Sex slaves in the heart of Europe
— whose lives count for nothing. He put a gun to my head and
said: I’m going to shoot you. He took my cellphone and smashed it. I’ll throw you away, he said, and no one will remember you. You never existed! They wanted was to escape poverty. Instead they fell
prey to sex traffickers. I resisted and cried and told
him I didn’t want to do that. Then came the
threats and the brutality. He said he’d tell
everything to my family too. Sold into slavery. Treated as a commodity. They sell sex for less
than a pack of cigarettes. Some women in our district are so
poor they charge just 4 euros for sex. Germany is seen by
many as Europe’s brothel. We meet a woman who’s
looking to change that. Julia Wege is a lifeline to them: Sascha and Eli escaped out of
sex slavery thanks to her help. They’re both from Bulgaria. They grew up in impoverished
conditions in the countryside and each fell in love with a man who promised them a life
in wealthy Germany. It was only when
Sascha arrived here that she realized she’d
have to do sex work. Obviously, I refused. But he threatened to kill me and
said no one would know where I was. He held me captive
for two or three days. Then he put me to work. I’m convinced — now — that he
had actually planned it all along. But when you’re in love you’re just blind to everything
else and don’t realize. The boyfriend model is a common
method used by sex traffickers. Once they’ve got control over the
woman, they beat her into submission. I had to serve at least
15 or 20 clients a day. So, you can reckon
around 50 euros per client. But at the end of the month I was
only given two or three hundred euros, he took everything else, everything. Twenty clients a day, 20 men that she was forced
to have sex with, every day. An unimaginable trauma. As soon as the man
comes into the room, you switch your brain off, in the sense that you’re
not there when it happens, in those 15 -20
minutes... just like that ... you’re not there in that place. It’s like a protection for your mind. Sascha has a one-year-old child and Eli supports her younger
siblings back in Bulgaria. Both now have cleaning jobs. Money is tight, but at least
they’re no longer in sex work. They say without Julia they
would never have escaped. “Amalie” is an advice
and support center for women in sex work
in the city of Mannheim. It runs on public funds
and private donations. Julia Wege set it up
herself seven years ago. At the time, she
faced stiff opposition, because sex workers in
Germany don’t have lobby groups to represent their interests. At first, there were very few
people who saw any point in Amalie. Many couldn’t understand why
sex workers would need help. I think people are more
willing to part with their money when it’s for children
or animals in distress. Amalie gives out food, assists
women in dealing with the authorities, arranges emergency accommodation and helps those who
want to exit the sex trade. Sandra comes here nearly
every day. She loves to cook. Today she’s preparing a dish
from her homeland Jamaica. Here she feels accepted. Since the first day I walked in here — and I arrived with plastic
bags and had nowhere to go — ever since then it’s been
like a miracle, honestly. They take you in here and
treat you like you’re nothing other than the person that you are. Out on the street, she says men
only see one thing in her: a hooker. Sandra herself
was born out of rape. She was conceived when her
own grandfather abused her mother. Later he raped Sandra too. When a person is raped,
their soul is raped too. I struggled with
myself for a long time, whether I was good
enough to be loved or whether I was only
here for this one thing - because I get to know
people but then they use me. And so, it always feels
like prostitution again. Wolfgang Heide is a gynecologist from
the neighboring city of Heidelberg. He works for Amalie once
a week on a voluntary basis. Sandra only does sex
work occasionally now, when she’s especially short of money. She asks Wolfgang Heide
to give her a routine checkup. Everything’s fine. That’s quite unusual. Wolfgang Heide says many
of the sex workers he sees suffer from bleeding,
pain and infections. And then there are
the emotional wounds. These women are very wounded,
they’re carrying a huge burden. Even if they appear normal
and greet you cheerfully, there’s a part of
them that’s deeply sad. They suffer lifelong nightmares,
it’s like something’s broken inside. They’re no longer willing
to commit to a relationship, they don’t trust anyone
and certainly not any men. It’s a destruction of the female soul. He believes it’s not just the
sex traffickers who are to blame, but also those who pay
for the women’s services. I think you have to
approach the clients, so that they realize
what they’re doing. That if they go to these places, they think about the emotional
wrecks they leave behind. These women aren’t machines, it’s not just a bit of fun,
you’re inflicting damage. And it’s not voluntary, they’re basically allowing
themselves to be raped for money. The Mannheim district
of Neckarstadt-West is home to 23,000
people from 160 nations. Many of them
would prefer to leave. There are hardly any jobs, many apartments are
