// Ramona's Story //

Facts of this evidence "Ramonas" origin: Romania Is "Ramona" still in prostitution? no If yes, is it known where? --- If no, where did she get out? France How did she get out? contacting police Birth year: -unknown- Year of evidence: -unknown-

A SEX slave aged 15 can be bought for as little as 3.500 Euros it emerged, after a Romanian girl who had been prostituted across Europe escaped her Albanian captors while working in a sauna in one of European Capital...

Her ''owner" had pocketed up to 1500 Euros a day as he made her work in brothels for up to 20 hours at a time, seven days a week, and beat her if she resisted. Ramona's fate was revealed at a trial last month. The jury was told that she was aged only 12 when her mother died. Ramona's father turned to the bottle and, in violent tempers, repeatedly slapped her. A cousin arranged for a friend to help Ramona to leave Romania to start a new life in Yugoslavia in apparent safety. But she came to the notice of Eastern European people-traffickers and soon she was forced to become a "dancing girl" in a nightclub in the south of the FYR of Macedonia, where, for six months, her duties included stripping and having sex with clients.

She escaped this club when she was purchased, without her knowledge, by Zeqri, an Albanian pimp, for 4000 DEM. Ramona was forced to travel to Albania and, from there, was dumped in an inflatable boat for the journey across the Adriatic Sea to Italy. In Naples she had to work as a prostitute until one day she was made to get into the back seat of a car, where Zeqri was waiting for her. A stranger to Ramona, Zeqri put a hand over her mouth, told her not to scream, and pretended that he was rescuing her. He took Ramona to Rome, purchased false Italian identity documents for her that cost 3000 Euros, than arranged for her to join his family in Paris.

Ramona, still only 15, arrived in Paris on a train from Rome as a Italian tourist in July last year and was met by Zeqri's relatives at one of Paris railway stations. Zeqri followed her in to France. The girl's hopes of escape were shortlived. Zeqri, an asylum-seeker, soon insisted that she should return to prostitution. Ramona asked if she could just strip instead, but he complained that she would make too little money.

"I didn't have any choices because I couldn't do anything," the sobbing girl told the jury at Zeqri's trial, giving evidence from behind a screen. Zeqri arranged for her to be given false documents, suggesting that she was a qualified masseuse. He forced her to telephone saunas and massage parlours, finding the numbers from the back pages of some magazine. He drove her to and from work, pocketing the cash that she was paid. "I was working morning, afternoon and evening. Sometimes I would get home at 7am and would have to start work again at 11am," Ramona said.

"I hated all the men I was working for. But if you didn't do what they were saying they would always get angry and hit you and swear at you." After Zeqri hit her she would cover the bruising with make-up and go to work again. She escaped after a brothel maid encouraged her to run away. Ramona fled a sauna at midnight, although her shift was due to end at 4am. She spent the night in a safe house and then went to police.

"The girls were talking one afternoon about other girls. They had left, they had married, they had families and were happy," she said.

"I asked if the police helped you in these cases and they said they did; that they would help you get away from it and start a new life. This girl, Missa, said that if I ever needed to get away she would help."

Prosecutors were unable to find any law against Zeqri trafficking the girl as a sex slave, except for living off immoral earnings, which usually carries a two-year jail sentence. Because the pair entered France separately, Zeqri could not be prosecuted for facilitating her illegal entry, the anti-trafficking charity said.

Sentencing has been delayed until later this year...

source: human peril