Costa Rica A Favourite Desitnation For "Trata de Blancas"
Judicial authorities and international organizations say that the murder of Olesdya Fedko two years ago was a cse of "trata de blancas" or while slavery and not the only incident in Costa Rica.

Fedko was was found murdered from a gunshot to the head on a beach near Parrita, south of Playa Jacó. The Russian woman had come to Costa Rica work. She was buried without much known about her life in Costa Rica or in her native land, other than she was working as a prostitute in San José.

White Slavery is third largest business in the world, following arms sales and drug trafficking. White slavery is profitable, as women, children and including men are victims of organized groups that take advantage of them and submit them to inhuman conditions.

Deceit is the tool of those involved in the trade.

And Costa Rica is not foreign to the organized groups and some experts believe Costa Rica leads in being a destination for victims and/or a point of transit. The majority of victims sent to Costa Rica are involved in prostitution, according to a study by the U.S. State Department.

Under false pretences, organized groups are able to deceive women from Bulgaria, Colombia, Russia, Phillipines, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Romania, for sexual exploitation.

Victims are promised jobs in their "new" country, however, once on Costa Rican soil they are beaten, ill treated, threatened and obligated to work as prostitutes with the majority of the earnings going back to the organizers, the report states.

For Águeda Marín, a specialist o fthe Organización Internacional para las Migraciones en Centroamérica y el Caribe (OIM), who has prepared the book "Estado de la Población Mundial para Costa Rica", she says that the organizers take the women's passports and documentation from them and threaten to report them to immigration if they don't co-operate.

Marín said that these women can be found in hotels and bordellos having little choice but to submit to the wishes of the organizers. "This problem has been made invisible, there is apathy in dealing with the subject, and there lacks the political will that makes the job difficult", said Marín.

The specialist says that the problem goes beyond foreigners being exploited, but also Costa Rican women are being exploited in a similar fashion, victims of the illicit trade.

The OIM says that Ticas are being tricked to going to Mexico, the United States and Europe, on the same false premise of work and at high pay, an option that can increase the quality of life of not only the victim, but also of the family in Costa Rica.

Marín said that white slavery is an international crime that needs the attention of governments around the world. Central America is bottleneck and Costa Rica is not excluded from the problem, although many see Costa Rica as being exempt from the problem.