English dailies carried the story about the online, child-sex-act-for-hire, ring which was uncovered and exposed. Around the globe homes are being raided and people arrested - 2,500 worldwide 'customers'. The 'production center' of operations of the ring was in Ukraine. (for more regarding story read in eng - here, and here, and here, and here.)

"In the Ukraine, a survey conducted by the group "La Strada-Ukraine" in 2001-2003, based on a sample of 106 women being 'trafficked' out of Ukraine found that 3% were under 18, and the US State Department reported in 2004 that incidents of minors being trafficked was increasing." (from a news story about situation in Ghana)

BTW La Strada is a really great organization in Ukraine trying to work against human trafficking.

A story that does deserve international attention was in today's paper (in Ukrainian) regarding how disabled children were being used in the coal mining industry in Donetsk. (Novynar) Prosecutor's office in Donetsk oblast, presented information regarding criminal case being filed - violation of children's rights, labor law, etc.

And in Poland (in eng) - "Gangs from Eastern Europe bring mothers with little children from Ukraine or Moldova to Poland and use the children to beg in the streets, writes DZIENNIK. Young mothers in those countries are offered good jobs in Poland. After their arrival, the children are taken away from their mothers. Then, women belonging to the gangs of beggars, spend whole days begging on streets with someone else’s children in their hands. Children have to be quiet and well behaved, they are also supposed to look sad. For this, they are not fed properly; they receive drugs instead. In the meantime, their real mothers have to be obedient and follow orders of the gangsters if they don’t want to lose their children. There is no real solution, say experts quoted by DZIENNIK. The only thing you can do is not give money to beggars at all. It’s better to support charity organizations."

Marina rarely leaves her two-room home in northern Israel these days. ... She is in hiding - wanted by the Israeli authorities for being an illegal immigrant, and by the criminal gangs who brought her here to sell her into prostitution. ... Marina - not her real name - was lured to Israel by human traffickers. ... During the height of the phenomenon, from the beginning of the 1990s to the early years of 2000, an estimated 3,000 women a year were brought to Israel on the false promise of jobs and a better way of life. ..."When I was in the Ukraine, I had a difficult life," said Marina, who came to Israel in 1999 at the age of 33 after answering a newspaper advertisement offering the opportunity to study abroad. (BBC News)

Vision of Hell - "L. is being victimized; her fragility makes her easy prey. Doses are stolen from her immediately after she pays for them, she suffers abuse, and most of all she is beaten and beaten and beaten. She immigrated to Israel 10 years ago from Ukraine."

At a US Symposium, Katya told her story - "When she traveled from Ukraine to the U.S. three years ago, the woman known for her safety as "Katya" planned to study and work. Instead, she was forced into bonded labor at a strip club for six days a week and 12 hours per day. She had no contact with the outside world for months. ... Katya told her story yesterday at "Bought and Sold: Human Trafficking and Bonded Labor in the U.S.," a Center for Social Concerns symposium held in the Notre Dame Law School courtroom. "