By Elżbieta M. Goździak, Ph.D.
Research Professor
Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM)
Georgetown University
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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. Dr. Stana Buchowska and Mr. Maciej Kotliński provided invaluable assistance in interviewing service providers and survivors of trafficking living in Poland. I am also grateful to the representatives of the Polish Ministry of Interior, the La Strada Foundation, and 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 anti-trafficking laws and data, and masterfully copy-editing and formatting this report.
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 cross-border 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.
MIGRATION IN POLAND
Poland has been an emigration country for more than a century. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, coupled with unrestricted entry to the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ireland, caused one of the biggest emigration flows in Poland’s postwar history. On November 19, 2006, the New York Times reported that 800,000 Poles left the country since Poland joined the EU. The number of Polish residents who stayed abroad for at least two months tripled between early 2004 and early 2007 from approximately 180,000 to 540,000 (Kaczmarczyk and Okólski 2008). In May 2011, Germany opened its doors fully to jobseekers from Poland paving the way for a flood of cut-price carpenters, plumbers and other budget labor of the kind that swept Britain in 2004 (Hall et al 2011). Norway and Belgium have also become destinations for post-accession Polish migrants (Mostowska 2013 and 2014). With this exodus Poland became one of the largest exporters of labor within the enlarged European Union. According to the Polish Census Bureau, 2,3 million Poles have resided abroad for at least three months at the end of 2014; this represents a 5.65 increase in comparison with 2013. The majority of Polish migrant lived in the European Union countries, including United Kingdom (685,000), Germany (614,000), Ireland (113,000), the Netherlands (109,000), and Italy (96,000) (GUS 2015).
Poles are now not only free to leave Poland, but also are free to leave and to come back. They use their spatial mobility to adapt to the new context of post-communist space and EU enlargement. Rather than relying on transnational networking for improving their condition in the country of settlement, many Poles tend to settle within mobility, staying mobile as long as they can in order to improve or maintain a particular quality of life, enhance their professional qualifications, and pursue educational goals. Their experience of migration becomes their lifestyle, their leaving home and going away, paradoxically, a strategy of staying at home, and, thus, an alternative to what international migration is usually considered to be: emigration or immigration. This does not mean that some Polish migrants do not “extend their stay abroad” and decide to settle outside Poland (McGhee 2013; Ryan et al 2009; Ryan and Sales 2013).
Mobility as a strategy can be empowering and can result in ‘success.’ It can become a tool for social innovation and agency as well as an important dimension of social capital provided that migrants retain control over their migration projects. Mobility, however, may also reflect increased dependencies, proliferation of precarious jobs, and labor exploitation that end in ‘failure.’
In the interviews conducted during this study, some staff at anti-trafficking programs worried that the increased mobility of Polish citizens—especially those with no fluency in the language of the country they want to live in, temporarily or permanently, might result in heightened levels of exploitation and trafficking. However, there is no way to ascertain whether these hypotheses translate into tangible data as there is no baseline data on the scale of trafficking of Polish nationals over time. Additionally, this assertion contradicts the data provided by the Polish Ministry of Interior that indicate that the vast majority of trafficked victims assisted by anti-trafficking programs were living in their country of origin at the time of being recruited to work abroad. Some of the Polish survivors of trafficking were also trafficked within Poland. These observations are based on relatively small samples and caution ought to be exercised when making generalizations.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN POLAND
THE LEGAL FRAMEWORKS
Poland is party to the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention and has ratified the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. It is also bound by European Union legislation and directives on human trafficking.
Nonetheless, until 2010, Poland did not have a definition of human trafficking, despite the fact that its Criminal Code specified a minimum penalty of three years of imprisonment for “whoever performs trafficking in persons.” Instead, the Polish Criminal Code criminalized the forcing of an adult or minor into prostitution and abduction of a person with intent to force them into prostitution abroad. The Act of May 20, 2010 concerning changes to the Criminal Code added a definition of trafficking in human beings which was introduced in Article 115, paragraph 22, of the Criminal Code, and a new Article 189a was added concerning the legal classification of trafficking. These amendments took effect on September 8, 2010.
Article 115, section 22 defines trafficking as:
In order for trafficking to take place, one of the following elements must have been used: recruitment, transport, transfer, giving away, harboring, and receipt of a person. The definition of trafficking used in Poland is broader than sexual exploitation. In practice, however, for quite a while policy and programmatic focus has been on trafficking for sexual exploitation. More recently, cases of financial exploitation of male labor migrants are slowly shifting the country’s attention to trafficking for other forms labor exploitation.
The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report issued by the U.S. Department of State every year has placed Poland in Tier 1 for several years. The TIP report indicates the Government of Poland fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking (TIP 2016).
