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Organized Crime in Bulgaria: Markets and Trends
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approach both girls working for normal agencies and for agencies specializing in
luxury prostitution. In any case, at least half of the girls work in some other area.
What is interesting about the latter group is that it includes the so-called stars –
popular singers from the Bulgarian pop-folk genre; familiar faces from television,
etc. However, these girls only work episodically, at very high rates, and only ac-
cept offers of some special interest to them. The role of the procurer, who in this
case acts more like an agent, is to secure girls for wealthy clients. The procurer
is often a woman and there is hardly any violence involved.
Luxury procurers work in a network with several centers and in many respects
are independent. Compared to them, however, the agencies offering elite pros-
titution have a great advantage – the access to international markets. It should
be noted that the admission of Bulgarian models into the international modeling
agencies only became possible with the transformation of the world fashion in-
dustry, the end of the super-model era, and the invasion by elite models from the
third world, which began in the mid-1990s.
153
To Bulgarian agencies participation
in the international fashion shows in New York, Paris or Milan is now a matter
of largely technical effort not requiring too big investments.
The free access to international fashion shows, international modeling agencies,
beauty pageants, etc., have created remarkable opportunities for access to ex-
tremely wealthy customers abroad. The information about this aspect of the
business, however, is scarce and distorted because access to such channels is
granted largely to girls from the agency cores. They are very discrete about their
prized foreign customers. Yet, the little that we know does shed some light on
this type of international activity. There are the notorious cases of providing girls
for yacht parties in the Mediterranean, as well as dozens of cases of hiring of
girls for cruises in Greece, Italy, and Spain. The cooperation works the other way,
too – when the foreign management of a Bulgarian telecommunications opera-
tor managed to get through several dozens of girls from the ”luxury pool” of 4
agencies, they had to resort to seeking new girls in Serbia on a barter basis. The
practice also exists to pay for temporary import of girls from the former Soviet
Union, mainly of Ukrainian origin.
153 See ”Strike a Pose, Count Your Pennies: At 18, Bianca Gomez faces the new economics of
modeling -- lower fees and a surge of Russians,” WSJ February 3, 2007, (”http://blogs.wsj.com/
runway/2007/02/03/strike-a-pose-count-your-pennies); Not Just Another Pretty Face: The End of
the Supermodel Era by Hilary Rowland, Hilary Magazine online retrieved July 7, 2006 (”http://
www.hilary.com/fashion/supermodels.html), Death of the Supermodels by C. L. Johnson, Urban
Models October 21, 2002 online retrieved July 13, 2006 (http://www.urbanmodels.co.uk/model-
ing.php?page=supermodels). Although there is no shortage of names with supermodel preten-
sions, such as Gisele Bündchen, Carmen Kass, Heidi Klum, Yfke Sturm, Karolina Kurkova, Laetitia
Casta, Kate Moss, Tyra Banks, Adriana Lima and still that of Naomi Campbell, and more recently,
Doutzen Kroes, Robin Arcuri, Daria Werbowy, Julia Stegner, Natalia Vodianova and Liya Kebede,
nearly all fashion experts are talking about the end of the supermodel era. Various reasons are
noted: from the trend to use famous movie actors, singers, athletes and other celebrities, to the
wish of fashion designers to focus the attention on their collections rather than the model. The
chief factor, however, has undeniably been globalization, which secures an unlimited supply of
exotic third world beauties. One of the most popular sites, Models.com, reports 15,000 hits a
month from places like Bulgaria, Kazakhstan or Mozambique (see WSJ February 3, 2007).
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and Human Traf
The elite prostitutes own expensive cars, live in luxurious apartments, and spend
enormous amounts of money on cosmetics and cosmetic surgery. Some of them
use drugs, mainly cocaine.
The rates of elite prostitutes start from 500 levs and they are typically engaged
for the whole evening rather than on an hourly basis. That is why the price can
exceed 2000 levs. Their income can generally be said to be 3-4 times higher
than the average earnings of the Bulgarian prostitutes working in Western Europe,
moreover with considerably fewer customers and less risk. The reason is not so
much in the higher rates but the fact that a larger share remains for the girl com-
pared to the prostitutes working at the mid-level (brothels, windows, nightclubs)
in Western Europe.
With this type of prostitution, the price of sex services can often not be directly
calculated or fixed per time period. The deal usually covers a more extended
period and the commitment is less straightforward. Payment can often come in
the form of expensive gifts, even property, company stock, etc. In cases when
foreign companies hire luxury prostitution agencies and win a contract, they pay
a percentage of the contract amount to the girl (and the agency). There have
been instances of corruption-related mediation and compensation in the form of
luxury prostitutes.
