Most of the people leave Moldova legally. The unit's resources are minimal, with just nine officers. Two months ago parliament passed its first legislation to punish trafficking, allowing the police to launch seven criminal cases of pimping and selling people. Young women and girls are most vulnerable to traffickers. Naive and poor, most with only primary education, they are easy prey for those touting the good life in the West.
Traffickers recruit girls through friends and newspaper advertisements.
Job and marriage agencies are fertile ground. Whatever the method, the export route is similar for all. Upon their arrival in their destination country, or during the trip, the women's passports are taken away. Those who protest are threatened and beaten. The IOM's Kosovo-countertrafficking unit said two out of three victims of trafficking in the Balkans were Moldovans.