SURVIVORS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN POLAND
Below we present information provided by the Polish Ministry of Interior regarding human trafficking in Poland. The latest data the Ministry was able to provide covers the period of 2012-2013. The data is based on an anonymous survey of survivors of human trafficking who received benefits from Krajowe Centrum Interwencyjno-Konsultacyjne (KCIK) or National Consulting and Intervention Center for Victims of Trafficking. The survey included 237 victims of human trafficking, both Polish nationals and foreign-born survivors. Seventy-five percent of the survey participants received an official status of trafficked victim from the Polish Police or Border Patrol, while the remaining 25 percent were deemed to be victims of human trafficking by the La Strada Foundation. The latter cohort did not want to collaborate with law enforcement and therefore was not included in the official cohort of victims.
While the sample is relatively small, the Ministry indicated that it is very illustrative of the latest trends in terms of characteristics of the victims and the nature of the recruitment process.
GENDER
AGE
Ninety percent of the beneficiaries were adults. All children under the age of 18 included in the survey were mostly foreign-born. In 2012, KCIK assisted 15 minors: 10 from Romania, three from Poland, one from Bulgaria, and one from Vietnam. In 2013, KCIK provided assistance to 13 minors: eight from Romania, two from Bulgaria, and one from the Czech Republic, Russia, and Vietnam. According to the 2016 TIP report, Poland ought to improve training and efforts to identify trafficked victims more proactively, particularly among unaccompanied children, irregular migrants, and children exploited in prostitution. It is difficult to ascertain why the authors of the TIP report think there might be many more minors trafficked to Poland. There is no baseline data or empirical research to warrant such estimates.
CITIZENSHIP
TABLE 1: COUNTRY OF CITIZENSHIP OF TRAFFICKED VICTIMS
Country of citizenship (N = 237) 2012 2013 Total
Poland 41 49 90
Romania 36 32 68
Bulgaria 8 18 26
Vietnam 12 12 24
Ukraine 10 3 13
Philippines 0 4 4
Kenya 2 1 3
Byelorussia 1 1 2
Moldova 0 2 2
Uganda 1 1 2
Morocco 0 1 1
Czech Republic 0 1 1
Citizens of Poland constituted the largest—38 percent-- group of beneficiaries assisted by KCIK, followed by citizens of Romania (29%), Bulgaria (11%), Vietnam (10%), and Ukraine (5.5%). It is noteworthy that the number of Ukrainian victims has decreased considerably. Between 2009 and 2011, Ukrainians were the second largest group of beneficiaries after Poles.
MARITAL STATUS
Seventy percent of the beneficiaries who declared marital status were single.1 The remaining 30 percent were either married or lived with partners.
PLACE OF RESIDENCE
The majority of the beneficiaries (204 survivors) lived in the country of origin at the time of being recruited to work abroad. The vast majority (94%) of Polish survivors lived in Poland at the time they were recruited. This data contradicts the assertion discussed above that increased mobility of Poles after the accession to the European Union puts them at risk for trafficking. In 2013, only 11 of the 75 foreign-born victims were outside their countries of origin at the time of recruitment; nine in Poland, one in Germany, and another one in Ukraine.
EMPLOYMENT STATUS
Three-quarters of the beneficiaries were unemployed at the time of recruitment. An additional 14 percent were students. One person was retired. A mere seven percent had a job at the time of being approached by a recruiter.
Analyzing these data, KCIK concluded that unemployed persons are at the highest risk for being trafficked, especially if unemployment is accompanied by a family crisis such as illness or domestic violence. More than 78 percent of the victims decided to migrate in order to improve the economic situation of their families. Additionally, 12 percent of the beneficiaries decided to go abroad as a result of a family crisis and/or to escape domestic violence. Seven percent of the surveyed victims left under pressure from family members.
Social workers indicated that in the latter case, the family was actively involved in the trafficking process.
Some 13 percent of the surveyed beneficiaries decided to migrate in the hopes of securing both a better economic and emotional situation. Half of this group left their family home in search of new adventures, to meet new people, but without precise plans what to do once they get to the destination country. The second half had matrimonial plans and left home to marry a particular person, usually the trafficker.
THE RECRUITERS
The vast majority of recruiters2 were Polish citizens.
TABLE 2: COUNTRY OF CITIZENSHIP OF RECRUITERS
Country of citizenship of recruiters (N = 194)
2012 2013 Total
Poland 44 53 97 Bulgaria 18 21 39 Romania 9 12 21 Italy 0 13 13 Vietnam 1 12 13 Ukraine 7 5 12 Germany 1 4 5 Turkey 0 3 3 Czech Republic 0 1 1 Nigeria 0 1 1 Russia 1 0 1
2The data provided by the Polish Ministry of Interior differentiates between the different people involved
The table below presents information on country of citizenship of the recruiters. Comparing this information with the data on citizenship of victims, it appears that in most cases the traffickers come from the same country as their victims.
While in many cases the recruiters were co-ethnics, in the majority of cases they were strangers. Analogously to previous years, 64 percent of the surveyed survivors were recruited by strangers, followed by 22 percent of survivors who were recruited by an acquaintance (znajomy). In the remaining 14 percent victims were recruited by family members or partners.
