| Population: 22,364,022
Population Growth Rate: –0.21%
Birth Rate: 10.8 births/1,000 population
Life Expectancy: total population: 70.16 years; male: 66.36 years; female: 74.19 years
Literacy Rate: total population: 97%; male: 98%; female: 95% Net Migration Rate: –0.6 migrants/1,000 population
Unemployment Rate: 11.5%
Gross Domestic Product per Capita: US$5,900
Religions: Romanian Orthodox 70%, Roman Catholic 3%, Uniate Catholic 3%, Protestant 6%, unaffiliated 18%
Languages: Romanian, Hungarian, German
Ethnic Groups: Romanian 89.5%, Hungarian 7.1%, Roma 1.8%, German 0.5%, Ukrainian 0.3%, other 0.8%
Capital: Bucharest |
Romania is a country of origin, destination, and transit for the trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation.[1] Most trafficking victims in eastern Europe come from Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine.[2] More than 200 cases of trafficking in women and children were reported to Romanian police in 1999, with the Balkan states and Italy being the most common destinations.[3] Numerous reports reflect various numbers of Romanians who have been trafficked to other countries. More than 500 Romanian women are said to be in prostitution in the Czech Republic.[4] Of 130 trafficking victims surveyed in Kosovo by the International Organization for Migration, 19 percent were from Romania. Women surveyed reported being desperate for a job, being given false promises of a job, and being kidnapped.[5] In Bosnia, where 25 percent of women working in nightclubs claim to have been forced into prostitution, most of the women come from Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine.[6] Almost 50 percent of trafficked Romanian women come from the northeastern part of the country.[7] Most of the people trafficked through and from Romania are brought first to Timisoara or Turnu Severin in western Romania; from there, they are taken to the border area around Cimpulung to cross to the former Yugoslavia and beyond.[8] A market for humans reportedly exists just outside Timisoara.[9] During the last few years, a significant number of Romanians have reportedly been forced to prostitute themselves in bars and brothels. For example, in one recent case United Nations (UN) peacekeepers freed 15 women from Romania and Moldova from a bar in Velesta, Macedonia, where they had been held against their will.[10] In November 2000, 33 women, many of them Romanian, were discovered in bars in Prijedor, Bosnia. The women told UN police that they had been forced into prostitution and kept prisoner in the bars.[11] In another case, a 26-year-old Romanian woman agreed to go to Italy for a dancing job, but she was sold and raped several times during her journey to Albania by way of Serbia and Montenegro.[12] Romanians have also reportedly been trafficked into non-sex-related forced-labor situations in Italy.[13] Romanian mafia gangs are known to recruit children to steal on the streets of western Europe. Poor families in the town of Sighet, where 70 percent of the inhabitants are out of work, rent their children to these gangs for about US$160 for 3 months. More than 200 children from Sighet alone are involved in this activity.[14] Romania is not a major destination for sex tourists, but cases of pedophilia involving foreign men have occurred there in the last few years. In one case, a German was charged in Romania with having had sex with at least eight children in exchange for small amounts of cash, clothes, or food; with taking pedophilic photographs and videos; and with knowingly contaminating others with HIV. Most of the children lived on the street.[15] The heightened presence of soldiers and international workers in the Balkan states during the last few years has contributed to the trade in women. The volume of trafficking rose in 1999 as soon as NATO troops arrived in Macedonia before the strikes on Serbia and Montenegro.[16] Street children are a major problem in Romania. Children in orphanages and other state institutions are in particular danger of becoming victims of trafficking.[17] Romania has a high number of orphans (65,000 minors live in about 300 orphanages nationwide[18]), and has been a popular area for international adoptions. However, adoption agencies have been accused of buying babies from their parents to make them available for international adoption.