Trafficking in human beings in Georgia and the CIS

Demokratizatsiya, Summer 2001 by Glonti, Georgi

At the end of the 1980s, the social status of women in Georgia decreased sharply, and there was an equally large increase in the level of violence against women, prostitution, and human trafficking. This was caused by the following factors:

Loss of ethics and morality in society. For more than seventy years, the communist system had control over Georgians, including their spiritual values, which were based on the principles of absolute submission to the government and the ideology of militant atheism. That brought about the degradation of family values, traditions, and morality in society. The economic difficulties over the past years and the disorganization of government has rooted in the people both nihilism and a loss of confidence in the future. Every day turned into a fight for existence. The difficult political situation, the socioeconomic and psychological atmosphere, growing unemployment, and the forced displacement of some part of the population have resulted in the collapse of historically established social relationships. The results of a popular poll conducted among young people in the USSR at the end of the 1980s showed that the most prestigious and profitable careers were "currency prostitutes" (those paid in dollars instead of rubles) and contract killers. Research conducted in Georgia in 1997 shows that more than 20 percent of those polled consider prostitution normal; almost 30 percent do not condemn women who are forced to sell their bodies as a way of making money; almost 15 percent did not wish to give their opinion on the subject; and only 35 percent viewed prostitution negatively.

Poor economic conditions. During the transition period, the level of male employment compared with female employment has been stable, since women have found it harder to adapt to the new economic conditions. In the sphere of production, there are 292,400 unemployed women. UN data on Georgia shows that the average yearly income decreased from $2,250 in 1990 to $370 in 1995. The high level of unemployment among female production workers can be explained in part by the closure of enterprises of the light, food, and chemical industries, which are traditionally "women's" branches of production. Many women have lost their jobs as a result of reforms in the areas of health and education. Unemployment studies conducted by sociologists have revealed an extremely low level of female participation in entrepreneurial activities.31

Unsolved interethnic conflict and the large number of refugees from those regions. Refugees are a very vulnerable part of a population: many do not have permanent housing, many have lost family members, and many are unemployed and live on government aid of $15 per month. Many refugees are forced to sell goods on the streets or take part in other business, a large portion of which are run by organized crime groups (drugs, fraud, theft, and so forth). Refugee women were hit especially hard. Many lost husbands and still have to maintain their families. Many of them are forced to go abroad and end up doing hard labor or becoming prostitutes.