MOSCOW, December 22 (Itar-Tass) —— About 70 percent of victims of people traffickers in Russia are women in sexual slavery, where eight percent are girls under legal age, Tatiana Azhakina of the Chief Deputy Head of the criminal investigation department of Russia’s Interior Ministry said.
“The analysis of crimes of the category /trade in people and related crimes/ shows that in the Russian Federation 70 percent of trade in people is performed for the purposes of sexual slavery. About eight percent there are girls under legal age,” she said.
Another 24 percent of trade in people is for the purpose of slave labour.
“There are examples of using foreign citizens,” she said.
Azhakina continued saying that crimes of the kind are made not only in the territory of the Russian Federation. In many cases, Russia is a transit country. For example, there is a Central European direction, where people are trafficked to Greece or Cyprus via Prague or Warsaw. During 2010, about 200 women were taken from the Far East to Greece via the Czech Republic.
Another direction is the Middle East. Via Egypt and Israel, women are trafficked to oil producing countries, like Bahrain. The Chinese direction has two routes – the Chinese-Siberian and the Chinese-Maritime, she said.
Specialists speak about another people trafficking direction – a Mediterranean one. In 2010, Russia’s Interior Ministry stopped activity of the group, which was involved in sex exploitation in the territories of Malta and Spain.
Azhakina said that the information the authority has shows that Russia is used also for trafficking of people from Central Asia, where from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan criminals transport women and from Pakistan and Afghanistan – men and children.