This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 ANKARA 000550 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, EUR/PGI, EUR/SE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD PREF TU TIP IN TURKEY
SUBJECT: TIP IN TURKEY: TURKISH MEDIA ATTENTION, January 16- 
31, 2006 
 
¶1. In response to G/TIP inquiries, national and 
  international media sources published the following news 
  articles about TIP in Turkey.  Text of articles 
  originally published in Turkish is provided through 
  unofficial Embassy translation. 
 
¶2.  Published by Sabah on Tuesday, January 17: 
 
     TITLE:  Trip to Hope - by Erdal Safak 
 
     BEGIN TEXT:  Human trafficking is one of the most 
     shameful things in our century, but it is also one of 
     the most profitable illegal activities.  The camp in 
     Edirne reflects the images of the immigrant trafficking 
     victims.  There is also a human trafficking aspect for 
     which we need to pursue the traces in big cities. 
 
     Poverty and hunger, as well as wars, in Asia and 
     Africa, and unemployment in the former eastern bloc 
     countries led millions of people to the roads.  Human 
     smuggling, one of the most shameful activities of our 
     century, emerged.  Criminal organizations earn around 
     $10 billion annually. Human trafficking is more 
     profitable than drug trafficking. 
 
     Many organizations in Turkey, from the PKK to the 
     Mafia, control an important part of this trade.  Turkey 
     signed all international agreements on human 
     trafficking.  Also, the Turkish Penal Code that went 
     into effect last June foresees heavier sanctions for 
     traffickers.  But despite these sanctions, neither 
     immigrant smuggling nor human trafficking can be 
     prevented because Turkey is a source, destination and a 
     transit country.  In other words, while some of our 
     citizens try to travel abroad illegally, we are on the 
     path of hundreds of thousands of people from Africa and 
     the Far East who want to travel to Europe.  Those who 
     are kidnapped or brought in secretly from the Balkans 
     and the Caucasus also constitute a market.  Some of 
     them work in the prostitution sector, others as 
     household help. 
 
     Former Labor Minister Yasar Okuyan, in 2000, announced 
     that the number of foreigners who were secretly 
     employed in Turkey was one million. 
 
     The EU Justice and Interior Ministers, at their meeting 
     in Vienna on Friday, agreed to increase the authority 
     of the "European Joint Police" and, in particular, in 
     border security against illegal immigration.  END TEXT. 
 
¶3.  Reporter/Columnist Savas Ay visited Edirne and met with 
some illegal immigrants kept in that province.  He wrote a 
three-part series on immigrant smuggling and human 
trafficking in Sabah on January 17 through 19.  Following 
are highlights from that series: 
 
  BEGIN TEXT:  January 17: 
  -    Human trafficking is a global problem.  It imposes a 
     heavy social, economic and humanitarian burden on countries. 
  -    In 2005, only in Edirne, more than 10,000 fugitives 
     from 40 countries were captured at the border with Greece 
     and Bulgaria. 
-    In the past 15 years, 400 illegal immigrants, who were 
trying to either enter or leave Turkey, drowned in the Meric 
River.  None of the bodies were claimed by their relatives 
or consulates.  Indeed, most of them did not have a passport 
or ID.  The Edirne Municipality buried the dead in certain 
quarters in the city cemetery or in Ipsala. 
  -    The largest area where these illegal immigrants are 
     kept is in the old Tunca Barracks.  As I was touring the 
     site, some officials warned me by saying that it might not 
     be safe for me to wander around, and also I might be 
     infected with lice or start itching.  There is open sewage 
     dripping inside and recently 14 people fled the site by 
     digging a hole in the wall. 
  -    The Mafia earns around $7 billion annually from human 
     smuggling.  Turkey is one of the main arteries of this 
     bloody, dark and dangerous traffic.  What I saw was a human 
     tragedy and a shame for humanity. 
-    Edirne Police Chief Hanefi Avci noted that he spent 
approximately 600 thousand TL in ten months to feed and meet 
the needs of these people.  He noted that they had 500 
refugees from 40 countries, including Pakistan, Somalia, 
Mauritania and Iraq, who needed to be deported.  He said 
that they were deporting refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan and 
Pakistan from Agri.  Now we are not deporting and maybe 
their number might exceed 2000. 
  -    "Have You Seen My Mother?" is a 30-second film that 
     will be shown in movie theatres and TV in February. 
     According to IOM (The International Office for Migration), 
     one of every three human trafficking victims is a mother. 
     So the IOM found four kids whose mothers were kidnapped in 
     Turkey to appear in this film.  They were taught Turkish. 
     Three of them are boys aged between 10 and 16 and one of 
     them is a four-year-old girl.  It was shot in Moldova and 
     demonstrates the plight of families and children.  The 
     Trabzon, Izmir and Antalya metropolitan municipalities are 
     supporting the campaign.  The Ankara Metropolitan 
     Municipality will put campaign posters on 700 buses and the 
     Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality on 500 buses.  They will 
     also support the campaign with their billboards. 
 
