[ALBSA-Info] Fw: Albania's Lost Girls

[Iris Pilika]

>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Nightline" <listeditor at abcnews.go.com>
>To: "Nightline Mailing List" <nightlinemail-l at alist0.starwave.com>
>Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2001 1:23 PM
>Subject: Albania's Lost Girls
>
>
> > TONIGHT'S SUBJECT: Thousands of young girls disappear from Eastern
> > European countries every year. Many of them end up working as 
>prostitutes
> > throughout Europe. Some are kidnapped, some are enticed with false 
>offers,
> > but one way or the other, they end up in the new slave trade.
> >
> > ----
> >
> > During the Kosovo war, we spent months in Albania, just over the border.
> > We were waiting for the U.S. troops there to enter the war with their
> > helicopter gunships and long-range missiles. They never did. So we had a
> > fair amount of time to look around the country. It is incredibly poor.
> > Albania's communist ruler was eccentric, to say the least. He built tens
> > of thousands of one-man concrete bunkers all over the place, for a 
>Soviet
> > invasion that never came. When the communists were finally thrown out,
> > they left a legacy of poverty, an economy in ruins, a country in chaos.
> > Thousands of people just stand around the main square of the capital all
> > day. They have nothing to do.
> >
> > So it should come as no surprise that any chance to get out, to go
> > somewhere to build a better life, would be really attractive. And
> > unfortunately, that pitch works. Thousands of young women, girls 
>actually,
> > are convinced to leave home. Unfortunately, those promises of a job in
> > another country usually mean prostitution. And worse, many are simply
> > kidnapped, and their families never see them again. They are smuggled
> > across the sea to Italy, a short boat trip, and then literally sold as
> > slaves. You can imagine how they are treated. And they end up in cities
> > all over Europe. Some families have lost more than one daughter. A lucky
> > few escape and make it back home. Others end up dead far from their 
>homes.
> >
> > It's a horrible situation. And it's tough to stop. People in Albania say
> > that organized crime literally runs the country. And there are certainly
> > crime organizations in Italy and throughout Europe. And there is a
> > voracious market, looking for young girls, and willing to pay.
> >
> > How do you stop it? And how do you stop it in a country where the
> > criminals are the ones who have the money, enough to pay off almost
> > anyone? This is one of those stories where you say, "That couldn't
> > possibly be going on. This is 2001." Well the year is right, and it is
> > going on. And it looks like it will keep going on for a long time.
> >
> > Tuesday, May 22, 2001
> >
> > Leroy Sievers
> > Executive Producer
> > Nightline Offices
> > Washington, D.C.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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