Radio România Internațional

Tag: trafficking

Measures against drug and human trafficking

Parliament
begins its first session this year on 1st
February. Justice minister Alina Gorghiu has called for it to
fast-track the three bills on combating drug and human trafficking,
saying they can lead to a reduction in this worrying phenomenon.

The
first of these bills is about the creation of a drug traffickers’
record. Under the bill, which has been submitted to the Chamber of
Deputies, drug traffickers will be monitored by state institutions in
real time, making it more difficult for them to break the law. The
second bill, also blocked in the Chamber of Deputies, is known as the
2 Mai bill, after the Black Sea village and resort where last
summer a
19-year-old young man who was driving after having consumed drugs
crashed his car into a group of young people walking on the side of
the road, killing two. Earlier, he had been stopped by the police
twice, but had been allowed to leave the police station without being
tested for drug use. Drugs were also found in his car, which didn’t
even have a valid car insurance. The bill therefore stipulates that
high-risk traffickers should
no longer receive suspended sentences, but should serve their time in
prison. Finally, the third bill refers to the creation of detox and
rehabilitation centres for people addicted to drugs in each of
Romania’s development regions. The bill has been submitted to the
Senate. Recently, the first private centre to treat drug addiction
opened in Târgu Mureş, in the centre. It provides treatment for
addiction to cocaine, alcohol, gambling, sex, internet and shopping.

Combating drug trafficking is a priority and will be tackled with
concrete actions by the Romanian Police, promised the interior
minister Cătălin Predoiu. Last year, the Police’s organised crime
department together with the Directorate for Investigating Organised
Crime and Terrorism carried out almost 900 operations to combat drug
trafficking. They conducted thousands of home searches and dismantled
dozens of organised crime groups. They also confiscated 1,179 kg of
drugs and searched over 4,000 persons, indicting at least 2,500.
Also, 187 operations were carried out last year aimed at combating
human trafficking, leading to the dismantling of 35 organised crime
groups and the indictment of 465 persons for around 1,700 crimes. Of
the over 1,300 criminal cases investigated by the Directorate for
Combating Organised Crime last year, half focused on international
human trafficking. (CM)

29 January 2024
January 28, 2024

IMF An International Monetary Fund mission
headed by Jan Kees Martijn will be in Bucharest
between January 29 and February 1, to review the latest economic and financial
developments. The previous IMF visit to Romania was last autumn, when IMF
experts conducted their annual analysis of the Romanian economy. At that time, Jan
Kees Martijn said estimates were pointing to a budget deficit of 6% of GDP for
the end of 2023, and of 5% in 2024, as well as to an economic growth rate of 2.3%.
Romania has no ongoing agreements with the IMF at present, but the Fund
conducts regular visits to review financial and economic indicators. The PM Marcel Ciolacu voiced optimism with
respect to the IMF’s assessment. He explained that Romania still has problems
meeting a benchmark in the National Recovery and Resilience Programme, as the
EC believes Romania has too low SME taxation levels.

DRUGS The Romanian justice minister Alina Gorghiu requested the
emergency endorsement of the bills against drug trafficking and drug use. A
first bill concerns the set-up of the Drug Trafficking Register and of regional
rehab centres for drug addicts. A second bill eliminates suspended sentences
for drug trafficking. On Friday, after the Justice and Home Affairs Council,
the interior minister Catalin Predoiu announced that Romania set up a task
force integrating several institutions involved in the fight against drug
trafficking. He said Romania is on the front line of the crackdown on
international drug trafficking networks, and welcomed the Council’s decision to
include Romania’s and Bulgaria’s air and maritime borders in the Schengen area.
According to the Romanian official, EU member countries should focus on curbing
drug trafficking in ports, through an integrated international platform.

PRICES In Romania, the mark-up for basic foodstuff prices may be capped
for another 3 months. The announcement was made by Marcel Ciolacu recently, as
the capping scheme is due to come to an end soon. According to the PM, a
decision will be made following talks with all stakeholders. The agriculture
minister told Radio Romania that a discussion in this respect will be held on
Monday. He explained that according to data made public by the National
Statistics Institute and the Competition Council, the measure has been
effective. The agriculture minister added that the introduction of further
products in the list is being considered. The emergency order passed by the
government last summer in order to contain the effects of inflation saw the
temporary capping of mark-ups for several basic foodstuffs, including bread,
milk, yogurt, flour, eggs, chicken and pork. The measure was subsequently
extended and further products were included.

