work than working a 13-hour shift in a bar in the resorts. It is just work for me. I don’t really think about what I do.”

The rates along the roadside are incredibly low. Costs of services range from two to 10 leva. In the resorts, prices are much higher. It costs 180 leva for a girl for the night and your hotel will more than likely charge you a supplement of 50 leva for bringing the girl back to your room. In the resorts, prostitution is restricted to the dark of the night, but again the girls are highly visible and very proactive in their touting for trade. Foreign tourists in Bulgaria are often subject to aggressive offers from prostitutes and pimps and this has a negative effect on tourism particularly when resorts market themselves as ideal venues for family holidays. “Tourism in Bulgaria accounts for 15 per cent of the GDP and creates hundreds of thousands of jobs,” explains Polly Karastoyanova from the National Board of Tourism. “Investors represented in the board are concerned over Bulgaria’s image not only as a tourist destination but also as an attractive place for business partnerships''

At the roadside, the clientele tends to be to bored truck drivers especially foreign ones, who are not used to seeing such unashamed flaunting of sex. In the resorts, it is the tourists.

“Foreigners always pay us a tip; they are not used to seeing beautiful girls ready to work for them,” Petia (21), from Varna said. Local men also use the girls’ services, “older men who have been married a long time, who maybe doesn’t get much sex at home stop and use us. It is normal and their wives don’t need to know”. It seems that most wives do not have a problem with this so long as they are kept in the dark. I am always surprised at the number of women who include porn magazines in their supermarket trolley. Several Bulgarian women interviewed said they actually had no problem with their husband using a prostitute. Yet all of the expats I interviewed were very much against the idea, feeling that it was in some way sordid and a slight on them as a wife.

The dark side of prostitution is not that it exists at all, but the fact that a pimp controls most girls and that their exploitation is not just confined to roadside prostitution. Bulgaria is one of the largest human traffickers in the world, providing enslaved girls to brothels all over Europe. Currently, Bulgarian laws on prostitution are unclear. Existing legislative provisions date back to before 1944. When communism came to Bulgaria, sleazy practices like this, along with other such crimes against women like domestic violence, were considered to exist solely in the Western world.

Like so many things in Bulgaria, times are changing. Parliament is presently debating a bill that proposes between 10 and 20 years’ imprisonment and fines ranging from 100 000 leva to 300 000 leva for “any person who induces or forces another person to use narcotic drugs or equivalents for the purpose of prostitution, copulation, indecent assault or sexual intercourse or acts aimed at sexual gratification with a person of the same sex”.

“Any person who induces another person to become a prostitute or procures persons for indecent assault or copulation and any person who systematically provides premises to various persons for sexual intercourse or indecent assault” will face two to eight years in jail and a fine ranging from 5000 to 15 000 leva. Persons committing these acts out of “self-interested motives” will face three to 10 years in jail and a fine from 10 000 to 25 000 leva.

Deputy Interior Minister Kamen Penkov is leading the working group whose goal is to decide who has the right to practice prostitution, and where and how it should be practised. He says, “There is political will on the part of the state to introduce a clear and precise legislative basis,” but he expects considerable resistance from pimps, because legalisation of prostitution would most probably reduce their profits. The group is studying laws in Germany, Austria, Greece and Holland as well as regulation practices in France and other EU states. The point is not to copy foreign models, but rather to adopt and adapt the most effective European practices, the legal advisor of the National Board on Tourism Yanita Toncheva said. Svetoslav Spassov, chairperson of the parliamentary committee on children, youth and sport, maintains there are many young people under 18 who are involved in forced prostitution. He firmly believes that it is crucial to prevent teenagers under 18 from practising the trade, although he is not against the existence of prostitution completely and prefers to see a cleanup rather than a ban.

“It is important to remove prostitution from the streets, so as to not allow it to become part of Brand Bulgaria,” Svetoslav Spassov said. “It is crucial to strictly appoint and regulate places where prostitution is practised, namely brothels. They should be located away from hospitals, social homes, schools, kindergartens, churches, mosques, synagogues etc. An annual tax should be levied for this activity too. Prostitution in Bulgaria is not illegal by virtue of the law and it can still thrive in the format of the call-girl services. Unfortunately, the government receives no tax revenues from this activity. Last but not least medical control on houses of prostitution is paramount too.”

