Bulgaria is a country of origin for trafficking of women and young girls, disproportionately of Roma descent, for commercial sexual exploitation in countries such as Albania, Bosnia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Kosovo, Germany, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Spain and Turkey.[1] “Trafficked women mostly come from the border areas in the northeast (Dobrich, Varna, Rousse) and the southwest (Blagoevgrad, Kyustendil, Kurdjali, Petrich). There are some small villages in the northeast part of the country from which several women have been trafficked. The border area near Petritch is known to be an area controlled by organized crime groups, involved in drugs, vehicle and human smuggling as well as prostitution and trafficking in human beings.”[2] It is also a major transit country, and to a smaller extent, a destination country for trafficked women and girls from Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Lithuania, and Latvia.
Over the last decade, Bulgaria’s political transition combined with economic hardships has had devastating consequences on the women and children of the country. A recent United Nations statistic places Bulgaria as the leading country in Eastern Europe in sustained unemployment of women. As many as 450,000 young Bulgarian women are likely to take a risky job abroad, reports the International Organization for Migration.[3] State support for families is shrinking, especially concerning single mothers, and the responsibility is shifted onto individuals who then must look for support with in kinship systems and local support networks. Among female-headed households, poverty is increasing; the difficulty of balancing roles as sole breadwinner and caregiver taking its toll. Female-headed households make up 21.4% of the households in Bulgaria and 64.9% of these live in absolute poverty.[4] Another contributing factor to trafficking is the simple fact that women’s human rights continue to be inadequately protected. Bulgaria lacks legislation against discrimination based on sex and the state’s response to trafficking in persons falls below the minimum for international standards with the female victims frequently facing police hostility.[5]
The purposes for trafficking in Bulgaria serve systems of prostitution and the sexual exploitation of women and girls internationally. More than 10,000 Bulgarian women have been trafficked abroad.[6] Along with Albania, Romania, and Moldova, Europe’s poorest states, Bulgaria is one of the largest sources of women trafficked for the purpose of prostitution within the capitals of Western Europe.[7] Women are lured into the industry through false job advertisements offering international occupations as models, dancers, and au pairs. “A dozen women held as sex slaves in Macedonia told stories of repeated rapes and beatings at the hands of their “owners” or by clients who hired them as prostitutes. The women, mostly from former Soviet states and Eastern Europe, said they had been promised well-paid jobs in Western Europe but ended up being forced into sex slavery.”[8] Many of the girls recruited are orphans or come from disadvantaged families, making them more vulnerable to the promises of traffickers offering them work abroad.[9] Teenage girls are often kidnapped and, among the Roma minority, frequently sold to traffickers by their families.[10] The presence of organized crime and the subsequent corruption of officials is overwhelming. “Criminal gangs in Eastern Europe who earn millions of dollars by sexually enslaving women and children have corrupted local officials, international peacekeepers and border guards who are supposed to be leading the fight to crush the illegal trade, says a new report. Ninety per cent of these foreign migrant sex workers are victims of trafficking, the study says.[11] The cities of Blagoevrad, Sandanski, and Petric in southern Bulgaria are commonly known as the Bulgarian “golden triangle” because they are the largest transit points in trafficking of women from Eastern Europe to the southern Balkans and from there, into Western Europe. In Blagoevrad and Sandanski exist as the primary marketplaces, with their fine hotels and proximity to the Greek border, for women to be bought and sold. “Buyers tend to be Albanian and Greek gansters, who choose, sample and place orders. The smugglers, locals with an excellent knowledge of the routes across the Greek-Bulgarian border, undertake to transfer the women to Greece of FYROM for 500 to 1,000 marks a head.”[12] Despite Boiko Borissov, the general-secretary of the Interior Ministry of Bulgaria, firing a number of border guards on the accusation of being party to the smuggling of persons, the majority of the corruption remains on the Bulgarian side of the border. The huge profit margin in the business easily affords bribes to the police. “Corruption has reached massive proportions on the Bulgarian side, given the dissolution of state mechanisms, and though the presence of Greek border guards has worked to limit the extent of the problem, it does not seem able to solve it.”[13]