It is in this context that in the late 1990s some foreign agencies put forward
the hypothesis that organized crime is successfully pursuing its plans to gain
influence over the elites of East European countries (the focus was chiefly on
Russia) through luxury prostitution. The development of this type of services in
Bulgaria suggests that it is a chaotic process rather than a matter of systematically
pursued influence.
Resort Prostitution and Sex Tourism
With resort prostitution and prostitution related to sex tourism from Western
Europe, which in many respects resemble export prostitution, the bulk of the rev-
enues is generated by foreign nationals and is associated with the tourist season
in both the summer and winter resorts of Bulgaria. Regarding sex tourism, even
though there were attempts to offer such services already in the early 1990s,
there has only been real growth since 2001, when Bulgaria came to be perceived
as a safe country and the number of foreign tourists started growing by double-
figured percentages each year.
What is typical of resort prostitution is that, at the onset of each season there
begins a process of migration of prostitutes from the big cities in the interior of
the country towards the Black Sea resorts – Sunny Beach, Golden Sands, or the
mountain resorts – Borovets, Pamporovo, Bansko. This specific form of Bulgarian
prostitution seems to occur in the border regions, as well – Svilengrad, Petrich,
and Sandanski. Here, too, non-Bulgarian citizens constitute the principal source
of revenues.
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Organized Crime in Bulgaria: Markets and Trends
107
It is characteristic of this model of prostitution that it adheres to the structure
described in the preceding sections, and at each level provides girls of the re-
spective price range.
Thus, for instance, even in the resorts and border towns, the prostitutes take up
the fixed posts, positioning themselves at highway junctions and streets away from
the expensive hotels; the girls from the clubs are also grouped in accordance
with the class of the establishment they come from. The main difference is that
in the resorts and border areas, the prices are twice as high.
The level of the prostitutes matches the class of the hotels. The prostitutes work-
ing in cheap hotels differ little from street prostitutes and many of them, when
they do not have customers at the hotel, go out in the streets of the resort to
look for them. However, even the prostitutes from the cheapest hotels earn more
than street prostitutes, with their rate usually ranging between 30 and 50 levs an
hour.
In higher-class hotels, the rates are several times higher, in the range of 100 to
200 levs and can reach up to 500 levs in some of the most luxurious ones. In the
largest seaside resorts, such as Sunny Beach and Golden Sands, prostitute rates
depend on hotel proximity to the sea. The first lane (i.e. closest to the beach) is
the most expensive one, with the second and third lanes coming next. Working
in superior hotels has certain advantages, such as wealthier customers, and higher
safety and discretion for the prostitute allowing her to avoid public condemnation
and police checks, which are far more infrequent than out in the streets. Yet, the
interviews found the paradox that with street prostitutes, the number of custom-
ers is far higher and the daily turnover and income of the procurer, respectively,
may be larger than in luxury hotels.
Resort prostitution is well-organized, with high involvement of hotel owners.
Some of them have stable connections with the political elites and for this reason
usually remain out of the reach of police and prosecution authorities, who tend
to concentrate their efforts on street prostitution, especially when it becomes
more aggressive and conspicuous. At the same time, all of the consulted sources
of information indicated that prostitution in the resorts is almost entirely under
the control of the former semi-criminal rings, with the prostitutes and procurers
operating as ‘employees’ of the respective ring rather than autonomous economic
agents. Prostitution generates side revenue for these rings, primarily engaged in
other, criminal as well as legal, activities.
A good illustration of the distribution of prostitution in Bulgarian resorts among
the criminal rings is found in MoI intervention in early 2005 to prevent the war
between two rings fighting for control over prostitution in Pamporovo resort.
According to official reports, 52 people were apprehended in the police raid,
members of the Plovdiv Club 777 ring and SIK.
154
154 „The role of the Ministry of Interior in the fight against crime and the interaction between the
special services and similar European and world structures”. http://press.mvr.bg/Projects/Other/
PP, accessed on December 9, 2005; Zhelyazkova, Z. 2005, ”MoI Chief Secretary Punishes
Chiefs of Regional Police Departments in Plovdiv and Assenovgrad.” http://tvevropa.com/news.
php?id=7986 accessed on November 26, 2005.
