Trafficking In Armenia: The Study Completed

[Siamanto]

picture of the video  that  has the  actual  "Twins"  on it is offensive  to at list 4 of our  members  who have found time to PM me and let me know that you have made a  post and  used a picture of "twins".

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I feel sorry that some felt offended.

For the record, the picture was a part of a documentary about the trafficking of women, in Eastern Europe, who are being exploited and forced to sell their body. The particular picture depicted the attitude of some family members about the issue.

The picture was not a "picture of a video:" I'm sorry some perceived it as such!

No exposed chests, no exposed chests! No problem!

 

 

 

So  next  time if  you need to post  something  - make a Painting of  it liek Armat is  duing

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How about if I digitally process it to make it look like a painting?

 

 

 

just a  JOke  - but try  not  to post "twins"

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How about a single one?

Edited March 22, 2005 by Siamanto

[MosJan]

Siamanto you owe me $4.75

[Siamanto]

Siamanto  you owe me $4.75

style_images/master/snapback.png

MosJan,

I never expected such a thing from you! The single that I have offered is already more than the 99 cents that I initially agreed to pay.

What accounts for the remaining amount? I'm not a resident of the State of California, so I don't have to pay sales tax and - as advertised - shipping by regular mail is free. I did not select "Priority Mail!"

I'm hoping that you'll do your best to clarify the situation? Thanks!

 

Also, if the merchandise is not delivered by 12/31/2005, I will have to put a stop payment on the check that's already "in the mail!" Thank you for your understanding.

 

 

PS. It was a pleasure doing business with you! I will positively recommend you!

 

Sincerely,

Siamanto.

Edited March 23, 2005 by Siamanto

[MosJan]

mi tsak profesor el e smer SiaMANTOn e

 

$4.75 is the total cost of http://advil.com/products/migraine/images/prod_left.gif

 

 

and it's for me not for you

[Siamanto]

mi  tsak profesor el e smer SiaMANTOn e

 

$4.75 is the total cost  of http://advil.com/products/migraine/images/prod_left.gif

and  it's  for me  not  for you

style_images/master/snapback.png

MosJan,

Didn't you know that apricot is more effective?

 

Trying to decipher "mi tsak profesor el e smer SiaMANTOn e"

gave me such a headache - not to mention anxiety - that I certainly need Advil more than you do.

So let's call it even!

 

PS. Still working on it!

Edited March 24, 2005 by Siamanto

[MosJan]

SIX ARMENIAN WOMEN, TRAFFICKING VICTIMS, RETURNED TO ARMENIA FROM MOSCOW DUE TO OPERATIVE MEASURES IN 2004

 

YEREVAN, APRIL 6. ARMINFO. As a result of operative measures in 2004 6 Armenians women subjected to trafficking were returned to Armenia from Moscow. The press-service of the Armenian Police informs ARMINFO.

 

According to the source, the statistics of data on trafficking in Armenia has been recorded since August 1 2003, when the new Criminal Code of Armenia came into effect. In 2004 two cases of trafficking in persons were registered (Article 132 of CC RA) and 11 cases of procuring abroad (Article 262 CC RA). Two criminal cases were initiated on the fact of trafficking. 46 persons were brought criminally responsible for trafficking and procuring, however, there are no statistic data on victims. The persons subjected to trafficking are mainly transported to the UAE and Turkey. At the same time, there are no data on transportation of children abroad for the purpose of donor organs either.

[Armen]

Journalist Inquiry Implicates Armenian Officials In Dubai Trafficking

 

http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniarepor...387BC3048CE.ASP

 

By Emil Danielyan

 

The Armenian authorities have done little to combat illegal trafficking of hundreds and possibly thousands of Armenian women abroad for sexual exploitation despite their persistent claims to the contrary, according to the findings of a nearly year-long journalistic investigation.

 

Edik Baghdasarian, a prominent investigative reporter, and Ara Manoogian, an Armenian-American activist, have suggested that senior law-enforcement officials in Yerevan are maintaining close ties with Armenian prostitution rings in the United Arab Emirates for personal gain. They allege in particular that some of those officials regularly visit Dubai to collect bribes from the local Armenian pimps and women trafficked by them.

 

“We have compelling evidence we collected there that suggests individuals within the Armenian government and in high-ranking positions are directly involved with this ring,” says Manoogian.

 

The two men have repeatedly visited the Gulf Arab nation over the past year, interviewing scores of Armenian prostitutes and secretly videotaping glitzy night clubs where they usually find clients. Their detailed accounts of the Dubai sex business were presented in a series of reports that appeared recently in the Hetq.am online publication of Baghdasarian’s Association of Investigative Journalists. Baghdasarian has promised to make more scandalous revelations in a separate documentary which is expected to be aired by an Armenian TV channel next month.