     January 18: 
 
  -    The British police captured a 19-member gang during the 
     "Blue Sky" operation a few months ago.  They raided 12 
     offices and houses in London and Lincolnshire.  The gang was 
     earning around 3,000-5,000 pounds Sterling from each illegal 
     immigrant.  They were brought into the country in 20-person 
     groups after voyages that sometimes lasted months. 
  -    I visited the Acisu Cemetery in Edirne.  An official 
     showed me where they buried these illegal immigrants.  Most 
     of them were buried without proper religious ceremonies. 
-    The Mafia that was involved in immigrant trafficking 
was earning around 2-3 billion dollars in the early 1990s. 
Meanwhile, western countries lowered their quotas for 
immigrants.  Thus, the cost of illegal immigration went up. 
Now the Mafia earns around 7 billion dollars annually from 
this dirty trade.  The Mafia organizations have members from 
all countries. 
  -    Those who send immigrants by boat earn around one 
     million dollars per vessel. 
  -    According to the Smuggling and Organized Crime 
     Department of the Jandarma, human smuggling is an ever- 
     growing sector.  No country alone can prevent it by itself. 
  -    Depending on their destination and itinerary, 
     immigrants pay around 3,000 to 7,000 Euros each. 
  -    According to Turkish National Police officials, the 
     number of illegal immigrants in Istanbul alone is around one 
     million.  Most of them are from Asia.  Then come Africa, 
     Eastern Europe and Latin America. 
 
  January 19: 
 
  -    Turkey has been exposed intensively to illegal 
     immigration because of its geographic location between the 
     source countries in the east and the destination countries 
     in the west. 
-    We all know that illegal immigrants follow an itinerary 
that passes through either Istanbul or other provinces on 
the shore.  So the controls are very tight. 
  -    Officials said that these immigrants certainly do not 
     travel by themselves and that illegal criminal organizations 
     help them in return for 3,000 to 5,000 dollars.  Turkey 
     captured tens of thousands of illegal immigrants and 
     organizers.  It is known that these organizers are also 
     linked to the PKK terrorist organization and to drug 
     traffickers. 
  -    It costs 8,000 pounds Sterling for an illegal immigrant 
     to travel from Afghanistan, Iraq or Pakistan to Britain.  It 
     costs 6,000 pounds Sterling to France and 4,000 to Greece. 
     The approximate fee for traveling from Africa to Europe is 
     6,000 to 8,000 dollars.  Meanwhile, travel to the U.S. and 
     Australia cost the most, 15,000 to 20,000 dollars. 
-    The first allotment, which is a quarter of the fee, is 
paid, say in Afghanistan.  When the person reaches Iran, his 
family is informed and family members pay the smugglers the 
second quarter of the total fee.  When illegal immigrants 
reach the third phase, that is Turkey, Greece or Bulgaria, 
the third allotment is paid.  Once they reach the 
destination, they pay the remaining quarter. 
  -    If an illegal immigrant is captured at one of these 
     stages and returned home, then smugglers do not charge him 
     for the same portion in their second attempt.  END TEXT. 
 
¶4.  Published by Sabah on Tuesday, January 17: 
 
     TITLE:  "Have you seen my mother?" 
 
     BEGIN TEXT:  The United Nations International Office 
     for Migration (IOM), has laid out the tragic truth of 
     trafficking in women.  UN research shows that one out 
     of every three foreign women abducted and forced into 
     prostitution is a mother.  A new campaign called "Have 
     you seen my mother?" has begun.  Short footage films 
     prepared by the UN will take attention with the "mother- 
     child drama." 
 
     Three women in 1 a mother. 
 
     IOM, in starting a campaign to prevent human 
     trafficking, has revealed that one in every three 
     foreign women forced into prostitution is a mother. 
     The Organization took up the issue in its 2005 Human 
     Trafficking Trends report and, with a campaign to begin 
     in February, the drama of the children left behind of 
     mothers who have been kidnapped by gangs will be shown. 
     The report tells the stories of the children whose 
     mothers, mostly from northern countries, were kidnapped 
     and brought to Turkey.  The report stressed that these 
     women, due to poverty, cannot take care of their own 
     children and are duped into accepting child-minder 
     positions.  Furthermore, the report said, the Mafia 
     takes their passports and threatens to kill the women's 
     children while locking the women up and forcing them 
     into prostitution. 
 
