Success Stories
- Last Updated on: June 15, 2005
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Albanian Children Forced to Beg in Greece Find Safety Back Home
Child Trafficking Victims Aided
Albanian Children Forced to Beg in Greece Find Safety Back Home
June 15, 2005 | Elbasan, Albania
Dritan has begged, stolen, washed car windows, and sold everything from flowers to cigarette lighters on the streets of Greek cities. And on days when he did not earn 50 or 60 Euros, he was left hungry, made to sleep on the street, and beaten.
Dritan (not his real name) is one of hundreds of Albanian children who have been trafficked abroad, mostly to Greece and Italy where they are forced to beg or work. Older girls are often forced into prostitution, while boys may get involved in organized crime selling drugs, or running rings of younger victims of trafficking.
“These children are typically Roma, or Gypsy, from poor families,” said Edlira Bashmili of the NGO Terre des hommes (Tdh), which implements an anti-trafficking project funded by USAID and other donors. “These families are approached by a neighbor, or friend of the family … they say ‘I’ll take the child, and you’ll get $100 per month. The child will have a good life, and it will solve your economic problems’.”
In reality, children are mistreated and made to live on the streets, while parents rarely get any money, said Bashmili.
The program, Transnational Action against Child Trafficking (TACT), teaches thousands of elementary school children about the dangers of trafficking. TACT workers visit elementary schools in Elbasan once a month to show testimonial videos of trafficked children. They distribute pamphlets with stories of boys made to beg on the street, and talk to students about their feelings on the subject. TACT operates in half of Albania’s districts, and has reached some 25,000 children with its anti-trafficking message.
In Elbasan, most of the poor are from gypsy communities on the outskirts of town, Bashmili said. Here hundreds of families live in cramped quarters with no running water or power. Tdh field staff regularly visit these quarters looking for children at-risk, or living in the streets, to help them reintegrate into school.
Tdh is currently monitoring Arben (not his real name), 9, who was trafficked to Greece. The boy’s father was a drug dealer and user, and his mother is in jail. Arben lives in a two-room home – which lacks a toilet or shower – with his grandparents, aunt, and 11 other children. About half of his cousins are not registered with the city so they cannot attend school, get health care, or receive social services.
The family receives flour, oil, rice, school clothes, and books from Tdh staffers, who monitor the child’s whereabouts and encourage his school attendance.
Through a different NGO, Tjeter Vizion, USAID helps trafficked children return to a normal life. Some are reunited with their families. Those who have suffered severe trauma are placed under the NGO’s legal custody.
Tjeter Vizion – which is funded through the Coordinated Action Against Human Trafficking project – runs a residential center, community day care, and secure apartments for minors in difficulty, including trafficking victims. It helps younger children with school work while older children are trained in a vocation like plumbing or hair-dressing.
The NGO collaborates with local police, hospitals, and social services to look for alarm signs like poverty, unemployment, fractured families, abuse, alcoholism, or drug addiction to identify minors that need assistance.
Dritan, now 14, has lived in a secure apartment for half a year and is training to be a car mechanic. He was 6 the first time he was trafficked to Greece. He fell into the hands of traffickers while visiting his grandmother in the port city Durres. He and several other children endured a grueling eight-day hike across the mountains into Greece.
Dritan spent two months working the streets of Volos in northern Greece. A tutor, as the trafficked children’s keepers are known, kept telling Dritan “you must earn money every day. Don’t come back otherwise.” He also recalls being told, “You must work because we send your mother money.”
When a child returned with less than 50 or 60 Euros, he or she was beaten, or burnt with cigarettes. Often the kids went hungry. Because some kids were too young to care for themselves, the tutor’s wife washed their hair, Dritan said.
“One day it was raining,” he recalled, “and I really wanted to go back to Albania and my mother. So I told one boy ‘Give me some money, please, I want to go back’.”
Dritan made it home, but it wasn’t long before he took to the streets. His parents were divorced, and his mother “brought clients” to the house, which made all three of his siblings avoid home.
When he was 7, Dritan was once again picked up by traffickers, who this time smuggled a group of children into Greece with fake visas.
This time Dritan worked the streets of Athens for two and a half years. He was beaten and scared with a hot iron. He was arrested a couple of times, but always let go. Eventually, he took a bus back to Albania. Identified by Tdh staff, he was soon referred to Tjeter Vizion.
Trafficking of persons is an international human rights violation and illegal under Albanian and international law. In Albania, convicted traffickers can be sentenced to up to 15 years of prison. But conviction rates remain low.
Written for Frontlines by Kristina Stefanova
