Shame secrets about victim's women in Israel’s sex industry

Every year hundreds of women are trafficked from countries of the former Soviet Union (FSU) for the purpose of working in Israel’s sex industry. Many of these women are subjected to human rights abuses in Israel, such as violent assaults, enslavement and other restrictions on their liberty at the hands of traffickers, pimps or others involved in Israel’s sex industry. The Israeli government has failed to take adequate measures to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish human rights abuses committed against trafficked women in the context of trafficking. In addition, their plight is compounded by the absence of any asylum adjudication procedure in Israel despite its ratification of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. This in turn makes trafficked women vulnerable to the possibility of being forcibly returned to countries where they risk being subjected to human rights abuses.

 In recent years, increased attention has been devoted to the global phenomenon of trafficking in persons. However, there has been a marked tendency on the part of governmental and intergovernmental actors to conceive trafficking in persons as smuggling, thereby mistaking it simply for an infringement of immigration, labour or criminal legislation and focussing on it exclusively in the larger context of transnational organized crime. 

In turn, this approach has resulted in an oversimplification of the phenomenon which has been detrimental to the development of prevention strategies to combat the human rights abuses to which trafficked persons are subjected in the context of trafficking, whether at the hands of the traffickers themselves or at the hands of state agents.

The trafficking of women and girls for work in the sex industry has been a specific focus of attention

World-wide a significant proportion of women trafficked within or across national borders for work in the sex industry is subjected to human rights abuses in the context of trafficking.

The abuses range from violent assaults, including torture, to enslavement. Although non-state actors, in this case traffickers, pimps or others involved in the sex industry, who all ultimately provide the demand for trafficked women, are the most common perpetrators of such human rights abuses, these abuses take place in an environment which facilitates their perpetration as a result of the authorities’ complicity, acquiescence or, at best, inadequate response.

To date, however, there is no universally accepted definition of “trafficking in persons”, let alone of “trafficking” of women for work in the sex industry. Much of the data reported through various channels about trafficking of women for work in the sex industry is anecdotal and difficult to document.

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The magnitude of trafficking in persons as a global phenomenon is also highly contested.

Nevertheless, with respect to trafficking of women, the following elements are not contested:

• Each year, women constitute a large proportion of the overall number of people trafficked, that is transferred within or across national borders from their place of habitual residence;

• Women are trafficked world-wide, primarily from South to North, but also increasingly from South to South; trafficking in women has been reported from Latin America to southern Europe and the Middle East, from south-east Asia to the Middle East and central and northern Europe, from South America to North America and Europe, and from eastern Europe to western Europe; there are signs of a “new” wave of women trafficked for work in the sex industry from countries of the FSU to the Middle East;

• The illicit movement of women takes place at the hands of “traffickers”, loosely defined as people profiteering from organizing, carrying out or otherwise facilitating the illicit transit of persons;

• The majority of trafficked women find themselves trapped in debt bondage, servitude or slavery-like conditions as a result of being trafficked;

• One of the reasons ultimately driving trafficking in women is demand for their employment be it “voluntary” or “coerced” -- in the sex industry;

• Many of the women trafficked for work in the sex industry is subjected to human rights abuses directly resulting from being trafficked;

• There is evidence that the fewest trafficking-related human rights abuses occur at the women’s places of habitual residence, while such abuses often commence at transit locations, and they become more prevalent at the final destination;

• trafficking in women reaps huge financial profits to the traffickers and has, therefore, seen an ever-increasing involvement on the part of international organized crime; and finally,

• Since trafficking of women was placed on the international agenda as a global phenomenon in the early 1990s, governmental and intergovernmental responses have been inadequate, and in the main, have focussed on combatting organised crime without paying sufficient attention to supporting trafficked women’s specific needs, and developing strategies for preventing, investigating, punishing and providing adequate remedies for human rights abuses committed against trafficked women as a result of their being trafficked.

Pursuant to its mandate, Amnesty International wishes to draw attention first and foremost to the human rights abuses to which trafficked women are subjected in the context of trafficking.

WOMEN IN ISRAEL’S SEX INDUSTRY

Official statistics are not available; it is widely believed that in the past few years thousands of women, including some girls, from FSU countries have been trafficked to Israel to work in the sex industry. Under Israeli laws, virtually all these women are illegal aliens. They are in Israel without work permits or with false documents, which makes them particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses at the hands of traffickers, pimps and others involved in Israel’s sex industry.  many reports of trafficked women being subjected to various human rights abuses, such as enslavement and other restrictions on their liberty, as well as torture, including rape and other forms of sexual abuse.

Information indicating that in many instances women trafficked from FSU countries are literally bought and sold for large sums of money, often in auctions where they are purchased by the highest bidder. Some are held in debt bondage where they are forced to work to pay off large sums of money. Some women are kidnapped against their will in FSU countires or are lured to Israel under false pretences, and brought to work in the sex industry.

Their "owners" restrict their movements in order to prevent them from leaving. There are many reports of women being imprisoned by their "owners" in locked houses and apartments and prevented from going out unaccompanied. There are also frequent reports of trafficked women’s passports and other travel documents being taken away by their "owners" in order to prevent them from leaving the country. In some cases, the misappropriation by "owners" of the women’s means of identification is also used to force them into the sex industry.

Women trafficked to Israel are frequently either threatened with or subjected to violence, including rape and other forms of sexual abuse, particularly if they refuse to have sex with customers or try to escape.

There are reports of women being forced to have sex against their will with large numbers of men each day. Traffickers and others working in the sex industry sometimes issue threats against the lives and persons of trafficked women and their families, if they should leave the country and return to their countries of residence, or if they should provide intelligence to law enforcement agencies or testify in criminal prosecutions.