Poverty Assists Traffic

The sorry state of the Albanian economy is driving the young women of rural Albania in to prostitution at the same time it is making trafficking into the sustaining industry for the southern sea coast.

"While the Albanian economy remains in its desperate condition the prostitution traffic will continue to remain a difficult phenomenon to stop," said Sevim Arbana, head of For the Albanian Woman's Benefit, a local women's association.

According to Arbana, and other NGO experts, most of the women trafficked to Italy, Greece or other western European countries come from Albanian rural areas where poverty is the most conspicuous.

The team of investigative reporters got the same answer a few days ago at the international Rinas airport after interviewing eight returned women from Italy.

Diana, 22, from a village in the northern district of Mat said that her two sisters were also serving as prostitutes in Italy.

"Of course, I would like to have another job." Diana said. "But with the income I have now I can support myself but if I lived in Albania I wouldn't have a job."

All of the eight returnees at Rinas wanted to go back to Italy because, they said, as bleak as the prostitution life is, there are no options for them in Albania. Life for them in Albania would be "unbearable," the women said, not only because public opinion would brand them but because there is simply no money in this tiny post-communist Balkan country.

According to one trafficker in Vlore there is no other sustainable industry in the area. To the trafficker, that's reason enough to sell teenage girls for a living. Under attack at sea by Italian patrol boats, the traffickers have banded together in cartels to protect the only business they have by sharing their resources, this boat owner said.

"Why shouldn't we work in this business?" the boat owner angrily told a team reporter operating undercover at a port side bar. "This job feeds many people while the government is not doing anything. What has the government done for this town, tell me?"

The Vlore prefect and Fier mayor respond that the trafficking industry is not a noticeable part of their economy.

Vlore prefect Fatos Hamiti said 40 percent of the local economy is based on retail business followed by tourism, agriculture and livestock with a smaller percentage coming from all criminal activities.

. "We have never considered human traffic as the main source of revenue," said Fier Mayor Nikollaq Koshovari. "Most of the townspeople earn a living from retail, which has steadily increased in the last few years."

But the substantial cash from the boat cartels must be going someplace.

One boat owner said that he earns $10,000 USD a night after expenses, according to a report issued by NGO Save the Children last year. In the Vlore district alone he told the NGO there are 10 to 15 boats that leave every night for Italy.

Zef Preci, head of the Center of Economic Research, a local NGO, said that the cash is flowing into the boat owner cartels and to government officials aligned with the cartels.

"Revenues from this activity are later invested, most of the time in the areas where the trafficking is a problem," Preci added.

Meanwhile, some Vlore citizens don't describe the local retail business in the golden words used by the prefect and mayor.

Most of the business comes from illegal kiosks, the owner of a coffee bar along the shore, who declined to be identified, told a reporter, and the government is tearing those down.

"If that happens I won't have a way to support my family and I will turn to the trafficking business," he said.