 

The Hetq.am reports suggest that there could be as many as 2,000 Armenian prostitutes working in the UAE and other Gulf states at present. Virtually all of them are said to have traveled there with fake Russian passports provided by their traffickers in Moscow. UAE law forbids foreign single women below the age of 31 from entering the country. The documents overstating the women’s age thus allow prostitution ringleaders to easily flout this restriction.

 

Baghdasarian and Manoogian claim that the UAE authorities are well aware of that but turn a blind eye because they too have a share in the business involving tends of thousands of women from across the former Soviet Union. “This is a well-organized business with a rigid chain of command,” says Baghdasarian.

 

Most of the trafficked women come from poor families and were lured into prostitution with a promise of quick money. “I couldn't find a job [in Armenia],” one of them, a divorced woman from a village in southern Armenia, is quoted as saying in a Hetq article. “Wherever I went, they asked me to sleep with them before they would offer me a job. We Armenians are like that - if you're divorced, then that's it, they can think anything about you.”

 

The prostitutes reportedly have to give the Armenian pimps in Dubai a large part of their income. According to the authors of the inquiry, many of them are forced to have sex 10 or even more clients a day in order to secure the minimum daily sum required by their “employers.” They say that the Armenian pimps are in turn subordinated to a Syrian-born Arab known as Assad. He is said to have strong connections with officials at the UAE’s police and immigration departments.

 

Scores of Armenian women are also thought to have been trafficked to other parts of the Middle East, notably Turkey. The phenomenon dating back to the mid-1990s came under public spotlight in 2002 when the U.S. State Department placed Armenia in the so-called "Tier3" group of states which Washington believes are doing little to tackle illegal cross-border transport of human beings.

 

The embarrassing criticism led the Armenian authorities to take what the State Department later described as "significant efforts" to reduce the scale of human trafficking. They set up a special inter-ministerial commission tasked with tackling the problem. It also began to be publicly discussed by government officials and non-governmental organizations.

 

Armenia was removed from the U.S. blacklist and upgraded to the "Tier 2" category in 2003. "The Government of Armenia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so," the State Department said in a report last year.

 

Baghdasarian disagrees. “The prosecutors say they are combating the problem, but I don’t see any action,” he says.

 

Armenia’s Office Prosecutor-General rarely launch criminal investigations into suspected instances of human trafficking. Only two such cases were reported last year. Although Armenia’s new Criminal Code enacted in 2003 raised the maximum jail term for trafficking from two to eight years, court rulings against individuals convicted of related charges have remained lenient.

 

One such person, Amalia “Nano” Mnatsakanian, was arrested in the UAE on an Interpol warrant and extradited to Armenia in March 2004. She was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment by a Yerevan court last August only to be released less than two months later. Another reputed pimp, Marietta Musaelian, is expected to released soon, well before completing her two-year sentence.

 

Baghdasarian says most of their “colleagues” remain at large and have little to worry about. As recently as last February he sent a young female journalist posing as a prospective prostitute to two women known to be involved in a Dubai prostitution ring. Their conversation in a Yerevan apartment was secretly recorded.

 

"I've sent more than a hundred people to the Emirates,” one of the women called Sirush told the undercover journalist. “They were from 16 to 27. I don't take anyone older.”

 

“It'll cost me $3,000-$4,000 to get you to Dubai. You'll be met in Moscow and they'll get you a new passport. After that you'll go to Dubai,” she added.

 

“If you go there, you won't want to come back,” said the other pimp, Nelli.

 

Andranik Mirzoyan, head of the investigations department at the Prosecutor-General’s Office, claimed on March 16 that most traffickers remain unpunished because they enjoy government protection in the UAE. "There [in Dubai] a pimp is protected by the police and by the 'authorities' [criminal gangs]. They have their own laws, and there are some problems," he complained after a meeting of senior prosecutors that discussed the problem.

 

Mirzoyan also told reporters that a team of Armenian investigators traveled to Dubai in February to try to “persuade” Armenian prostitutes to return home. But Baghdasarian insists that the officials' actions were less than altruistic.

 

“We have recordings of girls in Dubai saying that they gave thousands of dollars to a particular employee of the prosecutor’s office. We know their names, where and when they met.” he says, adding that such visits from Yerevan have been regular.

