2430) Human Trafficking in The Republic of Armenia, Hilda Grigorian

January 2005

Abstract
The Republic of Armenia (RoA) has gone through an economical turmoil for the past two decades; the consequence of the disastrous earthquake (December 1988), conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh (1989-1994), the independence from the Soviet Union (1991), the economic blockade, the deterioration of traditional economic relations and loss of markets, all of these factors caused deep financial crisis in the country.

Independence from the Soviet era resulted in high cost of poverty rate of 43- 51 percent, unemployment rate of 18 – 76 percent which resulted in migration of over 1 million people. Women were left alone with no financial support to survive and had no choice, but to separate from their family in search of a “better living” in foreign lands.

Although there are and will never be any factual numbers, human trafficking in RoA has become a growing disease and increases rapidly. Local NGO’s, and reliable sources suggest that for the past 5 years, 3,000-5,000 men, women and young girls were sent to the neighboring countries for sex and forced labor exploitation.

This paper will clearly demonstrate the grass root of the problem, steps taken and further strategies to be taken by the government, local NGO’s, international agencies and the Diaspora community to prevent and hopefully stop human trafficking.

Keywords:

Armenia, Human Trafficking, Women and young girls trafficking

SECTION 1 - INTRODUCTION

In recent years there has been a significant increase worldwide in recognizing a “phenomena” as human trafficking which exist throughout the world. The abuse of the basic human rights of trafficked persons, who are mainly women and young girls, arouse great concern among governments and the United Nations in many countries, especially the post Soviet era countries. Researchers differ on the numbers of women trafficked throughout the world, however, United Nations (UNDP) reports an estimated 4 million women, men and young girls have been trafficked from . . one country to another and within countries and it also indicates that trafficking is a 5-7 billion U.S. dollar annual operation.

U.S. Government and non-government experts number differs from the UNDP, it is estimated that over 700,000 to 4 million women, young girls and men are trafficked globally each year into the sex industry and forced labor, with 50,000 into the United States. Numbers are always difficult to obtain, but the revenue collected from the trafficking in women and young girls often reveals what the demography of trafficking cannot tell us with precision that the numbers of trafficked women and young girls are appalling . .

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Human Trafficking in Armenia

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