U.S. flag
      An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.
        Here's how you know
      Here's how you know**Official websites use .gov**
            
            A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
      **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
            
            A **lock** (
            A locked padlock
            ) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Menu

      
        close

            
            
                                              About NIJ
        
                    
  
          About NIJ
      
    
          The NIJ Director
          How NIJ Is Organized
          Mission and Guiding Principles
          Research and Development Process
          Strategic Framework
          Assessments of NIJ
          Annual Reports & Reports to Congress
          Staff Directory
          Funding & Awards
        
                    
  
          Funding & Awards
      
    
          Current Funding
          Forthcoming Funding
          Expired Funding
          Awards: Listing of Funded Projects
          Guidance for Applicants and Awardees
          Fellowship & Student Programs
          Travel Scholarships
          NIJ Challenge Program
          Library & Multimedia
        
                    
  
          Library & Multimedia
      
    
          NIJ Journal
          Podcasts
          Publications Listing
          Multimedia Listing
          Rated Practices on CrimeSolutions
          Rated Programs on CrimeSolutions
          Software & Databases
          Datasets
          Patents
          Topics
        
                    
  
          Topics
      
    
          Article Listing
          Corrections
          Courts
          Crime Prevention
          Crimes
          Drugs and Crime
          Equipment and Technology
          Forensic Sciences
          Youth Justice
          Justice System Reform
          Law Enforcement
          Tribal Crime and Justice
          Victims of Crime
          Events
        
                    
  
          Events
      
    
          NIJ 2024 Research Conference
          Scheduled Events
          On-Demand Events
          Research Meetings & Workshops
          NIJ-Hosted Online Training

                            
                                About
          Contact Us
          Subscribe
          Topics A-Z
                  Share
FacebookXLinkedInRedditPinterestEmail Home
 Interview with Turkish Judge Altuntas on Human Trafficking Archival Notice
              This is an archive page that is no longer being updated. It may contain outdated information and links may no longer function as originally intended.
June 1, 2008
Your browser does not support the audio element.Ilknur Altuntas, a judge from Turkey
See reuse policy
Speakers
        Jolene Hernon, Chief of Communications, National Institute of Justice;               Dr. Cindy Smith, Director of the NIJ International Center;               Ilknur Altuntas, Judge, Turkey
Interview with****Turkish Judge Ilknur Altuntas
  
  
          Transcript
**Jolene Hernon:** Good morning. This is Jolene Hernon. Today’s NIJ podcast, June 2007, is an interview between Dr. Cindy Smith, who’s the director of the NIJ International Center, and Dr. Ilknur Altuntas, a judge from Turkey. Dr. Altuntas is on a professional affiliation with NIJ as a Humphrey Fellow. She and Dr. Smith today are talking about human trafficking, in which Dr. Altuntas has great expertise in Turkey.

**Cindy Smith:** Good morning, Dr. Altuntas.

****Ilknur Altuntas:**** Good morning.

**Smith:** I’d like first to start this interview with a discussion about Turkey’s position with regard to human trafficking.

**Altuntas:** As you know, as a modern-day form of slavery, human trafficking impacts every continent and region of the world. Turkey — constituting a bridge between East and West — is a leading destination country. Turkey is portrayed by traffickers as a land of wealth and promise. Victims in Turkey are mostly women and young girls from Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia; more than half of the victims are from Moldova and Ukraine. They want to come to Turkey to make money to support their families. After their arrival, their passports are taken away by traffickers, and they are forced to work in the sex industry.

**Smith:** Only in the sex industry?

**Altuntas:** Generally, yes. Most of the victims are working in the sex industry. We do have labor cases, but not many.

**Smith:** What steps are you taking to combat trafficking?

**Altuntas:** Having ratified the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and its additional Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Turkey primarily criminalized human trafficking in 2002. And as the Penal Code is fully amended now, Article 80 of the new Penal Code sets out the definition of human trafficking and prescribes imprisonment for a term of 8 to 12 years and a judicial fine (corresponding 10,000 days).

