Trafficking Survivors Return Home Case S (1)

TRAFFICKING SURVIVORS RETURN HOME:
CASE STUDY OF MOLDOVA

By Elżbieta M. Goździak, Ph.D.
Research Professor
Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM)
Georgetown University

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elżbieta M. Goździak is Research Professor at the
Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM)
at Georgetown University. Formerly, she served as
Editor of International Migration and held a senior
position with the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
She taught at the Howard University in the Social Work
with Displaced Populations Program, and managed a
program area on admissions and resettlement of
refugees in industrialized countries for the Refugee
Policy Group. Prior to immigrating to the United States,
she was an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Funding for this research was provided by the Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social
Science Research-Exploratory (IBSS-Ex) program of the National Science Foundation
(Award #1416769). Warm thanks to our NSF Project Officer, Dr. Brian D. Humes for his
assistance throughout the life of the grant.
This report benefited greatly from the contributions of many individuals. Ana Revenco

and Tatiana Vladicescu of the International Center “La Strada” provided invaluable
assistance in gaining access to and interviewing government officials, service providers,
and survivors of human trafficking in Moldova. I am also grateful to the representatives
of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for discussing with me the
challenges and successes in providing protection to and integrating survivors of
trafficking into local communities. They all shared their knowledge and insights and I am
grateful for their generosity of time and wisdom.
My graduate research assistants, Charles Jamieson and Nicole Johnson, provided
indispensable assistance in conducting literature reviews, analyzing existing antitrafficking laws and data, and masterfully copy-editing and formatting this report.

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INTRODUCTION
Trafficking of people for forced labor and sexual exploitation is believed to be one of
the fastest growing areas of international criminal activity and one that is of increasing
concern to the international community. Trafficking is commonly understood in terms
of the activity, the means, and the purpose, where: (1) The activity refers to some kind
of movement either within or across borders; (2) The means relates to some form of
coercion or deception, and (3) the purpose is the ultimate exploitation of a person for

profit or benefit of another (Martin & Callaway, 2011: 225).
While understanding and recognition of trafficking in persons has improved in recent
years, there is little systematic and in-depth analysis of the full life cycle of crossborder human trafficking—from pre-trafficking and recruitment through exploitation
to return home or integration into a new community. An area in which very little is
known are the experiences of trafficking survivors after return to their home
countries. Who returns to their home countries? What is the process for return? After
return, are survivors still subject to the same situations that caused them to be
trafficked in the first place? What are their health and mental health, education,
employment, and other needs after return? Do they receive services that will enable
them to reintegrate and, if so, for what period and with what efficacy? What types of
stigmas persist over time, particularly for those who were sexually exploited and
abused? What are the risk factors for being re-trafficked? To what extent is
information available about the incidence and prevalence of re-trafficking? This
information is of particular import given the fact that many countries provide
survivors with respite assistance, but lack long-term immigration relief.
This report is part of a larger research project, supported by the National Science
Foundation (NSF), aimed at collecting empirical data in Moldova, Nepal, Poland, and
Thailand, and to provide answers to the above questions. This report was informed
by an extensive literature review as well as field research in Chisinau and vicinity in
the summer and fall of 2015.

COUNTRY PROFILE

Country

Moldova

Population

3.6 million

Land Area

33,846 km2

GNI Per Capita

$2,560

Life Expectancy

69 years

Official Languages

Romanian

US State Department TIPR Ranking1

Tier 2

Source: World Bank Development Indicators, US State Department Trafficking in
Persons Report 2015.

In the past several years, Moldova has experienced rapid economic growth, accompanied
by significant progress in poverty reduction and shared prosperity. The economy has
been growing at 5 percent annually since 2000. At the same time, the national poverty
rate dropped from 68 to 27 percent between 2000 and 2004 and continued the downward
trend to 11.4 percent in 2014. Nonetheless, Moldova remains one of the poorest countries
in Europe and faces challenges in sustaining the progress.

According to the 2016 Poverty Reduction and Shared Prosperity in Moldova Report,
Moldova has one of the highest poverty rates in the region; 41 percent of its population
lived below the regional poverty line of 5 USD a day (2005 PPP) in 2014. Employment has
been declining in Moldova, especially in rural areas. The employment rate decreased
from 55 percent in 2000 to below 40 percent in 2014. Unemployment is low, fluctuating
around 3 percent during the period, but inactivity has been on the rise, from 40 percent
in 2000 to 59 percent in 2014. These changes are driven by increased migration and early
retirement (56 years of age for women and 61 for men) among the aging population
(Dávalos et al. 2016).