 

Citing unnamed Dubai prostitutes, Baghdasarian wrote last month that one of those officials, Aristakes Yeremian, cut a deal with at least one Armenian pimp. The Prosecutor-General’s Office has still not reacted to the allegation.

 

But Yeremian, who is a senior investigator at the law-enforcement agency, rejected the charges on Wednesday. “Such a thing is impossible,” he told RFE/RL. Yeremian admitted meeting several Armenian pimps in Dubai “for questioning” but denied extorting any money from them through blackmail and arrest threats.

 

Visiting Yerevan last July, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev announced the arrest a “criminal group” of Armenians in Moscow who allegedly transported young women from Armenia to the UAE via Russia. The suspects were immediately extradited to the Armenian authorities to face prosecution, he said.

 

“They were flown to Yerevan and set free a month later,” says Baghdasarian. “I asked one law-enforcement official why they were released. He said they probably paid a lot of money.”

 

That there is lots of money involved is obvious from figures provided to Hetq by the Armenian Central Bank. They show that the total amount of cash remittances wired to Armenia from the UAE totaled almost $8.8 million last year, up from just $1.6 million registered in 2001. With Armenian imports from the UAE by far exceeding exports in 2004, a large part of that money may well have been generated by the prostitution networks.

 

Manoogian, who runs a charity and small businesses in Nagorno-Artsax, believes that many of the trafficking victims can be repatriated and reintegrated into Armenian society. He is currently lobbying international and Diaspora organizations to finance a special rehabilitation center for them. “Right now we are in the process of putting together a rehabilitation program,” he says.

 

But Baghdasarian is skeptical about the effort: “Ninety percent of those women knew what awaits them in Dubai and are earning much more than they could do here.”

[Armen]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/03/trafficki...tion=cnn_latest

 

U.S. lists levels of human trafficking

Friday, June 3, 2005 Posted: 6:50 PM EDT (2250 GMT)

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The placement of countries in the State Department's annual report on trafficking in persons.

 

TIER ONE: Countries whose governments fully comply with U.S. minimum standards:

 

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.

 

TIER TWO: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards:

 

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Chile, Democratic Republic of Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, East Timor, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Gabon, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Senegal, Serbia-Montenegro, Singapore, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uruguay, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia.

 

TIER TWO SPECIAL WATCH LIST: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance and meet one of the following conditions:

 

a) The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing.

 

b There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year

 

c) The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.

 

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belize, Benin, Cameroon, China, Dominican Republic, Gambia, Greece, Guinea, Haiti, India, Mauritius, Mexico, Nicaragua, Niger, Philippines, Russia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Suriname, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe.

 

TIER THREE: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so:

 

Bolivia, Cambodia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica, Kuwait, Myanmar, North Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Togo, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela.

 

http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46613.htm

 

ARMENIA (TIER 2 – WATCH LIST)

 

Armenia is a source and, to a lesser extent, a transit and destination country for women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation largely to the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and Turkey. Some evidence indicates that Armenian victims were trafficked to other European countries as well. According to UN estimates, up to 1,000 Armenian women work as prostitutes in the U.A.E. and Turkey, most of whom are victims of trafficking.

 

The Government of Armenia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Armenia is placed on Tier 2 Watch List this year because of its failure to show evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking over the past year. Specifically, the government failed to disseminate or implement any elements of its January 2004 National Action Plan. The government should take proactive steps to officially distribute, publicly support, and implement this plan as soon as possible. Notably, trafficking-related prosecutions and convictions increased; however, reluctance to apply the new anti-trafficking statute produced insufficient penalties. The government adopted an anti-corruption program and created a task force in 2004; however, it failed to take any measures beyond issuing a rhetorical pledge to address trafficking-related complicity.

 

Prosecution

 

Article 132 of the criminal code prohibits trafficking in persons and provides for a maximum penalty of four to eight years’ imprisonment. However, the government overwhelmingly applied Article 262 of the criminal code — a lighter pimping charge. Out of 16 convictions in 2004, the government applied the 2003 anti-trafficking statute (Article 132) only once; the remaining 15 convictions under Article 262 produced much weaker penalties. While the government increased the overall number of trafficking-related convictions, the cases produced outcomes ranging from six-month to two-year sentences, suspended sentences, corrective labor and fines. These penalties are not commensurate with Armenian penalties for other grave crimes, such as rape. Indications of official collusion and complicity among government officials hampered the government’s efforts to adequately tackle Armenia’s trafficking problem. Members of the Procuracy allegedly assisted traffickers and border guards accepted bribes facilitating traffickers’ movements across the border. The government failed to investigate or prosecute government officials complicit in trafficking.

