WEEK 43 Oct 14th to 20th 2002

   3000 BALTIC WOMEN SOLD AS SEX SLAVES EVERY YEAR

   The Lithuanian minister of interior says that 3000 women from Baltic countries are sold each year as sex-slaves in the west, and that half of them are from Lithuania. During a conference about sexual slavery in Lithuania Igoris Bazylevas said that the number is increasing heavily and that organizations and singular operators in the business are "improving their methods".
   - The business is one of the fastest growing in the world, he stated. - It happens all over the world and is very profitable. During the first nine months this year we have started nine court proceedings based on slave trading, but it is just a drop in the ocean.
   In Germany in 2001 it was discovered at least 119 victims directly tied to the slave trade.