Israel's sex trade booming

[CENTRO ANTI-BLASFEMIA]

Israel's sex trade booming


Human trafficking in Israel rakes in more than USD billion a year,
findings in annual parliamentary survey show

By Miri Hasson Published: 03.23.05, 12:44 / Israel News





TEL AVIV - Thousands of women are being smuggled into Israel, creating
a booming sex trade industry that rakes more than USD one billion a
year, a parliamentary committee said on Wednesday.



The Parliamentary Inquiry Committee, headed by Knesset member Zehava
Galon of the left-wing Yahad

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party, commissioned the report in an effort to combat the sex trade in
Israel. Findings showed that some 3,000 and 5,000 women are smuggled
to Israel annually and sold into the prostitution industry, where they
are constantly subjected to violence and abuse.



The report, issued annually, said some 10,000 such women currently
reside in about 300 to 400 brothels throughout the country. They are
traded for about USD 8,000 – USD 10,000, the committee said.



The U.S. State Department ranks Israel in the second tier of human
trafficking around the world, saying the Jewish State does not
maintain minimal conditions regarding the issue but is working to
improve them.



Israel passed a law in 2003 that would allow the state to confiscate
the profits of traffickers, but watchdog groups say it is rarely
enforced.



Most foreign prostitutes in Israel come from Ukraine, Moldova,
Uzbekistan and Russia and many are smuggled in across the Egyptian
border.



The committee found that the women work seven days a week for up to 18
hours every day and that out of the NIS 120 paid by customers, they
are left with just NIS 20, while the rest of the money is passed on to
their traders.




The prostitutes face constant threats of abuse and murder, the report
said, and Israeli law does little to help them. Delays in trial dates
and prolonged hearings force the women to remain exposed to violence
for more than a year until they are called in to provide testimony,
and courts rarely collect early testimonies, as permitted by law.



To help combat the problem, the committee recommended that the state
prosecutor's office refrain from making plea bargains with sex
traders. It also advised to raise the threshold of punitive measures
and pushed for financial compensation for sex trade victims.



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