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Q: Tell us how it all started...
Elena: I was a waitress in a dance club in Tutrakan. My boyfriend came one evening and told me my mother asked me to see my father in Sofia. I was happy about the idea to see my father. Two other guys have been there. I never saw them before, but my boyfriend said said they are his fellows. That they are from abroad... Afterworks in the evening I drove with them. From Ruse to Sofia. One of the guys accompanied me. In the evening I was talking with him and wanted to know his name...
Q: When did you find out the truth...?
Elena: After we arrived in Sofia, he told me, it makes no sense to lie to me anymore - "I better tell you straight: you go to Greece. Your boyfriend sold you." I couldn't believe what was happening. I was standing around, looking stupid, couldn't get away... He brought me in his apartment, locked me in and told me he'll come next morning. Next day he came and told me the thing got postponed few days. In the evening he came again, put me in a car and we drove to Sandanski. On our way we changed cars. In Sandanski there was another man who didn't allow me to speak, to ask him anything. I stayed there for two days.
Q: How was the trip to Greece then?
Elena: In the evening of the 17. february they told me we had to go. They brought me to a house close to Kulata. I spent there an half hour - then we went. Outside we waited for the guard change on the border - to bring me over. The guy who was there all the time in Sandanski talked with the guide - he told him to keep an eye on me. There have been also two Kurds with us. I asked one guide few things. He said: "You stay close to me and do not say anything". I asked him about his name. "Ivantsho", he said...
Q: On the border itself, suddenly one of the border guards came! He opened a gap in the fence and we sneaked through: the 2 Kurds, the guide and me. We follwed the path to a river. We crossed the river. It was not so difficult like I later heard it from other girls. After arriving in Greece a car waited. A greek guide took over. The other guide just walked back to Bulgaria. The two Kurds went on a construction site to work. I was brought to my greece boss. They brought me into the apartment where I have spent then all the time.
Q: Tell us about your boss...
Elena: She explained me how much money I have to work off and how I have to behave. Next day I had to start to work. I asked her why, but she just said that there is another girl working too and she can't handle it all alone.
Q: How did the work look like...?
Elena: Before we left, she said, take a sweater and a jeans. Only dark stuff and take some water with you. It was 13km away, through forests and rivers... The first day was very hard, because I was the new girl and all the clients wanted me. I had 12 customers this first day and I was still so tired from the journey over the border day before. But they woke me up in the early morning and let me work night and day. I didn't even have time to go home between the customers. Some came also to our place but mostly we visited them. Or we went to a hotel with them. Also the boss-woman worked...
Q: Have you been under strong observation...?
Elena: She was always there when I worked. She always waited until I finished the client. Except she had an appointment herself. Then I had to go alone.
Q: Did you not want to run away?
Elena: But how...? I was in a foreign country. I didn't know what the police is about and if I can trust them.
Q: So you was scared of the police as well?
Elena: Yes...
Q: How were the clients...?
Elena: Only Greek. But those who have companies in Bulgaria or any other connections to the country.
Q: How did they treat you?
Elena: They believe: "If I pay, I can do with you whatever I want during the time range I paid..." In their hands you feel like a worthless rag. And you know in their way they are right: they paid, they want something for their money.
Q: Could you refuse clients:?
Elena: No, rejection was not possible. They wanted to get what they paid.
Q:There seems to be all kind of nations working here...
Elena: I don't understand this... Romanians, Russians, but also Bulgarians. Mostly wanted are Bulgarians... It happens that girls don't return from clients...
Q: What happens?
Elena: They simply get stolen... Sold them to another place or country. I was scared of that because it can happen anytime. You have no safety, with each customer you can disappear.
Q: How did you feel all the time...?
Elena: How I felt...? Like a rag, like a doll or a toy. I also didn't have received any money for the work. The boss bought me cigarettes and gave me 5000 Drachmae for 3 days.
Q: But you had to work off your price...
