| Population: 2,046,209
Population Growth Rate: 0.43%
Birth Rate: 13.5 births/1,000 population
Life Expectancy: total population: 74.02 years; male: 71.79 years; female: 76.43 years
Literacy Rate: NA
Net Migration Rate: –1.54 migrants/1,000 population
Unemployment Rate: 32%
Gross Domestic Product per Capita: US$4,400
Religions: Macedonian Orthodox 67%, Muslim 30%, other 3%
Languages: Macedonian 70%, Albanian 21%, Turkish 3%, Serbo-Croatian 3%, other 3%
Ethnic Groups: Macedonian 66.6%, Albanian 22.7%, Turkish 4%, Roma 2.2%, Serb 2.1%, other 2.4%
Capital: Skopje |
A police officer in charge of asylum and immigration in Macedonia’s capital said that the country has been mainly a transit country over the last 10 years for traffickers moving women from eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc to western Europe.[1] Although numbers are difficult to estimate, one police report suggests that 2,400 to 2,600 trafficked women are staying in Macedonia at any given time.[2] The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has a center based in Skopje, which has assisted numerous victims of trafficking. Between August 2000 and March 2001, IOM Skopje helped 200 trafficked women return home. Most of the women came from Moldova (119) and Romania (54). Others came from Ukraine (12), Belarus (9), Bulgaria (3), and Russia (3).[3] Furthermore, IOM repatriated 300 women from Macedonia in 10 months between October 2000 and July 2001. Seventy percent were from Moldova, and others were from Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Belarus. Ninety percent of the women were not told that they would be going abroad for sex.[4] In April 2001, a new IOM shelter in Skopje received its first beneficiaries: three girls age 16, 17, and 18 from Romania and Moldova. They reported that they had escaped from a bar where they had been forced into prostitution.[5] According to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Macedonian government has deported 500 trafficked women between August 2000 and July 2001.[6] One Ukrainian woman was trafficked to work in a bar called Expresso and forced into prostitution for a year until she managed to escape to the Ukrainian embassy. She was trafficked from the Black Sea port of Odessa by a group of Serbs and was told that they would find her work abroad. She was driven from Ukraine to Yugoslavia and then taken by foot to Macedonia. Once in Macedonia, the woman was taken to the northern town of Kumanova, where she was sold to a bar owner from Velesta.[7] Describing the living conditions of the women in the Expresso bar, she commented that they are forced to work for no pay and are prevented to leave. Those who try to escape are severely beaten.[8] An 18-year-old girl was trafficked from her home in Minsk, Belarus, when she responded to a newspaper advertisement for a barmaid position in Italy. Instead, she was taken to Skopje, Macedonia, where she was bought by a former policeman, kept in an apartment with two other girls, beaten, and forced to have sex with clients.[9] In December 2000, a German television broadcast featured a 16-year-old Bulgarian girl who said that she had been sold to a nightclub in Tetovo and that hundreds of German soldiers from the international peacekeeping force in neighboring Kosovo were among her clients. A German soldier confirmed that underaged girls were routinely “used” and that army superiors were fully aware of it.[10] Velesta is a village known to be a destination for hundreds of foreign women, who are bought by bar owners, forced to prostitute themselves, and rotated by a network of traffickers when local customers tire of them.[11] Border countries have a poor record with respect to trafficking, and years of conflict have bred underground transnational criminal networks.[12] Also, the presence of soldiers and peacekeeping forces in the Balkans fueled the demand for prostitution in the Balkans.[13] Nearly 40,000 troops from more than 30 countries were deployed in Kosovo, and another 7,500 provide rear support through contingents based in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, in Albania, and in Greece. Prostitution is legal in Macedonia. The Criminal Code prohibits recruiting, instigating, stimulating, or enticing another for the purposes of prostitution. Punishment is imprisonment for between 3 months and 3 years.[14] The use of force, threats, or deceit to procure sexual services for another for profit is punishable by imprisonment for up to 3 years or by a fine.[15] Procuring a juvenile for sexual acts is punishable by imprisonment for up to 5 years.[16] The constitution prohibits forced labor.[17] The Criminal Code penalizes anyone who receives, exchanges, distributes, or in some other way covers up the origin of money or other property while knowing that the money or property has been obtained through some criminal activity.[18] Macedonia is currently considering a draft law on the prevention of corruption, which imposes an obligation on public officials to declare income and assets. Macedonia has not 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 United Nations (UN) Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery; and has not signed the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.
[1] Carlotta Gall, “Macedonia Village Is Center of Europe Web in Sex Trade,” New York Times, 28 July 2001. [2] Ibid. [3] International Organization for Migration Press Briefing Notes, 23 March 2001. See also International Organization for Migration Press Briefing Notes, 6 April 2001. [4] Carlotta Gall, “Macedonia Village Is Center of Europe Web in Sex Trade,” New York Times, 28 July 2001. [5] International Organization for Migration Press Briefing Notes, 6 April 2001. [6] Carlotta Gall, “Macedonia Village Is Center of Europe Web in Sex Trade,” New York Times, 28 July 2001. [7] Ibid. [8] Ibid. [9] Ibid. [10] “Under-Age Girls in Brothels Used by KFOR Soldiers: TV,” Agence France Presse, 17 December 2000.. [11] Carlotta Gall, “Macedonia Village Is Center of Europe Web in Sex Trade,” New York Times, 28 July 2001. [12] Carlotta Gall, “Macedonia Village Is Center of Europe Web in Sex Trade,” New York Times, 28 July 2001. [13] “Sex Slaves: Trafficking in Human Beings from Moldova to Italy,” British Helsinki Human Rights Group, February 2001. [14] Article 192(1). [15] Article 192(3). [16] Articles 192, 193. [17] Article 11(2). [18] Article 273.
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