[19] In June 2001, the government suspended international adoptions and the European Parliament’s special envoy to Romania accused the country of selling its children.[20] In September 2001, the ban on international adoptions was appealed.[21] Romania is a destination and transit country for Moldovans and, more rarely, Ukrainians.[22] Romanians and Moldovans are trafficked from Romania, often first to Serbia and Montenegro, and then to other Balkan or western European countries. Women and children trafficked from Romania have been reported in Bosnia and Herzegovina,[23] Macedonia,[24] Montenegro,[25] and Serbia[26] (including Kosovo[27]). In addition, can be found in the western European countries of Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.[28] Other European destinations for trafficked women include Albania,[29] the Czech Republic,[30] Ireland,[31] Italy,[32] the Netherlands,[33] Spain,[34] and Turkey,[35] Outside of Europe, Romanian victims of trafficking have been reported in Cambodia,[36] Canada,[37] and South Africa.[38] Prostitution is illegal in Romania. The Criminal Code criminalizes enticing or compelling persons to practice prostitution, facilitating the practice of prostitution, benefiting from prostitution, recruiting a person for prostitution, or trafficking persons for prostitution.[39] Punishment for these offenses is imprisonment from 2 to 7 years and confiscation of any proceeds from such offenses.[40] If these offenses are committed against a minor, the punishment is imprisonment from 3 to 10 years.[41] The code also prohibits sexual relations with a female minor who is less than 14 years old. Punishment is imprisonment from 1 to 5 years.[42] The constitution prohibits forced or compulsory labor.[43] The minimum age for employment is 15 years. In 1999, Romania passed the Law on the Prevention and Punishment of Laundering Money.[44] The law created the National Office for the Prevention and Control of Money Laundering. On 26 May 1999, Romania signed the Agreement on Cooperation to Prevent and Combat Transborder Crime.[45] Romania 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. Romania has also signed 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.
[1] Anthony M. DeStefano, “Smuggled for Sex: Reaching Out to the Victims,” Newsday, 13 March 2001. [2] “Romania Rejects Accusations of Human Trafficking,” Associated Press, 16 July 2001. [3] Derek Scally, “Romanian Gangs Who Smuggle People into Ireland,” Irish Times, 12 March 2001. [4] Marius Dragomir, “Some Eastern European Women Searching for Better Lives Discover the Evils of Human Trafficking,” Transitions Online, 15 February 2001. [5] “Europe Task Force Vows to End Human Trade,” United Press International via COMTEX, 26 April 2001. [6] Aida Cerkez-Robinson, “New Special Police Units to Help Fighting Trafficking of Women,” Associated Press, 30 July 2001. See also Anthony M. DeStefano, “Smuggled for Sex: Reaching Out to the Victims,” Newsday, 13 March 2001. [7] International Organization for Migration Press Briefing Notes, 27 February 2001. [8] Anthony M. DeStefano, “Smuggled for Sex: Reaching Out to the Victims,” Newsday, 13 March 2001. See also International Organization for Migration Press Briefing Notes, 6 March 2001. [9] “Sex Slaves: Trafficking in Human Beings from Moldova to Italy,” British Helsinki Human Rights Group, February 2001. [10] International Organization for Migration Press Briefing Notes, 11 September 2001. See also Ravi Prasad, “Trafficking of Women on the Rise in Kosovo,” United Press International, 8 March 2001. [11] “Police Find 33 Women Apparently Forced into Prostitution,” Associated Press, 15 November 2000. [12] Jeffrey Fleishman, “Fleeing Poverty, Finding Slavery,” Inquirer, Stop-Traffic List Serve, 12 May 2000. [13] Gail Edmondson, Kate Carlisle, Inka Resch, Karen Nickel Anhalt, and Heidi Dawley, “Workers in Bondage,” Business Week, 27 November 2000. [14] Calin Neacsu, “Romanian Children Sent West to Steal for Mafia,” Agence France Presse, 15 May 2001. [15] “Arrested German Paedophile Suspect Is HIV-Positive,” Agence France Presse, 