Armenian official upbeat on fight against human trafficking
Ayots Ashkhar, Yerevan
17 Jun 04
An interview with the head of the Armenian government’s Migration
and Refugees Department, Gagik Yeganyan. He comments on the Armenian
section of the latest annual US State Department report on human
trafficking.
[Gagik Yeganyan] The fact that according to the US State Department,
Armenia is among the countries of the second group is satisfactory. It
is also good for Armenia that the report said if Armenia continues
its fight against trafficking in the same way and with the same
consistency, it cannot be ruled out that the country may be included
in the first group in the future. The countries which fight this
phenomenon with all their possible means are included in this group.
[Passage omitted: Details of the report]
[Ayots Ashkhar correspondent] Mr Yeganyan, what kind of work has been
launched in Armenia to organize a fight against human trafficking?
[Yeganyan] In the report drawn up four years ago, our country was in
the third group. This assessment of Armenia was like a cold shower,
as their approach was very strict and unexpected. In any case, we
were not disappointed ending up in such a situation, but were given
an incentive and concentrated all our efforts on making the fight
against trafficking more organized. The point is that inclusion in
this or that group is not determined by the volume of trafficking. The
assessment depends on the effectiveness of steps taken against this
evil. Slave trade was annihilated in the previous century. This is
why isolated cases of this phenomenon are considered to be a slap in
the face of all mankind.
In Armenia, the fight against human trafficking started with the
formation of an interdepartmental group on an instruction from
the prime minister. The group was instructed to develop a national
strategic programme of the fight against trafficking. The document was
ready this January and was approved by the government. Systematized
approaches form the basis of the fight, which makes it possible
not only to eliminate the consequences of trafficking, but also to
stamp it out, to take relevant retaliatory steps and to rule out the
conditions that generate it.
It is clear to the world that in Armenia, not only do we understand
the importance of fighting trafficking, we also take certain effective
steps. Naturally, in parallel with our country’s integration into
European structures, progress will become more evident, which is why
doubts about its irreversibility may not be well-founded.
[Correspondent] What are the signs of human trafficking in Armenia?
[Yeganyan] About 600,000-800,000 people are involved in the trafficking
process in the world every year. Human trafficking is aimed mainly at
the sexual exploitation of women and children. Only isolated cases
have been registered in Armenia. In fact, in our country there is
no stratum or a group which would use the results of trafficking. In
our country, there is no stratum of people who would want to pay for
such services. Just two cases of trafficking have been registered
in our country: a group of Uzbek women using false passports tried
to cross the border of the United Arab Emirates from Armenia. They
did not manage to do this and decided to work as prostitutes in our
country. The second group was also from Uzbekistan – young girls
decided to work as prostitutes in our country. Fortunately, Armenia
is not the best country for such activities. Three years ago, the
International Organization for Migration carried out research and
discovered 58 cases when Armenians were trafficked mainly in Arab
countries and Turkey. I am sure that not all the registered cases may
be regarded as human trafficking. Many people understand why they
go there. Simply people involved in such conditions, when they are
exposed, present the situation as trafficking.