Caucasus Media Investigation Center

HOME MEDIA RESEARCH CAUCASUS ABOUT US

Caucasus journalists are join their efforts against human traffic

Zahir Amanov

To Iran – to collective oral sex...

Human Hunters
Azerbaijani slaves of XXI century

By Anar Orujov

Human trafficking – we come across this phrase almost every day. The problem is human trafficking has become one of the most profitable businesses in the world. Statistic researches show that a woman involved in prostitution brings to her patronage from 5, 000 up to 1 million dollars profit annually, irrespective of the country. For example, it has become evident that an average annual income that a prostitute brings to her patronage is $700, 000, and the maximum level of it is approximately $1,000,000. In Azerbaijan based on the local conditions the level of this type of income is too high. In our country a prostitute can make a profit from $7,000 up to $100,000 depending on the “exploitation conditions”. No doubt that such a profitable business paves the way to spend a lot of money to “hunt” the people, and establishment of a large mafia network which sometimes even the high-ranking officials are involved.

Human trafficking – a fantastic source of income

According to the report developed by the UN with regard to human trafficking, the number of cheap labor forces kidnapped and the number of women, men and children exploited annually for sexual purposes from different countries of the world is approximately more than $4 million people. And the amount of money generated by those engaged in human trafficking is also fantastic – $7-10 billion annually.

After the borders of Azerbaijan with its neighboring countries have become more transparent, the human trafficking has become a serious problem for our country as well. The Azeri women taken to Arabian countries, Russia, Turkey and forcibly involved in prostitution and undergoing different kinds of tortures are also the victims of the human hunters. We would like to draw your attention to some statistic indicators to show how rampant this black business in the CIS countries is, including Azerbaijan and the lives of how many people it has poisoned so far. Based on the reports of the organizations fighting with the international human trafficking, we can witness that this global crime relies on a large mafia network existed even in the highly-developed countries whish are considered to be the cradle of democracy.

The USA is a country of sexual exploitation

The US State Department has announced that every year approximately 18-20 thousand of women are brought to the country as a cheap labor force and for the purpose of sexual exploitation. However, the information published by the “Washington Profile” published in the USА is very dramatic. Based on the information provided by the newspaper during the last 10 days in 2002 70 thousand women were brought from the former soviet countries. Most of them have been brought to the US through their own civilian registry offices or through those functioning in the US. According to the information such offices, which there are 600 of them in the USA and 400 in the Russia, are rendering indirect assistance to the human traffickers. Taking into consideration the fact that there are also such civilian registry offices in Azerbaijan and that these offices are taking women abroad and placing announcement saying that they are rendering assistance to women in getting married with foreigners tells that there are some moot points in their activities.

Azeri girl’s adventure in Russia

Despite of the fact that though Azeri girls exploited for sexual purposes are frequently taken to the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and other eastern countries, they are also taken to the European countries and to our northern neighbor Russia to get them involved in prostitution. Based on the information obtained by our journalists a 23-year old girl Tehmine (the name is conventional) who used to work as a cleaning lady at the beauty parlors of the Narimanov district of Baku was taken to Russia with the promise that she would get a well-paid job and was forcible mislead to prostitution. We have made attempts for several times to get in touch with the victim’s family members and to specify the situation. But all the attempts made so far to get any information from the mother whose only girl has been taken to Russia didn’t yield any results. According to Tehmine’s mother any information published in the newspaper regarding her daughter (even her name will be kept in secret) may results in her death. The poor woman has decided not to tell anything to anyone with the hope of getting her daughter back. Based on the recently obtained information we have learned that Tehmine’s mother has received a phone call threatening her that she would not see her daughter alive, unless she tells someone about her being kidnapped. We tried to get information about this 23-year old girl from her former workplace. One of the women working as a hairdresser at that parlor gave her consent to provide us with some relevant information after having acquired a complete warrant that it would be kept in secret. As per Svetlana’s (the name is conventional) words, the women who inveigled Tehmine into prostitution visits this beauty parlor frequently and most of the people know that she is engaged in human trafficking. The said woman is one of the “powerful” ones in Baku in this business. We learned from Svetlana that the woman whose name we keep in secret works in different beauty saloons in Baku. This woman together with her friends working at the same place with her or in separate parlors is “hunting” the promiscuous girls coming to these beauty saloons. And everything starts with a proposal on a highly paid job in abroad. According to our interlocutress that almost 40-50% of these girls receiving such offers agree with it immediately surprises her.

From Baku up to Saints-Petersburg …

Let me tell you that Tehmine has lived together with her mother for a long time. Though she was not paid well, she didn’t engage in prostitution. While taking her to Russia she was kept in Makhachkala and Rostov for a while. According to Svetlana (let’s note that after lengthy assurances we had Svetlana to agree to provide us with the information on the cities where Tehmine used to be kept. As per her words, though most of the women who know about this they prefer keep their mouth shut.) Tehmine was forced to engage in prostitution after having arrived in Moscow. Her patronage kept her in the apartment rented in the Severnoe Bitovo district of Moscow city. Based on the information she has provided this district is one of the remote areas of Moscow has a large network engaged in this illegal business since 90s of the last century. As they have managed to get their way through the local government bodies, it is very easy and convenient for the hookers to keep brothels in this area in cooperation with the members of this network. However, the patronages used to change the apartments where Tehmine and other girls lived very frequently. Svetlana said that that woman has opened a new brothel in Sretenka district of Moscow having rented a new apartment. However, she said that she didn’t possess any information regarding any other Azeri girls living at that apartment. The girls were made receive clients at on of the night clubs close to the metro station called «Dmitry Donskoy Boulevard». There clients are usually the foreigners working in Moscow, particularly those engaged in medium business. Among these businessmen there were Arabs, Turks, as well as businessmen from the European countries and local Russians. The brothel located in Severnoe Bitovo used to be very close one. That is, there were not “aliens” among the clients visiting it. The girls would receive the clients whom their patrons know. They had to receive 4-8 clients a day. Having lived in Moscow for a couple of months Tehmine was taken to one of the brothels in Saints-Petersburg.

Svetlana couldn’t tell us anything regarding how Tehmine was mislead to prostitution or underwent any violence. But as per her words she has never heard her patron beating her. Our interlocutress also noticed that she believes Tehmine would be brought back after a while. Having exploited these girls they bring them back and satisfy them by giving them certain amount of money.
Svetlana said that once she heard the name of the place in Saints-Petersburg where Tehmine used to stay was «Nevski» avenue. Besides, Tehmine and other girls forced to receive clients at the night clubs and bars located at the same avenue and render service at the apartment rented at the area close to Yekaterina park. As Svetlana said Tehmine was allowed to talk to her mother once in 2-3 months.
It should be noted that Tehmine is still in Saints-Petersburg and is engaged in rendering sexual service to clients at the order of her patron. Unfortunately, the information that we have been able to get about this girl is limited.
We will try to provide you with additional information on Tehmine’s fate.

(The article was published in April 10, 2005 on “Boz Qurd” newspaper)