UN The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, Sunday called on the
countries that have suspended funding for the UN agency for Palestinian
refugees (UNRWA) to ‘ at least guarantee’ the continuity of UNRWA operations,
which are vital for 2 million people, AFP reports. The UN body, which is the
main provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza, Friday announced firing a number of
employees accused of involvement in the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7,
2023. In turn, the director of the UN body, Philippe Lazzarini, warned that the
vital assistance granted by UNRWA is about to end because of funding issues. Israel
demands the resignation of Philippe Lazzarini and the termination of the
agency’s work in Gaza after the war. A number of countries, including the US, Canada,
UK, Italy and Germany, have suspended all future funding the UNRWA. (AMP)

28 January 2024
Europe takes coordinated measures to fight drug trafficking

Drug trafficking is
becoming an acute problem not only in Romania, but in Europe as a whole. This
is why coordinated measures are required, in order to efficiently fight
trafficking in illegal substances, the use of which destroys lives.

To this end, a new
platform was created in Antwerp, Belgium to step up the fight against drug
trafficking. Attending the launch meeting was, among others, the Romanian interior
minister, Cătălin Predoiu. He said that, in spite of the extremely complex
political agenda in Romania this year, fighting drug trafficking remains a
priority.

Cătălin Predoiu mentioned
he would tackle this through specific actions by the Romanian police, the
border police and the public institutions that coordinate transportation,
logistics and financial activities in Romania. The interior minister also
discussed the need for coordinated action in the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanţa.

He warned that every year
Europe is flooded by large amounts of illegal drugs entering member states through
their major ports, facilitated by organised crime, corruption, blackmail and racketeering,
which are essentially threats to the security of the EU member countries.

Cătălin Predoiu said that
last year a number of operations were initiated by the Romanian Police, which
led to the dismantling of organised crime groups, and that such operations will
continue in 2024 as well.

The Supreme Defence
Council comprises a task force that will coordinate the integrated efforts of
several institutions to fight drug trafficking, the interior minister said. He
also pointed out that this scourge must be curbed through domestic,
inter-institutional cooperation and international cooperation between member
states and at European Commission level.

Cătălin Predoiu also
emphasised once again that drugs are a national security threat, a threat
against Romania’s citizens, and fighting it has become a multi-disciplinary
science. It combines law enforcement skills with knowledge related to money
circulation and laundering, with financial, accounting, management and
logistics skills, the interior minister explained.

Drug consumption has
become a serious problem in Romania, and it has been the topic of extensive
public discussion since a car crash at the seaside last summer, when a young
man driving under the influence of psychoactive substances killed two people
and injured several others. Drug consumption, especially among the youth,
remains an issue, and as recently as on Wednesday prosecutors apprehended a
number of young people involved in illegal drug trafficking in Bucharest and
Oradea (west). (AMP)

25 January 2024
Drugs, in the attention of the Supreme Defense Council

For decades, Romania was said to be immune to the scourge of drugs, which were already wreaking havoc in Western Europe and North America for a long time. Until 1989, the police state created by the communist dictatorship was invulnerable to drug trafficking. Later, socio-economic theories emerged, according to which Romanians were too poor, when they escaped communism, to afford spending money on drugs. This illusion was gradually shattered and today, in the poorest neighborhoods of Bucharest, which residents themselves call ghettos, drugs are sold on the street, in broad daylight. The large festivals of techno music and related genres, such as Untodl (in Cluj, in the northwest) or Neversea (in Constanța, southeast), give the police, every time, the opportunity to announce how many consumers they catch and how many dealers they detain.

A dismantled drug network in a prestigious high school in Bucharest had among its members the offspring of an employee with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of one with the Prosecutors Office. This week, a judge with the Criminal Section of the Court in Suceava has been arrested for 30 days, on charges of bribery, drug possession and disclosure of information not intended for the public, which she apparently gave traffickers. However, the strongest shock felt in society took place in August, when a young drug-driver, from a very rich family, killed two people in a car accident, in a Black Sea resort.

Following these terrible events, Romania’s Supreme Defense Council, chaired by President Klaus Iohannis, decided, on Thursday, to set up an inter-institutional working group to effectively prevent and combat the risks generated by drug trafficking and consumption. It will be made up of state secretaries, representatives of the Romanian Intelligence Service, prosecutors and anti-drug specialists, all coordinated by the Government. This is, according to the media, the first time that drug trafficking and consumption are approached as major risks to individual and national security.

