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Representatives of Churches and Church-related organisations from Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy and Romania
from 19th to 22nd June 2003 visited Greece for the fifth visit in the context of the project "Christian Action and Networking
against Trafficking in Women (CAT)". The visit was an occasion to examine how Greece is country of transit and destination
in the global context of trafficking in women. Participants of the visit learnt from researchers how in the last decade Greece
has become one of the main countries of destination and transit for trafficked women from neighbouring Balkan countries and
the ex-USSR. They also learnt how widespread trafficking of women into forced prostitution had become - often reaching rural
areas where prostitution had previously not been know. The visit was also an occasion to meet with representatives of organisations,
which are trying to fight trafficking in Greece. They expressed strong hopes that Greek authorities would finally make resources
available for assistance to victims of trafficking when implementing the Greek anti-trafficking law of 2001. So far assistance
to victims of trafficking in Greece is very minimal and exclusively relies on voluntary initiatives by NGOs. In public perception,
trafficking was mainly seen as a part of irregular migration and victims of trafficking rather perceived as criminals then
as persons in need. Representatives of different organisations underlined the need to combat a widespread complicity of society.
On the one hand, police, border guards, courts and other public authorities were called to take appropriate measures against
trafficking and combat corruption. On the other hand, the side of the "demand" for trafficked women deserved more attention:
without the high number of clients using the services of women and children trafficked into prostitution, trafficking would
stop to be a major business. In a summary of their findings, the researchers of, the Reintegration Centre for Migrant Workers
(the Greek CAT partner) concluded: "In order to break the spiral of trafficking it is important to intervene towards all parties
involved: "traffickers, women and clients!".
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