US State Department Trafficking in Persons report ranks countries as follows:
• Tier 1: Countries whose governments fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s
(TVPA) minimum standards.
• Tier 2: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards,
but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
• Tier 3: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are
not making significant efforts to do so.

1 The

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MIGRATION IN MOLDOVA
Although precise data are lacking on labor migrants from Moldova, various estimates
point to a high share of the working-age population looking for jobs and working abroad.
According to the Labor Force Surveys, a peak of labor migrants--394,500--was registered
in 2005 (Prokhorova 2016). The results of surveys conducted by the Center of Sociological
Research and Marketing suggest that one-quarter of the economically active population
was working abroad in mid-2006 (Lücke et al. 2007). According to a more recent
International Labor Organization (ILO) survey on labor force migration in Moldova,
460,000 people, or 17 percent of the working-age population, were working abroad in
2012. The share of the economically active population involved in labor emigration grew
from 8 percent to 27 percent between 2000 and 2005 (ILO 2012).
The main destination countries for labor migrants are Russia (56% of labor migrants) and
Italy (19%), followed by Poland and Romania. Russia is the most popular destination for
Moldovan men from rural area who work in the construction industry in Russia. Women
represented 68 percent of Moldovan labor migrant to Italy where they find jobs as babysitters and cooks. Moldovans who migrate to Russia are more likely to stay there, given
the legal possibility of obtaining Russian citizenship, while migrants to Europe are more
likely to return to Moldova. Migrants working in the EU countries earn more and send

larger amounts of money home, while those working in Russia remit relatively small
amounts of money (Prohnițchi and Lupușor 2013).
Nevertheless, remittances are a critical source of foreign currency in Moldova. They are
surpassed only by exports. Between 2010 and 2014, remittances accounted for around 20
percent of the income growth of the bottom 40 percent. In 2006–08, they surpassed social
protection payments to households through pensions, child allowances, compensation,
and other social support (Dávalos et al. 2016).
According to Valeriu Mosneaga and Tatiana Echim (2003) one of the forms of labor
migration is “sexual migration,” both voluntary and involuntary. According to the
authors, migration of sex workers started to flourish in mid-1990s. The estimates of the
number of migrant sex workers range between 10,000 to 30,000 women. According to the

Trafficking Survivors Return Home: Case Study of Moldova
5

International Organization for Migration (IOM), Moldovan women represent the third
largest group of women forcibly recruited into the sex work industry in Italy; Albanian
and Romanian women constitute the largest number of sex workers in Italy (Paduraru
2001). In 1998, Interpol deported more than 2000 Moldovan women from Russia and 670
from Turkey (Mosneaga and Echim (2003). It is unclear how many of the deported

women were victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation and how many were irregular
migrant sex workers. The sources Monsega and Echim cite refer to them as “prostitutes”
and do not distinguish between women who worked in the sex industry abroad
voluntarily and those who were trafficked for sexual exploitation.
The International Center “La Strada” indicated that the patterns of trafficking in persons
have changed over the years. In the early 2000s La Strada served more women trafficked
for sexual exploitation, while now there are more cases of severe exploitation of labor
migrants—both women and men—voluntarily venturing beyond the borders of Moldova
to seeks better livelihoods. In the course of this research, several social workers also
talked about the adverse effects of migration of women on the children they left behind.
Apparently, teenage and young adult daughters are particularly vulnerable to genderbased violence, rape, and beatings from their fathers and other male members of the
extended family when they mothers are abroad.

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HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN MOLDOVA

THE LEGAL FRAMEWORKS

In 1994 Moldova ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW) in an attempt to combat high rates of gender-based and
domestic violence in the country that many consider to be intertwined with trafficking of
women. Upon accession to the European Union on February 17, 2005, the Government of
Moldova has ratified the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crimes (2000) and
its two protocols: The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons,
Especially Women and Children and the Protocol Against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land,
Sea, and Air (Fabius 2006).
SURVIVORS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN MOLDOVA
According to the 2016 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report published by the U.S.
Department of State, Moldova is primarily a source country for men, women, and
children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. Moldovan victims are subjected to
sex and labor trafficking within Moldova and in Russia, Ukraine, and other countries in
Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia. Women and children are subjected to sex
trafficking in Moldova in brothels, saunas, and massage parlors. Increasingly, girls aged
13 to 15 are victims of sex trafficking. Child sex tourists, including from the EU, Australia,
Israel, Thailand, and the United States, subject Moldovan children to commercial sexual
exploitation.
The report also indicates that the breakaway region of Transnistria remains a source for
victims of both sex and labor trafficking. Official complicity in trafficking is a significant

problem in Moldova. The Government of Moldova does not fully meet the minimum
standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do
so. Corruption, particularly in law enforcement and the judiciary, impeded prosecutions
and influenced the outcomes of cases, including cases against complicit officials. The
judiciary often imposed sentences on convicted traffickers that did not correspond with
the severity of the crime, including fines alone, and at times reversed convictions on
appeal. Legal and organizational obstacles, including changes in the national anti-

