TALLINN - A recent U.S. report has found that human trafficking is still a significant issue in Estonia and criticized the country for failing to meet the minimum human rights standards required to combat the problem.
The report found that girls are primarily sent to Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the U.K., Spain, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands for sexual exploitation.
"The issue is getting sharper in Estonia," said Sirle Blumberg, a representative of the non-governmental organization "Life for Tomorrow," which also manages the country's only anti-trafficking hotline.
The report said Estonia is a source of children, women and men who are taken abroad for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. The country also acts as a transit destination for victims from Russia.
"Actually, in Estonia human trafficking is only vaguely defined. When we talk about statistics, there is no separate crime called 'human trafficking.' Nonetheless, last year there were 136 cases related to human trafficking," said Brit Tammiste, an advisor at the Ministry of Justice.
There are many different types of human trafficking. Estonia is mainly affected by two types 's trafficking for prostitution and for labor.
"Our hotline sees many cases in which people are put in situations where it is easy to make them victims of human trafficking later," said Blumberg.
Since 2004, the hotline has received more than 1,300 phone calls. In the past few years it has started to get more phone calls from people who were put into situations where they could easily become victims of human trafficking.
Blumberg explained that the scheme works through job mediating companies that offer positions abroad. The process starts in Estonia, where companies take a cut of the earnings and people get strange contracts that are not technically employment contracts.
Then the victim goes to the destination country and, in the best case scenario, it turns out that they do not have a job and there is no money for them to get back. The other scenario that often happens to young women is that they are sold as prostitutes.
The report said Estonia does not fully comply with the minimum standard for the elimination of human trafficking, but that it is trying hard to do so. The government has launched a new enforcement policy that increases the number of traffickers convicted and lengthens the time traffickers spend in prison.
Last year, the government increased its anti-trafficking budget from nearly 62,000 euros to about 116,840 euros, 75 percent of which is going to victim assistance.
The report suggested that Estonia should improve victim identification and repatriation and considers drafting a trafficking-specific statute that incorporates a definition of human trafficking in conformity with the 2000 UN TIP Protocol. The report also suggested continuing efforts to train police to identify potential victims and give them assistance.
Since 2006 there has been a national development plan to fight human trafficking through 2009. The plan's main goals are to map out the problem, inform people of the consequences and enhance cooperation with specialists. Another goal is to limit human trafficking through more efficient border control and controlling job mediating.
The plan also envisions improving the overall reaction to crimes related to human trafficking and helping rehabilitate victims of human trafficking. There is currently an effective anti-trafficking network of governmental and non-governmental organizations.
Estonian law does not prohibit all forms of human trafficking, although it does address enslavement, abduction, pimping and some other trafficking-related crimes. One of three traffickers convicted in 2007 was sentenced to prison for three years and two others were sentenced to one year.
Estonian authorities do not penalize women for unlawful acts which were the direct result of trafficking. The country encourages women to take part in investigations and the prosecution process, and foreign victims can get temporary residency.
Authorities still lack formal procedures for identifying victims among vulnerable demographics, such as prostitutes.
