The NGO "Business Women's Club" receives about 20 calls every day to the "hotline" for safe travel, staying abroad and combating human trafficking. The organization does not have days off or holidays. From eight in the morning to eight in the evening, the staff advises those who apply to them on issues such as legal employment, the risks of illegal labor, education, dating and marriage, tourism, permanent residence, etc., and also inform foreigners who come or are already in Belarus about entry and stay in our country.

The amount of information that consultants have is impressive, and not everyone is able to master it. Therefore, only those who can be described as "a man in his place" work on the hotline.

Today we will talk with the specialists of the NGO "Business Women's Club" about telephone calls that come from citizens who have suffered from human trafficking or related crimes.

The topic of human trafficking is quite difficult. Victims often do not seek help for various reasons. Some people don't know that such an organization exists. Others are shy or in a depressed psychological state and prefer to forget their "stories" like a bad dream.

Valentina, tell us about the most severe cases. Who are these people who needed your help?

Over 17 years of work, there have been many different cases. Some are so heavy that I don't want to voice them. We provide assistance to victims only from the Brest region, if an appeal is received to our national hotline 88012015555 from other regions, we collect information from the words of the applicant and redirect it to the organization at the place of residence for assistance.

Since 2003, we have provided assistance to 387 citizens of our region: 175 people who suffered from labor exploitation, 179 from sexual exploitation, 26 of them minors, as well as 33 children who were victims of pedophilia and involvement in the production of pornographic materials.

One of the stories: An 18-year-old girl, due to difficult financial circumstances, decided to find some extra work. She found an advertisement online offering work as an escort for wealthy men and businessmen. She got in touch with a so-called manager (recruiter), and they started corresponding. The woman offered the girl a job at a club in Cyprus with an income of about $5,000 per month. After a week of deliberation, she agreed. They sent her electronic tickets, and Nastya (name changed) set off for work. The girl was met, taken to a hospital to have tests for sexually transmitted infections, had her passport taken for якобы registration, then was taken outside the city, shown a room, and told that she had a week's probation period: to work for free and watch other girls work. After that, she would decide whether to stay or go home. As it turned out, she had a different idea of what an escort was. Dreams of handsome wealthy men quickly faded. In reality, she had to provide sexual services to various men, multiple times a day, and no one asked for her consent. The girl fell ill, her temperature rose to 39 degrees, she had a sore throat and tonsillitis, but no one cared; she had to work. Nastya called the recruiter and said she was not ready for this job. Then she was told that if she wanted to return home, she would have to buy the ticket (which costs $400) herself. The victim had no money, so she had to turn to a relative in Belarus, who bought her a ticket.

What is Nastya's situation now?

Nastya came to us in a depressed state. She went through a rehabilitation process. Now the girl lives and works in Belarus and tries not to remember that story. She plans to study to be a designer and looks to the future positively. Of course, if Nastya had contacted us on the hotline before leaving, perhaps the situation in her life could have been avoided.

For more details on the assistance provided to victims of human trafficking, visit our organization's website https://www.bpwbrest.by/curproj/rabstvo/help.html

It's a really tough story. Have you ever thought about leaving this profession?

I have been working on a hotline and helping victims for more than 17 years, and I have never wanted to take another job, even though it is a lot of emotional work! I am the kind of person who loves to help people, I know how I can help them, how to provide moral support. After all, sometimes you work with teenagers and see that girls, and boys too, lack parental attention and warmth, because mom or dad (sometimes there is only one parent in the family) have an alcohol addiction and do not take care of their child's upbringing. One victim said that she constantly heard reproaches and swear words from her mother, not even once to hug her and ask how things were going at school. Here I want to emphasize that not all victims come from dysfunctional families. I can give an example of a family where mom and dad have their own successful business, and the son became a victim of human trafficking and related crimes.

Does your work affect your household in any way?

Well, before, when the children were little, it did. I have two daughters, they received extra attention: where are you going, with whom, when will you be back? The children understood everything, they were fine with my questions.

Does it ever happen that you get lost and don't know what to say to a person?

My colleagues and I have a lot of experience working on the hotline, there are no particular difficulties, over 17 years a lot of information has been collected for high-quality consultations. If an inquiry is received that does not fall within our competence, we refer the caller to the organization where they will be advised and assisted.

To have such a large amount of information, you need to constantly improve. Do you undergo any training?

It is the responsibility of a "hotline employee" to regularly monitor changes in migration legislation. We take information only from official websites. We also regularly organize training, where representatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic missions, the Border Committee, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health, etc. are invited.

What would you advise people not to become victims of human trafficking?

In any situation, before leaving, contact our organization's hotline for advice, as our experts have collected unique information on safe travel and stay abroad in different countries of the world.

Natalya Zdolnik:

If before 2015 we often encountered victims of sexual exploitation, now 99 percent of cases are labor exploitation.

Take, for example, the case of a man named Kostya (name changed) who went to Moscow in search of employment. He worked as a bricklayer on a construction site. He was not paid, and when he demanded his earned money, they simply waited for him at the station through which he was walking home and pushed him under a train. After that, his documents disappeared. Kostya survived, but became disabled and needed medical escort to Brest.

We still communicate with many of the victims. They are no longer clients, but good acquaintances who do not forget to congratulate us on holidays and just call to ask how we are doing.

Never! I love people, I love to help. I try not to bring negativity into the family. I don't talk about work with my household. But they understand everything anyway, so they try not to ask unnecessary questions.

You can learn more about the work of the hotline by following the link https://www.bpwbrest.by/curproj/rabstvo/hotline.html

The staff of the hotline are special people with big hearts and clear minds. It is this combination of qualities that gives a fruitful result of work. To hold such a position, it is not enough to just be a responsible person; you need to be a great empath: sensitive to other people's difficulties and concerned about other people's destinies.