METHODS OF RECRUITMENT
In three-quarters of the cases, the traffickers recruited victims by contacting them directly. In 24 percent of the surveyed cases, traffickers used indirect methods, including Internet advertisements (15%) or employment agencies (9%). There were no cases of kidnapping or other forcible recruitment. No dating agencies were involved in cases when traffickers approached their victims with a romantic proposal. It seems that perpetrators try to hide their criminal intents from potential victims for as long as they can in order to not spur suspicion.
In the majority of cases (91%), the traffickers offered their victims financially lucrative employment. Every tenth survivor was lured with a promise of marriage. One percent of the surveyed individuals were promised financial assistance (sponsorship) and an additional one percent were tempted with offers to see the world. None of the surveyed individuals indicated that the recruitment offers included assistance with irregular migration.
DESTINATION COUNTRIES
TRANSPORT
It seems that the transport stage is much more diverse than the recruitment stage. This is due to the fact that in some cases the victims were recruited hundreds of thousands of kilometers from the place of exploitation, and in other cases, recruitment and victimization took place in the same locality and transport was limited to travel by taxi and did not have to be organized by a criminal group. Sometimes victims had to use several different modes of transportation to reach their destination. Private cars were used most often (62%), followed by public bus (over 33%), airplane (20%), private bus (15.5%) and taxi (10%). Trains and ships were used very rarely, in four and 0.6 percent of cases, respectively.
Three-quarters of the survivors crossed international borders, but only in two percent of the examined cases the border was crossed clandestinely.
EXPLOITATION
The vast majority of the KCIK beneficiaries were exploited within Poland (83%), followed by Germany (12.5%), the Netherlands (2.2%), and the United Kingdom (1.3%). In 2013, 71 foreign-born and 26 Polish citizens were exploited in Poland. More than half of the surveyed beneficiaries were trafficked for sexual exploitation, including 44 percent who were forced into prostitution. Additional 25 percent were trafficked for labor exploitation and 22 percent for begging. Six percent of the beneficiaries were enslaved3, 4.3 percent were forced to commit criminal offenses, and 2.2 percent were victims of forced marriages.
Available data suggest that the type of exploitation of Poland-born and foreign-born victims remains the same as in previous years (2009-2011). Sexual exploitation and begging far exceed other forms of exploitation. Polish citizens are trafficked predominantly for sexual exploitation, while foreign-born individuals are trafficked for forced labor and begging
CONTROLING VICTIMS
In order to control their victims, traffickers used a wide range of methods, including direct threat (75.4%), physical force (52%), and restriction of freedom of movement
(51.3%). In most cases, more than one way of oppression was utilized. Indirect threat was used in 36 percent of cases, seizure of documents in 27 percent, and coercion and/or kidnapping in 21 percent. In about 14 percent of cases, traffickers prevented their victims from accessing medical care, and in additional 14 percent deprived them of access to food. Although debt bondage is thought to be the most prevailing characteristic of human trafficking only eighth victims reported debt bondage as a method of exploitation and control by the traffickers.
RESCUE
The majority (96%) of the surveyed KCIK beneficiaries were no longer in the trafficking situation at the time when they signed up for assistance. More than half of the survivors escaped from the traffickers on their own. In 40 percent of the cases, victims were rescued by law enforcement. A small percentage—nine percent—of the surveyed survivors were released from the exploitative situation by the traffickers.
AFTER RESCUE
The majority of the beneficiaries were referred to KCIK assistance programs by Polish law enforcement, mainly the police (45%) and Border Guards (23%). Nearly 13 percent of the victims went to the Centre on its own initiative. In the remaining cases, family members, consulate personnel, or NGO staff referred the victims to available assistance programs.
For foreign-born victims of trafficking access to immigration relief is usually one of the most pressing needs. This is true anywhere in the world. The majority (95%) of the 145 foreign-born survivors assisted by KCIK resided in Poland legally; 65 percent of the survivors had EU citizenship, and additional 30 percent held either a residency permit or a work visa. None of the foreign-born victims entered Poland on a tourist visa.
worth mentioning that survivors with temporary work or residency permits are often able extend them. Unfortunately, the regulations are not very clear how many times and for how long such permits can be extended.
In addition to legal aid, KCIK also provides other types of assistance, including job placement, psycho-social services. Of the 237 survivors, 231 individuals took advantage of the available support; the remaining six survivors declined offered assistance.
Half of the respondents participated in a special program aimed at protecting foreign-born victims of human trafficking willing to collaborate with law enforcement and the courts in prosecuting their traffickers. In recent years, the majority of foreign-born victims have participated in the program (80-84%). According to the law of March 12, 2004 pertaining to social assistance, victims of human trafficking are entitled to social benefits. In 2013, 20 victims (12 foreign-born and eight Poles) received social benefits. In 2012, only two victims benefited from such assistance. Table 3 below presents the type of assistance victims—both foreign-born and Polish citizens—received from KCIK and its affiliates.
