These are women who believe in the fantasy of a better life in Europe and allow themselves to be seduced by miraculous promises.

"Around 90% of the cases are Brazilian women destined for the sex industry in Europe," observed the coordinator of the Crime Prevention and Drug Supply Reduction Program, Reiner Pugs.

To fight this type of crime, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a decree yesterday, June 28, to institute the National Policy to Combat Human Trafficking.

The guidelines of the document establishing the National Policy to Combat Human Trafficking was discussed in the Office of the Attorney-General of the Republic (PGR), in Brazilian capital Brasí­lia.

Legislative members of the Joint Parliamentary Investigatory Commission on the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents took part in the debate.

The text is a joint effort of the Ministry of Justice, the Special Secretariat of Human Rights, and the Special Secretariat of Women’s Policies.

ABr

The information is part of a study conducted by UNODC and the Brazilian Ministry of Justice, in March and April of 2005.

UNODC points out that the little education has an influence on the victims’ decision. "Recruiters" usually promise good jobs and a consequent life quality improvement.

These first-level traffickers are usually men, between 31 and 41 years old, with good education level. Most of them are entrepreneurs who work at nightclubs, trade businesses, dating agencies, bars, tour agencies, and even beauty parlors.

The main destinations of these women are Spain, Italy, and Portugal. Victims are also sent to Switzerland, Israel, France, Japan, and the United States.

The United Nations office also realized that those responsible for the investigation of international trafficking of women often consider this crime less important than drug trafficking and weapon smuggling, when, in reality, they are all interconnected.

Agência Brasil

This is one of the conclusions of the "National Study on the Trafficking of Women, Children, and Adolescents (Pestraf)," issued Thursday, January 26.

Nevertheless, the data indicate that things have changed for the better in the degree to which people who work in the area of tourism are aware of the problem.

The purpose of the study is to bolster the activities of the Program for the Enhancement of Strategies to Confront the Trafficking of Women, Children, and Adolescents in Brazil, a partnership between the federal government and the International Labor Organization (ILO).

The government is represented by the Ministry of Justice, the national Secretariats of Justice and Public Safety, and the Special Secretariat for Women’s Policies.

According to the coordinator of the program, Márcia Cristini, the program in the Northeast Brazilian state of Ceará is being implemented by the Curumins Association, a non-governmental organization (NGO) responsible for the first major campaign in the entire Northeast against sexual tourism, last year.

The interviews in Ceará covered 50 tourists, both foreign and Brazilian, and 50 professionals, including taxi drivers, hotel receptionists, beach concession operators, street vendors, and craftspeople.

One of the questions was meant to discover how they perceive Brazilians who seek work abroad. Prior to the campaign, none of them associated emigration with recruitment and trafficking for sexual ends.

Subsequent to the campaign, 23% of those interviewed identified this practice as the motive for traveling abroad. The percentage of tourism professionals who had never received information on this topic dropped from 14% to 6%.

The survey also revealed that, for the majority, sexual tourists come mainly from Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Spain, which coincides with the list of countries where most of the visitors to Ceará are from, according to data from the state Department of Tourism.

Cristini recalled that of the 321 routes used for the trafficking of women, children, and adolescents, only 131 are international. The other 190 are located within Brazilian territory. Thus the need to step up surveillance not only in the airports, when flights arrive and depart, but along the highways as well.

Agência Brasil