Bulgarian government has carried out a number of anti-trafficking initiatives since 1999, which mainly related to “legal reform and law enforcement, led by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior.”[14] “However trafficking has been treated almost exclusively as a trans-border crime and as a part of the issue of illegal migration. Not much attention has been paid to the human dimension of the problem or to the rights of the trafficked persons.”[15] But following the change of government in June 2001, trafficking became one of the priority issues for the new government. Thus, in the summer of 2002, Bulgarian parliament has passed the Law “On Combating the Illegal Trafficking in Human Beings”, which came into force on January 1, 2003.[16] The new law establishes trafficking in human beings as a comprehensive offense, and focuses on prevention measures and the protection of victims, with emphasis on the prosecution of traffickers. The country has also amended its Criminal Code, by adding three new articles which criminalize internal trafficking within Bulgaria,[17] transborder trafficking,[18] and trafficking committed repeatedly or by an organized group.[19] The new law does not contain specific provisions related to criminal sanctions for trafficking in persons. Rather, it defines the means and purposes of trafficking and leaves the aspect of penalties to the Criminal Code. The illegal means include “means of coercion, of abduction, of illegal deprivation of liberty, of fraud, of the abuse of power, of the abuse of the position of vulnerability or through giving or receiving or promising benefits to obtain the consent of a person having control over another person.”[20] The general purpose of trafficking is exploitation of a trafficked person, which is defined as “illegal use of people for debauchery, removal of organs, forced labor, for slavery or servitude.”[21] Article 159-a of the Criminal Code provides sanctions for acts of internal trafficking, which is punishable by imprisonment of 1 to 8 years and a fine of up to 8,000 levas; in aggravated circumstances, which include trafficking in minors, trafficking “by using force or by misleading, by kidnapping or unlawfully depriving of liberty, by taking advantage of a state of dependency, through misuse of authority, by promising, giving or receiving benefits,” the crime is punishable by imprisonment of 2 to 8 years and a fine of up to 10,000 levas. Article 159-b of the Criminal contains similar definition, but applies only in cases involving transnational trafficking, which is punishable by imprisonment of 3 to 8 years and a fine of up to 10,000 levas; in aggravated circumstances, the penalty is increased to 5 to 10 years and a fine of up to 15,000 levas. Finally, Article 159-c provides for a punishment of imprisonment of 5 to 15 years and a fine of up to 20,000 levas for repeated trafficking or trafficking committed as a part of organized criminal group; in addition, the punishment in these cases may include confiscation of the offender’s assets, which lies within the discretion of the court. The Criminal Code also contains a number of articles that criminalize activities that could be related to trafficking, such as kidnapping,[22] false imprisonment,[23] rape,[24] inducement to prostitution,[25] abducting a woman for the purposes of sexual exploitation[26] or for the purposes of forced marriage,[27] and illegally taking a person across the border.[28] Prostitution is legal, as no relevant offense is included in the Criminal Code. In addition to the specific anti-trafficking legislation and the aforementioned articles of the Criminal Code, a number of other laws can be used to prosecute the cases of trafficking. In particular, traffickers can be prosecuted under Article 253 of the Criminal Code for money laundering. This article provides for considerable terms of imprisonment and heavy fines, as well as for confiscation of the object of the crime or its value, if the object no longer exists. In addition, Bulgaria has adopted a comprehensive Law “On Measures Against Money Laundering” in 1998, which reinforced the country’s commitment to combating this type of crime. Secondly, corrupt government officials who are complicit in cases of trafficking can be prosecuted under Articles 301 and 302 of the Criminal Code, which were amended in September 2002. Article 301 provide for punishment of imprisonment of up to 6 years and a fine of up to 5,000 levas for “[a]ny official, who requests, or accepts a gift, or any benefit, which he is not due, or accepts an offer, or a promise for a gift or benefit, in order to perform, or fail to perform an act within his/her duties, or because he/she has performed, or failed to perform such an act.” In aggravated circumstances, which include committing bribery through blackmail, repeatedly, or on large scale, Article 302 provides for a punishment of imprisonment of 3 to 10 years and a fine of up to 20,000 levas. Bulgarian labor and family legislation contains certain provisions which may be used to prosecute the cases of trafficking in children. Thus, under the Labor Code, the minimum age of employment is 16 years, except for certain government-approved jobs for which children under 16 can be employed with the consent of a parent. However, no children under 18 may work in hazardous conditions; and they are required to work reduced hours and are prohibited from overtime and night work. The Family Code establishes legal protections for children working in family businesses. Further, the parliament has enacted the Child