An Occupation Ancient and Profitable
Updated on: 24.04.2008, 18:18
Published on: 24.04.2008, 17:30
The oldest profession looms to be also the most profitable one, at least in Bulgaria. Six prostituting girls could yield up to ˆ 1 million yearly.
A prostitute in the Bulgarian seaside resort Sunny Beach earns between 12 000 and 18 000 euros just for a month, estimate the Police authorities. For comparison, the average monthly income in Bulgaria rarely exceeds 500 euro.
The newest data point that the number of Bulgarian prostituting girls abroad amounts between 18 000 and 21 000.
About 40% of them are permanently registered in Bulgaria. Obviously, because of the higher profits they bring, all of them are supervised by organized criminal structures.
The regions in the country most affected from that human traffic are the towns Burgas, Ruse, Plovdiv and the border zones Svilengrad amd Petrich.
Actually Burgas is the most convenient town for transferring of prostitutes across the border. The girls are Bulgarian, Russian, Ukrainian and Moldavian. 80% of them work in the sea resort, but in the high summer they are being transported to different European countries.
These inconvenient data were released during the today's informational meeting "The traffic of humans exists". The researchers also revealed that the concerned girls are 18 to 25 years old and most of them without any source of incomes.
The organization "Face to Face" revealed that nearly a half of the female victims are coming from families where the violence is a daily routine. 38% of the prostitutes are involved in the business through kidnapping from the street, 33% fell in the trap of souteneurs cheated with promises of working abroad, and 22% are sold by their relatives.
The contrivances to compel a woman to prostitute are a lot. They are bound by debt, their ID's are being stolen, they are isolated, punished in variety of ways - these are just a part of the used schemes, alarmed Bulgarian NGO's. But it is clear that the voluntary prostitution is far more common than the forcible, revealed the today's conference.
This is just one side of the problem. Many voluntary prostituting Bulgarian women in the EU determine themselves as "victims of traffic" and thus they actually legalize their occupation, even in the same sector of "service".
Meanwhile different souteneur groups mutually accuse one other in sexual exploiting and traffic of women - as an efficient way to harm the competition.
But the most striking evidence is that even when the girls are released from the grasp of one souteneur channel, they return to this business again and continue working - for another souteneur net, for personal souteneur - or for themselves.