On the plus side, the incidence of child prostitution has decreased by 40 per cent in the last two years. “In 2005, 521 cases of under-age girls who prostitute were registered, while the number in 2006 was 308,” the Ministry of the Interior’s Roumen Petkov told the National Assembly during question time.

So far, the public debate in Bulgaria has taken two chief directions: one, legalise prostitution and two, ban it and treat it as crime. The Penal Code does not punish prostitution itself; however, certain acts associated with it are treated as crimes, chiefly soliciting and abduction. Individuals practising prostitution believe that the sex services business should be regulated legally. Soliciting can be avoided in this way, as well as conflicts with the police. This appears to be the best way to keep under-age workers away from the business.

In my opinion, prostitution, the oldest profession of them all, serves a need in society. If the welfare of the girls who practise this art is taken care of and the leeches that sponge an income from them are severely dealt with I can see no reason for a ban.

http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/readin ... 7/catid_29





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[JayR]

Bulgaria moves away from legalizing prostitution

SOFIA: The Bulgarian government Friday abruptly reversed its longstanding move toward legalizing prostitution, part of a broader trend in Europe to make prostitution illegal as a way to combat sexual trafficking.
Prostitution exists in a legal gray area in Bulgaria, a small but key country for the European sex trade. Bulgarian women are sent abroad by the thousands each year to work as prostitutes, usually against their will."We should be very definite in saying that selling flesh is a crime," Interior Minister Rumen Petkov said Friday at a forum on human trafficking that was also attended by the president, the minister of justice and the U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria.
…
The fight against legal prostitution has been led by an unusual coalition of allies, including the Bush administration, feminist groups and the Swedish government.
...

the International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/05/ ... lgaria.php

Der gleiche Artikel in der New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/world ... ref=slogin
____________________

LEGALISING PROSTITUTION IN BULGARIA WOULD HARM FIGHT AGAINST TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN – PROSECUTOR-GENERAL
12:56 Fri 05 Oct 2007 - Petar Kostadinov

Legalising prostitution in Bulgaria might mean that the state would gain income through taxes, but would harm the fight against trafficking of women, the country’s Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev has told a conference in Sofia.
...

sofiaecho.com
http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/legali ... 6/catid_66
____________________

Thousands Against Legalization of Prostitution in Bulgaria

The campaign under the project “Civil action against the legalization of prostitution” to Association “Society and values” gathered 3200 signatures of citizens.

The open position of the association prepared together with Bulgarian center for gender studies against the legalization of prostitution received support from over 65 non-governmental organizations.
...

News.bg
http://international.ibox.bg/news/id_1005860303

[Marc of Frankfurt]

NEW YORK TIMES LETTER TO THE EDITOR REGARDING SEX WORK BAN

In response to an article regarding policy trends around sex work
and trafficking in Europe, the New York Times published Sue's
letter:

To the Editor:

Re "Bulgaria, Joining a European Trend, Won't Legalize
Prostitution" (news article, Oct. 6):

Recent moves in Europe to ban sex work stem from flawed policies
promoted by the Bush administration, conservative groups and some
feminists who conflate sex work and trafficking. Playing fast and
loose with these terms is the latest trend in the moral and
political agenda to abolish all sex work.

Many women and men living in poverty choose sex work because it
provides the highest pay. Others sell sex to support their
families, augment their incomes as nurses or teachers, or put
themselves through school.

Uniformly, sex workers abhor trafficking and have developed
effective strategies to help trafficked and under-age persons
escape danger and get the assistance they need.

Laws like those in Sweden that punish customers of sex workers
are a precarious outgrowth of the abolitionist approach and have
not been proved to reduce trafficking or curb demand for sex.

Pushing sex work further into the shadows exposes these workers
to enhanced risks, including police extortion and violence. To
call every person engaging in sex work a victim is misleading and
condescending. The health and rights of sex workers must be
protected - especially from those who wield their morality like a
sword.

Sue Simon
Director, Sexual Health and Rights Project, Open Society Institute
New York, Oct. 9, 2007

Sue Simon, Project Director
Sexual Health and Rights Project (SHARP)
Open Society Institute
400 West 59th Street
New York, NY 10019
Tel: (212) 548-0166/Fax: (212) 548-4617
email: ssimon@sorosny.org
http://www.soros.org





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[Marc of Frankfurt]

National Commission of fighting the traffic of people organizes circle table on theme ‘Pros and cons of prostitution's legalization in Bulgaria in relation with traffic of people - points of view and good practices'.

