INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1

METHODOLOGY .................................................................... 3

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AFFECTING TRAFFICKED WOMEN IN ISRAEL'S SEX INDUSTRY

............................................................................ 4

Enslavement and deprivation of liberty .............................................. 4

Violence against trafficked women ................................................. 4

CASES ............................................................................. 5

Anna's story .................................................................. 5

Tatiana's story ................................................................. 6

Valentina's story ............................................................... 6

Nina's story ................................................................... 7

STATE RESPONSIBILITY UNDER INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW ................... 8

ISRAELI GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS AND TRAFFICKED WOMEN FROM FSU COUNTRIES

............................................................................ 9

Relevant criminal legislation ..................................................... 10

Laws relating to arrest, detention and deportation ..................................... 11

Arrest and deportation in practice ................................................. 11

Law enforcement .............................................................. 13

Forcible return ................................................................ 15

To date, however, there is no universally accepted definition of "trafficking in persons", let alone of "trafficking" of women for work in the sex industry. Much of the data reported through various channels about trafficking of women for work in the sex industry is anecdotal and difficult to.

2 According to the Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, submitted to the 56 th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights: "The United States State Department recently claimed that 50,000 women are reportedly trafficked into the United States each year. The International Organization for Migration has been cited as estimating that 500,000 women are trafficked into Western Europe alone. The United Nations has estimated that 4 million persons are trafficked each year. Such figures are unreliable, however. Because of the underground nature of trafficking, reliable statisticsare difficult, if not impossible, to collect. Further, the lack of a clear definition of trafficking poses a further limitation in the compilation of figures or statistics. Often, both governmental and non-governmental sources treat undocumented immigrants as one category irrespectiveof whether such immigrants were smuggled or trafficked." E/CN.4/2000/68, para. 72

3 Sources: Sietske Altink, "Stolen Lives - trading women into sex and slavery", Scarlet Press, London, 1995 and "Trafficking and Prostitution: The Growing Exploitation of Migrant Women from Central and Eastern Europe", International Organization for Migration, 1995, at

http://www.iom.int/IOM/Publications/books_studies_surveys/MIP_traff_women_eng.htm, Chapter Two.

document.

The magnitude of trafficking in persons as a global phenomenon is also highly contested.2

Nevertheless, with respect to trafficking of women, the following elements are not contested:

• each year, women constitute a large proportion of the overall number of people trafficked, that is transferred within or across national borders from their place of habitual residence;

• women are trafficked world-wide, primarily from South to North, but also increasingly from South to South; trafficking in women has been reported from Latin America to southern Europe and the Middle East, from south-east Asia to the Middle East and central and northern Europe, from South America to North America and Europe, and from eastern Europe to western Europe; there are signs of a "new" wave of women trafficked for work in the sex industry from countries of the FSU to the Middle East;3

• the illicit movement of women takes place at the hands of "traffickers", loosely defined as people profiteering from organizing, carrying out or otherwise facilitating the illicit transit of persons;

• the majority of trafficked women find themselves trapped in debt bondage, servitude or slavery-like conditions as a result of being trafficked;

• one of the reasons ultimately driving trafficking in women is demand for their employment -- be it "voluntary" or "coerced" -- in the sex industry;

• many of the women trafficked for work in the sex industry are subjected to human rights abuses directly resulting from being trafficked;

• there is evidence that the fewest trafficking-related human rights abuses occur at the women's places of habitual residence, while such abuses often commence at transit locations, and they

become more prevalent at the final destination;

• trafficking in women reaps huge financial profits to the traffickers and has, therefore, seen an ever-increasing involvement on the part of international organized crime; and finally,

• since trafficking of women was placed on the international agenda as a global phenomenon in the early 1990s, governmental and intergovernmental responses have been inadequate, and in the main, have focussed on combatting organised crime without paying sufficient attention to supporting trafficked women's specific needs, and developing strategies for preventing, investigating, punishing and providing adequate remedies for human rights abuses committed against trafficked women as a result of their being trafficked..

3 Human rights abuses of women trafficked from countries of the FSU into Israel's sex industry
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Pursuant to its mandate, Amnesty International wishes to draw attention first and foremost to the human rights abuses to which trafficked women are subjected in the context of trafficking.