rundown and overpriced. Sex work is actually banned in
this district, but it still goes on. Julia Wege spends a lot of
time out in the neighborhood, seeking to win the women’s
trust. But it’s not easy. They have certain preconceptions
from their home countries, like that you have
to bribe the police, that the police won’t help you. They’re also not familiar with
social work, so it’s very difficult. It can sometimes take
months or even years for a woman to develop
trust in us and really believe, 'I can trust Amalie,
they will help me.' Can we come in? ja ja Sedat Cakir runs a
cafe in the neighborhood. He trusts Julia and the work she does. He’s known this area for 40 years. But when his daughter was born,
he moved his home elsewhere. He says a year ago someone
was murdered right outside his cafe. And the sex work has continued
despite the ban for this district. I think it’s all just a
bit more private now. In the past it was official,
now they do it illegally. That’s the only difference. Business as usual, it’s all still
possible, whether out on the street, or in hotels or private
apartments, no problem. But the coronavirus pandemic
has made a difference. A few streets further on, Mannheim’s red-light
district feels like a ghost town. All the brothels have
been forced to close. Some owners are taking
the opportunity to renovate. There are also fewer clients available
for the women held in slavery. So, many pimps have trafficked
them back to their home countries. Such as Romania. Here, prices are
lower than in Germany, but the sex trade has been
less impacted by the pandemic. Sex work is illegal here, but many police officers
just look the other way or even earn from
the trade themselves. Romania is one of the most
corrupt countries in Europe. But here too there are
people and organizations committed to helping the women. ARAS for example gives out
face masks, tampons and condoms. Mirela has come to stock up. She’s afraid of getting Covid-19. She says many clients still
insist on having unprotected sex. Mirela is 32, she tells us she’s
been doing this job for 10 years, every day and every evening. I just can’t find a job anywhere. I’ve tried to find
employment but it’s useless. Come to an interview, they
say, we’ll call you tomorrow, we’ll get back to you,
but they never do. I’m still on the street. I have nothing to live on otherwise, I have to pay rent and other
necessities, food, clothes. There’s no way out for
me, I have no other income. No alternative to sex work. Dan Popescu from ARAS
says poverty amongst women is a much bigger problem here in
Romania than in western Europe. And if the women
get sent back here, there’s no one to help them because sex work is still a
taboo in Romania, he says. The European Union needs to
take action to support the victims. If they get sent home, they land right back in the
place they left to escape poverty. After all they didn’t leave
because things were OK. So, they’ll go to countries
where sex work is better paid, like Germany, Switzerland,
Belgium or France —or wherever their pimp takes them — where there’s demand
for their services and opportunity to carry them out. Sixty percent of sex workers in Europe
come from Romania and Bulgaria. And nearly half of them are minors. Liliana was still a child when she fell into the
hands of a sex trafficker. Her mother started a new
relationship and gave her to a man who offered her and other
girls to people traffickers. The pimp lined us up in
the middle of the street. There were 13 or 14 of
us I don’t remember exactly. We stood there like chickens. And he asked the guy:
which one do you want? And the other guy pointed to me. I was a minor. A minor. They thought I was about
17 but I wasn’t even 14. He had a passport made
for me with my signature, although it would have
needed my parents’ signature. I was taken to Italy. She was passed from one country
to another, Italy, Hungary, Romania. Years of horror. There were many
terrible moments. The worst moment was when
a gun was put to my head. But it was equally awful
when I was left alone, when no one would
have given a cent for me. When I was beaten. When I went to bed and
then woke up being beaten. And when all those dirty
pigs were allowed to touch me. I don’t know what
was worst in my life. But at the same time all these
experiences have made me stronger. Because I’m a human
being with dignity, I hold my head high
and won’t bow to anyone. In the end, Liliana
was freed by the police and found a place to live
here at "Generatie Tanara”, or “the young generation”. It’s a refuge that was set up by
Mariana Petersel 20 years ago, offering protection and
a way out for sex slaves. She tries to help
them build a new life. It’s very, very
difficult for these girls. They try to start a normal life, but
they still carry a sense of shame, like a stamp on their lives
that says they were sold. They still think, I’m a
“prostitute” or I’m this or that. It’s been said to them so often and they’ve been shamed
and humiliated so many times that they believe it themselves. Even though none of the things that
happened to them were their fault. She gets almost no support
from the Romanian government, but she is getting help from an