The group will draw up a joint action plan, with clear objectives, measures and responsibilities, for the effective prevention and combating of the risks generated by drug traffic and consumption. Operational working groups will also be established at county level, given that this problem is present everywhere in Romania. The Government will analyze the legal framework related to drug trafficking and consumption and will formulate proposals regarding the revision of normative acts, in order to eliminate loopholes. Also on Thursday, the Government announced that the number of prosecutors with the Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) will be increased by another 25, tasked with combating drug trafficking in Bucharest, Ilfov county and other sensitive locations across the country. (EE)

13 October 2023
May 18, 2023 UPDATE

FORUM The world has changed and everything in the area of security
has been rewritten and must be revised in our Black Sea region, where a large
part of the components of Russia’s large scale war of aggression in Ukraine are
taking place, said Romanian prime minister Nicolae Ciucă in Bucharest at the
7th edition of the Black Sea and Balkans Security Forum. Ciucă went on to say
that the region must cope with a long and high-intensity war that is exhausting
the resources of both the country in conflict and those of the countries of
Europe. The two-day forum hosts over 40 sessions. Attending are top civilian
and military officials, diplomats and experts from the European Union and NATO,
as well as partner states. The themes discussed include support for the
European integration of the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, the reconstruction
of Ukraine and the European security architecture after the war, as well as the
food crisis caused by Russia’s invasion, security energy in Europe, the
security of the Western Balkans and cyber resilience.

FLOODING Prime minister Nicolae Ciucă said the Romanian authorities
are ready to provide assistance with rescue operations following the floods in
Italy. The region of Emilia Romagna in the north of Italy is on high alert as a
result of heavy rain that caused massive floods and left victims. According to
Radio Romania’s correspondent, thousands of people have already been evacuated,
but several tens of thousands are still stranded in areas that have been left
without electricity. Some trains are still stationary, traffic is disrupted and
sections of the motorway are closed.

AGREEMENT The government of Romania and of the UK Thursday
signed a joint action plan in Bucharest on fighting human trafficking. The
document is part of the vision and strategy that Bucharest has embraced for the
past 2 years to turn Romania into a country hostile to people traffickers but
safe and friendly to the victims of this phenomenon, reads a news release
issued by the Romanian government. Signing the document also proves our
government’s concern and care for its more vulnerable citizens, those more
exposed to the risks of human trafficking, who live either in Romania or in one
of the largest Romanian diaspora communities, namely in the UK. It is absolutely vital for us to keep our
firm commitment of fighting this scourge and our capacity and willingness to
tackle this issue on all three key levels-prevention, combating and victim
protection. (…) My message is quite clear: trafficking in human beings is a
form of crime for which the government of Romania has zero tolerance, PM
Nicolae Ciucă said.

WB In order to solve external imbalances, Romania
needs a mix of fiscal consolidation and structural reforms, reads a World Bank
analysis. Political measures aimed at improving its fiscal situation include
broadening taxable revenues, improving tax compliance, introducing critical
reforms in public pensions and salaries and cutting inefficient expenditure. A
consolidation of public investment management would help release significant EU
funding and would improve critical sectors lagging behind in Romania, such as
the public education and healthcare, reforming state-owned enterprises, or
infrastructure. In turn, the latter would contribute to improved productivity
and competitiveness, with a positive impact on Romania’s foreign position. Romania’s
external imbalances have deepened lately. Since 2018, the country has seen
deepening fiscal and current account deficits, jointly with an expansionary
fiscal policy. The two major external shocks, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war
in Ukraine, have strengthened these imbalances. (AMP)

18 May 2023
Of drugs and violence in the Romanian schools

The consumption of psychoactive substances in schools is on the rise among the Romanian teenagers with bad consequences both for them and their families.

Anti-drug policemen have recently annihilated a major network of consumers and traffickers of banned substances. Most of these consumers were minors and communicating via the message network Telegram.

Early this week numerous search operations were carried out in Bucharest and other localities like Mures, in central Romania, Braila and Galati in the south-east and Dambovita in the south. Significant quantities of drugs and money have been seized on this occasion. Here is Catalin Tone, the head of the Antidrug service with the Brigade of Combating Organized Crime in Bucharest.

