Transcript for the Piece Audio version of RN Documentary: Running with Atalanta

?Running with Atalanta?
Produced & Presented by David Swatling
Sound Engineer: Peter Bos

SCRIPT

VOX INTRO: Radio Netherlands presents Vox Humana. I?m David Swatling. The theme of this year?s international collaboration Global Perspective is Crime. According to the United Nations, human trafficking has become the fastest growing criminal activity in the world. The number of women trafficked and exploited in the sex trade in Europe is estimated to be as high as 700,000 per year ? with nearly a third trafficked from Eastern European countries. But victims of trafficking in The Netherlands are sometimes viewed as criminals themselves. I explore attempts by two young woman to change this contradictory perception in ?Running with Atalanta.?

MUSIC1: ?The Feeling Begins? ? Peter Gabriel
Track 1 ? From Start

READING ? OVID:
Perhaps thou may'st have heard a virgin's name,
Who still in swiftness swiftest youths o'ercame.
Wondrous! that female weakness should outdo
A manly strength; the wonder yet is true.
'Twas doubtful, if her triumphs in the field
Did to her form's triumphant glories yield;
Whether her face could with more ease decoy
A crowd of lovers, or her feet destroy.
Yet once Apollo she implor'd to show
If courteous Fates a consort would allow:
A consort brings thy ruin, he reply'd;
O! learn to want the pleasures of a bride!
Nor shalt thou want them to thy wretched cost,
And Atalanta living shall be lost.

STREET SOUNDS

DAVID: On a cold January night in Amsterdam, it?s business as usual in the Red Light district? quartets of young men banter with the scantily clad women in the windows ?single older men stand staring? ?large groups of tourists laugh nervously as they prepare to enter a live sex show? It?s a virtual sexual theme park ? but one with a dark secret. For here, the world?s oldest profession has become linked with what 18th century Dutch minister Francois Valentijn called the world?s oldest trade ? slavery ? or human trafficking as it?s called today.

SOUND CONTINUES

ANNA: DUR: 42?
Everyone?s thinking you can see immediately if it?s a victim of trafficking but it?s not true. Most of the time you cannot see from the outside who is victim of trafficking. If I walk on the street, no one knows I?m a victim of trafficking. But also, the victim of trafficking can be your daughter, or mother, or neighbor, or your boss. All the people think victims of trafficking is some stupid girl from some small town. But mostly it?s very strong women with high education and the women decide to immigrate to another country for a better economical situation for the future.

RUTH: DUR: 44?
A lot of women do know what they?re doing. Of course, nobody wants to be trafficked. Nobody wants to be beaten up or raped or forced to work. But a lot of women are looking for work and actively thinking out strategies. And sometimes prostitution is an element of this strategy. They?ll say, Ok, if it?s prostitution and if I can earn enough money to feed my children or pay for the medicine for my family, I?ll do it? I do think a lot of women are tricked but sometimes I also think this story is constructed, as it were, because that?s what the women themselves, maybe, and what especially governments want to believe.

SOUND (FADE OUT AFTER DAVID)

DAVID: Ten years ago, Anna Ziverte and Ruth Hopkins were 22 year old law students ? one in Latvia and the other in The Netherlands. Years later the two would meet. Hopkins was researching a European Commission report about trafficking of women in The Netherlands. Ziverte was one of the victims she interviewed. Both women have now written books about trafficking ? from their unique perspectives. In ?False Promise? Anna Ziverte chronicles her own dark journey. Ruth Hopkins? book ?I?ll Never Ever Let You Go? investigates trafficked women from Eastern Europe, policemen in Amsterdam?s Red Light district and turns a scathing eye on Dutch politicians and policy.

RUTH: DUR: 1?38?
I never wanted to become a legal scholar or whatever so I started writing and in 2000 I was working at a regional newspaper called the Utrechts Newsblad as an intern. Prostitution had just been legalized. And I thought I?d write something about prostitution, about the brothel owners and the women working there. So I phoned up this local brothel owner and I asked him, Can I talk to you about the new laws? And he said, Yeah, no problem. Drop by and we?ll chat. And so that?s what I did. I talked to this man for two or three hours ? a very chatty man, very high on dope. And he was telling me everything about the laws and how he didn?t disagree with it at all. He was actually quite for it, but there was a problem with the legalization of prostitution. A lot of Dutch women had moved away because they wanted to remain anonymous. So they moved to Belgium and Germany. So he couldn?t find any people to work for him. But he told me he had solved that little problem because he?d bought women from Eastern Europe. And he paid about 20,000 guilders ? we still had guilders at that time ? for about 8 or 9 women. He was shipping them in. He?d organized passports and documents for them. ?Anyway, I went back to the newspaper and it sort of dawned on me ? wait a minute. He just told me that he bought women? How the hell can you buy women?