TABLE 3: TYPE OF ASSISTANCE
Type of assistance (N=237) 2012 2013 Total
Temporary housing 62 18 80
Long-term housing 26 44 70
Emergency medical assistance 28 43 71
Long-term medical assistance 14 10 24
Psychological support 37 87 124
Therapy 12 19 31
Education 2 4 6
Vocational training 0 1 1
Family mediation 4 5 9
Financial assistance 23 4 27
Clothing, food 85 76 161
Transportation 53 65 118
Legal consultation 43 54 97
Specialized legal aid 5 13 18
Interpretation 28 58 86
Assistance with return to home country
9 24 33
Assistance with legal documents 7 13 20
No assistance 6 0 6
COOPERATION WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT
Hundred and two of the surveyed survivors indicated that they decided to actively participate in the criminal proceedings against their traffickers. Nineteen individuals indicated that they refused to testify in the court of law. Given that only 50 percent of the surveyed survivors provided answers to questions regarding cooperation with law enforcement, it is difficult to draw conclusions regarding willingness to collaborate with law enforcement or possible reasons for declining to provide testimonies. According to the 2016 TIP Report, some foreign-born victims did not participate in the protection program because it did not provide for the right to work.
IN SUMMARY
government lacks a central mechanism to cross-reference and consolidate trafficking-related statistics, hindering officials’ ability to assess the scope of trafficking in Poland.
PREVENTION, PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE
TO TRAFFICKED VICTIMS
In most countries anti-trafficking initiatives are organized around the 4 Ps: prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnerships. This framework does not include a specific focus on re-integration of survivors of human trafficking into the larger society, be it in their country of origin or in the destination country. Poland is no exception.
According to the 2016 TIP Report, the Polish government demonstrated progress in prevention of human trafficking. In 2015, the government allocated 135,000 zloty ($34,500) for the implementation of the 2013-2015 national action plan for combating trafficking. The government drafted and began the implementation of the 2016-2018 action plan. It is difficult to say what will happen to this plan as the new government in Poland has replaced many of the staff members of the inter-ministerial anti-trafficking team who used to work quite productively with a working-level group of experts. These teams met regularly to coordinate efforts and develop national anti-trafficking policies.
The government sponsored information campaigns, several of which targeted schoolchildren, migrant workers in Poland, and Poles seeking work abroad. The labor inspectorate continued to inspect jobrecruitment agencies for fraud, which resulted in the removal of several agencies from its official register. The government also provided anti-trafficking training for its diplomatic personnel.
The 2016 TIP Report includes criticism of the Polish government for not providing specialized care for child victims of trafficking or establishing a standard protocol to determine whether unaccompanied minors may be victims of trafficking. The report was much more impressed with what the government is doing in terms of protecting adult victims of trafficking.
As indicated above, KCIK offered victims medical and psychological care, legal counseling, shelter referrals, and welfare support. KCIK also ran two shelters for adult female victims and was responsible for finding safe shelter for male victims. Local governments also funded and operated crisis intervention centers; 18 were designated specifically for trafficking victims in 2015, compared with 23 in 2014. Virtually all of these services constitute emergency assistance. No resources have been allocated for longer-term reintegration programs.
The government’s witness protection program provided foreign victims with a temporary residence permit, medical and psychological care, and shelter for those who cooperated with prosecution. The government enrolled 38 trafficking victims in this program in 2015, compared with 62 in 2014. Foreign victims were entitled to a three-month reflection period, during which they could stay legally in Poland to decide whether to assist in the criminal process; 33 victims availed themselves of this reflection period in 2015.
In 2015, 27 foreign victims who joined the witness protection program agreed to participate in the prosecution of their traffickers, compared with 52 in 2014. Although victims could file civil suits against traffickers and judges could order compensation for victims in criminal cases, observers reported very few trafficking victims have ever received compensation from their traffickers. Six trafficking victims were convicted for illegally crossing the Polish border in 2014, but in 2015, the Supreme Court returned the case to the lower court for reconsideration.
INSIDERS’ POINT OF VIEW:
INTERVIEWS WITH SURVIVORS OF TRAFFICKING
Nineteen interviews with survivors of human trafficking have been conducted in 2015 by the Georgetown research team. Ten of these interviews were with Poles who have returned to Poland and nine with foreign-born individuals who were trafficked to Poland. We included the latter group to ascertain the availability of services for victims trafficked to Poland who want to return to their country of origin and to understand their decision-making processes related to return.
The agencies assisting these women and men referred to them as ‘trafficked victims.’ However, given the narratives we were able to elicit, in some instances it might have been more appropriate to call them ‘exploited workers.’ With few exceptions, the women that were classified as victims of sexual exploitation entered the sex industry voluntarily and the main complaints they launched related to levels of compensation and freedom in choosing clients. These seem important distinctions to make, especially in the context of the scale of human trafficking in Poland.