Catalin Tone: “This is an atypical case, which shows us again the serious dimension of the phenomenon of drug abuse and trafficking in Romania. 11,000 people have been active on a chat group suggestively entitled Sweet Grass, where 30-40 thousand daily messages have been reported. Talks here have mainly been about drugs, distribution, consumption, cocktails and blends. Also very serious is the fact there were 15-20 hundred minors in the aforementioned group, very young and not very responsible at their age.”

The Romanian society is in great need of initiatives for the education and information of the young people, the anti-drug expert says. Catalin Tone also believes Romania needs more clinics for the treatment of drug addiction. Another dangerous phenomenon which is gaining momentum in schools across Romania is violence and its negative impact on all those involved in the educational process.

The Ministry of Education estimates that within two weeks it will come up with a procedure for the management of violent cases in schools, which will enable teachers and any other employee in the countrys education system to promptly and properly deal with school violence. Education Minister Ligia Deca said that together with the ministries of Justice and the Interior, they are identifying the necessary law amendments, including in the areas of fines and obligations for parents. In turn, the trade unions representatives in education have announced their intention to table a legislative initiative in Parliament aimed at discouraging violence acts in schools. The decision was made after a series of events in several Romanian schools, which involved the physical aggression and humiliation of some teachers. An initiative aimed at discouraging school violence was voted by the Chamber of Deputies in 2018 but failed to get the Senate approval.

(bill)

12 April 2023
March 1, 2023 UPDATE

Visit. The Romanian
Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciuca, assured his Moldovan counterpart Dorin Recean of
his support for respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of his (predominantly
Romanian-speaking) country within its internationally recognized borders. We
are witnessing more and more attempts to destabilize the Republic of Moldova,
to artificially create tensions and hostile narratives, built on the
intentional propagation of false information, Nicolae Ciucă said. In turn, Dorin Recean stated that Bucharest
is Chisinau’s most important partner. Bucharest helped us enormously in
overcoming the energy crisis. Bucharest remains our advocate in all European
institutions, so that we can accelerate the European course, added the
Moldovan Prime Minister. He was also received by the president Klaus Iohannis
with whom he reviewed the implementation status of priority objectives in the
fields of energy, agriculture, transport and interconnectivity, health,
education and information society. Iohannis reiterated Romania’s firm support
in managing security challenges, as well as economic imbalances, caused in the
Republic of Moldova by the conflict in Ukraine. It is the first official trip
abroad of Dorin Recean since taking over the term of head of government in Chisinau.
The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, also visited Bucharest
last week.

Seismic risk. Romania
is a country at seismic risk, and for this reason the responsibility of
construction companies regarding the resistance structure of the buildings they
make will have to be regulated very clearly, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă
said on Wednesday. The government has developed a bill that will be sent to Parliament
for debate and approval, which provides for the ban on leasing apartments in
buildings that are part of the first category of seismic risk. The document
also sets deadlines for the rapid visual assessment of schools and hospitals, as
a priority, followed by the assessment other state buildings and apartment
blocks. The executive also adopted an emergency ordinance on the Safe
and healthy schools program, which proposes a simplified procedure for the
introduction of schools that are part of the first category of seismic risk
into the investment program. The list will be drawn up by the Ministry of
Education and will be sent to the Ministry of Regional Development, and the beneficiaries
of the program will be the local public administrations. Also, Wednesday, at
the beginning of the Government meeting, the first honorary government adviser
in Romania, but also in the world, was presented, which is a structure
exclusively based on artificial intelligence and which will receive proposals
and observations from citizens, will synthesize and send them to the competent
state institutions.

Accident. The Romanian
Prime Minister, Nicolae Ciucă, sent a message of support for the Greek people
and the authorities in Athens, after the tragic railway accident last night.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest has announced that no requests for
assistance have been received so far from Romanian citizens, in the context of
the accident in which at least 36 people died and over 80 were injured,
following the collision of a passenger train with a cargo one. According to
local media, it is the worst railway accident in Greece. The train, with 350
passengers, was going from Athens to Thessaloniki. Several passengers were
thrown out of the windows due to the impact. The Minister of Transport, Kostas
Karamanlis, resigned, and a station master was arrested.

NATO. The Parliament
of Helsinki adopted on Wednesday the draft law that paves the way for Finland’s
accession to the North Atlantic Alliance, Reuters reports. Both Finland and
Sweden are preparing to become NATO members and have officially applied for
membership in May 2022, ending decades of neutrality. Recently, a group of
ambassadors from NATO member countries, including that of Romania, Dan
Neculăescu, paid a working visit to Finland, in the context of this country’s
aspirations to join the North Atlantic Alliance. At the Madrid Summit in June
2022, the leaders of the NATO member countries took the decision to invite
Sweden and Finland to join the Alliance. The accession protocols were signed by
the 30 member states, of which 28 ratified them. Only Turkey and Hungary have
not yet ratified the documents.

