The girl's shocking story of her being beaten by her boyfriend when she was 17, how she deceived her into sexually misusing her

After a while, he asked me to go home. I was very happy because he would introduce me to his family and so I thought our relationship would be stable and serious”.

But unfortunately he didn't have his family, but a friend”.

The butterfly [a name determined by the editorialist] at the age of 17 was sexually abused, beaten, and exploited. In a story about Radio Free Europe, it shows how it was forced to go to different motels in Kosovo to have sex. And for that, she was forced by the person she initially thought she was loved and believed she would marry her.

On the day she thought she would meet her loved one's family, she was abused by a person.

That friend came to see me... What normal man would share his girlfriend with someone else? I, of course, started to cry and didn't believe what I was hearing. But he began using physical violence and said that he would leave me naked on the balcony. And he would do it because his purpose was to make money and not care about my feelings”, she relates.

The butterfly no longer returned home, reasoning that it should be “to stay with the man”.

I couldn't talk to my family on the phone. Thus began the excitement. From that day on, he sent me to various hotels in several Kosovo cities with different people. It was the worst year of my life”, the butterfly adds.

This has continued until one day they were followed by police, but the butterfly says it doesn't even know who informed police officials.

When the police discovered us, he was given handcuffs, and I was asked to make a statement... I decided to tell the whole truth. From there I was sent to the shelter and explained that I was a victim. That's where I realized it and I was very upset because my character,”, was hurt and broken.

Today she is grateful for the help she has received, primarily from the Center for the Protection of Victims and Trafficking Prevention, which helped the flight to regulate family relations.

Most victims of sexual trafficking, minors

The Ministry of Labour and Social Management, during 2020, has treated and provided social services to 21 victims of sexual trafficking -- all of Albanian nationalism -- is said to have been sent to Radio Free Europe.

Nineteen of the victims were children, three adults, and one male-gender”, said in response to the Ministry of Labour and Social Management.

These victims, while offering social protection, have also been offered social, medical, psycho-social services, food, clothing, and pharmaceutical services.

According to the Kosovo Police, for the criminal act of trafficking with people and works linking trafficking, 104 suspected persons, including 90 Kosovo citizens, ten from Albania and three from Serbia and Northern Macedonia, were arrested in 2020.

This year alone, over 30 people have been trafficked to Kosovo, and as many have been arrested as suspected persons.

The “Referenced to last year's statistics and the beginning of this year, in Kosovo there is internal trafficking, where of the 19 identified victims of trafficking with people are from Kosovo and used in Kosovo, while there has been no reported case that Kosovo has been the transitti”, the police response reported.

The Centre for Protection of Victims and Prevention of Human Trafficking provides support immediately after the reference of victims from Kosovo Police or the Centre for Social Work.

Teuta Abrashi, from the Centre for Protection of Victims and Trafficking Prevention, told Radio Free Europe, that this centre provides opportunities for trafficking victims from the rehabilitation phase to the long-term socio-economic reintegration.

The first help we try to give you is the proximity and offer you support as if they were in a family and to understand and feel comfortable, and then work on reintegration treatment program”, Abrashi said.

Abrashi stressed that the biggest challenge in dealing with victims is the confrontation with the trauma the victims have faced.

We always tell them we're helping them. We talk about our achievements, our successes, but in fact, those internal wounds can never be healed. However, we work with all the services available to us, with the staff that is professional, to do our best. But the biggest challenge is the long-term reintegration”, Abrashi said.

After the victims undergo the rehabilitation program, at the same time the family contact center for their return to families.

From the great experience that we have on numerous occasions, there have been families whose parents initially neither accepted nor wished to have any contact with them. But with the work we've done, many cases we've been able to bring back to family”, Abrashi said.

Abrashi adds that the number of trafficking victims may be even greater, since, according to her, the closure due to the pandemic has caused many cases not reported.

Some activists hold in their hands the portraits of domestic violence victims. Picture from the archive.

There is even more because in such closing circumstances you can imagine how organized crime thrives. It was the other causes that were not possible to identify or reference us to”, Abrashi said.

Otherwise, local-level Social Work Centres have legal mandates for all people in need of social and family services, and in this case even human trafficking victims, which mainly the services the QPS provide, have to do with management, co-ordination, and reference of cases.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Management, through the support it provides for the nongovernmental sector, namely housing, during 2020 has continued with the support of projects of nongovernmental organisations that, under them, provide services to victims of ongoing defence trafficking and reintegration.

“As far as this support is concerned, specifically during 2020 two non-governmental local organisations have relied on their projects on the Ministry's valuable 105,000 euros”, the MPMS say.

Divided tools are oriented in the social protection of victims, including housing, rehabilitation and reintegration.

For the flight, the help of the Center was extremely important, where it has had many conversations with staff and psychologists.

It makes me realize that's an event I have to leave behind and focus on my life, my future. I was motivated by anything, says the butterfly.