Country: Bulgaria

Group: Turks

Date Finalized: 2/28/2022

Team: Rayna Castillo (lead), Nichole Dahlen, Laura Haas, Lacey Hurst,  Amanda Nelson

Content Warning: trafficking, prostitution, sexual assault

Approximate Time Period: 1990s-Current

The actual percentage may vary due to underreporting, but approximately 8.8 percent of the Bulgarian population identifies as Turkish, most residing in rural areas (Minority Rights Group, 2021). During the communist regime, the government targeted Turks and other minorities as part of its nationalist agenda. Consequently, in the post-communist era, an estimated 25% of Bulgarian Turks were unemployed by the mid-1990s (Minority Rights Group, 2021). Their standards of living also worsened, with poverty and social inequality fueling migration and economic desperation, making them targets for sex trafficking (Petrunov, 2014; Minority Rights Group, 2021). Because human trafficking out of Bulgaria also follows migratory patterns, traffickers deceive their victims with the opportunity to leave high-migration areas (Petrunov, 2014). Trafficking is especially concentrated in the capital, resort areas, and border towns (Office to Monitor, 2020). As of 2020, Bulgarian Turks and Roma women and girls accounted for the majority of sex trafficking victims in Bulgaria (Office to Monitor, 2020). While the Bulgarian government has improved its efforts in eliminating trafficking across the country, it still fails to identify trafficking indicators for potential victims. In addition, corruption remains prevalent in its law enforcement and judicial system, resulting in fewer prison sentences against the perpetrators (Office to Monitor, 2020).

Data Quality: The data quality for this evidence is a 3 out of 3 because the evidence is affirmed in both government and peer-reviewed sources.

Sources

  1. Minority Rights Group. (2021, February 5). Turks. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/turks-2/
  2. Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. (2020, December 1). 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report: Bulgaria. U.S. Department of State. Retrieved February 28, 2022, from https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-trafficking-in-persons-report/bulgaria/#:~:text=bulgarians%20of%20turkish%20ethnicity%20and%20romani%20women%20and%20girls%20account%20for%20most%20of%20the%20sex%20trafficking%20victims%20identified%20in%20bulgaria
  3. Petrunov, G. (2014). Human Trafficking in Eastern Europe: The Case of Bulgaria. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 653(1), 162–182. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716214521556