Trafficking in human beings for sexual and other purposes - Polisen

3. Criminal Development16because humiliating and sensitive information maybe spread in their home countries or among theircompatriots in the destination country. They mayalso fear reprisals from the perpetrators and feelashamed and guilty about discussing the serious,degrading sexual abuse they have experienced, andwhich has also often been taking place over a lengthyperiod. There are also cases in which a perpetratorinitiates a sexual relationship with the victim, whichmay create an unwillingness in the woman to reporther “partner”. The women will thus be more loyal tothe perpetrators and less inclined to act as a witnessagainst them.The women, who had been subject to human trafficking,or crimes similar to human trafficking, intoSweden in 2011, came from similar backgrounds, asin previous years. It concerned women who had beenprostituted for the first time, or women who had beenexploited in prostitution for many years. Often, thesewere women who came from a poor backgroundwithout basic education or women who came fromcountries in which the labour market is not open tothem or in which there is no functioning social securitynetwork. In these countries of origin, women’srights are often limited or completely non-existent.3.1.3 Modi operandiThe information received by the police in 2011 indicatedthat human traffickers and pimps exploitedtheir victims’ vulnerability to get them to leave theirhome environment. They offered the women attractiveearning opportunities or in some cases a feelingof affinity that the women would find hard to resistbecause of their already vulnerable situation. It wasmost common for women to travel to Sweden afterhaving entered into an agreement with the recruiterwith whom they had got in touch via newspaperadvertisements, the Internet or social media, localrecruitment agencies or frequently through personalcontacts, e.g. within the family.The majority of the women and girls discovered in2011 were aware that they would be exploited in prostitution,but were deceived as regards the actualterms, their living conditions, financial arrangements,the abuse and degree of personal freedom. Fora large proportion of these women, the abuses towhich they were exposed by male sex-purchasers andhuman traffickers had already been normalised,since they had been exploited in prostitution for varyingperiods of time in their home country and/or hadpreviously been subject to sexual abuse. During 2011,in police interviews, Romanian women told how theyhad been bought and sold between pimps and traffickersfor sums ranging between EUR 300-1500.After a purchase of this type, the man making paymenthas complete control over the woman he hasbought.The information also showed that those who werevictims of human trafficking in 2011 were oftenexpected to repay to the traffickers and pimps a sumof money borrowed for travel documents, travelexpenses and other peripheral expenses. This createda debt trap which meant the borrower would never beable to earn enough money to get free of the debt. Thehuman traffickers also usually kept all or most of theincome. The original debt increased since the womenwere expected to pay for various peripheral expensesin the destination country, such as the costs of advertisingand rent for premises, transportation, sanitaryitems, condoms, cleaning and food – a cost liabilitythat the victim may not have been aware of during therecruitment phase.The human traffickers used flights, cars, buses orferries to transport the girls and women to Sweden.They sometimes acquired false passports or passportsbelonging to other people to hide their own realidentity and that of their victims, to circumvent visarequirements or to avoid discovery if a perpetratorwas a wanted person.Once the women arrived in Sweden, they often hadto make their own way to an agreed address, usuallya flat, or else they would be taken there by the perpe-