PBS Frontline (a documentary show) this week is re-airing their 2006 show on the sex trade in Europe. Part of the show is dedicated to showing young girls taken from Ukraine and funneled through Turkey to the rest of Europe as sex workers:
Sex Slaves takes us to "ground zero"; of the sex trade – Moldova and Ukraine – where traffickers effortlessly find vulnerable women desperate to go abroad and earn some money.
The film focuses on the remarkable story of Viorel, a Ukrainian man on a mission to find his pregnant, trafficked wife in Turkey. Our hidden cameras follow Viorel as he travels to Turkey; his only lead the telephone number of the pimp who, he believes, has Katia in his possession. To secure his wife’s release, after days of desperate efforts, Viorel poses as a trafficker and sets out to buy his wife back. We follow Viorel to his meeting with Katia’s captor and from there into the world of trafficked women.
Interwoven with Viorel’s story, we meet other victims, traffickers and the families that have been torn apart by the trade in human flesh. Sex Slaves is the first film to have a convicted trafficker talk openly about how trafficking works, and how women are coerced into sexual slavery. With hidden cameras, we watch as traffickers move people across borders with impunity and expose how easy it is to purchase a modern day sex slave.
Check your local listings, it should air tonight at 9PM and tomorrow at 11:30PM. You can also find the show on BitTorrent.