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Prostitution and Human Trafficking
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and Human Traf
The development of events after the detentions in Pamporovo, as well as various
incidents involving prostitutes in Varna, Bourgas, Golden Sands, and Sunny Beach
have shown that the local law-enforcement and municipal authorities have ir-
regular relations with this business.
Resort prostitution can in many respects be viewed as a stage preceding what is
currently emerging as a market for sex tourism in Bulgaria.
3.3. EXPORT OF PROSTITUTION AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING.
TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN
Unlike prostitution inside the country, the export of prostitutes as an international
problem has been the object of research and analysis in reports by many interna-
tional organizations and governments concerned with human trafficking, such as
the International Migration Organization, US State Department, Germany’s Fed-
eral Criminal Police Office (the BKA), Bulgarian and foreign NGOs. There have
also been some investigative reports on the issue by Bulgarian journalists. Yet the
focus in most of these studies has been largely on human trafficking rather than
the export of prostitution and in particular, the prostitution of Bulgarian citizens
abroad.
It should be noted that, similarly to the structure of the domestic market, prostitu-
tion abroad has many different forms, often not involving violence and organized
crime. Nevertheless, human trafficking calls for special attention not only because
of the utmost gravity of this crime and because it is a matter of international
concern, but also because it constitutes a good starting point allowing a better
grasp of the comprehensive phenomenon of Bulgarian prostitution abroad –
the existing trends, profile of prostitutes, role of conventional and organized
crime, etc. For this reason, we shall first consider the problems of trafficking in
women for sexual exploitation and then attempt a broader overview of the ex-
port of prostitutes and the Bulgarian participation in the market for sex services
in Western and Central Europe.
The Trafficking Problem and Its Definition
The 1999 estimate by Animus Association Foundation that 10,000 Bulgarian wom-
en fall victim to trafficking each year provoked open disagreement on the part of
MoI authorities and the judiciary and ironic remarks that at this rate, in 7-8 years
Bulgaria would be left without any female population aged 15 to 30. Skepticism
and accusations of speculation still obstruct rational analysis. As a result, there
is still no realistic assessment of the trends and dimensions of trafficking in Bul-
garia.
One of the chief obstacles to the study of trafficking is its definition and how
it is applied in practice. The principal elements of the definition (according to
the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons of Pal-
ermo 2000 and a multitude of other tentative definitions preceding or following
the Protocol) are: recruitment, transportation and subsequent exploitation of
57
Organized Crime in Bulgaria: Markets and Trends
109
persons. Exploitation includes sexual exploitation, forced labor, the removal of
organs, slavery and servitude.
Despite the seemingly clear-cut terms of the definition, it poses a number of
difficulties to researchers as well as law-enforcement institutions. For instance,
the elements of recruitment and transportation may lack altogether in cases of
voluntary emigration with subsequent exploitation. In other instances, the exploi-
tation may be ”voluntary” to some degree since it is hard to say to what extent
the poor remuneration and conditions for certain types of prostitution, even if
illegal, are an indicator of exploitation or simply a matter of underpaid labor
under deplorable working conditions. The point of view of an individual deprived
of the possibility to earn a living in his/her own country may be quite different
from that of the legislator or the human rights activist.
An additional complication in defining human trafficking stems from the fact that
it often tends to intertwine with illegal migration. As a result, the difference
between trafficking and smuggling of persons all too often remains unclear. For
example, in Bulgarian, the term ”human trafficking” is commonly used to refer to
”smuggling of persons”. According to Europol, ”as a result of the confusion of the
terms ‘human trafficking’ and ‘assisted illegal immigration’ (or smuggling), the two
are often taken to mean the same thing. Which is not the case.”
155
The Palermo
Protocol on trafficking distinguishes between the two phenomena, as well.
Indeed, differentiating trafficking from smuggling and vice versa can be extremely
differentiating trafficking from smuggling and vice versa can be extremely
differentiating trafficking from smuggling
difficult. According to Inspector Paul Holms, expert with the International Migration
Organization and former member of the London Police, in operative terms, the dif-
ference is the following: when the service/money exchange takes place in advance,
we are dealing with smuggling; when a debt is to be paid off after arrival to the
desired destination, it is a matter of trafficking.
156
From an analytical point of view
this working definition only solves the problem partially. This is so because many
instances of trafficking involve smuggling at some stage of the process. Furthermore,
some of the women involved in trafficking enter the European Union as temporary
immigrants or tourists with regular visas and passports and without the assistance of
other persons. In these cases smuggling is not present as an element at all.
