Sex, lies and psychological scars: inside Ukraine's human trafficking crisis
Maxim Tucker in Kiev
Thursday 4 February 2016 07.00 GMT
The hospital where Dr Olga Milinchuk works has no sign outside and no waiting rooms. The address is a closely guarded secret, as are the identities of her patients. With a team of 18 specialists, she spends every day repairing the shattered lives and minds of victims of Ukraines longest-running crisis endemic human trafficking.
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Milinchuk, who has treated about 2,000 people at the centre, estimates that 95% of her patients are victims of labour trafficking. They come with gastric and intestinal diseases from malnourishment, sexually transmitted diseases, and psychiatric problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Forced labour is difficult to detect. Traffickers deceive victims into travelling without valid visas, keep workers trapped in debt bondage and reliant on their employers for food and accommodation, or stop unpaid workers from leaving through violence and intimidation.
They take a mother with two children, then lock one child away so that when the mother is out begging, the traffickers know she will return for the other, she says. The mother had been promised a job in agriculture and was told to bring the children for kindergarten.
cont'd...
Link:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/feb/04/sex-lies-psychological-scars-ukraine-human-trafficking-crisis