Turkishpress.com
Up to 5,000 Armenian women victims of sex trade: sociologist
Published: 6/7/2006
YEREVAN – Between 3,000 and 5,000 Armenian women were forced into the sex
trade in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates last year, the head of the
country’s association of sociologists said Wednesday.
Guevorg Pogossian said in many cases women who had failed to find work in
the economically disadvantaged southern Caucasian country sought jobs
abroad, and found themselves trapped into prostitution, their passports
confiscated.
Pogossian said the women had become increasingly younger.
“A few years ago they were women aged between 18 and 30, now they are girls
from 14 upwards,” he told AFP.
The US State Department recently criticised the Armenian government for its
failure to combat the flesh trade, the US embassy here said. It noted that
last year the courts only dealt with 30 complaints from alleged victims and
launched prosecutions in just 14 cases