Protection Act in May 2000, Article 11 of which provides for protection of children against violence. In particular, protections envisioned in the said article include “protection against involvement in activities that are harmful to [a child’s] physical, mental, moral and educational development[;] … protection against all methods of upbringing, that undermine [a child’s] dignity; against physical, psychical or other types of violence; against all forms of influence, which go against his or her interests[;] … protection against the use of children for purposes of begging, prostitution, dissemination of pornographic material, receipt of unlawful pecuniary income, as well as protection against sexual abuse.” One of the purposes of Bulgarian anti-trafficking law is to ensure prevention of illegal trafficking in human beings.[29] For this purpose, the law provides for the establishment of a network of Commissions for Fighting of Illegal Trafficking in Human Beings. Thus, the Cabinet-level National Commission must be established, “consisting of: a Chair – a Deputy Prime Minister; deputy chairs – a deputy minister for foreign affairs, a deputy minister of labor and social welfare and a deputy minister of the interior; secretary and members: a deputy minister of justice, a deputy minister of health, a deputy minister of finance, a deputy minister of education, a deputy chair of the State Agency for Child Protection, a deputy chair of the Commission for Counteracting the Anti-Social Behavior of Juveniles and Minors, a deputy chair of the Supreme Court of Cassation, a Deputy Prosecutor General and a deputy director of the Specialized Investigative Service. Representatives of Bulgarian NGOs and international organizations … shall also be represented in the Commission.”[30] The National Commission must also provide for establishment of a number of Local Commissions at the municipal level, which are to be funded from the local budgets and should “consist of representatives of the local government involved in the education, health issues and social policy, of Local Commission for fight against the anti-social behavior of juveniles and minors, the departments for children protection with the local social support units, representatives of police, of NGOs, as well as teachers, psychologists, lawyers, doctors, etc. A representative of the Regional Prosecutor’s Office shall be present at the sessions of the Local Commission.”[31] The tasks of the National Commission and the Local Commissions are outlined in Articles 7 and 8 of the law, respectively. The law provides for special prevention measures that target specifically persons from high-risk groups. These measures involve provision of equal opportunities and access to labor markets for such persons, awareness-raising campaigns, as well as special educational programs that target parents and children, unemployed and illiterate individuals, high-risk groups and regions of the country, and victims of trafficking.[32] “There are two police units that specifically address the problem of trafficking in persons. One is part of the border police and the other is in the Ministry of Interior's organized crime fighting agency. The Government introduced reforms into its Customs Service that address trafficking. The Government also has increased its international cooperation in this area through the Southeast Europe Cooperation Initiative (SECI) Anti-Crime Center in Bucharest and in bilateral efforts.”[33] There have been some investigations that have been conducted in hotels and clubs in which perpetrators were arrested, but rarely have traffickers actually been convicted.[34] The new Bulgarian law requires the government and the NGOs to provide the full range of protection and assistance to victims of trafficking.[35] In particular, it requires that victims be treated with confidentiality and that their identity be protected.[36] There are also certain procedural safeguards granted to victims “who are actively involved in the criminal procedure as witnesses.”[37] Such safeguards are established by Article 97-a of the Bulgarian Code of Criminal Procedure, which provides for witness protection measures if there are “sufficient grounds to believe that due to the [witness’] testimony there has arisen or may arise real danger to the life, health or the property of the witness, his relatives of ascending or descending line, brothers, sisters, spouse or persons with whom he is in very close relationship.” Witness protection in such cases may be provided through keeping the identity of a witness in secret, interrogation of witness in secret, or providing guards to a witness or his/her relatives. Victims also have the right to compensation of civil damages, which may be exercised through filing a separate civil complaint with the court of first instance.[38] Chapter III of the Bulgarian law provides for the establishment of Shelters for Temporary Housing for Victims of Illegal Trafficking and Centers for Support and Assistance to Victims of Illegal Trafficking. The Shelters are to be established both by the National Commission and by private entities that have received a special license and may provide accommodations to the victims of trafficking for a period of up to 10 days, which may be prolonged to up to 30 days.