Trafficking. 47 people were preventively arrested on Wednesday in Romania, and arrest warrants were issued for 18 in absentia, for migrant trafficking. Prosecutors with the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism in Romania (DIICOT) found 165 migrants hiding in the almost one hundred searches made in several counties and in the capital. Cars, money, ball guns, mobile phones and documents were confiscated. The criminal group was structured in two segments: the first one dealt with sheltering and transporting migrants to the boarding places in road cargo transport units, and the second segment was made up of truck drivers. According to DIICOT, the members of the group have also developed ties with people from some state institutions. The criminal activity took place from last year until now.

EPPO. 121 cases opened
last year by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office targeted Romania, with the
estimated damages standing at over 508 million euros, the institution said in
its annual report published on Wednesday. Also, at the end of last year,
Romania was involved in ten active cross-border investigations. A number of
persons were indicted in Romania who were involved in five cases investigated
by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, with a final court decision being
issued in one case. Most offences investigated in connection to Romania last
year referred to non-procurement and procurement expenditure fraud, non-VAT and
VAT fraud, corruption and money laundering. The European Public Prosecutor’s
Office, in which 22 of the European Union’s member states are taking part,
including Romania, is an independent body responsible for investigating,
prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of
the EU. It consists of 112 European delegated prosecutors, including 11
from Romania.

Spring. On March 1st,
Romania celebrated the Mărțișor (Spring Amulet) custom to mark the first day of spring. Early
20th century ethnologists found this ancient custom was practiced in the Romanian,
as well as the Bulgarian and Albanian communities in the Balkans. In rural
Romania, the Mărțișor was viewed as protection against disease and ill luck. A
silver coin with a wool or cotton red and white thread would be tied around
children’s wrists to protect them from disease. 12 days later, the coins would
be tied to a tree to ensure that the tree would yield fruit, or around the neck
of cattle to keep them healthy. Adopted by the urban world to become a fashion,
the Mărțișor today comes in all shapes and forms, including as a small piece of
jewelry to be worn as a broach or a necklace. The Mărțișor was inscribed in the
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2017, following a joint
application from Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Bulgaria and North
Macedonia. (MI)

1 March 2023
The fight against human trafficking

The Government of
Romania does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of
trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so – wrote the US Embassy’s
2020 Trafficking in Persons Report. In this context, prime minister Nicolae Ciucă and the Romanian authorities made an
analysis of the results obtained by Romania in preventing and combating human
trafficking last year.

According to a government report, numerous activities
were carried out in 2021 to prevent, combat, as well as to monitor and assess
this phenomenon. The report mentions the cooperation with civil society and with
international partners, in particular with the US, the UK and France, as well
as a series of partnerships and projects in the field. According to the Prosecutor
General’s Office, Romania is seeing a drop in the number of reported cases,
while the number of prosecutions and arrests grew compared with the previous
year. Moreover, two thirds of convictions included time in prison.

The authorities are saying that the response of criminal
justice should be reinforced by social and economic measures to protect vulnerable
citizens from the risk of exploitation. In this respect, the eLiberare Association
is conducting an information campaign about how citizens themselves can detect
the signs of human trafficking, trying to help those who may be in such a
situation themselves. The association is making available on online platform and
a hotline where people can report cases of human trafficking. Loredana Urzică
Mirea, the representative of eLiberare, explains:

We’ve known for years that the victims of human trafficking
are hidden in plain sight, because we often see the signs, but we don’t realise
that person is a victim. So, we created this centre in Bucharest to help citizens
who see suspicious signs and want to report them. Maybe some don’t have the
courage to go straight to the police, maybe they’re not sure that what they
suspect is true. Our centre addresses these concerns, by providing a
platform of discussion with the citizens reporting a suspicious case and with
persons who identify themselves as being the subject of exploitation.