POLISH SURVIVORS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
The ten Poles interviewed in the course of this research included five women and five men.
WOMEN. The women, ranging in age from 22 to 40 at the time of trafficking, were mainly trafficked for sexual exploitation (4). Most entered the sex industry voluntarily, but in the end felt exploited and defrauded. They imagined they would receive better monetary compensation and have a lot more freedom in choosing clients, and would be less dependent on and controlled by the clubs’ owners.
Sister Imelda describe Alina4 as a young woman ‘sold into prostitution by her own mother.’ In an interview Alina admitted that at first she did not mind being a sex worker. Alina worked first in the streets of Warsaw, but later was hired by an escort agency. She
got pregnant by one of her clients and had a baby daughter. At that point Alina wanted to leave the agency, but she worried that if she returned to her maternal home, her mother would “put her back in the street.” With no savings and no other housing prospects, Alina stayed with the agency for another five years. He daughter, Ewa, grew up in the escort agency and the agency staff helped taking care of Ewa when Alina was working. It is unclear how good the care Ewa received was. The nuns who were helping Alina when she finally left the escort agency indicated that Ewa was showing signs of being sexually abused. The nuns were not trained psychologists and made these assertions based mainly on Ewa’s propensity to take off her clothes when it wasn’t warranted.
Celina and Barbara were traffickedto Germany and Italy, respectively. Both women left Poland to work in the sex industry. Celina, a divorced mother of two children, ages seven and four, was 24 when she travelled to Germany. She left her children in the care of her former husband. Barbara grew up in orphanages. At the time of making a decision to work as a sex worker she was 22 years old. Although both women made a choice to engage in sex work abroad, when they arrived at their work places, the conditions they encountered were not what they imagined.
Celina ended up working in a nightclub where she was abused physically, psychologically, and sexually. After the German police raided the club, Celina was referred to an anti-trafficking program and returned to Poland. Barbara provided sexual services both in apartment buildings (“w mieszkaniówkach”) and in nightclubs. Fairly soon after her foray into the sex industry, Barbara got addicted to drugs, especially to amphetamines. Under the influence of the drugs, she made two suicide attempts. The first time she jumped from a window and broke her foot; the second time she threw herself under a moving car. The carabinieri (Italian police) referred Barbara to an anti-trafficking organization, which in turn made arrangements with PO-MOC (HELP), a Polish assistance program for victims of trafficking, to have Barbara returned to Poland.
Ola, a 25-year-old from Łódź, signed up for an EU training course to prepare her to be a masseuse in Germany. When she arrived, it turned out that “the course” was an escort agency ran by three women and two men. She believes she was given some sort of drugs in the drinks she was served. After a week, Ola took advantage of the traffickers’ momentary inattention and escaped.
months, she escaped with a fellow Pole and together they reported at a police station. Izabella was referred first to the Salvation Army, then to Migrant Point, and finally to BCHA, a program that works with the homeless and victims of trafficking.5 Upon return to Poland, the La Strada Foundation assisted Izabella.
MEN. All of the men, ranging in age from 18 to 45 at the time of trafficking, were trafficked for labor exploitation. Only one of the men was trafficked for both labor and sexual exploitation. All of the interviewed men were trafficked to Great Britain. Florian and Stefan are victims of a new form of exploitation. None of them spoke good English therefore the brokers who facilitated their employment in Liverpool and Dover, respectively, offered to help the men open bank accounts. Being privy to the banking information, including passwords and PIN numbers, the brokers kept on withdrawing the money from Florian’s and Stefan’s accounts as soon as their employers deposited their salaries. Service providers in Poland told us about several similar stories.
The jobs that Mariusz and Jerzy were promised never materialized. Jerzy was taken to many offices where he was asked to sign papers he did not understand since he doesn’t speak English. His social worker speculated that the traffickers enrolled Jerzy in some sort of assistance programs to collect his financial benefits. Alex was forced to work in a recycling plant although he was recruited to work in a manufacture producing wooded fences. Florian worked for a building company and liked his job, however, the salary which his employer deposited in his bank account kept mysteriously disappearing. Florian didn’t speak any English and could not as his bank manager what happened with his paycheck. He also did not know of any programs helping migrant workers. The only people Florian could communicate with was the Polish family who brought him to Liverpool.
The length of time the men were in the trafficking situation ranged from one week to two years.
FOREIGN-BORN SURVIVORS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
The nine foreign-born trafficked individuals included eight women and one man. The women hailed from Ukraine (3), Romania (1), Philippines (2), Vietnam (1), and Uganda (1). The only man in this cohort was born in Vietnam.
WOMEN. The women ranged in age from 15 to 41 years of age at the time of trafficking. All were trafficked for forced labor. Some experienced sexual exploitation or harassment in addition to labor exploitation.