[39] In addition, the term of victim’s stay at the Shelter may be prolonged for the term of entire criminal proceedings, provided that victim declares his/her “willingness to cooperate for detecting the perpetrators.”[40] The Shelters “provide civilized conditions for stay and personal hygiene; provide food and medications for the persons sheltered; provide emergency healthcare and psychological assistance; support the sheltered persons for contacting their relatives as well as the relevant agencies and organizations.”[41] The Centers are to be established by the Local Commissions for the purposes of providing information and support to victims of trafficking “in a language they understand; provid[ing] specialized psychological and medical assistance; support[ing] the re-integration of the victim in the family and social environment.”[42] The duration of support to be provided by the Centers to each victim is not identified. The law provides for special protection in cases when a victim of trafficking is a child. These special protections include informing the State Agency for Protection of the Children about such cases, so that the Agency can provide proper protection and support to the child victims;[43] accommodating child victims in separate premises from adult victims of trafficking;[44] providing education in the state and municipal schools;[45] and assisting the child victims with searching for their family.[46] The law provides for granting temporary residency permits for long-term stay in Bulgaria to foreign victims of trafficking, if they “have declared their willingness to cooperate for detecting the perpetrators,”[47] under the so-called “status of special protection.” However, if a victim does not possess any identity documents and refuses to cooperate in establishing his/her identity, the government may not issue the temporary residency permit.[48] Although the law does not provide the period of maximum duration of temporary residency permits granted to the victims of trafficking, it does state that during the validity of such permit, victims of trafficking can enjoy almost the same scope of rights as foreigners residing permanently in Bulgaria.[49] The law also requires Bulgarian diplomatic and consular offices abroad to provide repatriation assistance to Bulgarian national victims of trafficking,[50] including assisting them with “speedy and timely issuing of identity documents.”[51] Experts consider Bulgaria to be the leader in its region in combating trafficking in persons. “Bulgaria, in the opinion of officials at the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative, is probably the best of the countries in the region in trying to deal with organized crime, specifically with trade in women”[52] Bulgaria cooperates with other countries in Europe in combating trafficking in persons. In particular, it has ratified the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters. It also participates in regional cooperation efforts with other countries in Southeastern Europe. In December 2002, the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior has signed the Declaration of Commitments on Legalization of the Status of the Trafficked Persons, also known as the Tirana Declaration. The Declaration includes measures aimed at improving the identification of victims of trafficking and assuring to them social assistance, healthcare, and legal assistance.[53] In September 2003, Bulgaria has also participated with twelve other countries in a joint crackdown on trafficking in persons.[54] Bulgarian Ministry of Interior has also established bilateral cooperation with the French Ministry of the Interior, Internal Security and Local Liberties, “on combating all types of mafia, and especially against illegal migration, trafficking in humans and prostitution networks.”[55] The protocol signed between the two ministries provided for possibility of “confiscate[ing] property [located] in Bulgaria of Bulgarian pimps detained in France,” strengthening the exchange of information through “appointment of a police attaché in the Bulgarian Embassy in Paris,” and providing French assistance in training of Bulgarian police personnel.[56] Bulgaria has ratified the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention (105) on the Abolition of Forced Labor; the ILO Convention (182) to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor; the UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery; the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography; the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. However, Romania has not signed the UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
ILO-C105 March 23, 1991
ILO-C182 December 6, 2001 (ratified)
SCAS August 21, 1958 (ratified)
OP-SC February 12, 2002 (ratified)
MWC no action
PPSPT December 5, 2001 (ratified)
CEDAW February 8, 1982 (ratified)
UN Convention of the Rights of the Child June 3, 1991 (ratified)
[1] Protection Project Human Rights Report on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Bulgaria, 2002. [2] United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe/Office for the Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE-ODIHR), “Trafficking in Human Beings in Southeastern Europe,” June 2002, http://www.unhchr.ch/women/trafficking.pdf [3] “International Project to Protect Women,” Associated Press, 22 June 2000.
