Human trafficking from Lithuania increases

Mar 23, 2009
TBT staff in cooperation with BNS

Nearly 20 percent of Lithuanian women sold into slavery are underage.

VILNIUS- Despite preventative measures by politicians, human trafficking volumes from Lithuania are rising.

Detective Chief Superintendent in charge of Metropolitan Police Clubs and Vice Unit Richard Martin on March 20 communicated this tendency on a visit to the Human Rights Committee under the Lithuanian Seimas.

Most women are brought to London from Thailand and Eastern Europe, and their number is expected to rise with the approaching Olympic Games, said the UK officer, also expressing concern over the hefty volumes of women trafficking from Lithuania.

Martin briefed Lithuanian MPs on the statistics covering a one day period in some parts of London, namely how many women and of what nationality were in that time rendering prostitution services. In 46 apartments in Soho, hosted ten Lithuanian women, nine from Kosovo and seven from Great Britain were found.

The situation is similar throughout other parts of London.

Metropolitan Police Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland said British officers over the past few years have rescued hundreds of Lithuanian women fallen victim to human trafficking, some of them underage. Culprits behind organizing sex slavery are sentenced, on average, for 18 years behind bars, he said.

A case was recently closed in London, convicting the perpetrator behind selling one Lithuanian woman as a sex slave and sentencing him to 18 years of prison, said Martin. The officer noted the economic crisis is forcing people to search out additional ways to make money, dsying that the police would like to stop women from having to resort to becoming sex slaves by informing people in the sending state of the dangers.

London's Metropolitan Police detectives have often received help from Lithuania's judicial system officers, noting there have been no obstacles to sharing information and pleading for help as their Lithuanian counterparts contribute to accumulating evidence.

About 20 percent of all persons from Lithuania fallen victim to sex slavery are underage, Chairman of the Seimas Human Rights Department Arminas Lydeka said, noting room for concern.

Lithuania is a transit state, en route for human traffickers hauling from Russia and Belarus victims to better-off European Union member states, he said.

Lithuania should especially focus on this issue in year 2011, as it takes the wheel at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Ombudsperson for children's rights in Lithuania Rimante Salaseviciute said.

According to information available to the Council of Europe, human trafficking is the third most profitable line of activity in terms of organized crime.

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