 

Protection

 

Armenia’s anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts remained anemic over the last year. While Armenia’s law provides trafficking victims with protection, the government largely failed to provide this assistance during the reporting period. NGOs and international organizations continued to provide the majority of victim protection and widely reported good cooperation with the government. The government did not issue any formalized or standard operating procedures for police to follow when encountering possible victims of trafficking. In the absence of a formalized referral mechanism, police informally referred victims to local NGOs. Police also referred potential victims of sexual exploitation for medical screening and treatment as necessary. The rights of victims were generally respected. The police often failed, however, to treat victims’ identities with confidentiality. Victim assistance programs reported sheltering 15 victims in 2004.

 

Prevention

 

Cooperation between the government and NGOs continued to help raise awareness about trafficking in Armenia. The government sustained its program of providing housing to vulnerable children released from Armenian orphanages. The Department of Migration and Refugees initiated anti-trafficking discussions on several local talk shows. Lack of official recognition of the problem within many sectors of the government, however, contributed to the overall lack of progress. In a recent interview, the Minister of Justice declared that "trafficking does not exist as a phenomenon in Armenia." Informally, the government made a preliminary effort to engage bilaterally with Georgia, but did not develop any pro-active programs to assist Armenian victims in transit or destination countries.

Edited June 8, 2005 by Armen

[MosJan]

General jan wan you go back - to Armenia i'm placing you in charge of human trafficking !!!

[Armen]

General jan  wan you go back  - to Armenia i'm  placing you in  charge of human trafficking !!!

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That sounds realy ... not good ... Movses jan Maybe anti-human trafficking?

[MosJan]

Pahh yes iren Pashton arajarkem inq@ anun k@ptsni

 

your in charge of the human trafficking problem - it's up to you haw your going to fight and end this problem generaljan

-

i would say Azat is the best man for this job but his Away - on a mission - HAyrenanver gortsa anelu Canadayum - so yoru the only person

 

Can you or can you not ??? This is the Question ???

[Armen]

RA GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS TRAFFICKING

 

A1plus

 

| 21:23:03 | 17-06-2005 | Social |

 

"Armenia is a source country from where women and girls are trafficked

mainly to the Arabian Emirates and Turkey with the aim of sexual

exploitation", said US State secretary chief advisor, head of the

Human Trafficking Combat and Monitoring office, Ambassador John Miller

during today's interactive TV-press conference organized by the US

Embassy to Armenia.

 

According to Mr. Miller, the basis of the office report were the

calculations of the UN according to which in the Arabian Emirates

and Turkey there are about 1000 Armenian prostitutes. The majority

of them are victims of trafficking.

 

By the way, According to the calculations of the Armenian Investigating

Journalists Association President Edik Baghdasaryan, in the Arabian

Emirates and Turkey there are not 1000 but about 5000 Armenian

prostitutes. Mr. Miller was greatly surprised by the facts and

demanded proof on what was said.

 

According to the report of the US State secretary chief advisor,

The problem of trafficking is so serious in Armenia that is has

been included in the special control list, "The RA Government did

not represent sufficient proof that the efforts directed to the

combat against trafficking have been enhanced. The Government has

not carries out investigation of the Prosecution which was accused

of supporting the traffickers. The Prosecution bodies have supported

those organizing trafficking, and the border-guards, taking bribes,

have secured the free transportation abroad."

 

Stating that the RA Government does not fully correspond to the

criteria combating trafficking, Mr. Miller mentioned that in our

country the punishments for this kind of deeds are too mild. Besides

accusations, John Miller was not able to represent names of victims of

trafficking or clear-cut cases, but he tried to explain the difference

between those who take up prostitution on their own initiative and

the victims of trafficking.

 

Try as he did, we did not manage to find out the proportion of the

trafficking victims in the number of one thousand prostitutes. In

the end we asked Mr. Miller how much money was spent by the office to

prepare the report without any facts and full of accusations. "Hundreds

of thousands. 8 people worked on the report", answered Mr. Miller.