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7

trafficking investigative body, hampered law enforcement efforts. Authorities identified
and assisted more victims, but victims continued to suffer from intimidation. Prosecutors
charged some victims with crimes committed as a direct result of their trafficking.
There is little reliable information on the scale of human trafficking from Moldova and
even less information on survivors of human trafficking who returned to Moldova.
Various sources indicate that between 2000 and 2008 the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) assisted 2340 women returned from a trafficking experience abroad as
part of their Assistance and Protection Program (Ostrovschi et al. 20011). Mosneaga and
Echiem (2003) indicate that 805 Moldovan women trafficked for sexual exploitation were
assisted by IOM between 2000 and 2002.
Female Victims of Trafficking Assisted by IOM 2000-2002

Country
Macedonia
Kosovo
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Albania
Yugoslavia
Italy
Bulgaria
Israel
Moldova
Great Britain
Romania
Turkey
Pakistan
Russia
Greece
TOTAL

2000 2001 2001
67
150
39
72
73
16
92
7
30
67
27
5
0
17
16
10
12
3
0
4
0
0
3
0
0
3
19
0
2
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
308 363 134

They further reveal that the majority of these victims were very young. Over half (58.8%)
were between 18 and 24 years of age; one-fourth was 25 to 30 years old; and 10.3% were
under the age of 18. More than half were from rural areas, 34 percent were from small
towns, and approximately 12 percent were from the capital city of Chisinau. They had

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8

relatively low levels of education: 48 percent finished primary school; 26 percent
graduated from high school; and 18 percent had post-secondary professional education.
The vast majority were single women without children. Eighty percent claimed that they
were unaware that they would have to work in the sex industry.
The data the research team obtained from IOM indicate that the organization provided
services to 594 Moldovan victims between 2012 and 2015. The majority of the survivors
were women; of the 185 males 122 were under the age of 18. Interviews with IOM and
other service providers suggest that the majority of those assisted by IOM were at-riskfor being trafficked, not victims of trafficking. Field visits to shelters conformed this
assertion. We visited three different shelters in Chisinau and surrounding areas. Many of
the women we spoke with in the shelters were domestic violence victims, young pregnant
girls (several of the pregnancies resulted from incest or rape by strangers) or new mothers
who had no place to go after giving birth. We have also encountered several young men
who are orphans but have aged out of the orphanage system and were released to the
community. With no place to go, some of them found jobs as farm hands. The farmers
who hired them provided food and board in makeshift sleeping quarters in barns and
stables as well as some remuneration for their labor. However, local social workers,
supported by IOM, found these conditions unacceptable and “rescued” these young men
and placed them in shelters. Unfortunately, in most instances the shelters provide
assistance—mainly room and board—for up to 30 days. It is unclear what will happen
to these young men after they leave the shelter. Many have no or very limited education
and are functionally illiterate without any vocational skills. Some suffer from mental
health problems resulting from abandonment.
The International Center “La Strada” reported that between 2001 and 2012 the
organization received 33,315 calls through their hotline inquiring about the center’s
services. Eighteen percent of these calls were from victims of human trafficking seeking
help and an additional 11 percent were calls from people searching for missing persons
believed to have been trafficked. According La Strada, initially human trafficking was
almost totally driven by the demand for sex workers. Ninety percent of survivors the
center assisted have been young women under the age of 25. The vast majority are from
villages (48%) and small towns (22%) (Ganta 2013). Single persons appear to be at a
greater risk for being trafficked (75% of victims assisted by La Strada) as are orphaned
children and adolescents, mainly due to their social isolation. A survey La Strada
conducted indicated that 30 percent of the victims they identified were orphans and an
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9

