Rachel Wallace
Word count: 1878
June 27, 2014
Human Trafficking of Romanian Street Children
Romania has become a modern day human trafficking hot spot. Here it is common, yet illegal, to purchase a man, woman, or child in Bucharest. Romania not only has a huge problem with its own citizens being trafficked, but also has become a layover destination for adults as well as children, being trafficked all over the world. The huge volume of traffickers doing business in Romania have put its many street children in exceptionally high risk of falling victim to their many manipulative ploys. Here Meredith Gamble, a human right expert, states that, "Children from families or backgrounds lacking healthy affection and love are susceptible to traffickers and recruiters who will, perhaps for the first time in a child’s life, give them affection, praise, and attention though they are used at the same time for sexual abuse and trafficking." Here she is saying that if the traffickers give the children positive attention, they will yearn for it and in return do whatever the trafficker asks so they can stay in good graces. This false love is a direct violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These children are only looking for someone to love them, yet they're being taken advantage of in the worst way. No one is to infringe upon another's rights, especially those who are so fragile. This is only one of the numerous ways these nieve children are lured. They also are offered shelter, food, and even clothes or a hot shower. Once taken,most never return. These reasons account for why 60% of all trafficking victims found in Romania were nationals. Of the children trafficked 75% of them were used for sex trafficking. The other 25% were used for labor, such as being forced to beg on the street, forced to commit petty theft, or made to pick pocket tourists. (U.S. Embassy in Romania, 2014 report). The romanian government has failed to act on its Human Trafficking of street children because of it's poor prioritizing in its past and present governments, and a severe predjuduce against its Roma nationals, who are the majority of street children today.
The problem in Romania involving the trafficking of its street children is directly related to its past and present governments. From 1965 until 1989 Romania was ruled by a communist government. This government felt the need to build up its workforce by implementing strict laws banning contraceptives and abortion. As well as implementing an additional 20% tax for all woman, single or not, who were childless. Meanwhile, giving huge tax breaks to woman with large families, while giving huge exemptions for each additional childbirth documented. Despite all this, the governments efforts to make a strong workforce was failing. The income generated from the tax was not enough to supplement most families, especially while caring for countless children. Because of this, a lot of Romanians were forced to give their children up, and by the fall of the communist regime over 100,000 Romanian children were in poorly run, low funded orphanages. When the government change from communist to democratic happened, Romanian's currency plummeted, government jobs vanished, as did grants for public assistance. This caused an over pour of additional children being abandoned in government orphanages. The worst part being this number does not include the privately run orphanages, runaways or those abandoned on the street. A large number of the children who are alone on the streets either broke out of their abusive orphanages or left home for similar reasons. Most of these children are left without any documentation. Here a human rights expert from the University of Nebraska writes, "Street children who lack identification validating their citizenship in Romania are stateless persons, despite jus soli eligibility. Their human rights are not only violated by this status but they are at high risk of falling victim to multiple other forms of human rights abuses, including trafficking." With no documentation, these children are not able to attend school, get real jobs, or become a productive member of society. Some do not even know what their birth names are, if they were even given one, now only going by what their friends have nicknamed them.
The Romanian government's efforts in stopping human trafficking have been dwindling since the new government came into reign in 1990. Their efforts in ending the human trafficking problem amongst its street children are non-existent. They have put forth little to no direct efforts to stop this problem. Here Christina Andromache, a Stanford University student claims,"The government is letting these innocent children fall thru the cracks, leaving them undocumented, a national of no country, and a son or daughter to no one. The police seem to be little to no help with the stations, often understaffed and struggling to attend to all sectors of law enforcement, police are overwhelmed, leaving street children ignored." Without the proper resources the police are not able to attend to all of their citizens needs. Authorities are forced to pick what are the most immediate needs of the country as a whole, and apparently the country's future is not as important as whatever the countries present needs are. These children are Romania's future, they are our world's future, yet they are viewed as nothing by those around them. In the last five years, Romania's government chose to reinstate its government program to stop human trafficking. In doing so they cut all public funding to GMO's who were the trafficked street children's major allies. This caused over 33 GMO's to close or change focus. Because of this the country as a whole, especially those in need, have been suffering greatly. The number of arrests of human traffickers has been greatly reduced, in the last three years. As is tsentencing of their crimes. Also because of the rampant STD epidemic that started in 1997 with syphilis, the government has been debating over the legalization of prostitution. Being that the street children are the majority of the sex workers, the topic of street children came up recently in their congress. Andromache states, "When the legalization of prostitution was being debated, many of Romania’s leaders argued that street children are an area which cannot be taken care of at the moment." They are forever being put on the back burners of their legal system, as well as in society. Andromache also states that, "...they are further abused by the people that abandoned them in the first place. Rather than taking the blame themselves for abandoning them, these people not only abuse the street children, but also—hypocritically enough—place the blame on the children themselves for ruining Romania’s image. If people could look outside of themselves and see these poor innocent children for what they really are, abandoned by the world, then maybe they would be more sympathetic to those that are less fortunate. How can a small child be blamed for being parentless, for being alone and scared?
