Subject: [Stop-traffic] News/Bosnian: Bosnian Police Rescue 33 Forced Into Prostitution
From: Melanie Orhant (morhant@igc.org)
Date: Sun Nov 26 2000 - 19:43:02 EST
Bosnian Police Rescue 33 Forced Into Prostitution
SARAJEVO, Nov 16, 2000 -- (Reuters)
Police have rescued 33 women forced into
prostitution in northern Bosnia
after being brought from the former Soviet Union
and Romania, the UN mission said on Wednesday.
"This was the most significant
police action taken to date by police in Bosnia and
Herzegovina to address the serious
problem of human trafficking and forced
prostitution," the UN said in a statement.
The raid, carried out by Bosnian
Serb police and monitored by UN police officials,
was on three nightclubs in the town
of Prijedor where organized prostitution was
taking place, the UN said.
Among the women from Romania,
Moldova, Ukraine and the Russian Federation
were several as young as 14, it said.
The head of the UN mission in
Bosnia, Jacques Klein, called on judicial authorities
to punish those responsible for the
"repugnant" crimes to the full extent of the law.
Two weeks ago, Sarajevo police found
at least a dozen women held captive when
they raided a nightclub in the city.
The UN mission in Bosnia works with
the International Organization for Migration
(IOM) to repatriate women to their
home countries.
Since March 1999, over 200 victims
of human trafficking have been successfully
identified and repatriated, the UN
said in the statement.
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