[4] Irina Mouleshkova, “Structural Reform Versus Social Development,” http://www.socwatch.org.uy/2000/eng/pdf2000countries/bulgaria_eng.pdf [5] Irina Mouleshkova [6] ECPAT International Newsletters, “Looking Back, Thinking Forward – The Fourth Report on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children,” Issue Number 33, 1 December 2000. [7] Michael Thurston, “EU Slams Sex Slave Trade as "Terrorism",” Agence France Presse, 18 September 2002. [8] Preston Mendenhall, “Global Human Trafficking Soars,” MSNBC, June 6, 2002. [9] “Bulgarian Police Crack Down on Prostitution, Sexual Exploitation,” Southeast European Times, 1 January 2002, http://www.balkantimes.com/html2/english/021028-SVETLA-000.htm [10] United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe/Office for the Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE-ODIHR), “Trafficking in Human Beings in Southeastern Europe,” June 2002, http://www.unhchr.ch/women/trafficking.pdf [11] “Balkans: Peacekeepers Fuelling Sex-Trade Traffic: Report: Women, Children Enslaved as Prostitutes in Eastern Europe,” National Post (f/k/a The Financial Post), 24 July 2002. [12] Stavros Tzimas, “From the ‘Golden Triangle’ to Greece,” accessed at ECPAT Online Newsdesk, 27 December 2001, http://www.ecpat.net/eng/Ecpat_inter/IRC/newsdesk_articles.aspSCID=546 [13] Stavros Tzimas. [14] Trafficking in Human Beings in Southeastern Europe, p. 54. [15] Ibid. p. 55. [16] Translation is reprinted in Kristi Severance, Survey of Legislative Framework for Combating Traffickin in Persons (Washington, DC: American Bar Association Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative, 2003). [17] Article 159-a. [18] Article 159-b. [19] Article 159-c. [20] Transnational Provisions § 1 para. 1. [21] Ibid. para. 2. [22] Article 142. [23] Article 142-a. [24] Article 152. [25] Article 155. [26] Article 156. [27] Article 177. [28] Article 280. [29] Article 1. [30] Article 4(1). [31] Article 5. [32] Article 14. [33] Country Report on Trafficking in Persons, Bulgaria, U.S. Department of State, 2002. [34] Country Report on Trafficking in Persons, Bulgaria, U.S. Department of State, 2002. [35] Article 15. [36] Article 19. [37] Article 31. [38] Article 60-61, Code of Criminal Procedure. [39] Article 9. [40] Article 25; Article 29 (regarding term of prolongation). [41] Article 10. [42] Article 12. [43] Article 20. [44] Article 22. [45] Article 23. [46] Article 24. [47] Article 25. [48] Article 28. [49] Ibid. [50] Article 16. [51] Article 17. [52] Center for the Study of Democracy, “Human Trafficking in SEE – The Case of Bulgaria,” accessed April 8, 2003, http://www.csd.bg/news/d_binder.htm [53] Southeast European Countries to Draft Joint Strategies Against Human Trafficking, Xinhua News Agency, 14 December 2002. [54] 12 Nations in Southeast Europe Pursue Traffickers in Sex Trade, The New York Times, 19 October 2003, p. 8. [55] Bulgaria, France Agree Closer Police Cooperation in Combating Crime, Global News Wire – Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, 27 January 2003. [56] Ibid.
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