additional 27 percent grew up in an incomplete family (Fomina 2006). Social workers
interviewed in the course of this research stressed that young orphaned adults who
return to Moldova after being trafficked are the most difficult to reintegrate since they
have no support systems. Eighty percent of minors assisted by La Strada were trafficked
for sexual exploitation, 15% for forced labor, and 5% for begging.
The vast majority of those assisted by La Strada finished middle school (92%), 5% had
vocational education, and 4% had higher levels of education. However, regardless of
their educational backgrounds, the majority (86%) worked as unskilled laborers and lived
in in extreme poverty. Only 9 percent said they knew that the jobs they were offered
abroad involved sex work. The rest felt deceived by the recruiters (Ganta 2013).
Most victims were recruited in Chisinau (48%) or the village/town where they lived
(37%). The recruitment took a form of false job offers (79%). Recruiters are increasingly
individuals known to the victims. Between 2005 and 2010 the percentage of recruiters
who were not strangers increased to 73 percent in comparison to 1999-2004 when nonstrangers constituted 48 percent of recruiters (Ganta 2013). La Strada representatives
indicated that the share of women among recruiters is increasing as does the share of
recruiters who are foreigners. While sex trafficking is still quite prevalent, trafficking for
forced labor is on the rise. On average, the duration of exploitation decreased from 2 years
in 1999-2000, to 5 months in 2003-2004, and 3 months in 2005-2010 (Ganta 2013).

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PREVENTION, PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE
TO TRAFFICKED VICTIMS


PREVENTION
According to the TIP Report, the Moldovan government maintained efforts to prevent
human trafficking. The national anti-trafficking committee (NCCTIP) and its secretariat
coordinated the government’s anti-trafficking response. In keeping with the national
action plan for 2014-2016, NCCTIP implemented programs to raise awareness among
students and Moldovan citizens abroad, as well as the general public through radio
broadcasts, a website, and a national anti-trafficking week. The government has also
provided anti-trafficking training for its diplomatic personnel on identifying trafficking
victims.
However, protection of victims and prevention of human trafficking has been mostly
supported by NGOs and international organizations funded by foreign donors, including
two major players: the International Center "La Strada" and that the International
Organization for Migration (IOM).
The International Center “La Strada” started their anti-trafficking activities in 2001 as part
of the European NGO network against trafficking in human beings comprising eight
member organizations in Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Macedonia (FYROM),
Moldova, The Netherlands, Poland, and Ukraine and an international secretariat based
in Amsterdam. La Strada-Moldova manages a hotline that can be called toll-free from
within Moldova and from overseas. La Strada also provides consultations via Skype and
e-mail to share relevant information on safe migration and human trafficking risks. In
addition, La Strada regularly conducts social awareness campaigns for the general public
and for potential migrants on various aspects of safe migration, migrant workers’ rights,
and trafficking risks.
IOM funds several initiatives aimed at preventing human trafficking and providing
services to women, men, and children they consider to be at-risk-for trafficking.

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In the past, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) had organized several
information campaigns aimed at preventing trafficking in persons. In 2003-2004, IOM
bought distribution rights for the film Lijya-4-ever, a brutal story of the downward spiral
of Liljia, a trafficked girl from the former Soviet Union. Abandoned by her mother, who
migrated to the United States, Lilja ends up in Sweden where she is forced to perform
sexual acts for a large number of clients. IOM organized screenings of this movie for some
60,000 people, mainly teenage girls, young women, and a smattering of government
officials (Gozdziak 2016). In 2005 IOM launched a play, Abandoned People, about
Moldovan migrants in Italy. The play is based on dramatic stories written by Dumitru
Crudu that indicates that Moldovan migrants may never come back to their native
country. It is somewhat ironic that IOM chose a film and a play that conveniently forget
that migration is one of the basic human rights and portray migration as a root cause of
trafficking.
In 2009, the Human Rights Festival included several films presented in Chisinau, Balti
and Cahul aimed at raising public awareness of a range of social problems, including
migration, child rights, rights of HIV infected persons, and different forms of
discrimination. The Festival was organized by the Institute for Human Rights with
financial support from the Netherlands Embassy, German Embassy, Embassy of
Lithuania, UNDP, UNICEF, Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and
Word AIDS Campaign.
During the time of this research, La Strada-Moldova continued to provide information,
organizing trainings, and building capacity of professionals working with victims and
potential victims of trafficking in persons (social workers, teachers, doctors, and
representatives of law enforcement authorities), while IOM, in partnership with the
Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Children, focused on socially vulnerable
children and youth, social orphans, children left behind as a consequence of migration,
children from residential institutions, and sexually victimized young women. IOM
deemed these populations at-risk-for trafficking.

PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE
According to the 2016 TIP report, the Government of Moldova demonstrated mixed
efforts in victim protection. The government identified 310 trafficking victims in 2015,

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12

including 132 returned victims, compared with 264, including 85 returnees, in 2014. The
government allocated 600,000 lei ($31,914) for the repatriation of victims in 2015.
However, not all of the funds were disbursed, in part due to bureaucratic obstacles to
accessing the funds.
In addition, the government provided approximately 8.38 million lei ($446,000) to seven
shelters for victims of crime and family violence, an increase from 7.26 million lei
($385,970) provided in 2014. One of these shelters, the Chisinau Assistance and Protection
Center, specialized in receiving trafficking victims and individuals at high risk of
trafficking.
As part of their Assistance and Protection Program, IOM provided assistance to returned
victims of trafficking, mainly women. As indicated above, in the early 2000s IOM assisted
over 2,400 women. The assistance package consisted of crisis intervention care, including
medical, psychological, legal, and social needs assessment, and residential care for up to
one month, followed by a 12-month community-based rehabilitation program (social
assistance and vocational training). Approximately 80% of returning women accepted the
acute crisis intervention and/or rehabilitation programs (Ostrovschi et al. 2011). During
our field research, there were no returned women in the IOM shelters. As indicated
above, the beneficiaries included young women considered to be at-risk for trafficking.
None of the women we visited with ever left Moldova.
It is interesting that both the Government of Moldova and IOM seem to be focusing more
and more on individuals they deem to be at-risk for trafficking than on returned victims.
The question remains: Is the focus on prevention related to the fact that few victims are
identified? Or perhaps the scale of trafficking in persons is not as large as previously
imagined. While poor and vulnerable children, youth, and adults obviously require
protection and assistance, we question whether efforts to help them are correctly labeled
as anti-trafficking activities. Given the stigma associated with human trafficking,
especially trafficking for sexual exploitation, it might be actually detrimental to
conceptualize all social services aimed at serving vulnerable populations as antitrafficking programs. But then perhaps that is where the money is. Human trafficking
seems to garner more funding from donors than equally important but less ‘sexy’
assistance to the poor and exploited

Trafficking Survivors Return Home: Case Study of Moldova
13

INTERVIEWS WITH SURVIVORS OF TRAFFICKING



Fourteen interviews with survivors of human trafficking have been conducted in 2015 by
the research team. Twelve of the survivors were women and two were men. All of the
survivors were former clients of La Strada Moldova.
WOMEN. The women ranged in age from 18 to 58 at the time of trafficking. However,
the majority (8 women) were very young--in their early 20s--at the time of trafficking.
Four of the women were trafficked for sexual exploitation, three for labor exploitation,
three for a combination of labor and sexual exploitation, and two for begging. Three
survivors hail from Transnistria, the rest are from different towns and villages in
Moldova. The vast majority (7 women) were trafficked to Russia, one was trafficked
within Moldova, and one each to Ukraine, Dubai, Malaysia, and Cambodia.
The women trafficked to Russia stayed in the country from two months to seven years;
however, the majority were in the trafficking situation for two to three months.
Natasha who spent six months in Russia being sexually exploited described her situation
as follows: “I was in a foreign country. They were mocking me; these people were not
humans. I was often bought by four people for the whole night for 8,000 rubles and they
could do whatever they wanted with me.” In order to forget those experiences Natasha
started drinking heavily and taking drugs.
Tatiana’s husband was recruited to work in Russia in agriculture. When he got there, the
trafficker told him to send for Tatiana because together they would be able to make more
money in a shorter period of time. Tatiana’s mother-in-law advised Tatiana against this
plan. She thought that at 18 years of age Tatiana was too young to work abroad. However,
as Tatiana said in the interview “(…) the money we needed mattered the most, so I went.”
Both Nina and Elena were smuggled into Russia and forced to beg in the streets. Knowing
that they were in Russia illegally, they didn’t think they had a choice but to do what the
traffickers asked.
Alina who was raised in an orphanage was 20 years old when she was trafficked to
Malaysia for sexual exploitation. She didn’t want to reveal many details about her