     IOM, in order to increase public sensitivity and show 
     the bitter truth, have gone into action by showing a 
     short film on television and in cinemas.  In the 
     American- and several film company-sponsored film, four 
     children whose mothers were kidnapped and sent to 
     Turkey took lead roles.  The slogan "Have you seen my 
     mother?" is used. 
 
     The film on TV and billboard notices 
 
     The film, shot in Moldova, stresses the drama of 
     children who are left behind and families that are torn 
     apart due to trafficking in persons.  The 30-second 
     film will be shown first in Turkey, then Moldova, and 
     then other countries where trafficking is heavy.  The 
     municipalities of Trabzon, Izmir and Antalya, where the 
     concentration of working foreign women is, have been 
     supportive.  The Ankara Metropolitan Municipality will 
     post notices on 700 buses and the Istanbul Municipality 
     on 500.  There will also be billboards.  The film was 
     shot in a village in Moldova from where trafficked 
     women came.  The film, made by an IOM team, was 
     financed by the USG.  The film crew first chose the 
     children and then taught the four children Turkish. 
     Three boys, aged 10-16 and a four-year-old girl from 
     the poverty-stricken village took leading roles.  END 
     TEXT. 
 
¶5.  Published by Milliyet on Monday, January 23: 
 
     TITLE:  Visa scandal tied to Turkish businesswoman 
 
     BEGIN TEXT:  The explosive scandal involving visa 
     selling by Austrian representatives in several 
     countries has also affected the Austrian Embassy in 
     Ankara. 
 
     The investigating commission, which uncovered the visas 
     for money scandal in Hungary, Serbia and Ukraine at the 
     Austrian embassies, also reported that, "between 2003 
     and 2004, an Austrian diplomat working at the embassy 
     in Ankara sold visas for money." 
 
     The unnamed person who worked in the Austrian Embassy 
     in Ankara has been arrested and an investigation into 
     the person's background has begun. 
 
     It has been asserted that the embassy official involved 
     in this visa scandal, a Turkish businesswoman living in 
     Vienna, provided false guarantee documents and shared 
     in the money. A case has been opened and charges of 
     trafficking in persons and being a member of an 
     organized crime network have been filed against the 33- 
     year-old unnamed Turkish businesswoman. 
 
     According to the report issued by the commission 
     established to unearth the visa scandal in Austria in 
     the middle of last year, Foreign Minister Plassnick may 
     be held accountable and questioned in front of the 
     parliamentary investigation committee if she is proved 
     to be responsible for the visa scandal.  END TEXT. 
 
¶6.  Published by Aksam on Saturday, January 28: 
 
     TITLE:  Anchovies vs. Condoms 
 
     BEGIN TEXT:  Along with the opening of the Sarp Border 
     in 1989 and the spread of prostitution came many 
     communicable diseases.  The rate of sexually 
     transmitted Hepatitis B and C in the Black Sea is 
     higher than the Turkish average.  The average rate of 
     Hepatitis B is six percent, while in the Black Sea 
     region it is eight percent.  The rate of Hepatitis C is 
     two percent nationwide, and three percent in the Black 
     Sea region.  According to Dr. Mustafa Torun of the AIDS 
     Research Association, the rates of these types of 
     illnesses increase every day.  Ignorance had an effect 
     on the spread of these illnesses. 
 
     Dr. Torun said, "The most important thing to the 
     increases is the transmission within families.  Couples 
     do not take tests before they enter into relations, nor 
     do they protect themselves.  If one of the partners has 
     a disease, it is passed on to the spouse or even to the 
     children.  The most effective prevention is using 
     condoms." 
 
     (A caption under a photo reads:  Dr. Mustafa Torun said 
     that foreign prostitutes have a big effect on the 
     spread of disease.)  END TEXT. 
 
¶7. Published by Yeni Safak on Sunday, January 29: 
 
     TITLE:  Prostitution Ring Brought Down 
 
     BEGIN TEXT:  Operation Orchid.  A team from the Sakarya 
     Security Directorate organized an operation called 
     "Orchid" against a prostitution ring in the Karasu 
     district.  Forty women, mostly foreign, who were sold 
     to men were caught.  Twenty-one organizers, who were 
     caught with these women, were arrested. 
 
