Human trafficking : Russia

Abstract

In Russia the problem of human trafficking was acknowledged as a national security issue in the early 2000s, above all, in relation to the threat of terrorism. In March 2004 Russia ratified the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. In doing so Russia undertook a number of commitments against human trafficking. By that time there were already alarming estimates warning that Central and Eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union, ranked second in the world in terms of human trafficking after south-east Asia [1] and every year around 175,000 women (1997 estimate) were taken from the region in human trafficking schemes [2]. Russia, according to expert estimates, may account for 20-30% of this flow [3], i.e. at least tens of thousands a year. These estimates do not take into account human trafficking in both women and men within the CIS region, i.e. large-scale flows of migrants illegally transferred from CIS countries to Russia for labor and sexual exploitation.