In 2002, a National Task Force was set up in order to ensure an effective mechanism to combat human trafficking. A National Action Plan has been prepared by the National Task Force and approved by the Prime Ministry. Protection of victims and their rights to physical, psychological and social recovery must be given the highest priority. This includes safe housing, legal counseling and information, in particular regarding their legal status, in a language that the victims can understand. And also medical and psychological assistance and material assistance.

**In the framework of the National Action Plan, two shelters were established for the victims:** one in Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city, and another in Ankara, our capital city. These shelters have been operating by [non-governmental organizations] NGOs. We also have a helpline service — “157” — for the victims.

The Ministry of Health provides free medical treatment to the victims and the Ministry of Interior issues temporary residence permits for the victims’ rehabilitation. The duration of the permit is up to 6 months, and it can be extended for a further period. Police officers, judges and prosecutors have also been receiving training on counter-trafficking. With regard to awareness-raising in Turkey, leaflets including necessary information and the helpline service “157” have been designed in order to inform foreigners. These inserts are being distributed at the border gates and the airports. Also, working with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Turkey has launched a nationwide awareness-raising campaign called “Have You Seen My Mother?”

**Smith:** I’m thinking about the safety of the victims. Once you identify a victim, if that victim wants to stay in Turkey or wants to return home, what is that process?

**Altuntas:** It depends on the victim. If they want, after they are identified as a victim, they can stay in Turkey. As I mentioned, we have shelters for that, and law enforcement officials are working very closely with NGOs and IOM. If they want to return to their country of origin, Turkish police officers help provide safe return of the victims. They escort the victims at the airport, and they directly get in the plane. Immediately they inform their colleagues in the country of origin because it is important for victims that their law enforcement official meet them at the airport. It is very important because traffickers have links in their country and it can be dangerous for them. So there is a close cooperation and always victims are being escorted by law enforcement officials.

**Smith:** I think that’s a very important finding because in other research I have seen that the traffickers often come from the same hometown as the victims for many of the smaller organizations. So they know the family, they know the town, they know maybe even the law enforcement officials of that town. And so the safe return of a victim would be very important.

**Altuntas:** Very, very important.

**Smith:** That’s very interesting that your country is going to provide for the victims — their psychological, their medical, housing, and all of these others. That’s very expensive, and the more victims we find, the more costly that will become. I think that’s an issue we’re just now starting to work with here in the United States — where does that funding come from? How can we sustain it if we find a lot of victims?

I’d like to know a little bit more about your “Have You Seen My Mother?” campaign. Could you provide a little information about that?

**Altuntas:** Of course. The latest report shows one in three women trafficked to Turkey have kids. Therefore, this campaign concentrates on mothers who are victims of trafficking. The aim of this campaign is to raise awareness of human trafficking’s impact on children and families, to change the perception of a trafficked person, to address broader social consequences of human trafficking, and to make people think “What happens to children of traffickers?” The advertisement entitled “Have You Seen My Mother?” is focused on four children from the former Soviet Union in search of mothers trafficked to Turkey. Thirty-second commercials run on 27 Turkish TV channels and 20 theatres and cinemas. We also use the posters on buses in the hotspots of human trafficking, such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Trabzon.

**Smith:** That’s interesting that so many of the trafficked women into Turkey are mothers as well as old enough to have children that are old enough to be in this campaign. It dispels that myth that many of our trafficked women are very young girls of 14 to 16, 17 years old. In fact, what is the age and the gender profile of the victims in Turkey?

**Altuntas:** In Turkey, sexual exploitation is the predominant one because of its great profits for the traffickers. Most of the victims are 18- to 24-year-old women, and they are almost all foreigners.

**Smith:** Wow. As a destination country then, coming from international trafficking, does Turkey cooperate with those countries of origin?

**Altuntas:** Yes, yes. Turkey is party to Transnational Organized Crime and its additional Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking, Especially Women and Children. Turkey also signed a Cooperation Protocol with the leading countries of origin, such as Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, in order to investigate trafficking cases effectively and provide assistance to victims.

Just three months ago, as a result of the international operation called “Orchid,” with the involvement of 100 police, 40 victims were rescued and 65 suspects were apprehended, unfortunately four of whom were law enforcement officials. Victims were from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. This shows the importance of international cooperation with regard to human trafficking.