ANNA: DUR: 56?
I had a really difficult time behind me. I started to study, and I had a small child; my mother asked me, maybe I?d like to go somewhere for some vacation or as an au-pair because at the same time, friends of mine were in Germany and other European countries. And together with my good girlfriend, we found an official company in Latvia. And this company helped us come to The Netherlands for work as an au-pair. Everything was official ? because I was a law student in Latvia and I really checked to see if anything was wrong. But they were so nice and everything organized so good that I never think about I might get into trouble.

MUSIC: Passion Tr. 8

READING ? OVID:
With such a rueful Fate th' affrighted maid
Sought green recesses in the wood-land glade.
Nor sighing suiters her resolves could move,
She bade them show their speed, to show their love.
He only, who could conquer in the race,
Might hope the conquer'd virgin to embrace;
While he, whose tardy feet had lagg'd behind,
Was doom'd the sad reward of death to find.

ANNA: DUR: 3?30?
When I arrived in Rotterdam, there were some people waiting for us. And they bring us to an apartment ? it was 5 o?clock in the morning. And after in the morning, the woke us up and told us there was no work as an au-pair. The work was in a sex club ? in prostitution. I told them I didn?t want to do this and I want to go to the police. But they showed me a picture of my child and told me if I don?t do what they say, I?d never see anymore my child?Oh, it was terrible. I felt like I was in a dream ? a nightmare ? because I didn?t understand how people can do something like this ? because my child was two years old. And I was really, really terrible? I understand I have to work in prostitution and I only asked how long I?d have to work. And they told me I?d have to work a few months and then I could go back to Latvia? and I try really in these few months - I drank a lot of alcohol. It was very difficult for me? Because when I woke up I had to go to work. I was working from 8 o?clock in the morning until 10 o?clock in the evening as an escort. And after that I worked from 10 o?clock in the evening until 4 o?clock in the morning in a sex club. I was sleeping only 2 or 3 hours and all the time drinking alcohol. These few months were like a nightmare. I didn?t understand nothing and I don?t want to understand nothing.

In these three months I never think about escape because I was so afraid. I tried to be nice with the criminal organization because I was thinking, if I am nice they?ll let me go after a few months. But after I saw my best girlfriend was sold to some Arabic man ? and another girl disappeared. I know she never arrived back in Latvia and she had two small children and?
After three months the criminal organization sold me also to some Yugoslavian man. He was very nice with me. He tried to help me. And after some time, I went to the police together with him and we told the whole story? and they didn?t believe my story. Only because the man was also a criminal and told also the story about himself. Then the police were interested in my testimony because I knew not only about the traffickers stories, but at that moment I knew a lot of things about other criminal organizations and things?
?It was very dangerous for me ? and also for this man. And after a few months, he was killed in prison?

MUSIC: Passion Tr. 10

READING ? OVID:

Shall his kind passion his destruction prove?
Is this the fatal recompence of love?
There sat Hippomenes, prepar'd to blame
In lovers such extravagance of flame.
And must, he said, the blessing of a wife
Be dearly purchas'd by a risk of life?

RUTH: DUR: 2?04?
I think a lot of women are still distrusted because what you see is the importance of fighting trafficking seems to be gaining ground in the public debate. But at the same time, don?t underestimate the complete, irrational fear people have for migration currently. If we concentrate on the role of the government ? lots of Western governments ? I think they will prefer to view the women when they?re confronted with: OK, government, what are you doing about trafficking? These are serious human rights violations; you can?t look the other way; this is slavery; etc. etc. These governments will say: These poor women are victims. They?re victims of a crime. We have to rehabilitate them. But on the other hand, if they?re confronted with a different problem, if they take a different angle, if let?s say the electorate says: Please get rid of crime. Please get rid of all these foreigners who are flocking into the country. Please, we don?t want all these foreigners here, these asylum seekers and illegals. They?re causing crime and disrupting society in our values and norms and whatever. Then this same government will look at the same group of women and say, Ooh, these are illegal immigrants, they?re criminals, they?re working without a work permit. We?re going to kick them out of the country now. And as I?ve researched in my book, 14 year olds are being deported without any form of assistance ? victims of trafficking. So that?s the complex situation in Holland ? we?ve got all these fantastic laws, measures, organizations, police units that are focused against the fight in trafficking. But you see in reality, in practice there?s hardly anything being done. So it?s all window-dressing, in my opinion.

MUSIC: Passion Tr. 10

OVID READING
A tree there stands, full glorious to behold,
Gold are the leafs, the crackling branches gold.
It chanc'd, three apples in my hand I bore,
Which newly from the tree I sportive tore;
Seen by the youth alone, to him I brought
The fruit, and when, and how to use it, taught.

