Trafficking in young girls and women from the Baltic states to Western European countries including the Nordic countries is a growing problem – not least for the victims. Moderate EU estimates say that 120.000 women and children are being trafficked from Central and East European countries into Western Europe each year. This special issue of NIKK magasin on prostitution and trafficking in women is a contribution to a Nordic-Baltic information campaign on the same subject involving eight countries. For this reason all the articles are in English. The contributions come from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland as well as from Russia and the Baltic states.

In this issue of NIKK magasin we present some samples of new research within this field. But trafficking in women and children for prostitution purposes is a multifaceted problem which requires much more interdisciplinary research with gender perspectives than what is actually going on in the Nordic region. Such research ought to constitute the knowledge basis for social, economic and legislative measures for combating this growing criminal transnational trade, which is based on gender discrimination and violence against women.

Contains the following articles: 

• ”Bodies across borders” by Ulrikke Moustgaard
• ”You will be sold like a doll” by Audra Sipaviciene
• ”Nordic-Baltic campaign against trafficking in Women” by Trine Lynggard
• ”Between Suppression and Independence” by Marlene Spanger
• ”Why do men buy sex?” by Maria Jacobson (interview with Sven-Axel Månsson)
• ”How women in prositution see themselves and explain their motivations” by Natalia Khodyreva
• ”Victims of trafficking” by Tamara Freeze
• ”Racism in the sex trade in Finland” by Laura Keeler and Marjut Jyrkinen
• ”A vicious circle of abuse of minors in the sex trade” by Reet Nurmi
• ”The Palermo Protocol” by Gunilla S. Ekberg
• ”Open borders – open bodies” by Britt Kramvig and Kirsten Stein