Elena: Yes. I had to work off 2000 DM. I know my boss got 15000 or 20000 Drachmae from the clients - I didn't know on what it depended. Working off means you got booked 5000 Drachmae from each job.
Q: How did you get all the things you needed...?
Elena: She bought it. Cosmetics, personal things, cigarettes...
Q: What about your parents...?
Elena: They didn't know anything... First I called her from Sofia... She had doubts... I called her a week later, but didn't tell her I am in Greece. Then I talked with her a week before I got cought. I told her I'm in Greece... She tried to ask me a lot of things...
Q: How do you feel now...?
Elena: Like a nothing... [starts crying]
Q: When you meet your mother... Are you going to tell her everything?
Elena: I will tell her everything. Because I never had secrets from her.
Q: Can you ever forget this?
Elena: I want to try to forget, but if I can... I don't know...
Q: Are you scared it can happen again?
Elena: Of course I am scared... That... I... I don't know where the evil can come from the next time. Possibly now when I come home, I am scared he will get me stolen again. That they bring me back to Greece. I told the police everything...
Q: Did you not know that there are traffickers and that there is forced prostitution?
Elena: I knew it from magazines and TV. But I never thought that this could happen to me. Even in Greece I still couldn't believe it...
Q: You was arrested in Greece...
Elena: When I was in this greece jail, in Thesaloniki, I talked with a russian woman. She was 17 or 18, she just told she was working as waitress, but her bosses kidnapped her. They have been mafia. They sold her to Bulgaria, then to Greece. She has been also forced to prostitution, got no money. And they did beat her and they stubbed out cigarettes on her skin. She had scars on her belly from the cigarettes. She climbed then on a high wall to create some attention. When people saw her then and called the police, she got arrested for ten days and sent back to exactly the same place. She got trapped by the same people. Sold to Bulgaria and Greece. And tortured again. They wanted to kill her... So she climbed out again! "I am three months here in the jail", she told me. "And I rather stay here my whole life then to go out again. Back to Russia, where they just kill me..."
Q: How long have you been in jail?
Elena: I was there 20 days. She remained there... I didn't have any papers and I am a minor... They check you there, send faxes around to the ambassy, then to Bulgaria, then to Silistra and wait for their confirmations...
Q: How was the jail...?
Elena: In jail it was a big misery... 50 women in one cell. Two days before I left, there was a Georgian woman brought in who was 62 years. There was also a serbian woman with a 3 years old child. Babies and grannies... Pregnant women too... In the beginning there was only this one cell, made for 30 women, but we have been 50 inside. There is no place there, everyone is sleeping on the other. Also on the floor... There was no bed linen or something... Nothing, just few mats. There was another cell too - so all together we must have been around 100 women.
Q: What nationalities have there been?
Elena: Well let's say 10% of the women are Romanians, 30% are Bulgarians, 50% are Russian and the rest comes from other countries... Most of them have been in because they had outdated papers. But some of them have been trafficked, Romanian women, who worked in a bar... Anka went instead to a client to the police. Together with the police she drove to pick up the other girl. They spend 40 days in jail! The romanian administration works very slow... They came to Greece as waitresses in a bar. In the beginning they really even got some money...
Q: Have there been many minors?
Elena: In the other cell there was a 16 years old. Most of them have been 19. There was a 14years old Romanian girl. And two from Poland - the one was 19 and pregnant. They come from the whole world. All to Greece... Many go to Creta because of the tourists. The others told me that. Clients come also from everywhere - Greek, tourists, Americans. There are many on Creta... There have also been two Bulgarian women there. A little older. Just doing honest work. On the coffee field. But they got betrayed by envious collegues and got picked up directly from work...
Q: Have there been conflicts in jail?
Elena: No, we didn't fight there in the big cell...
Q: Did it cost money to be there?
Elena: Yes, around 1000 Drachmae a day. 350 for a sandwich, 750 for cigarettes...
source: Inge Bell archive (Radiovision.info)