ANNA: DUR: 1?37?
?I never thought about testifying against these traffickers. All I wanted to do was to tell my story and go back to Latvia. But the police bring me to a safe-house and I had to stay in The Netherlands for a while because they needed my testimony. And I never had a choice to testify or not. I had to testify for the police. Only after a year or 2 years I heard I had a choice at this moment?

And I was so na?ve, I told the police everything and the police made three different cases from my story. A lot of people went to prison. And it was from this moment ? when I went to the police ? that problems for me started totally again? It was really more of a nightmare than when I was working in prostitution? Because sometimes I had to go two or three times a week to court to testify against the criminal organization. All the people saw me ? all the people knew I testified against the organization and I never got protection from the police or government, never! I feel I was used by the government in The Netherlands because they were only interested in the criminal case and not in me. And totally not what happened to my girlfriends or many, many girls who I saw in the clubs, escorts and other places?

RUTH: DUR: 2?10?
In the majority of cases, women are considered illegal immigrants and are kicked out of the country without any form of assistance. Then there?s a very small group of women who are recognized as victims of trafficking ? the State, the government say, yeah, these women are victims. These are the women that report the crime to the police. So if and when the police say, we believe you ? we think there?s something?s going on there and we?re going to investigate. So if they find this report useful, and also if the prosecution finds the report useful, then under these circumstances the can obtain a temporary residence permit in The Netherlands ? but only as a witness. So it?s a linking of criminal and alien/immigration law. This is, I think, the first flaw in the system because I think you should actually have a society whereby we?d say, this woman has had terrible experiences so we?re going to give her a temporary residence permit full-stop. And so that?s the first basic flaw of the system but then there are a lot of other flaws in that it?s a temporary residence permit. And the point in time when the residence permit expires is when the woman has to testify against the traffickers in court. So I consider that the most dangerous point in time. She?s done something that will really anger the traffickers so they?ll be looking out for retribution. They?ll want to do something to her or her family. So at this point the woman is often told, bye-bye ? go back to Albania, Bulgaria, Nigeria, wherever. And their life is devastated and they feel that they?ve been punished twice - the first time by the pimps and the second time by the Dutch government. So to me it comes as no surprise that only 5% of the women actually have the guts and the nerve to report the crime.

MUSIC: Passion Tr. 11

OVID READING:
O'er-spent with heat, his breath he faintly drew,
And the first apple on the plain he threw.
The nymph stop'd sudden at th' unusual sight,
Struck with the fruit so beautifully bright.
Aside she starts, the wonder to behold,
And eager stoops to catch the rouling gold.
Th' observant youth past by, and scour'd along,
While peals of joy rung from th' applauding throng.
Unkindly she corrects the short delay,
And to redeem the time fleets swift away,
Swift, as the lightning, or the northern wind,
And far she leaves the panting youth behind.
Again he strives the flying nymph to hold
With the temptation of the second gold:
The bright temptation fruitlessly was tost,
So soon, alas! she won the distance lost.

ANNA: DUR: 1?03?
?Ten years ago, if the police hadn?t put my name on all these papers, all these testimonies, then I?d like to have gone home. Because it was my dream to go home. I had a nice life there ? a child, everything. And after the testimony, I hadn?t seen my child for five years. Finally I went to Latvia with some friends and took my child ? illegally ? to The Netherlands. And here I also had big trouble because my child was with me? I?m really very angry. Because I see the victims in practice almost every day. And the people who sit in the government ? sometimes they never saw a victim in life ? never saw. This is very difficult because they can talk about things ? what is better for the victim ? but they don?t know what is better because they never saw or spoke with some victim.

SOUND: BOOK PRESENTATION (in Dutch)
(Premixed to run thru following sequence)

DAVID: In a reception room at the Ministry of Justice in The Hague, Anna Ziverte doesn?t show anger as she presents her book ?False Promise? to the Dutch Minister for Immigration and Integration Rita Verdonk. Before a small audience of officials, journalists, friends and her now 12 year old son, Ziverte catches Minister Verdonk off guard by asking her directly every victim of trafficking who reports to the police is not automatically granted a permanent residence permit.

SOUND: ANNA?S QUESTION (in Dutch)

DAVID: Ziverte presses Minister Verdonk to answer but she prefers not to respond directly, saying she will address the matter in her prepared remarks. The Minister begins by expressing her admiration for Ziverte and her empathy for victims of trafficking. But then she launches into the kind of political rhetoric which so frustrates both Anna Ziverte and Ruth Hopkins.

