November 18, 2002 - 22:28 AMT
ACCORDING TO OFFICIAL DATA, 59 ARMENIAN CITIZENS SUFFERED TRAFFICKING
At present, the Armenian official organizations have data about 59 Armenian women suffering trafficking. Armenian Sociologists Association chair Gevorg Poghosian has stated that today at the Yerevan seminar dedicated to the trafficking issues. According to him, the trafficking victims usually avoid contacts with the representatives of the official organization, so the real number of victims might by over 500 people. Gevorg Poghosian called Middle East, in particular Turkey, the United Arabian Emirates and Lebanon "the risk zone". Single instances of trafficking of humans to Poland, Bulgaria and Greece were also recorded. According to the coordinator of the RA inter-department commission for trafficking issues Lyalya Aslanian, the main problem is that the population is not informed enough of the dangers, that they are exposed to when trying find jobs through not reliable mediators.