10 January 2001. [16] “Sex Slaves: Trafficking in Human Beings from Moldova to Italy,” British Helsinki Human Rights Group, February 2001. [17] International Organization for Migration Press Briefing Notes, 6 July 2001, UN Wire, 9 July 200l. [18] “Romanian Court Scraps Ban on International Adoptions,” Agence France Presse, 28 September 2001. [19] “Romania’s Traffic in Babies: For Some, Selling Infants Is the Family Business,” 8 June 2001, <http://www.abcnews.go.com>. [20] “Romania Bans International Adoption,” 22 June 2001, <http://www.cnn.com>. [21] “Romanian Court Scraps Ban on International Adoptions,” Agence France Presse, 28 September 2001. [22] Ibid. See also Jeffrey Fleishman, “Fleeing Poverty, Finding Slavery,” Inquirer, Stop-Traffic List Serve, 12 May 2000, and Justin Huggler, “Born in Poverty, Sold for 850 Pounds into Life of Prostitution,” Independent, 10 February 2001. [23] Banja Luka, “37 Romanians, Moldovans Forced into Prostitution in Bosnia,” Agence France Presse, 15 November 2000. See also “UN, SFOR Involved in Bosnian Prostitution,” Reuters (Sarajevo), 18 May 2000, and “Report: Police Arrest Two Men in Trafficking Women” Associated Press, 1 January 2001. [24] International Organization for Migration Press Briefing Notes, 11 September 2001. [25] “Montenegro to Crack Down on Human Trafficking,” Associated Press, 10 December 2000. See also “Albania Blamed for ‘Major Role’ in Human Trafficking,” Albanian Daily News, 19 April 2001. [26] Anthony M. DeStefano, “Smuggled for Sex: Reaching Out to the Victims,” Newsday, 13 March 2001. [27] “Europe Task Force Vows to End Human Trade,” United Press International via COMTEX, 26 April 2001. See also Ravi Prasad, “Trafficking of Women on the Rise in Kosovo,” United Press International, 8 March 2001. [28] International Organization for Migration, Migration News Sheet, October 1997. [29] “Montenegro to Crack Down on Human Trafficking,” Associated Press, 10 December 2000. See also “Albania Blamed for ‘Major Role’ in Human Trafficking,” Albanian Daily News, 19 April 2001. [30] Marius Dragomir, “Some Eastern European Women Searching for Better Lives Discover the Evils of Human Trafficking,” Transitions Online, 15 February 2001. [31] Derek Scally, “Romanian Gangs Who Smuggle People into Ireland,” Irish Times, 12 March 2001. [32] Frances d’Emilio, “Foreign Gangs Working with Italian Mobs” Associated Press, 1 January 2001. See also Jeffrey Fleishman, “Fleeing Poverty, Finding Slavery,” Inquirer, Stop-Traffic List Serve, 12 May 2000. [33] Marius Dragomir, “Some Eastern European Women Searching for Better Lives Discover the Evils of Human Trafficking,” Transitions Online, 15 February 2001. [34] “Spanish Police Detain 35 Pimps Denounced by Prostitutes,” Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 15 June 2001. [35] “Prostitutes Spread Illness: A Diversity of Illnesses Are Detected in Numerous Foreign Prostitutes Checked at the Istanbul Genitourinary Hospital,” Turkish Daily News, 13 January 2001. [36] Kyle Gillespie, “Military Police Free East European Women Who Say They Were Trapped in a Sex-Trafficking Ring,” Newsweek Online, 20 August 2000. See also “Romanian Charged with Human Trafficking in Cambodia,” Agence France Presse, 16 August 2000. [37] Tom Godfrey, “Strippers Get the Boot,” Toronto Sun, 17 March 2001. [38] “Police Seize Control of South Africa’s Largest Brothel,” Agence France Presse, 5 February 2000. [39] Article 329. [40] Ibid. [41] Ibid. [42] Article 198. [43] Article 39. However, forced labor does not include any service of a military character or activities performed in lieu thereof by those who, according to the law, are exempted from compulsory military service for conscientious objection; the work of a sentenced person, carried out under normal conditions, during detention or conditional release; or any services required to deal with a calamity or any other danger, as well as those that are part of normal civil obligations as established by law. [44] The law came into effect on 22 April 1999. [45] The agreement went into force on 1 February 2000. The agreement was also signed by Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, and Turkey.
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