SOUND: VERDONK SPEECH (in Dutch)

RUTH: DUR: 2?27?
Well, I think Verdonk?s words are very typical of this current government. The government officials will say, Oh, we really care about this - oh, this is slavery and didn?t we abolish slavery in 1863? These are very serious human rights violations and we should really do something now and so on and so forth ? with this sense of urgency. But I just don?t see a lot of it in practice. And what she also does in her speech, ??in my heart I would give everyone a residence permit but I can?t?? That?s actually sort of upfront and honest of her ? that?s a good thing. But then she refers to ??but we?re doing quite a lot ? we?ve got a national rapporteur and we?ve eased up the law in this way, we?ve introduced measures and so on and so forth, a national action plan on trafficking. And this is very interesting - symptomatic of the system in Holland. The government reacts by introducing more measures, more networks of social workers and police and government officials working together discussing the problem. They do not introduce a better situation for the women. They just introduce more bureaucracy and there are more reports being written. But the actual effective tackling of the problem ? that?s not really happening. ((Although, to make one comment in favor of Verdonk, it?s true that Holland has made it possible for victims of trafficking ? with a permit ? to work here and they have a right to education, as well. And another point that she made, it?s easier to get their kids, if their kids are still in the source country they can get them over here. It?s not as difficult as it used to be. But again, to make a comment on my comment, if you look at the right to work for the victims of trafficking, that?s an obligation of The Netherlands on the basis of an EU directive. In the EU, Holland was the last country to fight against this. They didn?t want this but they had to in the end. It wasn?t their initiative but hey couldn?t do otherwise. So, I think it?s a load of nonsense saying, I?m doing all I can If Verdonk were really honest she?d have to say, We are prepared to help a small group of women; we?re not prepared to help a larger group of women because we don?t like illegal immigrants. Because that?s what these women are. They?re victims of trafficking but they?re also illegal immigrants. They?re also looking for work. So if you really want to solve the problem, you?d have to do something about that. And she?s never going to do that. She should be more honest and say, we don?t want this; there?s no political will; we don?t give a toss about these women; we?re going to send them back; ok, there?s slavery; we?re not going to solve it. That would be really honest because what she?s saying now merely sounds like she?s actually doing quite a lot. It?s just not true.

MUSIC: Passion Tr. 11 (end)

OVID READING:
Then of the shining fruit the last he drew,
And with his full-collected vigour threw:
The virgin still the longer to detain,
Threw not directly, but a-cross the plain.
She seem'd a-while perplex'd in dubious thought,
If the far-distant apple should be sought:
I lur'd her backward mind to seize the bait,
And to the massive gold gave double weight.
My favour to my votary was done?
The youth the race, and so the virgin won.

SOUND: RED LIGHT DISTRICT

DAVID: It?s estimated that as many as one in ten of the some 30,000 prostitutes working in The Netherlands are victims of trafficking. It could be any of these women in the windows of the Red Light district ? many look like they might be from Eastern Europe, many more than ten years ago. And Anna Ziverte is not content to sit and wait for a change in government policy or public perception. She has started the first support group in the world where victims themselves attempt to help other victims of trafficking. She calls it Atalantas ? inspired by the woman from Greek mythology who could outrun any man ? until, that is, she was tricked by Venus, goddess of love.

ANNA: DUR: 1?10?
In the first place, we are the front line organization because, if someone escaped, most of the time they come to us and ask for help. And we also do field work ? visit the places where the prostitutes work - sex clubs and also other places where we can find prostitutes. And with some other organizations we do this ? not by ourselves only. And if we see, or feel someone is a victim of trafficking ? we give more right information and tell her there are more possibilities than to stay and work. ?It?s very difficult, and very dangerous also, but if we don?t do this, who does this? The government doesn?t do this. The police don?t do this also, and that why we do this and try and? sometimes we are very afraid in some clubs. There?s pimps ? it?s very dangerous. But if we don?t do this, who will do this?

MUSIC: Passion Track 1 (end)

OVID READING:
Perhaps thou may'st have heard a virgin's name,
Who still in swiftness swiftest youths o'ercame.
Wondrous! that female weakness should outdo
A manly strength; the wonder yet is true.

OUTRO:

?Running with Atalanta? featured Anna Ziverte, author of ?False Promise? and Ruth Hopkins, author of ?I?ll Never Ever Let You Go.? Jacky Spears read the excerpts from Ovid?s ?Metamorphoses? with music from Peter Gabriel?s ?Passion.? Sarah Johnson and Sigrid Deter contributed research and interview material. The program was produced by David Swatling with sound engineer Peter Bos, in association with the international collaboration Global Perspective. Vox Humana is a Radio Netherlands presentation.

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