Investigators say the Balkans have become a kind of training ground for women and girls brought in against their will from Eastern Europe and bound for Albania, southern Italy and points west. Moreover, victims are still being blamed for allowing themselves to be seduced into the trade. Throughout Europe, police and prosecutors continue to view the trafficking of women as a permutation of unpleasant but ultimately intractable social ills. Economic conditions in Eastern and Central Europe are chiefly to blame. In luring targets with the promise of escape, the traffickers can capitalize on more lenient visa requirements and lax law enforcement.
Profits are considerable.
The beauty of the trade, as one investigator puts it, lies in the fact that the victims can be sold and resold, producing income almost indefinitely. Traffickers are loosely organized, investigators say, sometimes operating under the aegis of larger criminal organizations and sometimes working alone. In Moldova, known recruiters include the daughter of a village priest and the wife of a policeman. They also routinely use classified ads in newspapers or on the Internet. She used the English word as if it were some kind of guarantee.