Help for victims of traffickers
The Greek branch of the humanitarian organization Doctors of the World has launched a campaign in cooperation with the Italian non-governmental organization Regina Pacis to help victims of human trafficking in Greece. At a conference yesterday, Prof. Grigoris Lazou of Panteion University presented data indicating that about 30,000 women were brought to or through Greece for the purpose of sexual exploitation every year. Most are from Ukraine and Russia, while local gangs bring women in from Poland and Bulgaria and more recently from Korea and China. Doctors of the World is already caring for five women victims at a safe house. Regina Pacis director Don Cesare Londeserto emphasized the importance of cooperation with local authorities and the embassies of the victims’ countries of origin to help with repatriation. «These women are not criminals but victims, as poverty makes them more vulnerable to traffickers’ promises,» said Nikitas Kanakis, a member of the board of Doctors of the World Greece.