According to official data, more than 1,200 people
were indicted and 175 sentenced for human trafficking last year in Romania. Also,
the relevant authorities worked on 723 cross-border cases. The Eurojust 2021
report acknowledges that Romania had the biggest number of joint inquiry teams in
this area among EU members. (CM)

21 January 2022
Romania steps up fight against human traffickers and other serious offences

Several
severe offences, such as human trafficking, slavery, child pornography, proxenetism
will no longer be subject to any statute of limitation in Romania. This means
that no matter how much time has passed, legal proceedings can still be
initiated against the perpetrators of these offenses.

The decision-making
Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest has unanimously endorsed several amendments to
the country’s Criminal Code, initiated by a group of MPs belonging to the
ruling coalition made up of the National Liberal Party (PNL) and USR PLUS
alliance.

The
new amendments also include severer punishment for the accomplices of this type
of offenders as well as for repeat offender involved in child pornography. The
aforementioned amendments were also endorsed by the Senate in April.

It is
a very important law, which does not allow those who commit severe offences,
such as human trafficking, aggression against minors and other severe offences
to get away with their crimes thanks to the statute of limitations. This type
of offenders are to be held responsible for their entire life, says Ludovic
Orban, president of the Chamber of Deputies.

One of
the initiators of the aforementioned law, USR-PLUS senator Simona Spataru said
that Romania needed such amendments because in some cases offenders got away
with their crimes due to dragging investigations and statutory limitations.

Romania
ranks first in Europe in terms of victims of human trafficking and a major
cause for delayed investigations is the fact that these networks of traffickers
are very sophisticated. We are also speaking here about the trafficking with
minors and unfortunately Romania is a source for this kind of trafficking as
well. So, it is very important for us to intervene now says Simona Spataru.

According
to experts of GRETA, a Council of Europe institution specialized in fighting
human trafficking, Romania arguably remains a country of origin for victims of human
trafficking, while Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK used to be the main
destination countries.

GRETA
has urged Romania to make sure it implements effective punishment in the case
of human traffickers and that victims benefit from compensations. In a report
published on Thursday, GRETA says that Romania continues to develop its
legislative framework to take action against human trafficking.

The
group hails the fact that the Justice Minister has called on the general
prosecutor to prioritize actions against human trafficking but notes that many
culprits benefitted from suspended and reduced sentences after they have
admitted guilt.

According
to the report, 2,613 victims of human trafficking were identified between 2016
and 2019 by the Romanian authorities. Three out of four were women and half of
them children as sexual exploitation remains the main purpose of human
trafficking.

(bill)

4 June 2021
The trafficking of minors

According
to the European Commission between 2015 and 2016 more than half of
the human trafficking in the EU 56% was done only for sexual
exploitation and this remains its most widespread form. In this
context as expected women and girls accounted for two thirds out of
the total registered victims, 68%. This percentage would go up to 77%
if we eliminated statistic data from the UK, which is no longer an EU
member. The first five European countries of residence for the
victims were Romania, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland and Bulgaria.

The
situation doesn’t seem to have changed significantly in the present
as in 2018 Romania was still one of the source-countries for human
trafficking, according to the National Agency against Human
Trafficking and half of the total number of victims were minors. Some
of these girls, who somehow managed to break out of this type of
contemporary slavery are being helped by activist Iana Matei, the one
who 20 years ago opened a shelter for the protection and social
inclusion of the victims of human trafficking. According to Iana
Matei, ever since its foundation, the aforementioned NGO entitled
Reaching Out Romania has offered assistance to over 600 sexploitation
victims.

Iana
Matei: We
started with an apartment that we rented back then, after that the
number of girls increased and I think in 2000 we registered the
largest number of girls. Most of them were being trafficked in the
countries of the former Yugoslavia. Later we had to build a shelter
for them and added another one as their number also increased. The
two centers that we have at present can accommodate 18 girls and at
present there are 12 girls living in these centers. We still have
another accommodation facility in a lavender farm in Craiova,
southern Romania, because we wanted to create an alternative for the
girls who don’t want to continue their studies. Most of them come
from villages and at our lavender farm we teach them how to develop
their own businesses and trades. The girls in our centers have ages
between 12 and 14 and from my point of view we should be speaking
about pedophilia here, not about human trafficking. This is violence
not against women but against children.

At
the lavender farm, these girls are offered the occasion to learn the
skills they need for a trade so that they may not resort to
prostitution again but at the shelter founded by Iana Matei they are
also offered psychological assistance. Sexploitation causes specific
trauma, which are difficult to overwhelm; victims are suffering from
low self-esteem as they were being deprived of affection at a very
early age. These issues are usually exploited by traffickers who
often resort to the ‘loverboy’ method to seduce young girls into
prostitution.