Larisa, a Roma woman from Ukraine, lived in Poland legally for 17 years prior to being exploited by a fellow Roma. Larisa lived in a Roma encampment with her family and begged in the streets to support herself and her children. One day a Roma man spotted Larisa in the city center and started extorting money from her. Larisa wanted to strike a deal and offered him half of her earnings, but he demanded more and in order to control her started to physically and sexually abuse her and her children. She was under the man’s control for two, perhaps three years, she told us.
The other two Ukrainian women, Olga and Natasza answered an employment agency add to work as a housekeeper and a short-order cook, respectively. Both ended up working in restaurants for a fraction of what they were promised. In fact, both were not paid at all for the first few weeks or months.
Florica is a Roma from Romania. She and her family travelled to Poland several times, always to beg in the streets or in railroad stations. During one of her trips to Poland Florica developed a romantic relationship with a Polish young man. Florica’s father, who promised her in marriage to her cousin, did not like the budding romance with a gadje (a non-Roma). The family lured her away from her boyfriend’s house saying that her mother was gravely ill. The family took her to a different town, tied her up, beat her, and eventually took her to Romania. When she returned to Poland, the cousin whom she was to marry raped her and beat her up. Florica called her Polish boyfriend, Janusz, who came and rescued her from her cousin’s house.
Sylvia, a woman from Uganda, was 30 years old when a distant uncle sold her to two men who brought her to Europe. Sylvia had no idea what her destination was supposed to be; she shared with us that the men gave her something to drink that made her very sleepy and disoriented. While being transported from an airport by car, Sylvia somehow escaped and after hours of walking on foot reached a police station in one of the towns in South-East Poland.
Xuan was the youngest of the interviewed women. She just turned 15 years of age when she was trafficked to work in a sewing plant in Moscow. After a few months another group of traffickers tried to take her from Russia to Germany. She was found hiding in a spare wheel of a tractor-trailer on the Polish-Byelorussian border and referred to the La Strada Foundation.
MEN. Duong, a Vietnamese man, was 26 when he was trafficked to Moscow and forced to work in a sewing plant. He paid the broker who arranged his employment an equivalent of $2,000. He was not allowed to leave the sewing plant and never received any wages for his work.
THE TRAFICKERS
The traffickers who exploited the survivors of human trafficking interviewed in the course of this study—both Polish and foreign-born--were not members of large organized criminal networks as is typically imagined. Rather, they included opportunists who saw vulnerable people that could be easily taken advantage of or legitimate recruiting firms the survivors contacted to secure employment contracts abroad. In few instances the traffickers included family members (mother and a stepfather), but in other instances the traffickers were strangers. Florica and Larissa, the two Roma women, lived or travelled to Poland multiple times and ended up being exploited by members of their own communities. Sylvia, from Uganda, was trafficked by her foster father and his son who exploited her sexually and forced her to be their domestic servant before they sold her and two strange men to another trafficker.
Izabela thought that her British employer in the recycling plant had nothing to do with her traffickers. “He simply didn’t know,” Izabela said. “I don’t speak English so I couldn’t tell him,” she added. In the interview Izabela focused mainly on her recruiter, Piotr, and the network of kin he had in England. Once she arrived in the U.K., Piotr’s brother, Antek, picked her up at the bus station and took her to his father’s home where Izabela was to live. When Antek was not around, his wife “controlled” Izabela.
ASSISTANCE RECEIVED BY POLISH VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING
Alina received a wide range of assistance from one of the NGOs that is part of KCIK, including emergency shelter, food, healthcare services as well as legal aid. Additionally, Alina was placed as a volunteer in a hospice where she received vocational training in elder care. She completed the training successfully, but had to quit her job in the hospice after injuries she sustained in a bus accident. Alina found another job as kitchen help in a daycare center for children. Unfortunately, Alina got laid off because of her frequent absenteeism resulting from a drinking problem. The nuns who ran the assistance program encouraged Alina to get help with her alcoholism, but Alina refused and continues to drink.
Currently, Alina and her daughter, Ewa, live in a one-bedroom apartment with Alina’s partner. The sisters who took care of Alina suspect that the partner is abusive towards both Alina and Ewa. They suppose that he has been molesting Ewa, but they are reluctant to report the alleged abuse since they have not caught him red-handed.
Alina does not keep in touch with her family. The sisters indicated that Alina’s mother found her and tried to force her to go back to being a sex worker. Alina refused. She wants to find a job, but has not been looking actively. She should be well prepared to find employment since she received both vocational training and coaching on how to conduct a job interview and how to present herself to potential employers. On several occasions, the sisters provided Alina with concrete job leads, but at the time of this research Alina was still unemployed.
Without exception, all the interviewed women received medical assistance, including psychological counseling.
stayed with various programs for a little over two months. She received shelter, food and pocket money. BCHA organized and paid for her trip back to Poland.
The local police in Liverpool referred Florian to the Salvation Army and later on to City Hearts, a shelter for victims of human trafficking. They offered about 45 days of assistance, including English classes, employment services, health care and psychological counseling.
