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Igor Dyomin, deputy head of the Interior Ministry's criminal investigations department, said Tuesday that 17 cases of human trafficking and eight cases of slave labor were registered in 2004.
"But the statistical data we have do not reflect the actual situation, because the latency of such crimes is high," Dyomin told reporters, adding that most victims are women forced into prostitution, Itar-Tass reported.
Anti-trafficking organizations said last year that some 50,000 women and children from Russia and other former Soviet republics are sold into slavery in the United States every year. Other destinations include Turkey, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and China.
Dyomin said the police force did not have enough officers to deal with the problem, and that victims were often scared to turn to the police for help. "These factors make the job significantly more difficult," Dyomin said.
Yulia Sokolova, a coordinator at the Moscow-based NGO Sisters, said another big problem was police officers were often unfamiliar with the law. President Vladimir Putin signed amendments to the Criminal Code into law in December 2003 that provide lengthy prison terms for people convicted of human trafficking. "Police are not entirely familiar with the new law and often end up filing criminal charges according to the old law," she said. "This could be anything from charges of kidnapping to just fraud."
Dyomin also complained that penalties were too lax for sex tourists who prey on minors.
Interior Ministry spokesman Denis Strukov confirmed Wednesday that the criminal investigations department was monitoring sex tourism but declined to elaborate, citing ongoing investigations. In April, U.S. law enforcement officials arrested an American doctor at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport on suspicion of traveling to St. Petersburg to have sex with boys.