Iana
Matei: The
loverboy method allows the trafficker to annihilate the young girl’s
identity. We are speaking here about young girls who don’t actually
know what love is and that makes them easy prey for these predators.
Unfortunately, these young girls become sex-addicts in time. If they
start their sex-life at around 11 or 12 years old and have about
10/15 clients a day, a certain type of addiction is formed, but this
subject is taboo as nobody wants to talk about it. Furthermore, these
young girls will often have to deal with a lot of finger-pointing as
people are very judgemental and eager to do blame-shifting. The first
three months are the most difficult because what they want to do most
is to go back to their job, their addiction. State institutions
aren’t very helpful in this respect. For instance, under the law
any child must go to school, but these girls, victims of
sexploitation, have a special situation and cannot go back to school
very soon.

According
to Iana Matei, human trafficking requires an integrated approach,
joint actions from the ministries of education, health, of the
interior as well as the various directions for fighting organized
crime. These should cooperate with the NGOs, which know the situation
first hand. Furthermore the collective outlook of the rural
communities, these girls are coming from, where sexploitation is
misunderstood and blame-shifting is common, must radically change.
Blame-shifting is also commonly related to another phenomenon
affecting women nowadays, namely domestic violence. Here is Elena
Samoila, programme coordinator with the FILIA Center, an association
campaigning for women’s rights.

Elena
Samoila:
Victim
blaming is a widespread phenomenon in society nowadays. Victims are
oftentimes blamed for their decision to hold on to an abusive
relationship or are scapegoated for the abusers’ behaviour. People
often say: ‘well, there are two sides to every story, she must have
done something’. To cut a long story short, we are living in a
society where women are blamed for triggering their partner’s
abusive behaviour and are supposed to endure violence at the hands of
their partners and put a brave face on things. Men, who are most of
the time the abusers in a relationship, are usually getting away with
it.

Experts
are cautioning that under the present circumstances, the number of
domestic violence cases is on the rise all over the world, as many
women are confined to isolation with aggressive partners.

(translated by bill)

1 July 2020
July 30, 2017 UPDATE

DEFENCE – The Supreme Defence Council is to convene in Bucharest on Tuesday. The agenda of the meeting, chaired by President Klaus Iohannis, includes a presentation of the Plan of equipment procurement for the Romanian Army in 2017-2026. The plan provides for the implementation of a commitment made in 2015 by all political parties, with respect to earmarking 2% of the GDP for the defence sector for 10 years, starting in 2017. The latest Defence Council meeting was held on July 4, but at that time the Plan for army equipment procurement was withdrawn from the agenda of the meeting, in order to be adjusted to the politically agreed target of earmarking 2% of the GDP to this sector.

HEALTHCARE – The Romanian Healthcare Minister, Florian Bodog, hopes Parliament will pass the new vaccination law quickly. He also welcomed the decision of Ludovic Orban, president of the National Liberal Party in opposition, to support compulsory vaccination. In turn, PM Mihai Tudose said in an interview on the public radio that the current situation requires the introduction of compulsory vaccination. On Thursday, the Cabinet discussed a draft law on vaccination, laying down responsibilities both for the authorities and healthcare staff, and for parents. The bill is designed to regulate the organisation and funding of vaccination in Romania, as well as to raise awareness on the benefits, safety, quality and possible adverse reactions to immunisation. The bill also provides for a national reserve stock covering at least the annual vaccine needs, with doses valid for at least one and a half years. The bill was drafted after the large number of measles cases and deaths caused by this disease prompted the World Health Organisation to include Romania in the 5 countries that total over 80% of the number of cases reported worldwide.

TRAFFICKING – July 30 was the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, proclaimed by the UN 4 years ago in order to put an end to this crime and protect its victims. Statistics show that millions of people around the world, particularly vulnerable women and girls, are sold every year in modern slavery. The victims are recruited from poverty-striken countries and become subject to various forms of exploitation. This week alone, the authorities in Italy and Spain have found scores of Romanians exploited by their employers in those countries. The Romanian PM Mihai Tudose said the Minister for the Romanians living abroad Andreea Păstârnac would receive increased powers, so as to make sure that no Romanian citizen living abroad would be discriminated against. In this context, Mihai Tudose is to have a meeting in Bucharest on Monday with the Ambassador of Spain to Bucharest, Ramiro Fernandez Bachiller, and with Minister Andreea Păstîrnac.