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14

exploitation except that she managed to escape on her own after about a year. After she
escaped her trafficker, she remained in Malaysia for the next three years, including about
18 months she spent in jail when she was arrested together with a young man she met.
She is not quite sure what the charges were as she does not speak any Malay.
Marta was even younger that Alina—18 years old—when she was trafficked to Cambodia
for sex and labor exploitation. Somehow Marta managed to call her mother in Moldova.
Marta’s mother contacted the Moldovan police and they in turn contacted the Cambodian
police who extricated Marta from her trafficking situation.
Ana was 24 years old when she ended up in a sexual exploitation situation in Dubai. It is
unclear from Ana’s narrative why she went to Dubai.
MEN. Both of the interviewed men were trafficked for labor exploitation. Victor, a 57year-old from the Leova District was trafficked together with his wife within Moldova to
work in agriculture as a sheep herder. He and his wife spent about 2.5 months in the
trafficking situation. The staff of La Strada-Moldova indicated that the cases of trafficking
for forced labor within Moldova are on the rise.
Andrei, a 31-year-old, was trafficked with his girlfriend to Russia also for labor
exploitation. Andrei did not elaborate what kind of work he and his girlfriend had to
perform. They spent about five months in forced labor.
THE TRAFICKERS
Most of the traffickers were strangers. The majority acted alone, but in a few cases the
traffickers were married couples. In all cases the traffickers promised good jobs abroad.
In a couple of cases, the victims knew their traffickers or were introduced to them by
trusted friends or acquaintances. Masha was introduced to her trafficker, a young Roma
female, by a male classmate who lived in the same village as Masha in Transnistria. At
first, the woman offered Masha a job selling used clothes in different villages in Moldova,
but later on invited Masha to go to Russia with her. Masha trusted the woman because
by now they travelled together all over the Moldovan countryside. Masha thought she
would be able to earn more money in Russia. However, once they got to Russia, the
trafficker took away Masha’s passport and forced her to provide sexual services to male
clients.

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15

In one case, the trafficker was a family member. Natalia ended up being exploited by her
Roma husband who convinced her to go with him to Ukraine to work, but instead took
her to Russia where he forced her to beg in the streets. When their children were born
Natalia was forced to take them with her while she was begging. The husband pocketed
all the money she earned.
ASSISTANCE RECEIVED BY MOLDOVAN SURVIVORS
Most survivors did not receive any assistance in destination countries from local
programs after they were rescued from their trafficking situation. Those trafficked to
Russia indicated that they were there illegally and were afraid to look for help. Some,
especially those trafficked across great distances, were placed in temporary shelters,
provided with food, and in some instances received counseling before departing for
home.
Upon rescue, Marta was placed by law enforcement in a shelter for trafficked victims in
Cambodia. She was provided room and board as well as counseling services. IOM
arranged for her flight back to Moldova and paid for the airfare. After staying for a month
in a shelter for trafficked women, Marta sought out her boyfriend. She stayed with him
for a week, but in the end decided to leave him since he beat her. A female friend took
Marta in and found her a job, but Marta did not stay employed for long, because the job
did not pay well and she could barely afford buying food with the money she made. The
real reason for quitting her job, however, seems to be that Marta met another man. “We
get along well, she said, and want to marry.” Marta is pregnant and should go to a doctor,
but doesn’t have money for prenatal care. Her boyfriend is also unemployed and it is
difficult to say how they are surviving. The boyfriend’s sister is working in Italy and is
encouraging them to come and join her there.
Alina’s story is quite dramatic. After she was released from jail, Alina was referred to a
detention center. Alina described the center as follows: “They were treating us worse than
animals. There was no difference between this place and the prison I was in previously.”
Alina was lucky to meet staff from the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society while in
detention. They arranged for her travel documents and an acquaintance she met in the
detention bought her an airplane ticket to return to Moldova. When she arrived in
Moldova, she told the border patrol about her troubles in Malaysia. The border patrol
called La Strada and Alina was placed in a temporary shelter. She stayed there for a
month. From the shelter, Alina was referred to Insula Speranterol (Hope Island), a
vocational training program offering courses in hair-dressing, cosmetology, and cooking.
Unfortunately, Alina was asked to leave the program because she would disappear for a
few days at a time and did not want to adhere to the rules and schedules of the program.
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16

At the time of the interview Alina said: “I am not staying much in one place. Today I can
be here and tomorrow in another place.” At some point after her return, housing was
arranged for Alina in her village of origin, but she didn’t stay long there. “The house was
next to a cemetery, she said, and people were coming there, breaking my windows,
stealing from the house. In the end they have broken and stolen everything they could.”
While Alina would like to “have a family and live a normal life,” she doesn’t seem to
have any concrete plans to get her life in order or get a job.
Natasha turned for help to her family and friends. When she returned to Moldova from
Russia she started drinking heavily and taking drugs. Natasha said: “When I returned
from Russia, at first I did not understand what was happening around me. I had a feeling
I was in a fog and my life was a scary dream. I was scared of everything. I was drinking
and drinking to block the fear out. Fear, fear, fear was everywhere.”
Natasha’s mother connected her with the Women’s Initiative program. The organization
enrolled Natasha in a detox program, provided psychological counseling, legal
assistance, and vocational training. Natasha would like to find a job as a cook, but she is
not sure she could adjust to work outside the sex industry. She said: “I am not sure I will
be able to work; I got used to work differently and I don’t know anything else. It is
important for me to stop being afraid; I am afraid of the militia, of traffickers, of
everything and everybody. I don’t trust people.” Natasha is also afraid that she might be
HIV positive.
Several of the interviewed women or their children had serious health problems and
turned to a variety of programs, non-governmental organizations and government
services, for health care assistance. One of Lyuba’s two children got sick when she was in
a temporary shelter. The shelter staff took him to the hospital and he got all the necessary
medical treatment as well as basic necessities—medicine, diapers, and some clothing.
Lyuba also receives approximately 480 lei from the government for child support, but she
says the money is not sufficient to cover all of her expenses.