The event is part of the initiative, which marks the 16 International Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women.

Hristo Manchev, deputy main prosecutor and member of National Commission of fighting the traffic of people will open the circle table.

The event will also be attended by Ivanka Hristova, deputy Minister of the Social Ministry; the Norway Ambassador to Bulgaria Mrs. Tove Skarstein; the secretary of National Commission of fighting the traffic of people Antoaneta Vasileva and others.

Experts from Sweden, USA, Holland, UK and Norway will share their experience from legalizing or criminalizing of prostitution.

http://international.ibox.bg/news/id_404735967

[JayR]

Bulgaria one of Europe's biggest prostitute exporters: study


SOFIA (AFP) — Bulgaria is one of Europe's biggest exporters of prostitutes and has one of the largest and most developed networks of prostitutes in the continent, a new study said Wednesday.

In the southern town of Sliven, which has a population of about 100,000 people, the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) estimated that one out of every 15 women aged between 15 and 30 was engaged in prostitution.

"This is a social catastrophe," said CSD analyst Tihomir Bezlov.

The non-governmental think tank found Bulgarian prostitutes working abroad earn the equivalent of about seven percent of gross domestic product (GDP), a similar proportion to countries such as Taiwan and South Korea.

"According to even the most conservative estimates, Bulgarian prostitutes working abroad earn between 0.9-1.8 billion euros (1.3-2.7 billion dollars) a year, the equivalent of 3.6-7.2 percent of GDP in 2006," Bezlov said.

The study estimated there were 18,000-21,000 Bulgarian prostitutes working around Europe, mostly in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Greece.

Given its nature, it is difficult to compile reliable statistics about sex trafficking. But the scope of the problem can be gauged by the number of cases where victims of sexual exploitation contact the police for help.

Police estimate that one out of every 10 prostitutes seek help, Bezlov said.

In Germany, reputed to have one of the most developed sex services markets in Europe, 12.7 percent of sexual exploitation victims are of Bulgarian origin, compared with 1.2 percent who are Russian.

In the Netherlands, the ratios stood at 14 percent and 10 percent respectively, Bezlov said.

Taking a look at organised crime in general in Bulgaria, the CSD analyst said that the origin, structure and evolution of criminal networks was similar to in Russia.

"Bulgaria's organised crime, which is based on violence, is resembling that of Russia and the other former Soviet countries," Bezlov said.

Many of the perpetrators were former police officers, laid off after the fall of communism in 1989, jobless athletes such as wrestlers, and ex-prisoners, the study showed.

During the first few years following the collapse of communism, the government was weak and the justice system inefficient, allowing protection rackets to spring up.

Wealthy criminal bosses became involved in drug trafficking in the late 1990s and car theft became so widespread that one out of every three cars on Bulgarian roads in the mid-1990s was stolen.

In 2006, another "Russian" phenomenon emerged in Bulgaria, with 60 percent of all stolen vehicles being offered back to their owners in return for ransom, Bezlov said.

Bezlov said that Bulgaria's accession to the EU this year was likely to reduce crime.

"Bulgaria's EU accession led to the gradual curbing of the most drastic forms of organised criminal activity," the study said.

"This is largely due to the increasing pressure on Bulgarian institutions from Brussels which in turn has resulted in the taking of more resolute action against organised crime."

AFP
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gL4 ... _fKb0WTwrg



Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD)

Organized Crime in Bulgaria: Markets and Trends

The report Organized Crime in Bulgaria: Markets and Trends summarizes the analyses carried out by the Center for the Study of Democracy throughout the last decade which have focused on specific aspects of organized crime in Bulgaria (contraband, the drug market, tax fraud, human trafficking, arms proliferation, etc.), the systemic spread of corruption, and the linkages between the two. The report presents the latest trends and manifestations (or market niches) of syndicate crime and its particularly damaging effects. It goes further to offer a historical review of the facts and available expertise in the area, and to draw conclusions about the origin, characteristics and developmental features of organized criminality in Bulgaria in the context of the transition to democracy.

