Globally, human trafficking is the third biggest criminal activity after drugs and weapon crime.  Data from the World Labour Organisation show that every year twenty-three billion euros are made from it.  Twenty-one million people fall victim to enforced labour around the world, 880,000 of them in the European Union.  Of course these are just numbers, but behind the numbers are people.  On 19 and 20 June, representatives of thirty-two NGOs met in Sofia to try and find ways of combatting this form of modern-day slavery.  They came from twenty European countries where they work to prevent human trafficking and support its victims.  The meeting was organised by La Strada International and hosted by the Animus Association, one of its founders.  So what’s the situation like in Bulgaria?

“Human trafficking and forced working mainly affects countries with high levels of unemployment, countries with high levels of poverty and, as a result, large numbers of people moving around to find work,” Nadia Kozhouharova from the Animus Association told Radio Bulgaria.   “In Bulgaria we have one of the highest levels of labour migration, especially to Western Europe.  That automatically means it’s a country at risk of people trafficking for the purposes of forced labour.  It’s very hard to come up with precise numbers.  We could talk about between two and three hundred victims this year or last, but those are just the cases we know about.  The majority go undetected.  People might not even be identified as victims of human trafficking, or as having their labour rights violated.”

The Roma population and people with little or no education are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking.   And while mainly women fall victim to sexual exploitation, forced labour doesn’t distinguish between the sexes.  Men are most frequently exploited in the construction industry or in agriculture.  Women can also be found in agriculture or in the home, working as cleaners or carers.  Greece, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden and the Czech Republic are the countries where Bulgarians are most often ensnared in modern-day slavery.

“What we’ve seen is that exploitation in the workplace is far more widespread than sexual exploitation, and it has many more victims, too,” says Mrs Kozhouharova.   “Because it’s not such an extreme form of abuse, exploitation at work usually goes unnoticed.  What’s also very worrying is that people are in such dire financial straits that they’ll put up with exploitation and abuse just to have an income instead of staying in their own country and having nothing.”

What this means is working for long hours – twelve to fourteen a day – in  poor conditions;  you’re paid less than you were promised and there’s no social security;  it’s an appalling life.  This is what victims have to put up with.  Human trafficking isn’t just a crime or a social problem; it’s an economic problem, too.  Forced working happens in private companies, which is why NGOs are trying to work with them to stop it happening.  The companies are themselves victims because forced working leads to unfair competition, undercutting of wages and tarnishes the industry’s image.  “What business can do is keep a much closer eye on its supply chain and its subcontractors to see if they use this kind of slavery to reduce costs and increase profits, and by doing that they can help prevent human trafficking,” says Nadia Kozhouharova.  Talking about the action that the Animus Association is planning, she adds:

“When it comes to human trafficking, Bulgaria is on the supply side.  That’s why we’re starting by getting in touch with companies that act as intermediaries, because they’re part of the chain, too.  They can unknowingly send out people who end up being exploited if they don’t thoroughly vet the companies they’re working with.  In the destination countries we’ll be focussing efforts on companies in the construction industry and in agriculture and wherever else people face exploitation.”

English:  Christopher Pavis