PROSPECTS FOR SUCCESSFUL REINTEGRATION
It is difficult to evaluate the returned victims’ prospects for successful reintegration. Most
of the interviewed women and men were facing the same financial problems after
returning to Moldova that made them decide to seek work outside their place of
residence, abroad or in a different region of the country. Several returned victims thought
that they had no alternative but to go abroad again in search of employment.

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17

Victor thought that he would have to travel abroad to seek employment. Victor reminded
us that he and his wife worked abroad for two years in the mid-1990s and enjoyed the
experience. He thought that the working conditions in Moldova were much more
exploitative. Victor and his wife were exploited and maltreated by a Moldovan sheep
herder in a district far away from their village. They returned to their village with no
money and are currently in dire financial situation. They are house-sitting for a neighbor
who is abroad, but they have no idea where they would go once he returns. The
municipal government provides some financial assistance, but it is not enough to survive.
Andrei said he would not want to seek employment outside Moldova, but upon reflection
he changed his mind: “Look, he said, we are homeless. We cannot live with my wife’s
mother because the authorities would discontinue the meager financial support they are
providing at the moment.” According to Andrei, he and his wife are as poor as they were
before they went to Russia. There are no real job prospects in the village. On occasion,
Andrei gets hired as a farm hand by a local farmer, but the money he makes is barely
enough to buy some bread. Andrei and his wife have a young son to take care of and
desperately need assistance from the government. Andrei has a brother and a sister, but
they are not in a position to help him.
Natalia who was forced by her Roma husband to beg in the streets in Russia, is hopeful
that she will be able to have a good life. At the time of our interview, Natalia was
receiving help—vocational training and temporary housing—from Insula Speranterol.
She hopes she would be able to find a job after she graduates. Natalia’s biggest challenge
is to regain full custody of her children who are currently in the care of her Roma husband
and his family. Although her family did not like Natalia’s choice of a husband, her
parents and sister are happy that she returned to Moldova. Natalia has accepted some
help from her sister, but says this is not a long-term solution as her sister has a disabled
child and needs a lot of resources as well. Natalia wants to stay in Chisinau to be far away
from her husband and his family. She is afraid he would force her again to beg in the
streets. She also thinks there are more jobs in the capital than in smaller towns and
villages.
POVERTY

Most of the women said they would never go abroad again, but they also did not seem
to have any concrete plans to rebuild their lives in Moldova. Objectively speaking, the
prospects are bleak, especially in rural areas where the women we interviewed come
from. Despite the economic growth between 2000 and 2008, Moldovans, especially
villagers, have been particularly hard hit by the recent economic downturn. Poverty is
severe and widespread in rural areas. Remittances have declined sharply, and
Trafficking Survivors Return Home: Case Study of Moldova
18

unemployment has risen dramatically with the influx of returning migrants. According
to the Rural Poverty Portal, an estimated 42 percent of the rural Moldovan population is
now affected by poverty, as compared with 14 percent in large cities and 28 percent in
towns. Overall, the most deprived districts are located in the central-western parts of the
country, followed by the central-eastern and north-eastern areas.2
While the vast majority of Moldovans live in rural areas, at present, 60 percent of
agricultural land is operated by large-scale enterprises. The remainder is divided into
small plots averaging 1.5 hectares that are too small to become commercially viable. With
the exception of larger scale farming that generates some employment opportunities,
there has been little investment in rural areas.
HEALTH PROBLEMS AND GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