Upon return, Izabela was assisted by the La Strada Foundation, which helped her find a job and provided money for local transportation. While she stays in touch with her mother who cares for Izabela’s two children, she cannot count on much help from her Mom or any other family members as they too struggle to make ends meet.
Florian also received help from the La Strada Foundation as well as Stowarzyszenie Otwarte Drzwi (Open Door Society). Florian lives in a temporary shelter and is working towards independent living. He has answered several job advertisements and is hoping that he will be gainfully employed soon.
Although the interviewed victims come from different parts of Poland, most ended up living in Warsaw or in Katowice when they returned to the country. They feel stigmatized by the trafficking experiences and do not want to renew contacts with their families. In some cases, they are afraid to go back because their family members colluded with the traffickers. Additionally, the main assistance programs are located in but a few large cities and that is where the survivors want to be in case they need additional help.
ASSITANCE RECEIVED BY FOREIGN-BORN VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING
Several of the foreign-born survivors trafficked to Poland or rescued in Poland en route elsewhere want to remain in the country. They are happy with the assistance they receive and are making long-term plans to work and live in Poland. The ability to stay and receive assistance is tied to getting an official status of victim of human trafficking.
Sylvia on the other hand has been waiting to legalize her stay in Poland for over three years. At first, she participated in a program assisting victims of human trafficking where she obtained room and board as well as legal aid. However, after approximately nine months she left the program and with an aid of a female acquaintance received a one-year residency permit. When the permit expired, Sylvia found herself in a detention center for foreign nationals in Kętrzyń. When she was released from detention, Sylvia sought assistance from the La Strada Foundation. Upon discovering that she was pregnant, she secured placement in a center for single mothers. However, when her son was born, Sylvia moved to a private apartment and managed to place her baby in a daycare center.
With the help of a pro bono attorney from the Halina Nieć Legal Aid in Cracow, Sylvia also applied for a refugee status. It is unclear from her narrative on what basis she is seeking refugee status. Her social worker indicated that the application “might be considered on humanitarian grounds.” Every six months or so the government informs Sylvia that the refugee status determination process has been prolonged and a final decision has not been reached. If Sylvia receives refuge status and the so-called ‘tolerated residence permit,’ she will be able to apply for a temporary residence permit and eventually for permanent residency. Since her application for refugee status is pending, Sylvia receives financial assistance for herself and her son. She supplements this income by cleaning private homes. She seems to be well integrated into the local community, especially the religious congregation where she worships.
Xuan, who was a minor at the time of trafficking, was placed in foster care and enrolled in school. Similarly to Natasza, Olga, Carmen, and Marla, Xuan obtained a three-year residency permit. Since her mother’s death Xuan has no contact with any relatives or friends in Vietnam. In fact, she is afraid to return to Vietnam, because she owns money her mother borrowed to smuggle Xuan to Europe. Xuan also receives mental health counseling as the circumstances she found herself in have impacted her well-being.
Because of her collaboration with the police, Larisa’s Roma community rejected her. She stays in touch with her immediate family, but only by phone. Occasionally, the family sends her care packages with food, clothing, and beauty products. Currently, Larisa, her husband, and their children live in subsidized housing, but they also spent some time in temporary shelters. Larisa is content with the assistance she is receiving and hopes that the family stays healthy and happy.
family and community. She lives with her Polish partner and their two children. She is very grateful to the La Strada Foundation for assisting her with securing birth certificates and Polish citizenship for her children. Florica would like to be reunited with her 10-year old daughter from a previous marriage who lives with Florica’s parents. Florica is illiterate and would love to learn to read and write in Polish in order to get a good job. She wants to send her children to school so they would have a better future.
Duong, the only man among the foreign-born survivors of trafficking, has a residency permit to live in Warsaw and does not plan to return to Vietnam. He has family in Poland and is currently living with one of his cousins. He indicated that if he ever wanted to go elsewhere—perhaps to Germany—he would first want to sign a contract with a potential employer and have the contract looked over by an attorney.
PROSPECTS FOR SUCCESSFUL REINTEGRATION
While survivors of human trafficking--both Polish citizens who returned to Poland and foreign-born victims who reside in Poland before returning to their countries of origin— receive considerable assistance, most of the support takes a form of emergency assistance. There is virtually no assistance aimed at long-term re/integration into the larger society and attainment of sustainable economic and social self-sufficiency.
This was not always the case. Shortly after Poland’s accession to the European Union, the La Strada Foundation took advantage of the availability of financial resources offered by the European Social Fund and designed a three-year program called Intervention-Reintegration-Initiative-Self-Reliance (or IRIS). The main objective of the project was to create effective mechanisms of social and professional reintegration of victims of trafficking, with emphasis on job placement and livelihoods. The program was quite comprehensive and included advice helpline, crisis intervention services, psychological counseling, shelter, social services, vocational training, and job placement.