     3 Police in Gang.  It was alleged that three policemen 
     were among the suspects and that an unregistered 
     hunting rifle and cannabis products were seized. 
     Sakarya Security Director Mustafa Aydin said that the 
     operation was international and that there were 
     officials among the arrested.  Questioning of the 
     suspects continues.  END TEXT. 
 
¶8.  Published by Cumhuriyet on Sunday, January 29: 
 
     TITLE:  Blow to Prostitution Sector in Sakarya 
 
     BEGIN TEXT:  Sixty people, most of them foreign women, 
     were arrested in a prostitution raid in the Karasu 
     region of Sakarya. 
 
     Operation Orchid was realized through cooperation 
     between the Sakarya Smuggling and Organized Crime 
     Department and the Karasu Security Directorate and was 
     pre-planned.  Sixty people, including foreign female 
     prostitutes and people who worked those women, were 
     arrested.  Among the arrested were female prostitutes 
     from Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, as well as Turks. 
     One air gun and some cannabis were seized.  END TEXT. 
 
¶9.  Reported by Reuters News on Monday, January 30: 
 
     TITLE:  Turkey targets traffickers of women with 
     adverts 
 
     BEGIN TEXT:  Turkey will launch a media campaign this 
     week to help foreign women, mainly from the former 
     Soviet Union, forced by criminal gangs to work here as 
     prostitutes, organizers said on Monday. 
 
     Television and newspaper advertisements will feature 
     children asking, "Have you seen my mother?" to 
     highlight the fact that an estimated one in three 
     foreign prostitutes in Turkey are mothers and also to 
     stress the human dimension of their plight. 
 
     The women, many of them from Ukraine and Moldova, are 
     usually conned by gangs into coming to Turkey to work 
     because they have to support families back home.  They 
     then have their passports confiscated and are kept 
     virtual prisoners. 
 
     "One of the points we are trying to make is that 
     trafficking takes an enormous toll, not just on the 
     individuals but on families and communities," Allan 
     Freedman of the International Organization for 
     Migration (IOM) told Reuters. 
 
     "Women with children are especially vulnerable.  They 
     are under incredible social pressure to make money for 
     their kids so they become more vulnerable to being 
     trafficked." 
 
     IOM experts say the international trafficking of women 
     has become a hugely lucrative industry, worth around 
     $3.6 billion in Turkey alone. 
 
     IOM data showed 469 women were trafficked in 2005 into 
     Turkey, but experts say this probably represents just 
     10 percent of the real figure.  Turkish Interior 
     Ministry data put the number of trafficked women at 243 
     in 2004. 
 
     A woman forced into prostitution would service on 
     average about 15 women a day, at a cost of $150 per 
     person, the IOM said. 
 
     "There is a tremendous amount of money being made in 
     trafficking and nobody knows for sure where the money 
     is going," Freedman said. 
 
     TELEPHONE HOTLINE 
 
     Last year, Turkey set up a 24-hour telephone hotline to 
     help victims of human trafficking.  It is staffed 
     mainly by Russian speakers as language problems are 
     believed to have discouraged women in the past from 
     going to the police. 
 
     Three out of every four calls made to the hotline have 
     come from clients of the women who wanted to help them, 
     IOM data showed.  Authorities plan to expand the 
     hotline service. 
 
     Around a third of the trafficked women in Turkey live 
     in Istanbul, the country's commercial hub.  About a 
     quarter live in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, 
     underlining a close connection between trafficking and 
     tourism. 
 
     A large majority of the victims were recruited by 
     citizens of their own countries.  Ukraine provided 
     nearly a third of the trafficked women in Turkey, 
     followed by Moldova, Russia and the Turkic-speaking ex- 
     Soviet republics of Central Asia. 
 
     The advertising campaign, due to begin on Tuesday, will 
     be financed by the United States.  The European Union, 
     which Turkey aims to join, is also providing help to 
     Ankara to tackle human trafficking.  END TEXT. 
 