[Armen]

INEFFICIENT FIGHT AGAINST TRAFFICKING WILL WORSEN US-ARMENIA RELATIONS

 

Pan Armenian News

18.06.2005 02:54

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The US State Department 5th Annual Report on fighting

trafficking included Armenia in the second group of states in a special

list of control of struggle against trafficking, as the country did

not manage to provide enough proof of efficiency of fight against human

trafficking. It was stated by Ambassador John Miller, the Director of

the US State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in

Persons in the course of an interactive press conference organized at

the US Embassy in Yerevan. In his words, Armenia adopted a national

program of actions for fighting trafficking, however there is no

sufficient proof that the program is being implemented. Specifically,

there is no evidence that the law on trafficking was applied to those

guilty. Moreover, all sanctions were either conditional or much

milder than those provided for the crime. As noted by the report,

only 1 out of the 16 accused was sentenced in compliance with the

article 132 (anti-trafficking), the remaining 15 were indicted for

pimping, which provides for milder punishment. Mr. Miller said there

are reports that representatives of the Office of Public Prosecutor

of Armenia and frontier guards are involved in human trafficking. "We

hope the Government of Armenia will make every effort to prove the

contrary," he said. As noted by Jennifer Strong Tamli, the person

responsible for the report on Armenia, there is no concrete evidence

that representatives of law-enforcement bodies are also involved. In

his turn J. Miller said, "I would be surprised if any of the persons

present here had not known about it." In his words, another report (a

current one) will be published in 2006. However, he hoped that when

the final report is ready next June Armenia will move from the special

control list to the second group that includes countries with progress

in combating human trafficking. "Otherwise, the consequences will tell

on the US-Armenia relations," Miller said. "The US is ready to work

with Armenia, where a serious problem of trafficking is available,

as it is a source country," he said. In Miller's words, the UAE and

Turkey are the basic destination countries of Armenian women and

children. "The phenomenon is present in any country irrespective

of the degree of development, however the US pays much attention

to trafficking, as slavery has left its trace in the US history,"

Miller emphasized.

[MosJan]

Labor Forced: The men who fall victim to exploitation by traffickers

 

By Arpi Harutyunyan

ArmeniaNow Reporter

Florida Mamikonyan from Vanadzor remembers with bitterness the days when she was forced to reassure her three sons that their father had not disappeared and would return for sure. There was also the gossiping of her neighbors to contend with.

 

“I was very upset. My children asked me all the time about their father and I did not know what to say. Especially as the neighbors had already spread rumors that Arthur would never come back and that he might have a new family. My children were offended, they insisted it was not so and that their father would return,” says Florida, 40.

 

And while the stories in Vanadzor grew more fanciful that Arthur got married, he was bed-ridden through illness; he couldn’t get his salary to return to Armenia.

 

In fact, 40-year-old Arthur Aloyan was a victim of trafficking in Ufa, the capital of Bashkortostan (a republic in the East of Russia’s European part). Forced labor is defined by the United Nations as one form of trafficking under a protocol adopted in 2000 that also covers exploitation through prostitution, slavery, and the trade in human organs.

 

The exploitation of men for their labor is a particular problem in Russia and hundreds of Armenians have become victims of it. Gyulnara Shahinyan, vice-chairwoman of the Council of Europe’s trafficking commission asserts that it is on a similar scale to the sexual exploitation of women.

 

Arthur lives now with his wife and sons in a wooden house in a small district near Vanadzor. The family sold their former stone house in 2001 to escape financial problems.

 

He had been hunting for work for months when he became acquainted with a former Vanadzor resident Harutyun Ginosyan, who offered him employment in Ufa with his brother Ishkhan. They arranged that Arthur would be involved in construction work and earn $150 per month, with food, accommodation and clothing expenses covered by his employer.

 

“We were in such a state that any job was a salvation for us to escape starvation. I had to provide for my three sons, what else could I do?” says Arthur.

 

By late 2002, Arthur left for Ufa with 39 other men from Vandzor, including his brother-in-law Arman and his friend Georgy Gevorgyan, all hoping to be able to send money home. But the doors of slavery opened before them when they arrived.

 

“They took our passports away at the very beginning to put us under their total control. They made us work from morning till late night and didn’t give us a penny. We ate only macaroni, and slept in cold and wet rooms on bare beds. People say they kept us like slaves,” recalls Arthur.

 

The Ginosyan brothers now live in Bashkortostan but were known in Vanadzor. Florida recalls that Ishkhan used to own a macaroni factory in the city and she claims that he duped workers there by fleeing without paying their salaries.

 

He established the construction business in Bashkortostan and Harutyun helped by recruiting men in Vanadzor to go and work there. When the time came to get paid, Ishkhan would tell the workers that there was no money yet but that they would get their wages soon, a process that went on for months.

 

“I became sick because of that hard work, cold and nervousness. I had terrible pains in my liver and stomach, my joints stiffened up, and I did not eat normally for such a long time. I couldn’t even walk, yet they still wouldn’t give me my money so that I could return to Armenia,” says Arthur.

 

For several months, the three friends could not support their families financially and were unable even to call home to say what was happening.

