Stop Trafficking of People Inc

 Why we created STOP

Elena was a young Romanian girl of 15. One afternoon, as she was leaving school to go home, her life brutally turned into a nightmare. A car stopped abruptly, three men jumped out, pushed her inside and blindfolded her. Elena was frightened to death, and later said that she thought the men were going to kill her.

After what seemed an eternity, the car stopped in front of a building, and the men pushed her inside ruthlessly. About fifteen young girls were already there. They were from Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. Threatening them with a gun, the men ordered them to remove all their clothes.

That day, many men came and went in front of the girls. They felt them, weighed them up. One caught Elena, dragged her into a room and raped her. He told her he "preferred to sample out the goods before buying."

The next day, he brought her to a night club in Bosnia, where she was immediately forced to have sex with clients. On certain nights, she had as many as 17 clients, «to pay back her new owner. » Upon rare occasions, she found the courage to refuse to have sex with those men. Every time, she was violently beaten and drugged up.

Elena was used as a sexual slave for six months. Not once did the UN trafficking teams suspect her presence, despite numerous raids on the nightclub. And for good reason: her "owner" was hiding her.

After her liberation, Elena told us:

« If I had known what was coming, I'd have preferred to be killed. »

Elena was saved by the S.T.O.P. teams (Special Trafficking Operation Program) in 2001. Her testimony was gathered then.