Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation - A Look at Europe

Trafficking
"Increased trafficking of women for prostitution is akin to slavery... women are bought and sold like cattle." (Anita Gradin, European Commissioner, European Race Audit Bulletin No 25, The Institute of Race Relations, London UK, 25 November 1997)
Approximately 500,000 women are annually trafficked into Western Europe. (International Organization for Migration, Michael Specter, "Traffickers’ New Cargo: Naive Slavic Women," New York Times 11 January 1998)
Of 155 cases of trafficked women: 44 were from Central Europe, mainly the Czech Republic and Poland; 64 from Eastern Europe and the CIS, mainly Russia and the Ukraine; and 47 from developing countries, mainly Morocco, Thailand and the Dominican Republic. 3/4 of the women were under 25, and many were teenagers, between 15 and 18, especially among those from Central Europe. (Data by STV: Dutch NGO of women assisted by them in 1994, "Trafficking of Women to the European Union: Characterisitics, Trends and Policy Issues," European Conference on Trafficking in Women, (June 1996), IOM, 7 May 1996)
In several European Union Member States, prostitution has become increasingly dominated by foreign women. In many areas within the European Union the number of migrant prostitutes is . . . . . . . .