“This year, 8 people have become victims of trafficking”,- informed Hasmik Edilyan, Trafficking Project Manager of “Democracy Today” NGO in a conversation with Aravot.am.
At the same time, our interlocutor said that there are problems in Armenia with detection of trafficking phenomenon. “There is a desire to solve the problem, steps have been taken, for example, this year, the activities conducted in our country were highly evaluated internationally, we appeared in the first group of the State Department’s report.”
However, Hasmik Edilyan also noted the factors that support the emergence of trafficking: poor economic conditions, unemployment, poverty and so on. Hasmik Edilyan raised another painful problem, which is that “people who are not aware of the matter, begin to confuse trafficking with prostitution.”
Gulnara Shahinian, UN Special Rapporteur on Slavery at UN Human rights Council told us that Portuguese conducted the UN situational study on given problem in Armenia, who “assessed the situation in Armenia rather positively.” Gulnara Shahinian said: “The government of Armenia is trying to solve the problem, there is a relevant legislation, shelters, NGOs that are interested in solving the problem, but still there are a number of shortcomings. One of the most important is that even though we all know our roles in problem solving sphere, but we do not have the means to prevent the occurrence of this problem. In a post-Soviet country, like Armenia, poverty, disbelieve in the system, not seeing the future, not being protected, or that the law is employed selectively, leads to the fact that many people become victims of trafficking. For example, if earlier the poorest was leaving the country, now the middle class is also becoming a victim of trafficking.”
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In support to people appeared in such a situation, Ms. Shahinian singles out the problem that there are no encouraging mechanisms for the victim to presents, it should be detected. Gulnara Shahinian notes: “The person becoming a victim of trafficking, never thinks that he is a victim. He thinks that he is mistaken. Or there are cases when a person has so many problems in the family that sometimes the conditions are worse there than the ones that are offered to him outdoors, and make him a victim of trafficking.”
On this occasion, Hasmik Edilyan informed that there is also a phenomenon of local trafficking, when the person is exploited in the country, for example, the person is trafficked from the village to Yerevan for sexual exploitation. Our interlocutor informed that there is a belief that RF men exploitation makes a much larger number, but since these cases are not detected, they do not apply for support, these cases are left uncovered.
Ms. Shahinian raised also the following problem: “Many women become victims of trafficking because of desperation. They are immediately left out of the system, because they are not from the ruling party, they are not from different alien circles, therefore they fall into despair. And suddenly there appears the one who offers him a job, and under this situation it is so easy to succumb to temptation and become a victim of trafficking.”
Ms. Shahinian said that one should not think that appearing in the first place of the State Department’s report the problems are solved, we have to keep working, especially to study and find the roots of where the causes of this phenomenon are hidden.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