In April and May 1999, a delegation consisting of representatives of Amnesty International's International Secretariat and Amnesty International - Israel conducted a research mission to investigate the situation in Israel of women trafficked from FSU countries. During their visit Amnesty International's delegates received extensive access to government officials and held meetings with various officials in the Israeli Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, Neve Tirza Prison and the Israel Police, as well as officials working in the Russian Consulate. The delegates received permission to interview a number of trafficked women detained in Neve Tirza Prison. The delegates also met with individuals working in non-governmental organizations, such as the Israel Women's Network and the Hotline for Foreign Workers in Detention, who work with or on behalf of trafficked women in Israel. In March 2000, Amnesty International wrote to Ehud Barak, the Prime Minister, Yossi Beilin, the Minister of Justice, Nathan Sharansky, the Minister of the Interior, and Shlomo Ben-Ami, the Minister of Public Security, raising its concerns about human rights abuses perpetrated in Israel against women trafficked from FSU countries to work in Israel's sex industry. At the time of writing this report, no response had been received from these officials..

Although official statistics are not available, it is widely believed that in the past few years thousands of women, including some girls, from FSU countries have been trafficked to Israel to work in the sex industry. Under Israeli laws, virtually all these women are illegal aliens. They are in Israel without work permits or with false documents, which makes them particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses at the hands of traffickers, pimps and others involved in Israel's sex industry. Amnesty International has received many reports of trafficked women being subjected to various human rights abuses, such as enslavement and other restrictions on their liberty, as well as torture, including rape and other forms of sexual abuse.

Amnesty International has received information indicating that in many instances women trafficked from FSU countries are literally bought and sold for large sums of money, often in auctions where they are purchased by the highest bidder. Some are held in debt bondage where they are forced to work to pay off large sums of money. Some women are kidnapped against their will in FSU countires or are lured to Israel under false pretences, and brought to work in the sex industry. Their "owners" restrict their movements in order to prevent them from leaving. There are many reports of women being imprisoned by their "owners" in locked houses and apartments and prevented from going out unaccompanied. There are also frequent reports of trafficked women's passports and other travel documents being taken away by their "owners" in order to prevent them from leaving the country. In some cases, the misappropriation by "owners" of the women's means of identification is also used to force them into the sex industry.

Violence against trafficked women

Women trafficked to Israel are frequently either threatened with or subjected to violence, including rape

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In the course of its visit to Israel in April and May 1999, an Amnesty International delegation visited Neve Tirza Prison and interviewed several women, including four who were being held in connection with their involvement in the sex industry and were awaiting deportation to FSU countries. As the following cases show, the response of the authorities has frequently compounded the problem by treating trafficked women who are subjected to human rights abuses as criminals and illegal aliens, rather than as victims of these abuses.

All names have been changed to protect the identities of the women involved.

"I don't know the outcome of the trial. I only know that Arthur [the pimp] is at liberty. I talked to him on the phone. When the police arrested us they did not allow us to take our things with us, so they are still there. Arthur knows my address in St Petersburg and my telephone number because he kept my passport. I have a small daughter, eight years old there. He threatened that he would find me in Russia, at home, if I did not do what he wanted me to."

Anna, a 31-year-old physics teacher from St Petersburg in the Russian Federation arrived in Israel on a tourist visa in October 1998. She had been lured to Israel by the promise of a job earning US$1,000 a month, 20 times her salary in the Russian Federation. The Israeli national who had offered her the job made it clear that she would be involved in the sex industry, but promised her good working conditions. She was completely unprepared for the treatment that awaited her. Anna was met at the airport and taken to an apartment. Her passport was taken from her and she was locked in the apartment with six other women from FSU countries. She was auctioned twice. On the second occasion she was bought for US$10,000 and taken to work in Haifa, where she was held together with two other women. The apartment in which she was held had bars on the windows. The women were rarely allowed to leave the apartment and never allowed out alone. Much of the money that they earned was taken from them in "fines", money extorted from them by their pimps. In March 1999 Anna was arrested for involvement in prostitution after a police raid on the apartment where she was being held. In court the police alleged that Anna had signed statements admitting to involvement in prostitution -- but all the documents were in Hebrew, a language Anna neither reads nor writes. She later discovered that she had been accused of running a brothel. Anna was held at the Kishon detention centre for almost a month awaiting deportation. During that time she was not allowed to talk to the Russian Consul. The reason for her detention was apparently that the authorities wanted her to testify against the pimp. But the authorities never told Anna this or asked for her consent to act as a witness.

