Jyothi Kanics---Global Survival Network (jkanics@igc.apc.org)
Fri, 20 Nov 1998 07:36:32 -0800 (PST)
http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpin01.htm
Prostitution Scandal Stuns Greece
By BRIAN MURPHY Associated Press Writer
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- The young woman's world was
closing in around her.
She left Russia with the promise of a job in Greece,
authorities
say. It turned out to be prostitution. Then she was
stashed in a
stifling apartment bordello in the port of Salonica.
She and the
other women there were rarely allowed to leave.
Clients visited
at all hours.
The anguish for Irini Penkina ended last month, in the
apartment's narrow bathroom. She tied black pantyhose
around
a pipe above the toilet. The other end was knotted
around her
throat.
There was no suicide note. But the 20-year-old woman's
death
has become a rallying cry for investigators and
activists seeking
to understand the extent of illegal prostitution in
Greece.
What the inquiries have uncovered has staggered the
nation:
claims of sexual slavery, accusations of corruption --
including
alleged police protection for the groups. The
revelations suggest
Greece has become a European Union foothold for
prostitution
rings with links throughout the former Soviet bloc.
A series of raids have led to dozens of arrests. A
policeman and
a retired officer were arrested Thursday after a
public
prosecutor staked out an alleged hideout for
prostitutes.
Last week, police charged 33 people with running a
network of
13 brothels that had hundreds of prostitutes from
former Soviet
republics.
Nearly all the alleged pimps and enforcers for the
prostitution
rings are Greeks -- a disturbing disclosure in a
nation inclined to
make foreigners the scapegoats for most social ills.
The situation also energized Greece's weak feminist
movement.
``The collapse of communism has been good for Greece's
`promoters' in the prostitution racket,'' said Georgia
Doussia, a
member of a newly formed group opposing forced
prostitution.
An estimated 20,000 foreign women work as unregistered
prostitutes in Greece, which has a small and tightly
regulated
legal sex-for-sale industry. Before the fall of the
Iron Curtain,
Greece had no more than 2,000 illegal prostitutes,
police say.
The huge increase is not unique. Eastern European
women have
been migrating to wealthier countries for years, and
end up
working as prostitutes -- some willingly, but most
lured by ads
for work in nightclubs or as dancers, investigators
say.
But researchers believe Greece may be one of the
commercial
hubs of the sex trade.
``It's a processing center for prostitutes,'' said
Gregoris Lazos, a
professor at Athens' Panteion University who has led a
decade-long study of prostitution trends.
``Girls are brought here. They have no money and their
passports are taken away. They become the property of
the
rings. Within a few years they are full-time
prostitutes. They say
they are `processed.' And then they are sold to other
rings in
Europe or the Middle East.''
Greece's proximity to the poorest Eastern European
nations
contributes to its role in the regional networks,
Lazos suggested.
``But the main factor is the corruption. You can't
operate illegal
enterprises this big and this complex without corrupt
officials,''
he said.
Prosecutors refuse to speculate on the size of the
illegal
prostitution operations in Greece. But the
anti-corruption drive
has already reached high officials.
The public order minister was dismissed last month in
a
government shuffle. Less than a week later, the former
head of
the national police and 15 others were charged with
corruption,
including allegations of taking kickbacks to issue
residency
permits to foreign women. There was speculation that
prosecutors could eventually link the permits and the
prostitution
rings.
Some police officers also are under investigation for
allegedly
offering protection to pimps.
The new police chief, Gen. Yiannis Georgakopoulos,
ordered a
complete overhaul of the vice squad in the Athens area
and
vowed to champion a ``relentless'' campaign to ferret
out rotten
cops.
The reformist attitudes have even spilled over to the
media.
Prosecutors have ordered newspapers not to publish
thinly
veiled sex ads such as those for escort and massage
services.
Some newspapers have raised free speech objections.
But
many media commentators praised the emphasis on ethics
and
wondered whether it could launch a more thorough
housecleaning -- such as the way low-level kickback
probes in
Italy led to a wide-ranging crusade that implicated
top politicians
and business figures.
AP-NY-11-19-98 1656EST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Sun May 23 1999 - 13:43:56 EDT