**Smith:** As we near the end of our conversation, do you have any final remarks on combating human trafficking that you feel are particularly important?

**Altuntas:** Yes. Since human trafficking has international dimensions, undoubtedly it cannot be prevented by each state. No matter how good national measures only, international cooperation is inevitable. The battle against trafficking in human beings requires well-designed, coordinated and comprehensive responses. Human trafficking has no place in our country and in our world. By becoming more aware of the problem, all of us can help to eradicate this modern-day form of slavery.

**Smith:** I have one final question. As I thought about what you’ve said and all of the services that you’re providing, and all of the international cooperation and the costs that are associated with this, and budgets are very short these days with so many problems in the world. If you had to pick one thing about trafficking, about the projects to fight trafficking, what would you pick? What would you implement to make the largest impact?

**Altuntas:** I can say that the establishment of helpline services is the most important one from my point of view because this helpline is considered an important step towards the rescue and protection of trafficking victims. It is an essential part of a national and regional strategy to combat human trafficking. This hotline has been operating in Turkey — we have “157” as I mentioned before — and it has been operating by Russian, Romanian, English and Turkish-speaking operators. This number can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by dialing 1-5-7 on any phone, including mobiles. And the helpline also provides information for individuals who may be at risk for trafficking. This includes information on visas and procedures for safe return home. IOM, in close cooperation with the Turkish government, is conducting a multi-country promotion campaign in key nations in Eastern Europe, Turkey and the former Soviet countries. As the first multi-country effort of its kind, the promotion campaign includes television advertising and distribution of passport inserts. I believe that this is really, really very important in terms of the rescue of the victims and assisting the victims.

**Smith:** In fact, in one of my conversations with some of your law enforcement in Turkey, they suggested that the “157” has been one of their best leads for finding trafficked victims because the “Johns” of the sex industry were calling the “157” to report trafficked women as opposed to prostitutes when they discovered that they had been provided with a trafficked woman. I find that to be very interesting and very hopeful.

Thank you so very much for your opinions today and for your thoughts and your experience and knowledge from Turkey.

**Altuntas:** Thank you so much.
    
  
Disclaimer:
              Opinions or points of view expressed in these recordings represent those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Any commercial products and manufacturers discussed in these recordings are presented for informational purposes only and do not constitute product approval or endorsement by the U.S. Department of Justice.
  
Date Published: June 1, 2008
    
          Side navigation
  

        

  
  
              NIJ Journal
    
      
            
            
            
      Podcasts
    
      
            
            
            
      Publications Listing
    
      
            
            
            
      Multimedia Listing
    
      
            
            
            
      Rated Practices on CrimeSolutions
    
      
            
            
            
      Rated Programs on CrimeSolutions
    
      
            
            
            
      Software & Databases
    
      
            
            
            
      Datasets
    
      
            
            
            
      PatentsShedding Light on Assault
                  "Sentinel Event" Review in the Criminal Justice System
                  A View From the Street: Police Leaders Share Their Perspectives on Urgent Policy and Research Issues
 Top

      National Institute of Justice

        
        
                        About NIJ
                    About NIJ
      
    
                  How NIJ Is Organized
      
    
                  NIJ Director
      
    
                  Research Disclaimer
      
    
                  Funding & Awards
                    Funding & Awards Home
      
    
                  Awards Listing
      
    
                  Current Funding
      
    
                  Guidance for Applicants and Awardees
      
    
                  Resources
                    Events
      
    
                  Podcasts
      
    
                  Publications
      
    
                  Topics
      
    
                  Multimedia
      
    
                  Reuse Policy
      
    
                  Contacts
                    Contact NIJ
      
    
                  Staff Directory
      
    
                  Submit a FOIA Request
      
    
                  File a Civil Rights ComplaintFacebook
          
                      X
          
                      YouTube
  

      810 7th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20531
      
              Secondary Footer link menu
            Accessibility
              Plain Language
              Privacy Policy
              Legal Policies and Disclaimer
              No FEAR Act
              Freedom of Information Act
              USA.gov
              Justice.gov