Kampagne Stoppt Zwangsprostitution!

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Recruitment

Poverty, lack of perspectives and the dream of the ‘golden West’ make it easy for traffickers to recruit the women, enticing them with false promises.

Some women come to Germany without knowing that they will be working as prostitutes. Others come knowing this but due to the desperate situation in their homeland they do not see another alternative.

Both groups of victims have in common that they have been tricked about the real working conditions - working hours, income, practices and their legal status.Misled by apparently nice, trustworthy people who promise them the world, many women believe they had found their fortune. More often than not women fall in love with their male recruiter and follow him full of trust.

Nina’s story - 19 years old

Nina lived with her impoverished parents and four siblings in a small village in east Hungary. After she had graduated from secondary school she couldn’t find employment and was frustrated.

In a disco, a trusted friend told Nina that she had a supposedly great job in Germany. She told her that a good acquaintance of hers - Attila - could bring them there.Attila is very attractive. Nina falls in love with him and believes every word he says. When they arrive in Germany Attila tells her that she has to work as a prostitute. Nina turns it down at first but Attila persuades her by promising her the world. Finally Nina agrees to it. She dreams of all the money that she will make.

Along with other young women Nina is brought to an exclusive club where the majority of clients are successful businessmen and married with children. At the beginning it was difficult for Nina to walk around naked at the bar and in the spa and sauna area, and to encourage the men to go up to the room with her. With time, she adapts to this routine although she is numb inside.

Sometimes she meets men in the club whom she can trust and on whom she can lean on.For the most part though, she feels disgusted by the johns when they are unaesthetic, ordinary, violent or drunk, especially when men demand oral sex without condoms. She can never properly defend herself against such demands because she is scared of the club managers and also her limited German holds her back. Once she complains to Attila but he gets angry and threatens her.

Nina is impressed when Attila shows her the “sunny side of life”, and she loves her prince”. She trusts him and believes that she is his only lover. Later she has to realise that Attila plays the same game with other women.

Even when the police arrests Attila and confiscates several hundred thousand Euros Nina stands by him. It is difficult for her to look after her rights, and to claim her part of the money - her earning for one year – with the help of a lawyer.

Swetlana’s Story

The man who is supposed to pick her up at the bus station in Germany does not turn up. She does not speak a word of German and has never heard of the city she arrived to now. Three women, fellow passengers, also waiting to be picked up, approach her. They tell her that the man who is supposed to pick her up owns a strip tease club and treats his girls badly.

Immediately Swetlana figures out that her boss in Latvia must have known this. The women make her anxious, telling her the police would come and put her in jail if she hangs around here at the bus station much longer. So she gets in a VW van together with the three women. At the wheel is a fat blonde lady. She turns out to be the boss of the brothel. She tells Swetlana: “You can stay here and work but you can also leave.” Leave, but where could she go? She is tired, confused and scared. She has no money to call home or to go back. She agrees. “I said to myself I can put up with it until I have earned enough for the return ticket. I had no idea of prostitution. I was so naive.”

Oxana’s Story

“In the beginning when I was about to start work I thought I would be working at a bar. But I was brought to a sauna where I was told to work as a prostitute. It was a big shock for me. It was like snow in summer. We arrived, we alighted and the pimps drove away. It was terrible for me. When I came to the sauna and saw naked men and women I thought that I could surely stay dressed to sit at the bar. Then a woman explained everything to me, and I understood what I had to do here. It was very difficult for me to take. At the beginning I cried and cried. Finally I understood what it meant for me: I do not want to but I have to.”