Full text of the report (PDF, 9 MB)
Prostitution and Human Trafficking, pages 89 - 144
http://www.csd.bg/en/euro/artShow.php?id=9120

Center for the Study of Democracy
http://www.csd.bg/

[ehemaliger_User]

Nach einem Jahr zurück zu den Zuhältern

Bulgarien Die meisten Opferwissen, dass sie Hurendienste leisten sollen. Aber sie wissen nicht, was sie erwartet.

Maria - sie hat in Wahrheit einen anderen Namen - ist eine erwachsene junge Frau, als sie sich 2004 mit Menschenhändlern einlässt. Die finanzielle Not in ihrer bulgarischen Heimat veranlasst sie dazu. Sie wird zur Prostitution erst in ein süd- und dann in ein osteuropäisches Land gebracht. Ein Jahr später gelingt ihr die Rückkehr nach Bulgarien. Sie wird dort von einer Hilfsorganisation ein Jahr lang unterstützt, auch finanziell.

Die meisten Opfer des Menschenhandels in Bulgarien kommen aus Regionen mit hoher Arbeitslosigkeit. 60 Prozent der Opfer können nicht oder allenfalls in Ansätzen lesen und schreiben. 80 Prozent der Familien, aus denen sie kommen, leben unterhalb des Existenzminimums. Ihre Familien und Freunde können die Opfer nicht unterstützen.

Wenig später entscheidet sich Maria, Bulgarien erneut zu verlassen. Im Jahr 2007 wird sie von anderen Menschenhändlern nach Deutschland gebracht. Die Männer versprachen ihr, eine Wohnung zu kaufen und sich um sie zu kümmern. Tatsächlich aber zwingen sie Maria, sich zu prostituieren, ohne dass sie das Geld dafür behalten darf. Sie schlagen die junge Frau. Daraufhin sucht Maria Hilfe bei der Polizei.

Rund 80 Prozent der Opfer wissen vor der Ausreise aus Bulgarien, dass von ihnen die Prostitution erwartet wird. Sie werden jedoch hinsichtlich der Form ihrer Arbeit und ihres Gehaltes getäuscht. Sie wissen nicht, dass sie auf den Straßenstrich geschickt werden, dass sie auch perverse Männer befriedigen müssen, die Gewalt anwenden. Sie ahnen nicht, dass ihre Zuhälter sie misshandeln. Die Frauen hoffen, in kurzer Zeit so viel Geld verdienen zu können, um wieder ein normales Leben führen zu können. Sie haben keine Vorstellung von der Größenordnung ihrer Schulden, die sie nie abzahlen können, und sie wissen nicht, dass ihre Zuhälter einen Großteil ihres Lohnes sofort einbehalten.

Maria wird an eine deutsche Hilfsorganisation verwiesen. Sie macht eine Aussage bei der Polizei und stellt in Aussicht, auch vor Gericht auszusagen. Doch dann ändert sie ihre Meinung und zieht auch ihre Aussage vor der Polizei zurück. Sie muss zurück nach Bulgarien und wird dort erneut von einer Hilfsorganisation betreut. Maria hat zwar Anspruch auf eine kleine Rente, weil sie geistig behindert ist. Sie hat starke Angstneurose und muss deshalb ständig Medikamente nehmen. Maria hat aber zunächst keinerlei Geld, weil ihr die Zuhälter die Karte abgenommen hatten, mit der sie an dieses Geld hätte kommen können.

Rund 98 Prozent der Frauen, die Opfer des Menschenhandels werden, haben zuvor schon Erfahrungen mit Gewalt gemacht, sei es häusliche Gewalt, Vergewaltigung oder Inzest. Sehr viele Opfer leiden nach ihrer Rückkehr nach Bulgarien neben ihren psychischen Problemen an Unterleibsbeschwerden oder an Krankheiten in der Mundhöhle. Sie haben ihren Anspruch auf Krankenversicherung verloren und fallen aus dem sozialen Schutzsystem heraus. Sie haben kein Geld und keine Wohnung.

Maria wird zunächst in einem Krisenzentrum, später in einem Frauenhaus auf dem Land untergebracht. Sie wird psychisch stabilisiert, kann aber bis jetzt noch nicht arbeiten. Ihr halbwüchsiger Sohn lebt bei seinem Vater.