Tatiana's story.

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Tatiana arrived in Israel from Belarus in April 1998 on a tourist visa. She had been promised a job working 12 hours a day as a cleaner in a hotel in the resort of Eilat. She was told the job would pay her enough to support her mother and her six-year-old son.

Tatiana was met in Eilat by a man pretending to be from the hotel where she was to be employed. He took her to a brothel, where she was forced to work in the sex industry against her will and told that she would have to repay her "sale price" and the travel costs.

Tatiana made various plans to escape. She was finally released from the brothel after a police raid -- a friend of hers had contacted the Belarus Consulate who contacted the police. Tatiana was taken into custody as an illegal immigrant and detained in Neve Tirza Prison awaiting deportation.

Three days after her arrest, Tatiana found an anonymous note on her prison bunk threatening to kill her and punish her family if she spoke out about what had happened to her. Tatiana wanted to testify against her captors in Eilat, but she was terrified that if she did so and was returned to Belarus the traffickers would meet her at the airport or come to her home, since they knew all her passport details and the address of her family.

A petition was made to the Chief of Police explaining that if Tatiana had no protection it would be unreasonably dangerous for her to testify in court. He replied that the Israel Police could not guarantee anyone's safety outside Israel and offered only "minimal protection" for Tatiana. She testified in June 1999 and was deported later that same month. Despite her request that she be flown to Poland or Lithuania and then allowed to cross into Belarus by car, the Israeli authorities deported her directly to Belarus. She was reportedly met by a male relative and taken to an unknown location. Tatiana's fate after that is unknown.

"I had a nervous break-down. I wanted to escape from this place and asked a client to help me. He turned out to be one of them and I was beaten up by the owners. There was nowhere to run -- there were bars on the windows and bodyguards all the time, day and night."

Valentina, a 27-year-old psychologist and a social worker, arrived in Israel in August 1998 from Moldova. She believed she was going to work as a company representative. Her travel and visa were arranged by the Israeli national who had offered her the job. Valentina was met at the airport and taken to a hotel. The following day her money, passport and return ticket were taken from her and she was taken to an apartment where she was held for two months.

"The conditions were terrible. One girl was kept to work in the basement for eight months.

It was damp there and she got tuberculosis as a result. Most of the girls had different diseases -- venereal and others related to their reproductive organs. I do not wish even to my enemies to go through what we went through.".

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4 Yediot Aharonot, 23 May 1999.
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Valentina eventually succeeded in escaping with another woman by jumping from the first floor of an apartment building. The women returned to the brothel in order to help another friend to escape and were caught up in a police raid on the apartment. Valentina was arrested in March 1999 for not having proper documents or a visa. Although she was pleased that the police had raided the brothel, she was afraid to testify against the man who sold her to the brothel owners because he knew the whereabouts of her family in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Consul visited her only once following her arrest. Valentina did not know how long the Israeli authorities intended to hold her or when she would be allowed to go home.

"I want to go home but it is possible the trial [of X, the man accused of raping her] may not happen for six months. I also want to make sure that X ... goes to prison."

"Deportation orders are not intended for keeping witnesses in detention. Foreigners without permits are only detained so that they leave Israel and do it quickly."
Batya Karmon, head of the Department of Aliens and Visas at the Ministry of the Interior 4 :

"She is a criminal. She resided in Israel without a permit. It was obvious that she would not testify if she was not detained."
Moshe Nissan, Haifa Police Spokesperson

Nina, a 19-year-old from Minsk in Belarus, arrived in Israel in late 1998 on a tourist visa. She knew that she would be working in the sex industry, but had been promised good working conditions. After about three months working in a brothel in Haifa, she was abducted at gunpoint, "sold" for US$1,000, beaten and raped. She escaped and returned to the first brothel in an attempt to earn enough money to pay for her flight back to Belarus.