¶10.  The following was published by Cumhuriyet on Monday, 
January 30 in an article on the recent conference on Women 
and the Alliance of Civilizations held in Istanbul. 
Marielle Sander-Lindstrom, Chief of Mission of IOM Turkey, 
was interviewed: 
 
     BEGIN TEXT:  Cumhuriyet interviewed Marielle Sander- 
     Lindstrom (Turkey's International Office for Migration 
     Chief of Mission) and she said, "Turkey's geographical 
     position is on the illegal migrant route.  Women from 
     the former Soviet Bloc, especially, come to Turkey to 
     find work.  Many of them fall into the human 
     traffickers' traps, however.  The "157" helpline, 
     established in cooperation with the Turkish government, 
     helps women who have fallen into the Mafia's human 
     trafficking trap. 
     In the one year that I have been in Turkey, I have seen 
     many different characters who have been sheltered.  The 
     most interesting is that 70 percent of the calls into 
     the hotline are from men who want to save a woman they 
     know.  Essentially, Turkish men value women.  END TEXT. 
 
¶11.  Published by the Turkish Daily News on Tuesday, January 
31: 
     TITLE:  Campaign to reveal impact of human trafficking 
     on children 
 
     BEGIN TEXT:  The International Organization for 
     Migration (IOM) is launching a public information 
     campaign today that is hoped will raise awareness on 
     the impact that human trafficking has on children, a 
     move inspired by the disquieting fact that one out of 
     three women trafficked into Turkey are mothers. 
 
     "Trafficking takes an enormous toll, not just on the 
     woman and girls who have been trafficked to Turkey, but 
     on the children and families they are forced to leave 
     behind," said Marielle Sander-Lindstrom, the IOM's 
     chief of mission in Turkey.  "Families and communities 
     are paying an enormous price." 
 
     The campaign, which is for the most part made up of a 
     television advertisement to be broadcast on channels 
     throughout Turkey, is part of an anti-trafficking 
     project coordinated by the Turkish government, 
     sponsored by the U.S. government and implemented by the 
     IOM.  The advertisement focuses on four children from 
     the former Soviet Union, where most of the victims of 
     human trafficking come from, and their search for their 
     mothers who left for jobs in Turkey. 
 
     "One-third of the women trafficked to Turkey are 
     mothers, which means this is not only about individual 
     victims," Allan Freedman of the IOM told the Turkish 
     Daily News.  The campaign, which is to be announced to 
     the public at a press conference at the Turkish Foreign 
     Ministry, is aimed at "creating a conversation on what 
     trafficking is about." 
 
     Turkey has been a major transit and destination country 
     for human trafficking in recent years, attracting many 
     women from the former Soviet republics aspiring for 
     jobs and better living standards, many of whom end up 
     enslaved at the hands of human trafficking gangs that 
     force them into sex or servitude. 
 
     According to IOM figures, 469 were identified as having 
     been trafficked into Turkey last year, although 
     authorities estimate this could be as little as 10 
     percent of the real figure. 
 
     Media sponsors of the IOM campaign include Kanal D and 
     Star television, as well as film distributor FIDA FILM 
     and the cinema company Sinefekt.  Airport authorities 
     in Istanbul, Trabzon and Antalya, as well as 
     municipalities in Istanbul, Ankara, Antalya, Izmir and 
     Trabzon are also providing sponsorship by setting aside 
     billboards for campaign posters.  END TEXT. 
 
¶12.  Published by Sabah on Tuesday, January 31: 
 
     TITLE:  The United Nations' Natasha Report; Traffickers 
     earn 765,000 USD a year from one prostitute. 
 
     BEGIN TEXT:  The United Nations, in its 2005 
     prostitution report, reported that victims of sex 
     trafficking can make 765,000 USD by being marketed to 
     15 men a day at 150 USD each.  According to the report, 
     most of the victims are women from Ukraine and Moldova. 
     The mafia makes 360 million dollars from prostitution 
     alone. 
 
     The United Nations Human Trafficking Report, to be 
     released today, gives shocking information about women 
     forced into prostitution in Turkey. 
     According to the report, trafficking in women earns 360 
     million dollars per year for the mafia.  The United 
     Nations' International Organization for Migration (IOM) 
     prepared a report called "Turkey:  Trends in Human 
     Trafficking" for its new campaign, which was financed 
     by the U.S. government.  The report indicated that more 
     than half the victims of trafficking in Turkey are from 
     Ukraine and Moldova, the rest from the Balkans and 
     neighboring eastern countries.  It is interesting to 
     note the details about trafficking in women and 
     prostitution in the United Nations' research.  The 
     report indicates there is a social and economic side to 
     human trafficking and that women have earned the mafia 
     millions of dollars. 
 
