Romanian Child Trafficking

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Solutions to Child trafficking in Romania
The Guardian describes the story of Marinela, A seventeen year old Romanian girl who was kidnapped and sold as a sex slave. The British newspaper shared that “[Marinela’s] Daily shifts lasted twelve hours, 10pm to 10am, seven days a week.” She was later discovered and arrested for prostitution in England. It was also reported that, “Her first day in custody was the first time since her arrival in England six months earlier that she had not been forced to have sex.” (Townsend). Unfortunately, Marinela’s story is not unique, she was discovered with at least one hundred other Romanian teenage girls, and she is one of an estimated four million victims of human trafficking each year (Moju Project). Romania’s …show more content…

1 This is a population pyramid of Romania. The massive population boom (in now middle-aged Romanians) is evident of how destructive Ceausescu’s population laws were (Central Intelligence Agency).
The combination of food insecurity and these utterly insane tactics drove the infant mortality rate in Romania up to 83 deaths out of 1000 births (“Over-planned Parenting”). Since many women were unable to feed themselves, let alone all of their children, a large majority of infants were abandoned to grow up in state- run institutions. Romania is infamous for these inhumane and abusive establishments, and they have become a symbol of communist oppression in the country. Since the fall of communism and assassination of Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, conditions for women have improved drastically, but the country is still reeling from these laws, and mistreatment of women has taken a new form. Romania’s past of discrimination towards women has inspired a lack of self-worth and confidence, especially for their institutionalized population. These factors have contributed to why Romania is one of the largest sources and transit countries in the world for human trafficking …show more content…

Awareness is an instrumental weapon in the fight against human trafficking. Other than the bloody coup d’etat that took place in Romania late in 1989, the world knows very little about the Eastern European country (Smith). Romanian’s take pride in their country and how they reclaimed it from Communism; if they were aware that their reputation in the West involved forced prostitution and corruption, the problem would most likely be more ardently combatted in their country. In order for this to happen, awareness must be raised, inside and outside of Romania. An example of one significant way awareness can be raised is by spreading the first-hand accounts of women who have escaped or survived ordeals as Romanian sex

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