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This is Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, a former Soviet state now so poor that almost

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a third of its population has emigrated in search of work and a better life.

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I would go to Europe, this woman shouted, in Europe there's work.

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What can we do, this man asked.

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We need money for shoes.

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How can we live without money?

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Newspapers carry adverts offering prospects for jobs in Europe.

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Young women are especially welcome.

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A meeting is arranged, often it's a woman who does the hiring.

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Promises of work in a bar in Italy, as a waitress in France.

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Many are naive enough to believe it.

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The girls have unwittingly taken their first steps into the hands of the human traffickers.

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Some estimate this business is as big as the drugs trade.

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It's grown up since the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

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Mafia-type networks earn billions of euros in Europe every year, as they buy and sell

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their human goods, mainly from Central and Eastern Europe.

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The girls who are in the hands of such human traffickers actually expect a miserable life.

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They are sold several times, just for sale, and when they arrive here in Antwerp in the

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showcases, they have to serve up to 30, 40 customers a day.

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Many girls have never even heard of human trafficking before.

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Anna thought she was being brought to Belgium from Moldova to be a waitress.

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Then she learnt she was to be a prostitute.

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She took me there, on the road.

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On the ground?

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On the ground.

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Not in the window, but on the road, where the girls work.

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I was crying over there, at the girls, because I didn't want to work like that.

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I felt bad, because there, in Moldova, when I stayed there, I was...

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I had a very hard life, but with such a thing, they didn't occupy me.

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And when I arrived in Croatia, of course, it was very painful for me.

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Some women are sold to buyers in the Balkan region before ever reaching Europe.

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This is the Mozart Club in southern Serbia.

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But what happened here was not music.

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A police raid found five girls from Romania and Ukraine,

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kept prisoner here, forced into prostitution.

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Their pay? Two euros a day for food and a packet of cigarettes.

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We found the girls again in Belgrade,

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now being protected by the International Organization for Migration,

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which helps hundreds of victims of trafficking every year.

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One-year-old Katerina says she was tricked into leaving her hometown in Romania

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for a life of terror.

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Natasha is 28 and already a widow with two small children.

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She believes she was leaving Ukraine for work in a cafe.

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When I joined the club, one of the managers told me to throw my stuff away

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and stay in my boots and shoes.

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I understood everything then.

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You know, what they sold you for...

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I paid for you 1,700 euros.

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And when you get rid of that money,

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you'll get rid of half and half.

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Half and half means playing with mistakes and having sex.

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In countries such as Romania, it's not just women who are exploited.

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It's children too.

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Some for the sex industry.

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Others are taken by organized networks to European cities such as Vienna,

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where they're taught how to beg and steal.

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This Vienna city council crisis center

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is where the police bring children if they're caught pickpocketing.

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They can't be prosecuted.

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Some are as young as eight years old.

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Nearly 200 children from Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia

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have come to this center in the past year.

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Their photos all kept on file.

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This sort of exploitation of children for crime is growing across Europe.

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Sometimes it's the parents themselves desperate to earn money

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who hand their children over to the traffickers.

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Aid organizations which help to get the youngsters home

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say the parents are as much victims as their children.

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This is a very poor country.

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Some people see this as their last chance to do something like this.

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It's important for us to address the source of the problem.

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We have to try to ensure a safe return for the children

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and a permanent reintegration.

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Whether it's children or adults,

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deep poverty drives people into the hands of organized criminals.

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The European Union is making the fight against human slavery a top priority

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because the traffickers too often manage to stay one step ahead of the police.

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It's a constant game of cat and mouse

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in terms of they develop one new modus operandi

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and the law enforcement agencies identify it and shut that down.

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And it's almost like an ongoing chess.

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The only tragedy is that the chess pieces are vulnerable human beings.

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For those lucky enough to have escaped, there's just one thought.

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To go home.

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Thank you.