SECURITY – The security challenges currently facing Romania and NATO member states will be discussed in an event taking place in Bucharest between July 31 and August 5 and entitled ‘Defence and Dialogue in Eastern Europe’ (DDEE). International experts and Romanian officials will talk about hybrid threats, recent misinformation campaigns and large-scale cyber-attacks. Attending the event organised by Euro Atlantic Diplomacy Society will be around 200 young people from 36 countries.

NATO – A British destroyer and a Turkish frigate are in the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta for 2 days. They are part of the standing NATO group which, together with Ferdinand frigate of the Romanian Navy have taken part in joint training sessions and in sea traffic monitoring missions. On board the British destroyer, the commander of the standing NATO maritime group James Borley said the Alliance has a constant presence at the Black Sea because some riparian countries are also members of the Organisation.

TERRORIST PLOT – The Australian security forces have foiled a presumably Islamist terror plan to detonate a bomb targeting an airplane, and four individuals have been arrested, PM Malcolm Turnbull has announced, according to AFP. He added that security was tightened in Australian airports. A total of 12 terrorist plots have been foiled in Australia and some 60 people have been sent to court since the alert level was raised in September 2014. Australia is taking part in the US-led international coalition conducting air raids against the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq and Syria since the summer of 2014.

SPORTS – Romania won 8 medals, 5 silver and 3 bronze, at the 2017 summer edition of the European Youth Olympics Festival, which came to an end on Saturday in Gyor (Hungary). On the last day of the competition the Romanian athletes won 3 more silver medals. The womens handball team lost the final to the host team, Hungary, 30-23, the tennis player Nicholas David Ionel was defeated in the final by the Italian Lorenzo Rottoli, and athlete Cristian Gabriel Voicu won the silver in the 800 m race. Romanias delegation in this edition of the Festival was made up of 77 athletes, competing in athletics, cycling, gymnastics, handball, swimming, judo, rowing and tennis.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

30 July 2017
European Operation Against Immigrant Trafficking

This
is a tragedy, people are losing their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean.
It’s important for the European Union to take action! said NATO Secretary
General, Jens Stoltenberg, who hailed the decision made in Brussels on Monday
to launch an unprecedented European naval operation to check the activity of
people smugglers.
Against the backdrop of the insecure climate and political
turmoil in North Africa, particularly in Libya, smugglers who want to make easy
money take advantage of people in misery and develop a new type of business, by
carrying thousands of people in illegal improvised boats. Overloaded and
unsafe, many of them sink, claiming thousands of lives.
Many Jihad fighters can hide among the immigrants. According to the mass media in
Italy, the country which is most affected by the flow of migrants, those
fighters try to reach Europe, to perpetrate attacks. Therefore, they conceal
their identity, shaving their beards and hiding among the migrants in order not
to be recognised.
Furthermore, they say the Islamic State terrorist group would
allegedly be involved in the issue, as it is the actual beneficiary of human
trafficking on the Mediterranean, collecting a sort of tax or fee from the
smugglers who organise the illegal boat travels.
Terrorists are also coercing
some immigrants to join their group, training them before leaving for Europe.
That is why the European naval operation, EUNAVFOR Med, is designed to spot the
ships used by armed guides to drag smaller, improvised boats packed with
hundreds of immigrants, which they let to sail adrift at high sea. The mission
based in Rome and led by Italian admiral Enrico Credendino is to be launched in
June. It will mainly consist in deploying war ships and surveillance military
aircraft belonging to the European national armed forces, off the Libyan coast.
That will be a naval and not a military operation, aimed at rescuing lives at
sea, Brussels sources say. France, Great
Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain have already pledged to contribute ships to
the operation. Poland and Slovenia are expected to make available surveillance
aircraft and helicopters. However, the European Union can’t receive and provide
shelter to all immigrants who flee their countries.
Those who say the doors
should be left wide open are only cynical, because they are well aware of the
fact that this is an impossible scenario. According to the President of the
European Council, Donald Tusk, by the end of the year, the European Commission
intends to put in place a permanent mechanism meant to redirect migrants
towards the EU member states, based on mandatory quotas, in accordance with the
respective European state’s economic development and number of
inhabitants.
Romania does not seem to
be affected, at least for now, by the flow of North African immigrants, but
president Klaus Iohannis has pledged that his country will be solidary with the
other European states in the effort to take over and shelter the
immigrants.

19 May 2015