unexpected source in Germany. There’s a former police
chief who’s now retired. While in office he worked
with our assistance program and he also encouraged
others to help us. And he still calls us every now and
then to find out how things are going. That police chief is Manfred Paulus. Even though he’s retired, he
still travels to Romania regularly to raise awareness of how sex
work is often driven by poverty. Today he’s meeting with Julia Wege
from Amalie and Marietta Hageney from the human
rights group Solwodi. They discuss their experiences
and plan new projects both in Germany and abroad. After all, sex trafficking
is a European problem. Since 2015, we’ve been going
to eastern Europe every year to spend a week travelling round
schools and educating the children on what life is like in the golden
west, and in Germany in particular. When we ask the
students at the beginning how many of them would
like to go to Germany, Switzerland or Austria
once they finish school, 70 percent raise their hand. And that’s exactly what
organized crime networks exploit, people’s willingness to
migrate to escape poverty and a lack of prospects. I met one woman who
admitted to me in complete shock that she didn’t know
how terrible things are. She said: I thought because
sex work is legal in Germany it can’t be anything terrible. But the reality was very different, she was brutally raped repeatedly and then told what she had to do. They’re caught in this red-light
subculture, much of which is criminal. And other laws apply. It’s very much like the mafia: if you betray them it’s
considered the worst of all crimes. So, to tell others that you’re
not doing sex work willingly, but were forced into it, is one
of the worst forms of betrayal. That’s why when you ask them,
they’re all in the job voluntarily. They insist on it vehemently. He says 90 percent of sex workers
in Germany are forced into the trade. Because the law defines sex
work as a voluntary service, it’s not a criminal act. Manfred Paulus says that
makes it difficult to track down and prosecute those
behind the human trafficking. He says people in Romania and Bulgaria can’t understand Germany’s approach. In all these recruiting countries, people are now very aware of
what happens to the women and girls here in Germany
under the rule of law. They look at it with
amazement, if not contempt. And I don’t think we can afford
to continue this way long-term, and neither should we. Germany is seen as a paradise
for pimps and sex traffickers. Julia Wege and the others
here hope to counteract that by doing prevention work
and raising awareness — through posters like
this one for example. This was done by students at a
school, both boys and girls I think. It’s great that you’ve
brought it along. Maybe it’s an option for Mannheim too. Female students wrote “Not for
Sale” across their own foreheads, to draw attention to the
problem of sex slavery. And to show solidarity with girls
their age in Romania and Bulgaria. The plan is to hang the posters
on building site advertising boards. Manfred Paulus
normally visits Romanian police officer Adrian Vladoiu, but because of the pandemic
an online meeting must suffice. They’ve been meeting for
years and have become friends. And that’s even though they
need a translator to communicate. Have a lot of women come
back to Romania from Germany? The brothels here
have all had to close. Yes they’ve come back, but
they haven’t been registered. So, there are no statistics, they don’t know exactly
how many have returned, but they can see that the number
of sex workers on the streets has increased in Romania. Inspector Adrian Vladoiu
works for the national agency against human trafficking in Brasov. The agency helps victims
of trafficking to press charges and puts them in
contact with aid groups. He too believes the German system
makes life easier for the traffickers. Germany is a special case
because sex work is legal there. As a result, many of these girls appear to
be pursuing legal employment, even though they’re actually
victims of human trafficking. But on the face of it,
they’re employees of a club. Sex work is a lucrative
business for organized crime. Human beings cost less
than drugs or firearms. And you can sell them not just
once, but repeatedly, every day. Mariana Petersel is
constantly out and about. Today she’s looking for a girl
that was trafficked to Germany but is now said to
be back in Romania. We leave the city of Timisoara
and head out into the countryside. I want to show you what it’s like
to grow up in a rural area here. So that you see how these
children live in the countryside, these girls and young women... So you can how much
pressure they’re under and why they choose to
become dependent on traffickers and agree to do these
things and become a part of it. Romania and Bulgaria are among the poorest countries in
the European Union. In the countryside especially, the level of education is low
and unemployment rates high. Women here in these rural
areas have few prospects. And in some cases that makes
them easy prey for traffickers. The girl she’s looking
for is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps she’s still
in Germany after all. But Mariana
