trafficking of women for sexual exploitation Ângela medina masters in criminology

Trafficking of women for sexual exploitation

Ângela MedinaMasters in Criminology

Summary:

The Human Trafficking

Trafficking woman for sexual exploitation

Locate Portugal in the human trafficking map;

Small discription about the women victims

Ways of protecting these victims

The Portuguese Law

Assistence by NGO’s

2 Trafficking of women for sexual exploitation

The Human Trafficking Warsaw Convention - article 4.

“Trafficking in human beings” shall mean the recruitment,

transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by

means of the treat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of

abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a

position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments

or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control

over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation

shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of

others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or

services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the

removal of organs.


The Human Trafficking Portuguese Penal Code – art. 160.

Who offering, giving, recruit, solicit, accept, transport, harbors or receives

a person for purposes of exploitation, including sexual exploitation, labor

exploitation, begging, slavery, organ harvesting or exploitation of other

criminal activities :

a) Through violence, kidnapping or serious threat;

b) Through deceit or fraudulent misrepresentation;

c) With abuse of authority resulting from a hierarchical relationship of

dependency, economic, family or work;

d) Taking advantage of mental incapacity or of a position of particular

vulnerability of the victim, or

e) Upon obtaining consent from the person who has control over the

victim;


The Human Trafficking 2 - who, by any means, recruit, solicit, transport, harboring or

receipt proceed to the lowest, or deliver, offer or accept, for

purposes of exploitation, including sexual exploitation, labor

exploitation, begging, slavery, organ harvesting, adoption or

operation of other criminal activities;

5 - Who, for payment or other consideration, offer, give, solicit or

accept less, or obtain or provide consent for its adoption,

6 - Who having knowledge of the commission of a crime provided

for in paragraphs 1 and 2, use the services or bodies of victims;

7 - Who withholds, hiding, damaging or destroying of identity and

travel documents in person a victim of crime.


The Human Trafficking

Annual Report of Human Being Traffic (2012) of

the Portuguese Human Trafficking Observatory

(OTSH), have been identified: 23 crimes of trafficking in persons;

94 crimes of Pimping and child pornography;

10 crimes of association of aid to manpower illegal;

4 crimes of raising labor illegal;

85 crimes of marriage for convenience;

93 crimes of assisting illegal immigration;

1985 other illegal immigrants.



Portugal is one of the destination countries of Trafficking of

women for sexual exploitation.

Factors for the occurrence of these situations

Reduced social visibility (favored by the social shadow of the

victims and the use of means of domination);

Lack of collective consciousness of the problem;

Culture of fear (treats and physical assaults);

Document retention;

Fear of police;

Illegality situation.



According to Kelly and Regan, there are different

levels of victimization to which different types of

victims:

1.º level: total coercion. Victims are abducted;

2.º level: woman deceived with promises of

employment than prostitution;

3.º level: woman know they will work in the sex

industry but not in prostitution;

4.º level: woman know that they will work at

prostitution but they end up exploited.



Who are these victims?

In Portugal, most of the identified victims are from

Brazil, Eastern Europe (Romanian and Ukrainian),

Africa, Nigeria end Ghana.

They are young woman, under 35 years old.

Come from vulnerable social contexts, with strong

economic weakness and with dependents,

especially children.



In 2012, have been signalized

81 cases of Human trafficking,

with 125 potential victims,

25 of them for sexual exploitation and 3 for labor and

sexual exploitation.

Have been confirmed 4 cases of Human

trafficking for sexual exploitation.


Trafficking of women for sexual exploitation Principal Characteristics of the identified victims:

Woman,

both married like unmarried;

between 22 and 32 years;

Brazilian;

Most legal in the country;

Recruited by Brazilian;

Deceived with promises of work;

Controlled by direct and indirect threats and movement

control.


Ways of protecting these victims:

On the Portuguese legal system we have:

The protection law of witnesses in criminal process;

Residence permit to victims of trafficking in human

beings or action to facilitate illegal immigration;

Granting of residence permits to foreign citizens

identified as victim of trafficking in human beings;

System of declaration for future memory;

Possibility for victim to be informed of the release

or escape of the accused or convicted.


Ways of protecting these victims:

In Portugal there is a Shelter and Protection

for women victims of trafficking for sexual

exploitation and their children (CAP), located

in Oporto, adopting a system of

Rehabilitation,

Repair, and

Reintegration of the victims.


THE END