     According to this report, the women make 150 USD a 
     customer and service 15 men per day.  This means she 
     earns 2,250 USD a day and 765,000 USD for 340 days, and 
     that most of this money ends up in the hands of the 
     mafia.  The total number of victims in Turkey was 
     reported as 4,690 (sic), but it is stressed that this 
     number may represent only 10 percent of the victims. 
     This means the yearly figure is 360 million dollars. 
     According to the UN report statistics, 469 women were 
     conned and kidnapped in Turkey last year.  It was noted 
     in the report that IOM helped 220 women to return to 
     their countries and information from them indicated 
     that they came to Turkey to help ensure their 
     children's futures.  Most of the women, many who earn 
     less than two dollars a day, were duped into coming 
     with promises of a nanny job. 
 
     Thirty-six percent of women are carrying infectious 
     disease. 
 
     Women from Moldova, Ukraine and Russia come most often 
     to Turkey and enter through Istanbul and Antalya. 
 
     Forty percent of the kidnapped women forced into 
     prostitution are mothers whose children are threatened 
     with death if the women do not comply. 
 
     In a survey of 117 rescued Moldovan women, emotional 
     and physical effects have taken their toll.  According 
     to the survey, 36 percent of the women have 
     gynecological communicable diseases and 31 percent have 
     had damage to their reproductive organs.  END TEXT. 
 
¶13.  Reported by Milliyet on Tuesday, January 31: 
 
     TITLE:  One billion dollars earned from human 
     trafficking.  Report reveals the amount of money made 
     on Eastern Bloc women forced into prostitution 
 
     BEGIN TEXT:  The International Office for Migration 
     (IOM), in its report "2005:  Turkey, Human Trafficking 
     and Trends," to be released today, stressed that the 
     illegal income generated from human trafficking of 
     people from Moldova and Ukraine and from other old 
     Eastern Bloc countries, amounts to one billion dollars. 
 
     According to information from IOM officials, last year 
     469 women from Eastern Bloc countries were forced into 
     the sex trade.  This number is about ten percent of the 
     number of foreign women who are victims of trafficking. 
     In one year each woman is forced into relations with 15 
     people and the illegal money made from these all women 
     is more than one billion dollars. 
 
     Publicity films.  In order to raise sympathy with the 
     Turkish public, an IOM-made and Kanal D and Star TV- 
     sponsored film entitled "Have You Seen My Mother" will 
     be shown free of charge on 26 television stations. 
 
     The film shows four Moldovan children of victims of 
     trafficking looking for their mothers, and, according 
     to IOM Chief of Mission Marielle Sander-Lindstrom, 
     "Human trafficking does not just affect these women; at 
     the same time it affects the children and families who 
     were left behind.  Families are paying a high price." 
     END TEXT. 
 
¶14.  Published by Radikal on Tuesday, January 31: 
 
     TITLE:  Let us save mothers in trouble 
 
     BEGIN TEXT:  The United Nations' International Office 
     for Migration, which put the 157 hotline into operation 
     in May 2005, in order to raise more interest in the 
     hotline, has now released a film entitled "Have You 
     Seen My Mother." 
 
     IOM, which has saved 52 women from the hands of human 
     traffickers with the 157 hotline, revealed that one of 
     every three women is a mother. IOM, in order to raise 
     more interest in the hotline is using the "mother" 
     element, and is cooperating with the Ministry of 
     Foreign Affairs to start a new public awareness 
     campaign. 
 
     Four Moldovan children.  The first part of the campaign 
     was to use four Moldovan children in the film "Have You 
     Seen My Mother."  The four children, whose mothers are 
     victims of trafficking, give the following messages: 
     "I miss her," "I do not know where she is," "We needed 
     to eat," "One of us needed to work and my mother went," 
     "Have you seen my mother?"  The film, which will be 
     shown on 26 television channels, got clearance from the 
     government.  The film will also be shown during the pre- 
     film commercials in cinemas.  Posters advertising the 
     film are in Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya and 
     Trabzon bus stops and on billboards at airports. 
 
     Selin Arslan, IOM's Information Officer, said, "The 
     number of victims of trafficking in Turkey has reached 
     three thousand.  Forty percent of the kidnapped women 
     are forced to work in Istanbul, 16 percent in Antalya 
     and Ankara.  Women from Ukraine, Moldova and Russia use 
     the 157 hotline most often.  Twenty-six percent of the 
     callers to the 157 hotline are victims, while 74 
     percent are friends or customers of the victims.  We 
     are waiting for help from the public. 
 
     "They so scare the women they force into prostitution 
     that the women are afraid to call us.  There is a 
     shelter in Istanbul and one to be opened in Ankara." 
     (Note:  The shelter in Ankara opened at the end of 
     October, 2005.  End Note.) 
WILSON