Nina was arrested by the police in a raid on a massage parlour in Tel Aviv in March 1999. She was imprisoned in Neve Tirza Prison on the basis of a deportation order issued by the Ministry of the Interior. However, even though she had a valid passport and a ticket, she was not deported because the Haifa District Attorney's Office issued an order prohibiting her from leaving Israel to ensure that she testified in a criminal case being brought against the three men who had abducted and raped her.

She was finally deported in June 1999 after having been held in Neve Tirza for more than two months.

Nina's plight was brought to the attention of various Israeli officials by the Hotline for Foreign< Workers in Detention and reached the pages of the Israeli daily Yediot Aharanot in May 1999. Various government officials interviewed by the newspaper denied responsibility for her detention. A prosecutor from the Office of the State Attorney in Haifa commented: "I didn't know that the girl was detained until the Hotline contacted me. I will make every effort to have her finish her testimony in one day so she can be released.".

8 Human rights abuses of women trafficked from countries of the FSU into Israel's sex industry

5 The Human Rights Committee is a body of independent experts established pursuant to Article 28 of the ICCPR to monitor compliance with and implementation of the provisions of the Covenant by States Parties.

6 General Comment 20, Article 7 (Forty-fourth session, 1992).

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STATE RESPONSIBILITY
UNDER INTERNATIONAL
HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

Under international human rights law, states are responsible for protecting people against human rights abuses by private persons. Such responsibility is enshrined in all the core human rights treaties. For example, Article 2(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) requires a state party to ensure to all individuals within its territory the rights guaranteed in the Covenant, an obligation which, according to the Human Rights Committee, extends to protecting against acts inflicted by people acting in their private capacity.5 In this connection, under international law, states are required to exercise due diligence in preventing, investigating, prosecuting and providing an effective remedy for human rights abuses committed by private individuals. If the state fails to do so, it will be regarded under international law as having responsibility for these abuses, and therefore deemed to have violated its international obligations.

With respect to the deprivation of liberty, violence and enslavement to which women trafficked to Israel have been subjected, several provisions in international human rights instruments are relevant. Article 7 of the ICCPR, which Israel ratified in 1991, states that no one should be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Human Rights Committee has stated in its General Comment 20, an authoritative interpretation of Article 7 of the Covenant, that "[i]t is the duty of the State party to afford everyone protection through legislative and other measures as may be necessary against the acts prohibited in Article 7, whether inflicted by people acting in their official capacity, outside their official capacity or in a private capacity" [emphasis added].6 In addition, Article 8 of the Covenant prohibits slavery and Article 9 guarantees the right to liberty and security of person.

Article 6 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, also ratified by Israel in 1991, states: "States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution".

ISRAELI GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS
AND TRAFFICKED WOMEN FROM FSU COUNTRIES

The Israeli government has failed to take adequate measures to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish human rights abuses committed against trafficked women. In general, trafficked women are effectively treated as criminals by the various Israeli agencies with whom they come in contact, rather than as victims of human rights abuses. This is so even though many of them have been subjected to.

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97 CCPR/C/79/Add.93 Concluding Observations/Comments, adopted on 28 July 1998, para. 16.

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Human rights abuses such as enslavement or torture, including rape and other forms of sexual abuse, by traffickers, pimps or others involved in Israel's sex industry. Trafficked women come into contact with many different Israeli governmental agencies, but there appears to be no coherent governmental policy to combat these human rights abuses. In meetings with Amnesty International's delegates, government officials expressed concern about the plight of trafficked women. But, except in the case of the Department of Criminal Legislation in the Ministry of Justice, most agencies had not apparently developed policies to combat these abuses (see section on criminal legislation below).

The Human Rights Committee commented on the treatment of trafficked women in its examination of Israel's initial report on implementation of the ICCPR.7 The committee stated that it: "regrets that women brought to Israel for the purposes of prostitution, many of whom are brought as a result of false pretences or coercion, are not protected as victims of trafficking but are likely to bear the penalties of their illegal presence in Israel by deportation. Such an approach to this problem effectively prevents these women from pursuing a remedy for the violation of their rights under article 8 of the Covenant. The Committee recommends that serious efforts be made to seek out and punish the traffickers, to institute rehabilitation programmes for the victims and to ensure that they are able to pursue legal remedies against the perpetrators".