Criminal investigators recorded an increase in the number of cases of organised groups exploiting women from Asia or Latin America in prostitution rings in the Czech Republic last year, according to the annual report of the National Center Against Organised Crime (NCOZ) released today.
The police say these women enter the Schengen Area on tourist visas and work in various cities, and sometimes even in several countries, within 90 days. First, they must pay off their debt to the traffickers for their plane tickets, then they try to earn money to send to their families. The trend is visible across Europe, NCOZ added.
“Some women realize that they are travelling to Europe to provide sexual services,” said the police report. “In some cases, they are offered jobs as waitresses, models, or shop assistants in their countries of origin, but they only learn the true purpose of the trip after their arrival.” According to the police, the perpetrators often use women who are already being exploited by the group to persuade potential victims.
Because they are on tourist visas, the women can stay in the Schengen Area for only 90 days. They travel between countries so that they appear new or exclusive to potential customers in a specific location, the investigators said.
The organisers of the prostitution ring arrange for adult advertisements. Once that period expires, the women return home or move to countries outside the Schengen Area, and after another 90 days, they return.
“A distinctive feature of working with victims of this crime is their profound distrust of the police, as well as of other entities offering assistance to these individuals, such as NGOs,” stated NCOZ, pointing to the women’s negative experience with the police in their home countries. They also fear that they themselves are committing a crime.
Last April, police arrested three perpetrators from an international group operating in Vietnam, Germany, Poland and Lithuania. The group trafficked women from Vietnam to the European Union and forced them into prostitution, primarily in private apartments in Germany, using the fact that the women could not communicate and were burdened with debts for transport, accommodation and visa fees that were difficult to repay.
According to an earlier statement by NCOZ chief Jiri Mazanek, the number of cases of “modern slavery”, in which traffickers exploit either foreign workers or socially vulnerable Czech citizens, has been rising in the Czech Republic and elsewhere. The criminals are socially adept and control their victims by burdening them with debts and handling official matters on their behalf.
In response, the police launched the “Work in Chains” campaign last year, focused on fighting human trafficking.
