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A new TV drama, SEX TRAFFIC, exposes shocking truths about the trade in women from Eastern Europe. Sylvia Patterson meets the Romanian actresses who portray two women forced into prostitution. Overleaf, Allan Radcliffe finds the problem is coming to Scotland.
at 'li'ti/lit' is the most expensiye ('hannel 4
drama eyer made: a powerful. moying.
two—part thriller epic telling the hrutal story of the slaye racket of our times. the escalating glohal phenomenon of young girls ahducted into the international se\ trade. it is centred round the late of two teenage sisters. lilena and Vara. superhly played hy Romanian drama school graduates :\namaria Marinca and .Maria l’opistastt. l.ea\'ing honte to look for johs in London. they ‘re sold by” a boy friend (Romanian girls fetch Bl) tilt) at market; their price at destination may he ten times higher). kidnapped and ahducted across Romania. Serhia. .-\|hania. Bosnia. Italy and finally London. Naturally. the pimps are thugs. (iirls are raped. humiliated. terrorised. heaten senseless. threatened with death hack home. 'l'hroughout. it’s compellingly interw'oyen with corporate corruption and e\p|oitation. On their tail is a hookish. determined. |.ondon-hased charity worker. Daniel Appleton. sympathetically played hy Britain‘s realism specialist .lohn Simm. first choice for producer l)a\'id Yates after the pair worked together on Stale of Play. Based on extensiye research. including Video testimonies from teenage Victims and police in .\loldo\'a. .-\|hania and ltaly. it‘s an authentic expose of the yer} Worst mankind has to offer. .-\nd husiness in Britain is hooming.
‘The grainy \‘ideo testimonies of the young women 1 saw were crying out to he heard.’ says the story's writer. :\hi Morgan (the scripr riter hehind Bl3(‘2\ acclaimed .illll'tlt'r series). ‘When the facts are more shocking than the fiction. you don't tell the story. it tells itself.‘
The l'.\' helieyes 7()().()t)t) girls are now traflicked annually. at glohal hig husiness third only in scale to the illegal transporting of drugs and weapons. Teenage rape-slayes. drugs. death: well done. humanity.
In their puhlicist's office in central London. :\namaria and Maria are hoth liy id and tentatiyely hopeful. It’s testament to their surely award-winning performances that they are. in reality. fully grown. smart and spirited young women of 26 thlond-haired Anamarial and 2—1
22 THE LIST 0.“.
(dark—haired Maria). Stir 'li'tiiiii‘. they know. is
accurate: they see newspaper reports in their
natiye Bucharest and talked to staff inside shelters returning Victims. In their mid-20s they don‘t know anyone. personally. who's heen ahducted hut stories percolatc. persistently. through the daily atmosphere.
‘I heard stories ahout girls heing sold hy their
neighhours females] says a clearly appalled Anamaria. 'Women pimps? ln Bucharest. there were reports of the or six people heing accused. the higgest dealers. and four were women. And they know there‘s going to he rapes. So don't
hlame it all on men. And they will threaten your
families with death.’ It‘s a situation horne out of spectacular irony". one specific. colossal. human cost of democratic
‘freedom'. :\s eyer. the \‘ulnerahle pay the most. ‘If there is demand from the West there will he suPhl). from the liast.‘ notes .-\namaria. 'This is the prohlem. it's the horders. Before. we had a harhcd wire area. Before. we had no idea what was going on in the West. Now. there‘s
temptation. On TV. heautiful cars. clothes. of
course poor people want those. They lire onto you with images. images. images. all ahout form. nothing ahout the inside.‘
‘It is ahout poyeity'. hut it‘s also ahout lack of information and education.~ adds Maria. “Women see ads in newspapers — "he a housekeeper. a nanny in Italy" — they don‘t ask for papers. anything. You need proof. How am I going to he
paid'.’ .-\m i going to haye a working \isa‘.‘ But no. they go and find out they 'rc traflicked.’
'lt's an entire procedure.’ nods .-\namaria. ‘These Pimps pretend to haye some sort of company who'll arrange transport. We‘re starting to know ahout this now.'
The ahductees who do return home face horrifyingly hostile community reaction. The only place they're welcome is the emotionally threadharc state shelter.
'They go hack to a \ illage where they ‘re called "whore".' says .-\namaria. 'They turn out alcoholics. The worker in the shelter I know. she told me the first person the girls call is their pimp. It‘s the only reality they haye.~
I wonder if the girls feel humanity. sometimes. is doomed.
'I think you create your own human-ness.‘ tnttses .>\naniaria. ‘You haye to define )‘tttrself cyery day. otherwise you turn into an animal. | read an article ahout congressmen in Brussels disctissing the prohlems of trafficking in the morning and at night they were taking prostitutes. This is who we are. the human race.‘
.-\mnesty is hacking Sci lift/lit" as a teley ision show that might actually make a difference. l'.\'l('lil‘ has plans to Use the film as a campaigning tool in Moldoya and Romania. ()n :\mnesty wehsites you can read official testimonies from traflicked girls in Kosoyo. ‘We were hi\ Property he said.‘ reads one. 'li} ht!) ini—' tis. he had the right to heat its. rape us. starye its. and force its to haye se.\ with clients.’ ‘liyen when it was cold weather I had to wear thin dresses: stl_Vs another. 'l was forced h} the hoss to serye international soldiers and police officersf Reports tell us that in Kosoyo alone the numher of estahlishments holding trafficked girls has increased from IS in 199‘) to oyer 300 in 2003. Trafficking prosecutions. meanwhile. remain appallingly low. Trafficked girls who escape are often treated as criminals; prosecuted themsel\es for unlawful Kosoyan residence. charged with prostitution and uninformed ahout their hasic rights. allow cd no access to lawyers. It‘s a political ahomination. and a human rights catastrophe.
What can we. as indiyiduals. do‘.’ Men who tise prostitutes. get a grip. There are Voluntary prostitutes eyeryw'here. These teenagers are prisoners. they‘re heing raped. hy you. to fund someone else‘s harharic criminal life. liyeryonc else can he \‘igilant. informed and actiye. Amnesty is calling on the British goyernment to support a liuropean ('onyention on Trafficking. We are all the international community and we can force things into unayoidahle. yote winning issues. There are organisations. glohally. and in our cities. which could use our cash and mayhe eyen our time.
‘We are a sacrificed generation.‘ says :\namaria hack in London. plainly. ‘()ur children will also he a sacrificed generation. We don't want that. I mean. i work. I studied. got my Pill) and what for'.’ For Silltl a month. You haye to learn to The with all of this. hut then do something ahout it. If every one of us tried to do something ahout it. you know"? Me. I'm an actress. I can only act. :\l1ists. they represent the conscience of a society?
‘()ur liyes begin to end.~ Martin Luther King once said. “the day we hecome silent ahout things that matter.‘
Sex Traffic is on Channel 4 at 10pm, Thu 14 and Thu 21 Oct.