 

“We had no news about our husbands. We lost hope, we thought something must have happened. I thought of everything. Then I thought, who knows, maybe they haven’t got any money to come back. I was sure there had to be a serious reason because Arthur wouldn’t leave us alone otherwise,” says Florida.

 

After some time, the family got a letter from Arthur, saying that he was in a bad condition, had been ill for several months, and had no money. He asked them to do whatever it took to get him home.

 

Florida and the wives of the other two men approached the Vanadzor branch of the Hope and Help organization for support.

 

“We identified those men as victims of trafficking. They were recruited and promised normal living conditions. But in truth they were kept as slaves. They underwent labor exploitation and that is trafficking,” says Nora Mnatsakanyan, program coordinator at Hope and Help.

 

The organization has been helping victims of trafficking since 2000 in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry and the state Migration and Refugees Agency, as well as the police and Prosecutor General’s Office. It has revealed 32 victims of trafficking, 20 cases of sexual exploitation and 12 of forced labor, in both Russia and Turkey.

 

Following the appeal of the wives, Hope and Help sent a letter to the Russia’s Interior Ministry Representative for migration issues in Armenia.

 

“They denied that there was forced labor and exploitation of Armenian men, but the facts disclosed later by the victims showed the reality,” says Mnatsakanyan.

 

“It appeared that a group of policemen had visited the place where the men worked, negotiated with the Ginosyans and left. The men say the Ginosyans have good connections with the police and it is not excluded that they might have bribed them.”

 

However, the noise over the scandal in Ufa began to worry the Ginosyans and they decided to buy tickets back to Armenia for the men whose families were complaining.

 

Arthur, Arman and Georgy returned to Vanadzor a year ago, their memories haunted by the 17 months of hardship in Ufa.

 

Now Arthur has a job in a timber works in Vanadzor. Even though he gets only 1,000-1,500 drams per day ($2.20 to $3.30), he is glad to be working in his homeland. But he still cannot erase the memories of Ufa.

 

“Because of those emotions, people say I can’t find my place; I have become indifferent to everything. Maybe this condition will pass, but living in deprivation in a foreign country cost me many things. I do not have any expectations from this life any more,” says Arthur despondently.

 

Despite everything, Florida declares herself happy. She says: “Even if you live poor, deprived of many things, it is good to just be by your husband’s side. I have experienced the bitterness of living alone, but now when my children’s father is by their side, I feel happy.”

[MosJan]

i guess it's not onlyteh layds - but also the Armenia man who are victims of trafficking

[MosJan]

FAITAL AUTOMOBLE ACCIDENT TAKES THE LIFE OF AN ARMENIAN HUMAN TRAFFICKER IN DUBAI

 

It seems that yesterday there was a car accident in Dubai, which took the life of the notorious pimp and trafficker of Armenian women and children, Echmizine Ano.

 

I am very saddened by this tragic accident, as Ano was one of the traffickers I had personally seen when I was in Dubai and had current information as to where she and her victims were living. I was hoping that Ano would soon stand trial in a court of law for her crimes against humanity, which has ruined the lives of hundreds of women and children.

 

I guess it’s now up to a higher power to judge Ano for what she has done on earth and He will decide where she will be serving out her sentence.

 

 

// posted by Ara @ 9/16/2005 04:40:00 PM

[MosJan]

Arrested in Dubai

 

www.hetq.am

[september 5, 2005]

 

Susana Sukiasyan (a.k.a. Grpo Suso), a Dubai pimp who had been sought by the Armenian police, was arrested in July, along with ten women who were worked for her. According to our sources in the Dubai police force, Sukiasyan's arrest was unconnected to her involvement in the sex trade.

 

Every Armenian pimp in Dubai has a man who is both her lover and her protector. For Sukiasyan, S. played that role. Recently S. was arrested for possessing false documents while visiting one of Suso's girls, N., in the Dubai jail where she was being held. In the Emirates, the police photograph prison visitors and check their database to see whether they are suspects in any crimes. The police found out that two days earlier, S. had been captured on security cameras stealing gold jewelry from two stores. The police released the girl they had arrested, and followed her to Grpo Suso's rented apartment, where they confiscated the stolen jewelry and arrested the Armenian prostitutes, Grpo Suso, and her lover, S.

 

In the UAE, the law stipulates sever punishment for this type of crime; Susana Sukiasyan is doing everything she can to get deported to Armenia.

