Country: Albania
Group: Roma
Date Finalized: 3/14/2022
Team: Nichole Dahlen (Lead), Rayna Castillo, Laura Haas
Content Warning: Sex-trafficking, forced child labor, sexual exploitation
Approximate Time Period: 1990s-today
The World Bank and U.S. Department of State published separate reports citing human trafficking as a significant concern impacting the Roma in Albania (De Soto, 2005; U.S. State Department, 2021). Additionally, the Minority Rights Group reported that child trafficking in Albania disproportionately affects the Roma and Egyptian communities.
The World Bank attributes the Roma’s worsening living conditions to the fall of socialism (Minority Rights Group, 2021). Today, the Roma experience widespread discrimination; “high illiteracy, particularly among children; poor health conditions; lack of education; and marked economic disadvantage” (Minority Rights Group, 2021). As their experience limits their prospects in the formal job market, the Roma often rely on migration to find employment. Reliance on migration leaves women and children vulnerable to trafficking, especially when they lack the means to migrate legally (Minority Rights Group, 2021). Further, many Roma lack birth certificates, often making legal migration and formal employment difficult, even impossible, to achieve (Minority Rights Group, 2021).
Child trafficking is common in Albania. It includes both the renting and selling of children into sex work or informal labor (De Soto, 2005). Roma often traffic their own children because they possess limited other means of making money. In fact, in most cases of child trafficking, the parents are involved to some extent (Feuk, 2003). Sometimes, girls are lured into sex work with fake marriage proposals. In these cases, the girl’s family is typically involved in creating the sex work contract (De Soto, 2005; Feuk, 2003; U.S. Department of State, 2021). Traffickers frequently use children aged 6-10 by making them beg or perform street activities like “selling roses, washing car windows, and playing an instrument” (Feuk, 2003). Traffickers also force children into hard labor including cannabis cultivation and Chromium mine scavenging (U.S. Department of State, 2021;U.S. Department of Labor, 2020).
High levels of trafficking continue today (U.S. Department of State, 2021). However, the Albanian government and the World Bank created a plan to improve the Roma’s standard of living and decrease their vulnerability to trafficking (Minority Rights Group, 2021). In 2021, the US State Department claimed Albania was making “significant effort” to eliminate trafficking by increasing services to government-run shelters and by prosecuting traffickers (U.S. State Department, 2021). Further, the Ministry of Justice launched the Integrated System of Data on Justice for Children, which “allows parties throughout the national justice system to coordinate on cases related to children in conflict with the law, including child labor” (U.S. Department of Labor, 2020). However, in many ways, they are failing to meet standards. Not only did the Albanian government fail to convict traffickers, but they also cut funding for NGO-operated shelters (U.S. Department of State, 2021). Additionally, child labor is not explicitly illegal by Albanian law and the funds necessary to find and report cases of child labor are limited (U.S. Department of Labor, 2020).
Data Quality: The data quality for this report is rated at 3/3. Multiple international studies and reports from reliable sources document and describe Roma’s living conditions, discrimination, and human trafficking in Albania.
Sources:
- De Soto, H., Beddies, S., & Gedeshi, I. (2005). Roma and Egyptians in Albania. World Bank Working Papers. https://doi.org/10.1596/0-8213-6171-6
- Feuk, R. (2003). (rep.). ODIHR CPRSI assessment trip to Albania on trafficking in children from Roma and Egyptian communities. OSCE ODIHR.
- Minority Rights Group (2021). Roma. Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/roma/
- U.S. Department of Labor (2020). Child labor and forced labor reports: Albania. Retrieved March 15, 2022, from https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/albania
- U.S. Department of State (2021, August 5). Albania – United States Department of State. Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-trafficking-in-persons-report/albania/