Additional confusion in defining and identifying human trafficking occurs because
quite a few victims manage to adapt to the situation of forced prostitution and
exploitation. Thus, from trafficking victims they move to another category – that
of the illegally residing or illegally working, who have to some extent come to
terms with the situation in which they find themselves (or would like to improve
their situation but not if they have to go back to where they came from).
157
This
155 Traffic in people for secual exploitation: the viewpoint of Europol, Europol 2004 (http://www.
europol.eu.int/publications/SeriousCrimeOverviews/2004/THB.pdf).
156 Personal conversation, 2002.
157 Beate, Andrees and Mariska N.J. van der Linden Designing, Trafficking Research from a Labour Mar-
ket Perspective: The ILO Experience, 2003, International Labour Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
The survey on human trafficking for forced labor purposes by Andrees and van der Linden, for
instance, differentiates between persons involved in forced labor who do not identify themselves
as trafficking victims and successful immigrants. The distinction is based on the degree of decep-
tion which they have been lured into, on their own assessment of the situation, and individual
strategies for coping with subordination and coercion.
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Prostitution and Human Trafficking
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type of adaptation is often observed with sexual exploitation when under the
influence of a number of factors – psychological (traumatic disorder or other con-
sequences) and external ones (abuse, relationship with the trafficker/procurer, and
others) – the trafficking victims turn into individuals who to some extent prostitute
themselves voluntarily and get some payment for their work (even if minimal com-
pared to the money they actually earn from the sex services provided).
158
In this
sense, the trafficking process can be defined as highly dynamic. If a girl who
was made to leave was to be detained at the border of Bulgaria with Macedonia,
for example, she could still be identified and self-identify herself as a trafficking
victim.
159
The same girl, after six months in a Dutch (or other) brothel, may no
longer identify herself as a victim and would not be recognized as such. And since
trafficking is such a dynamic phenomenon, unless it is identified in time, there is
no case of trafficking. The number of such cases thus appears smaller than it actu-
ally is. Another typical situation would be a girl thinking she is going to work as a
hotel maid, for example, and leaving of her own accord (smuggling may or may
not be involved depending on how the emigration is arranged). At the time of
crossing the border and in the absence of any information about what is to come
there is no reason to identify the girl as a victim. However, once she finds herself
in a brothel instead, without any id papers or money and deprived of freedom of
movement, she becomes a trafficking victim. In a few months time the same girl
may still be a victim but may also prove to have adapted to the trafficking situation.
Such examples by no means make trafficking a less grave crime and human rights
violation but unfortunately they do make it harder to define, identify, and punish.
Paradoxically enough, there are occasionally attempts to take advantage of such
cases as well as of cases of women emigrating in order to work in the sex industry
of their own free will and subsequently caught up in trafficking and exploitation.
The case of trafficker Ivan Glavchev, alias Vanko 1, can be cited in illustration. The
victims were actually aware that they would be prostituting but counted on sharing
the profit equally with the procurer.
160
Tentative Assessment of the Scope of the Problem by Recent Data
According to most researchers and analysts, Bulgaria is largely a country of
origin and a transit country with regard to the trafficking in women for pros-
titution. According to the European Centre for Crime Prevention, 80-90% of the
trafficking in Europe occurs for sexual exploitation purposes.
161
Since 1999, the figure 10,000 from the above-mentioned estimate of Animus Associa-
tion Foundation, has been reproduced mechanically from one report to another. In
fact, it is unclear what data were used to make this estimate or how it was arrived at.
Furthermore, even if this was indeed the number of victims for the period 1998-99,
ï
it is naï
it is nave to assume it has remained unchanged through all these years. By a more
ïve to assume it has remained unchanged through all these years. By a more
ï
recent estimate of the European Centre for Crime Prevention and Control, the annual
number of trafficking victims in Bulgaria ranges between 3,000 and 4,000.
162
158 Assuming that providing sex services is work, which too has been subject to fierce debate.
159 In the present text, the term ‘victim’ is used in the sense of ‘victim of crime’ and does not
intend to further victimize the people caught up in trafficking.
160 See the interview with investigator Evgeni Dikov, Trud daily, 13 May 2005
Trud daily, 13 May 2005
Trud
161 Animus Association. Trafficking in Women: Questions and Answers, 2000
Trafficking in Women: Questions and Answers, 2000
Trafficking in Women: Questions and Answers
162 Heinu, Lehti M. Trafficking in Women and Children in Europe, Paper N 18, 2003
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