 

In all likelihood she will succeed, and she and her girls will be deported to Armenia in the near future. Here, she will be arrested, and sentence to a year and a half in prison. She will be released after six months, free to continue her activities with a new passport. At any rate, this is the usual scenario. For instance, Lusine Hakobyan was released a put on probation in July (See also: No Payback for the Pimp) Both the prosecution and the court pointed to mitigating circumstances—she has a young child and a sick mother (although evidence of her mother's illness was never presented in court). Twenty days after she was released, Hakobyan left for Dubai, where she has resumed her illegal activities.

 

We were informed by the public relations department of the Armenian Foreign Ministry that five women and one man have been deported from the UAE to Armenia in 2005, and two others are awaiting deportation. The women were all working under the supervision of Anahit Malkhasyan (a.k.a. Debr Ano), a pimp from Echmiadzin. Malkhasyan is being sought by the police in Dubai, although our prosecutors know where she is. She was interrogated twice in Dubai. In August, she sent for and received five new girls, soon after the four other prostitutes who had been working for her were departed. One of these girls told us that all of the newcomers are from Yerevan, and one of them is underage. That means that either their passports were faked in Yerevan or a tourist agency took care of their problems. Interestingly, Debr Ano is building a huge villa in Echmiadzin.

 

The man who was deported, whose name is Alik, is currently being held by the Armenian police. He plays a big role in the Dubai sex trade, but that's another story.

 

The US State Department has published a report on trafficking that points to the United Arab Emirates as an end destination for traffickers. Apparently there too, as in Armenia, there is a need to demonstrate that an unwavering fight against the crime of human trafficking has begun.

 

Edik Baghdasaryan

[MosJan]

HETQ FORBIDDEN IN UAE

 

For a long time already the website of Hetq magazine is not accessible in the United Arab Emirates. When trying to open the site one can see the following lines, “We bring our apologies but the site you are going to open has been blocked, as its contents conflicts with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the UAE.

Why doesn’t Hetq meet the above mentioned values? The fact is that since June, 2005 Hetq has published the results of the journalist investigation on the sale of women in the country. The journalists described the ways the women from Armenian towns and villages found themselves in the United Arab Emirates and were subjected to sexual exploitation. Photos and names were published. The journalists found out that Dubai policemen and members of the migration services are involved in these criminal activities. The staff of Hetq is convinced that the sale of women and their exploitation cannot be viewed as “religious, cultural, political and moral values. The reporter met with residents of Dubai and other cities, who unanimously stated that their religion condemns sale of people and sexual exploitation.

“We think that the local inhabitants, who helped the women to return to the homeland, should know about the fate of these people.

 

We appeal to the UAE authorities to raise the taboo off the Hetq website and appeal to international organizations to urge the UAE leadership not to “clear” internet from critical articles about their country’, the statement issued by Hetq staff says.

[armjan]

the stories and facts in this thread are very disturbing and sad.

I feel bad for victims of all cultures, but I honestly can't imagine how someone's conscious will feel ok to sell or take advantage of another person in this way.

 

who were these raised by, a pack of wolves?

even wolves don't pimp their own kind!

[Eloren]

HETQ FORBIDDEN IN UAE

 

For a long time already the website of Hetq magazine is not accessible in the United Arab Emirates. When trying to open the site one can see the following lines, “We bring our apologies but the site you are going to open has been blocked, as its contents conflicts with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the UAE.

Why doesn’t Hetq meet the above mentioned values? The fact is that since June, 2005 Hetq has published the results of the journalist investigation on the sale of women in the country. The journalists described the ways the women from Armenian towns and villages found themselves in the United Arab Emirates and were subjected to sexual exploitation. Photos and names were published. The journalists found out that Dubai policemen and members of the migration services are involved in these criminal activities. The staff of Hetq is convinced that the sale of women and their exploitation cannot be viewed as “religious, cultural, political and moral values. The reporter met with residents of Dubai and other cities, who unanimously stated that their religion condemns sale of people and sexual exploitation.

“We think that the local inhabitants, who helped the women to return to the homeland, should know about the fate of these people.

 

We appeal to the UAE authorities to raise the taboo off the Hetq website and appeal to international organizations to urge the UAE leadership not to “clear” internet from critical articles about their country’, the statement issued by Hetq staff says.

 

Hahaha!

 

Living in the UAE I am really not surprised the site is blocked. It is not the first one.. One third of the web is blocked in this f***ed up country. The hypocrisy rules over here, they want to show the country as a perfect place, an "oasis of freedom, democracy and coexistence, and a platform for the honest world" (quoted from the front page of a local newspaper rofl) but prostitution, white slavery, human trafficing, drugs and all are very common in here..