The most innovative feature of the program was collaboration with five public social service and employment projects whose activities nicely complemented services offered by the La Strada Foundation :
The Center for the Advancement of Women;
Municipal Employment Office of the Capital City Warsaw;
Social Welfare Center of the Śródmieście Neighborood in Warsaw;
In addition, the program partnered with two foreign projects:
ü HEADWAY--Improving Social Intervention Systems for Victims of Trafficking, a transnational program operating in Estonia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, and Portugal; and
ü LIFT, another program transcending international borders and operating in Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
The idea that spear-headed the reintegration program was a desire to help trafficked women who returned to Poland to find a suitable job and to remain employed. The La Strada staff realized that many returned survivors were able to find a job, but had considerable difficulties with maintaining steady employment. As a result of their traumatic experiences, even the smallest problems in the workplace or at home resulted in an almost immediate decision to quit working. With this program, the La Strada staff aimed at increasing the likelihood of long-term employment among returned victims. The staff has always believed that long-term employment was the sine qua non of social and economic independence of their clients.
Most of the beneficiaries of the IRIS program were young women between the ages of 19 and 25, many hailed from dysfunctional families with a history of intergenerational unemployment and dependence on welfare. The young women also did not have much schooling (usually basic education). Most came from rural areas. Lack of family support, high levels of unemployment, and lack of familiarity with the working environment put them at-risk for poor judgement regarding job offers.
TABLE 4: SERVICES RECEIVED BY IRIS PROGRAM BENEFICIARIES
Target Men Women Total %
Total number of beneficiaries 95 1 106 107 112.6
Graduated from labor participation training 60 1 37 38 63.3
Continued education (vocational training) 30 0 38 38 126.7
Computer training 30 0 7 7 23.3
Language training 20 0 6 6 30
As Table 4 shows, more women wanted to avail themselves of the services provided by the IRIS program than originally planned, but not everybody successfully graduated from the program. The staff attributed these outcomes to the severity of the trauma the young women experienced; the majority were trafficked for sexual exploitation. In a few instances, however, the women left the program for promising job offers.
The program ended in 2009 and neither La Strada nor any other of the Polish NGOs working with returned survivors managed to secure funding for more long-term reintegration programs. The services that were on offer in 2015 when we conducted this study continue to be time-bound, short projects aimed at providing emergency services. With few exceptions, the survivors do not receive any assistance in the country of destination before they return to Poland. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) assists some in returning home mainly by acting as a travel agent and paying for their transportation costs. Upon return to Poland, few survivors seek assistance from IOM; the majority turn to the La Strada Foundation.
Most program managers and social workers interviewed in the course of this study were somewhat pessimistic about the survivors’ ability for successful economic and social reintegration into the wider Polish society. This pessimism was especially pronounced when they spoke about female survivors trafficked for sexual exploitation.
For example, the nuns who worked with victims of sex trafficking indicated that the women have not been well reintegrated because they stay with partners who in the sisters’ opinion negatively influence the women. As suggested above, Alina’s partner is abusive towards her and her daughter and Barbara’s partner is a pimp.
Another social worker remarked that the women she worked with had difficulty maintaining mainstream employment, because they set up websites where they advertised sexual services and treated casual work in the sex industry as supplemental income. One of the women who graduated from a shelter and lived alone in a flat, came to the shelter to recruit the residents to be call girls.
Shelter staff refer many survivors for psychological counselling and anger management training. Aggressive behavior seems to be one of the major problems faced by women, especially aggression towards their own children. Addiction to alcohol seemed to have been the major stumbling block for some of the survivors to resume productive lives.
The interviewed survivors did not always agree with the assessment of the social workers regarding their ability to re-integrate. They pointed out that they live independently, that they have learned to be more cautious and scrutinize job offers closely, that they have no intention to migrate, and that they understand they need to work hard to make a living.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The beneficiaries of the anti-trafficking assistance programs 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, or identify as trafficked victims. 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, fore 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 deception.
Additionally, as noted throughout the report, with the exception of the IRIS project, most of the assistance takes a form of emergency relief. Also, the NGOs providing assistance rely mainly on government funding or charitable contributions from congregations and friends.
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 Poland—especially when migrants with no knowledge of the language of destination country seek work in the European Union—there is a need to establish training programs and information clearing houses focusing on labor laws, workers’ rights, banking systems in destination countries to prepare Polish 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
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.
The NGO-based assistance programs need to establish and/or strengthen their
relationship with public employment and welfare programs. With very few
exceptions, the anti-trafficking NGOs do not collaborate with municipal or local employment and welfare bureaus. Returned victims who are Polish citizens are eligible for all forms of public assistance and hopefully could access these benefits, especially vocational training, job placement, and other programs aimed at ensuring attainment of long-term economic self-sufficiency.
Strengthen the capacity of local NGOs to tap into EU resources. Most of the Polish NGOs rely solely on funding coming from the Polish Government. This was not always the case. When the leading NGOs had staff fluent in English, they were able to network with foreign donors and apply, successfully, for grants from foreign foundation, the European Commission, and other sources.
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
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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