Petersel won’t give up, even though it often
feels like a losing battle. Back in Germany, at
the support center Amalie, they’re giving out food today. "Hallo“ "Guten Tag“, Guten Tag. The women who come here
all do sex work in the local area. We’ve had stuff donated. You
can take some with you if you want. The women come from
countries like Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and Moldova — Europe’s poor houses. Ninety percent of the sex
workers in Germany are migrants. Many of them work
illegally, have no apartment, no health insurance
and are not registered. Julia Wege has known
some of them for years. Here in our neighborhood, we have a lot of women who
work for extremely low prices. For some of them
it’s still a lot of money, but they have to serve
a huge number of clients. I’ve met some women who
had up to 40 clients a day. Cafes and bars normally serve as
a place to make contact with clients. But even they are closed right now. Still, business can continue online. Sandra knows all
the relevant platforms — like “Ladies”,
“Sugardaddy” or “BuyMe”. Meetings are even arranged
on Facebook or WhatsApp. When you go on one of these platforms,
some people will write to ask: Can you visit me? Do you
have Facebook or WhatsApp? Can I see pictures of you? And when you ask
what kind of pictures, they want to see you
naked and things like that. You can then see who was
interested in your photos. And either they then write
to you or you write to them. And so, the sex work — and in many
cases the exploitation — continues. There’s not much the police can do. So, they’re changing tack, trying to get into conversation
with the sex workers and win their trust, partly
with the help of Amalie. The city’s police chief
comes to the center in person. Andreas Stenger
spent years investigating cases of sexual exploitation and understands the issues. Together they hope to persuade
more women to exit the trade. The pandemic is an opportunity. I’m amazed that so many
women are daring to quit now. We’re currently helping
13 women who’ve realized they can’t bear it anymore
and want something new. When we have
women wanting to stop, who are also willing to
talk about their experience, it’s important to me that
they know they can trust us. We need their testimony
to get to the traffickers who are earning a
fortune out of their misery. And Germany’s prostitution
act hasn’t helped us. Under German law, sex workers
are considered service providers, just like nurses. Stenger says the change
in law was well meant. But he too says that
legalizing the trade has made it more difficult
to catch the criminals. The two of them also agree that more focus needs to be
placed on the role of the clients. Obviously they’re partly to
blame for the women’s plight too. And we know that because
the prices have plummeted, because of all the women
coming from abroad whose services cost so
little, anyone can afford it. I’m always amazed how many
young men also use these services. We need to move more towards
the Scandinavian approach, where clients are prosecuted if they’re known to
have visited sex workers that were coerced into the job. They’re called to account
and face criminal charges. In Sweden, paying for sex has
been illegal for more than 20 years and has become increasingly
unacceptable socially. The law there targets the
clients, but not the sex workers. In Germany on the other hand, sex work is legal and subject to social and
health insurance contributions just like any other job. That gives the impression of fair
pay and protection for the workers. But in reality, 90
percent of the estimated 400,000 sex workers in
Germany are not registered. Julia Wege has taken a stand against
the sexual exploitation of women. Through Amalie, she’s built up
a network that can free women from sexual slavery
and offer them a new life, with a place to live and a job
where they’re not exploited. I’m happy to get involved in areas where others prefer
to look the other way. And when I see the
women who’ve left the trade or those who come
here with their children, there are so many wonderful
moments that prove to me it’s worthwhile working
in this part of Mannheim, and thinking every day of new
ideas that I can put into practice, of how I can win
over more supporters, or make the best
use of volunteers. We’ve been able to do a
lot over the last few years. Sascha and Eli are just
two of the beneficiaries. Thanks to Amalie, they’ve
escaped a life of slavery. They’ll never forget the
trauma they experienced, but at least they
have their dignity back. People at Amalie have shown
me that women have rights too, that you can always fight back and
that you can seek help from others. They made me strong, by
showing me that they stand with me, and have my back.
Moldova, Kosovo Albanian, and Ukrainian women dominate the demographic of exploitation now like the Romanian/Polish used to 20odd years ago.
Its heartbreaking. I met a few in Germany that told me they've left their villages, had their passports taken away at 16-17 and after they even got free they had no skills or affinity for other work so they just kept doing sex work.
Poverty is a huge problem.
Low education is a huge problem.
Unemployment is a huge problem.