 

By the way, it is not the only armenian site that is blocked. Also www.Vanadzor .net is blocked in here, i'll post a screenshot if you guys want

[MosJan]

10 ARMENIAN WOMEN UNDERGO TRAFFICKING IN TURKEY

 

*

 

Today in “Hayeli” club the experts in trafficking were trying to find an answer to the question whether Armenia is an “exit”, “entrance” or a “transit” country from the point of view of trafficking. The head of “Hope and Assistance” public organization Yenock Shatvorian thinks that the situation in Armenia has changed a great deal in recent years, and what is most important it has changed for the better. If 2 years ago Armenia was in the list of countries of 3rd category where nothing or almost nothing was done to struggle against trafficking, at present even Law bodies are included in the struggle against “white slavery”.

 

The aide of the head of the Investigation Board of Chief Procurators’ Office Marsel Matevosian says that according to the 123 article of Criminal Codex (trafficking) 20 criminal cases have been instituted in 2003, and in 2004 and 2005 the number of cases increased which is explained by a more active work of law bodies.

 

As a result of criminal cases instituted last year 182 victims of trafficking have been registered 36 of which underwent sex exploitation in Armenia, 136 in United Arabian Emirates and 10 in Turkey. Judging by this statistical data the head of scientific-educational centre of the Procurators’ Office Artak Haroutyunian states that Armenia is mostly an “exit” country, yet at some extent it can also be listed among “transit” countries.

[Harut]

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?d...57774&hl=en

[alby]

This is a great documentary and the guys who actually did the investigation did a grear job.

 

It is a tragedy that our young Armenian girls have to fall pray to Armenian voltures who use and abuse these girls. It is very hypocritical that the UAE thinks they have all the moral values, nothing is further from the truth when you dig beneath the surface. Unfortunately for Armenian girls UAE is not the only destination, Turkey is also on the list. Prostitution is also happening in Armenia and it won’t be difficult to find young girls being pimped within Yerevan.

 

All aside, the only reason that forces women into prostitution is poverty and lack of opportunity and to top it off an incompetent spineless government with many corrupt officials who do nothing to even touch on the subject effectively, hence leaving these girls helpless and vulnerable. additionally all the wealthy businessmen regardless of how they became wealthy don’t lay a helping hand either, most of them are busy siphoning up more money.

 

So we have a very dangerous situation at hand and for a country with just two to three million people this is like a suicide, if anything we should take great care of our young girls since they are the ones who create the next generation.

 

I think if an investigation is done in Turkey and within Armenia, many things will be revealed.

 

armenianpages.com

[Arpa]

From Azg Oct. 21,08

ԹՈՒՐՔԻԱՅՈՒՄ ՄԱՐՄՆԱՎԱՃԱՌՈՒԹՅԱՄԲ ԶԲԱՂՎՈՂՆԵՐԻ ԹՎՈՒՄ ՀԱՅԱՍՏԱՆՑԻՆԵՐԸ ԱՄԵՆԱՔԻՉ ՏՈԿՈՍՆ ԵՆ ԿԱԶՄՈՒՄ

Թուրքիայում մարմնավաճառությամբ զբաղվող եւ դրան առնչություն ունեցող կանանց թվում ամենաքիչ տոկոսը կազմում են Հայաստանի, իսկ ամենաշատը` Ղազախստանի քաղաքացիները: Այս մասին ասվում է Թուրքիայի 2007-ի թրաֆիկինգի դեմ պայքարի զեկույցում: Զեկույցի համաձայն, 2004-2007 թթ. Ղազախստանից Թուրքիա ժամանած կանանց 22.89%-ը առնչություն է ունեցել մարմնավաճառությանը: Մարմնավաճառության նպատակով Ուզբեկստանից Թուրքիա ժամանած կանանց տոկոսը կազմում է 18.26, Բուլղարիայից` 18, Ռումինիայից` 17.56, Ղըրղզստանից` 17.11, Մոլդովայից` 15, Ռուսաստանից` 12.44, Ուկրաինայից` 11, Բելառուսից` 10, Հայաստանից` 1.56:

 

 

 

 

[Arpa]

According to the above, if in furkey there may have been 1000 “meat merchants/msavajar/ՄՍԱՎԱՃԱՌ” from FSU and eastern Europe, of those 229 would be from Kazakstan, 183 from Uzbekistan, 180 from Bulgaria, 176 from Romania, 172 from Kirgizstan, 150 from Moldova, 125 from Russia, 100 from Belarus and….. 15 from Armenia.

The report does not say who the customers were and who their harem masters boz-avag pezeveks.

In America the “consumer” is as guilty as the “merchant”.

Edited October 20, 2008 by Arpa