Human traffickers targeting Romania's poor areas
Traffickers in Romania use the so-called "lover boy scheme" to lure their victims, pretending to fall in love with a girl in order to force her into prostitution. Girls who usually think they are escaping Romania's poverty end up being sold abroad.
The demand for prostitution in richer Western countries is proving to be an irresistible money maker for criminals who often sell girls abroad.
Poverty in Romania has led many girls, usually as young as 13, into the hands of sex traffickers. Dreaming of a better future abroad sometimes turns into a nightmare.
Most human trafficking victims come from poor areas and they are often sent in Western countries and forced into prostitution.
Monica Boseff, the manager of Open Door Foundation, the only emergency shelter for trafficked women in the country's capital Bucharest, said that there is nothing that compares to what these girls go through.
Sex traffickers in Romania use the so-called "lover boy scheme" to lure their victims, pretending to fall in love with a girl to force her into prostitution later.
The Anti-Trafficking Unit of the Romanian Police rescues girls and women and arrests traffickers, but it also works on prevention. Its officers regularly go to schools to talk to teenagers about the dangers of human trafficking.
TRT World's Laurentiu Colintineanu reports from Bucharest.
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