Forced prostitution, drug trafficking, theft ... all of that would be half as bad, if we could solve the first three problems. Thinking of what happened in Greece a couple of years ago during the financial crisis, I don't think we're anywhere near solving those problems.
I don't think the swedish model is the solution. Universal basic income on the other hand, would allow people to at least live without having to do anything illegal or debasing.
Better schools and actively fighting cultures in which women are married off as minors and taken out of school as kids would help too.
Work for those who want to work would be great. Instead young black men are dealing drugs in my country, because immigrants can't legally work until all their paperwork has been processed and they can get a work permit. Give them government sponsored jobs or give them temporary work permits. That would imo change something.
One of the saddest things that I've seen was around when the pandemic was gaining traction was in relation to onne of the victim's statement within this documentary as it resonated with me, and that's she mentioned her abuser was telling her that no one would remember her if she disappeared and that she never existed. When the Governor within my state issued out restrictions to protect my city from the pandemic, there were many women still walking the streets when everyone was seeking cover. Nobody was helping them with anything, not even the police or pro women groups. At this time a shelter or even a form of welfare could've been helpful for those human beings who were homeless and poor. The pimp just orbited around from a distance like a satellite and again, nobody cared, not even the police.
Two adults agreeing to explore their fetishes I can understand, but there's nothing classy about exploiting an homeless person straight off from the sidewalk and into a car, and one that's brutally abused by a leech. At times I wished some of these victims would just run as far as they can after seeking help from law enforcement. But the system is flawed as resources drives it and some witnesses, or their family members aren't protected for life.
When you fall into a desperate situation such as this, insanity and evil is tempting, and at times I can understand why some people want to see the world burn. There are a few out there who take their mask off and embrace a kind of evil that allows them to take the trash off the streets, and at times I wished the police would ignore the murders of certain pimps and gang members, but even the police and government members contribute to the slave system.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ex-nypd-charged-pimping-hookers-arrested-article-1.2746002
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/report-dea-agents-had-sex-parties-with-prostitutes-hired-by-drug-cartels/2015/03/26/adb2d53e-d3bd-11e4-8fce-3941fc548f1c_story.html
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/seattle/press-releases/2010/se072310.htm
Trends also makes it hard to differentiate what is abuse and what is a trend, while some women are pushing to empower younger women by emphasizing on education, dressing differently, and breaking away from objectification. Others are doing the opposite which is also a form of empowerment. Things like dressing skimpy, taking molly, and twerking have gain a lot traction over the years which provides a form of camouflage for some exploiters who roam around the club scenes.
One good example for this contradiction is Belle Knox who majored in Women's Studies and Sociology , and considers herself a sex positive feminist and libertarian. Some of her work would shock a lot of feminists.
One thing to keep in mind is that this problem is one has been there for countless millenniums. Conquerors, wars, opportunists, and poverty tend to accelerate the process.Another thing to always keep in mind is that not all sex workers are women, slaves, uneducated, poor, or are abused. Not all pimps are men, abusers, or evil. Even system admins, the educated, the wealthy are turning into pimps. Some groups are family who were looking for means to support each other because a certain system isn't working for them, and that's their means of survival.
I believe there should be more legitimate resources available that would allow and encourage those who are abused to step forward and allow them to never look back or have to worry about their safety. Some people can't overcome certain trauma and fear, and that alone empowers the monsters who want to control them and treat them as anything but a human being.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-nyc-gang-members-sex-trafficking-prostitution-20201223-4wnuhc2shfdblhdane7otdobyq-story.html
If the USA is any example... making prostitution illegal (which seems To be the idea behind this doc) won’t make a difference. It’ll just make these same people criminal sex slaves who take the rap while pimps get off Scott-free.
It’s about time for some harsh punishment for the pimps/trafficers.... it must be somehow possible to lure these women into freedom with the guarantee that their ‘owners’ are forced to pay for their living for a certain period of time if they name them to the authorities. They already earned it anyway.
It's crazy we see these dramatic documentaries about exploiting poor women in Europe, but people go to Latin America and think its a "normal" part of our society so they are much more comfortable doing it there.
Pretty traumatic. There's some good work being done, to rescue some of these painfully young women.
When did DW news appear on the scene? It's really good.
Unpopular Opinion, but prostitution is as old as humans and guess what happens when you make things that humans crave illegal? Black Market (sometimes I wonder if this is why things are illegal).
Take away the demand, instead of increasing it.