Stuttgarter Zeitung 06.12.2010

[Marc of Frankfurt]

Wikileaks Cable aus Sofia Juli 2005:

Bulgarian Organized Crime
Prostitution und Menschenhandel


http://213.251.145.96/cable/2005/07/05SOFIA1207.html




Wikileaks:
www.sexworker.at/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=91197#91197

[Arum]

published Wednesday, January 25, 2012 3:46 PM
Radio Bulgaria Life Bulgaria and Europe


Joint Bulgarian-French project against human trafficking focused on the Roma minority

Author: Maria Dimitrova


The National Commission for Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings (NCCTHB) has started a pilot project in the coastal region of Varna to prevent human trafficking among minority ethnic groups with a focus on the most vulnerable of them - the Roma minority. The project, which will continue until January 2014, has a budget of 67,650 euros provided by the French government. Why has Paris undertaken to assist in resolving this issue? Perhaps because France was among the first countries in the EU that suffered the consequences of the problems of immigrant Roma people. In the middle of 2010, a large group of Roma from Romania and a very small number of Bulgarian Roma were returned on a flight from Paris back to their countries.

Commenting on these past events, the Ambassador of France ambassador in Sofia, HE Philip Otie, told Radio Bulgaria more:
"We remember the controversy in 2010 when France decided to return to their own countries people illegally residing in France, mostly Romanian and a few Bulgaria citizens. However, these controversies have helped our fellow European citizens to understand better the problem that the Roma minority and its integration poses for the whole of Europe. And perhaps as a result of this controversy, the EU has adopted as one of its main policies the integration of the Roma minorities in the territory of individual countries. We believe that this awareness of the countries to respond to it with the necessary concern. Of course, the hardest part is yet to come – the actual work on integration”.

In the joint French-Bulgarian project, the field work will be done by the National Commission for Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings in cooperation with the Municipality of Varna and several NGOs having experience in working with Roma children and women at risk. These are the National Network of Health Mediators, the Varna-based Co-participation Association, and the Bulgarian Family Planning Association.

Why was it the Varna region that was selected for this project? The main reason is because it is the site of both internal and external trafficking - from other regions of Bulgaria to Varna and from Varna to foreign countries, said Antoaneta Vassileva, secretary of the National Commission for Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings. And there is another important reason, as well.
"Another specificity of the region of Varna and Bourgas is that these coastal cities attract traffickers in pregnant women whose children are sold, mainly in Greece. To prevent this traffic we must work within these communities - to inform people of the risks and how to avoid them. The aim of our project is to reduce the number of victims in these vulnerable communities within a two years’ period. We also aim at building a model policy to be applied in other municipalities and be seen as an overall policy for the prevention of trafficking in the most threatened communities. We will increase the knowledge of these people about their rights, especially because women do not know their rights and do not know how to defend themselves. We will create a supportive network of Roma people who can assist their fellow citizens in trouble. And we will train volunteers to continue our work after the project."

The third reason for which the pilot project will be conducted in the region of Varna is that the local municipality has accumulated much experience in fighting human trafficking, especially in babies. Deputy Mayor Prof. Hristo Bozov illustrates this with concrete examples:
"Since 2008, we have built several pilot centers in the country - the first shelter for victims of human trafficking for 6 people and a crisis response center for victims of trafficking and domestic violence that can accommodate 10 persons. We created a program that focused our efforts on the prevention of trafficking in pregnant women. As a result of our joint actions, in 2011 we had only one case of trafficking, while in the period 2009-2010 the victims were 23".

Violence, illegal networks for begging, pick pocketing, prostitution, trafficking in babies - these are all threats that teenagers and women in the poor Roma neighborhoods are faced with. The Roma community is truly among the most vulnerable segments of the population and it is therefore the target group of the project, said Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov. He announced that a breakthrough was made in the justice system, regarding the organizers of human trafficking gangs in this country. According to him, the court has for the first time come out with “severe sentences of over ten years in prison corresponding to the severity of the committed crimes".

http://bnr.bg/sites/en/Lifestyle/Bulgar ... ority.aspx

....

1. Meiner Erfahrung nach, kann man schon sagen, dass besonders Bulgarinnen von mindestens nicht 100% freiwilliger Prostitution (oder auch Lenkung Dritter im Hintergrund) betroffen sein dürften. Davon habe ich in den letzten zwei Jahren einige Anzeichen mitbekommen.

Nur, 2. Das betrifft nicht nur Roma-Frauen.

[ls]

http://www.dnevnik.bg/bulgaria/2012/03/ ... _pliachka/