Roma or Romani is the correct term for what some once called gypsies. They originated from northern India and have been "traveling" from one country to the next since the 11th century. Because of their Roma blood, Romanian citizens, as well as most of Europe, treat them as second class citizens. Most choose to willingly do nothing to help them whether it be an adult or small children. Some Romanian citizens have been known to abuse the small children, blaming them for Romanias negative political attention regarding its street children. These actions are in result of a severe ethnic prejudice as well as self denial. they are the reason these children are in their current situation. If every romanianfamily sponsored one child from its abandonment or at least donated food to them if they were not allowed to keep them in their homes. That should be the governments policy, not only to help its street children, but it's Roma in general. Although some government agencies and GMO's feel that, "Roma street children are not favorable to pimps or clients because they are “dirty” and “unclean” and are therefore unfit for prostitution, the precarious socio-economic situation of Roma street children suggests that they are among the most vulnerable groups to sexual exploitation and abuse." These people are oppressed by their society just for their race, making them an additional target for human traffickers. When in a family unit they are usually "traveling", have had little to no medical care, and are almost always undocumented. The Roma hold a gender bias against its woman and because of this the woman are more likely to be taken advantage of due to their lack of education. Roma children are more likely to be street children because of the oppression and poverty their nationality endures. As well as the fact that their families are usually poor, uneducated, and abusive. Roma are also extremely prejudice towards their women, forcing them to marry early, and stay ignorant. Because of this many Roma girls either already are, or eventually will become street children. Once on the street they are swooped up quickly and trafficked for prostitution. The most common street child in the world is a boy from 10-14. Even though girls are way more likely to be given up, or abandoned. Because all of the girls are abducted and trafficked.
The Romanian government has failed its lost, displaced children. It has turned a blind eye on those who need them the most, leaving outsiders watching to wonder... why? The Romanian government, like many others, is filled with excuses. Ones that use the past, as well as their newly formed government as a reason to do nothing. But all excuses aside, this neglect boils down to ignorance, which is stripping these children of every basic right they should have, but don't. The racial tension involved is thick to say the least, with most Romanian citizens not even willing to look at someone with Roma blood without disdain in their eye. This has got to stop. These poor innocents were born into this, never once did they choose to be abandoned or be born of Roma descent. Never once did they ask to be abused at home, and forced onto the streets. Imagine a life where it is better to be six and alone on the streets. When a small child knows it is safer outside and alone, parent less, it is completely terrifying. It is wrong. Romania's government needs to step up, if not them it's citizens.
SOURCES
Gamble, Meredith, "Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Street Children in Romania: Catalysts of Vulnerability and Challenges in Recovery" . Second Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking, 2010. Paper 17. 01 Jan. 2010. Web. 17 June 2014.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/humtrafconf2/17
This source was extremely valuable because it was a very indepth look into
Andromache, Christina. "Index of /class/e297c/trade_environment." Index of /class/e297c/trade_environment. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2014. <http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/trade_environment>.
"Embassy Of The United States." 2012 Human Rights Report. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 June 2014. <http://romania.usembassy.gov/mobile//2012_hrr_en.html>.
This source was amazing for statistics, as well as a legal view point from the US government.
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