Health problems, including alcohol and drug addiction, also pose great challenges for the
returned women and men. Virtually every returned survivor we interviewed faced
health problem. Some of the health issues pre-dated the trafficking episode. Victor has
always had heart problems, but now the doctor told him he would have to have heart
surgery.
Natasha was in and out of detox trying to get clean when she returned. Others were not
as proactive and continued to drink heavily. Several women suffered gender-based
violence both before they went abroad and during their trafficking ordeal. Reports
indicate that 80 percent of Moldovan victims of trafficking experienced violence in their
families (Fabius 2006), a culturally accepted phenomenon.
A study of 120 trafficked women assisted by IOM upon return to Moldova found that
headaches, stomach pains, memory problems, and back pain were particularly prevalent.
Between a quarter and a third of the studied women reported suffering from loss of
appetite, toothache, weight loss, chest pain, and breathing difficulties. The researchers
emphasized that the high prevalence of headaches, memory loss, poor appetite, and pain
may be explained, at least partially, by the women’s poor mental health (Oram et al. 2012).
Indeed, 54 percent of the women in this study met criteria for at least one psychiatric
diagnosis, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) alone (16%); co-morbid PTSD
(20%); other anxiety or mood disorder (18%). The researchers explained the outcomes as


2

http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/moldova

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19

a result of both traumas experienced during the trafficking and childhood adversity,
personality factors, and socio-economic position (Ostrovschi at al 2011).
These results notwithstanding, the researchers caution to avoid burdening trafficked
women with additional stigmatizing labels by diagnosing them with ‘disorders.’ In many
instances the victims’ psychological reactions are normal responses to extraordinary
abnormal events and experiences.

IN SUMMARY
Fighting trafficking in Moldova is very difficult because of weak state control, high
degree of corruption at all levels of society, and general criminalization of the state and
society. The biggest and most severe shortcoming of the Government of Moldova is their
inability to provide the victims of trafficking protection, rehabilitation and counselling
services. In many cases the traffickers re-establish their control over the victims as soon
as they have returned to their home countries and often victims are re- trafficked abroad
(Saari 2006). Non-governmental and international organizations continue bear the
responsibility of counter-trafficking work in Moldova.
The anti-trafficking assistance programs, especially those supported by IOM, seem to be
helping both survivors of trafficking for sexual and other labor exploitation as well as
exploited workers who may not meet the muster of the definition of human trafficking,
especially severe forms of human trafficking. In many of the analyzed cases there was
neither force nor coercion, and only sometimes deception. In some cases, the victims’
understanding of what particular type of work—especially in the sex industry, but not
exclusively—entails were not commensurate with the reality of the particular
employment situation they voluntarily signed up for. In some instances, the survivors
did not know what the prevailing wage in, for example the construction industry, in a
foreign country was and felt wronged if they did not receive what they thought of as
adequate compensation. In most instances, however, there was a great deal of fraud.
More recently IOM’s efforts focus on populations considered to be at-risk for trafficking:
single pregnant women or young mothers whose partners abandoned them, victims of
rape, orphans, and people living in extreme poverty.

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RECCOMENDATIONS
Given this situation, we recommend the following:
Create training and information programs about safe migration. The concept of
safe migration is often used in the context of labor migrants from the global South
migrating in search of employment to the global North. However, it seems that in
the context of Moldova there is a need to establish training programs and
information clearing houses focusing on labor laws and workers’ rights in
destination countries to prepare Moldovan labor migrants well for the realities of
the labor markets abroad. This will go a long way towards prevention of forced
labor and human trafficking.
Work with people who have experienced long history of unemployment to
equip them with understanding the intricacies of the hiring process. Many of
the returned victims never worked prior to embarking on cross-border or internal
migration to follow a job offer. In many instances, the victims did not understand
how contracts work, what questions to ask, how to ensure they were offered
compensation commensurate with the prevailing or living wage. This problem
was especially severe if the victims sought employment abroad and were not able
to communicate with the employer directly.
Focus on re-integration. While emergency assistance is necessary when victims
need to be provided with shelter and safety as well as basic necessities, programs
need to look beyond the immediate needs of the victims. They need to secure
appropriate funding for longer-term programs and follow-up to ensure that the
returned victims have an on-going support to re-establish their lives.
Facilitate the empowerment and capacity building among returned victims to
establish victim-led support groups or assistance programs. Most of the antitrafficking activities in Moldova follow a top-down approach where the returned
survivors of human trafficking are passive recipients of (limited) services. There
is a need for a bottom-up empowerment model.

As in other countries studied in this research project, data on human trafficking,
including returned survivors of human trafficking is not available for independent
analysis.
The Counter-Trafficking Database developed by the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) and funded by the US Department of State

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21

must be made available for independent analysis. IOM received numerous
grants from the US government to develop the database starting in early 2000s.
This database must be made available—after ensuring confidentiality—to
independent researchers to carry out additional analyses. At the time of this
research, the database was still unavailable for independent assessment. Even the
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) was not granted access to the
database.


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