Each year tens of young girls and women are recruited from Azerbaijan to work in the sex industry abroad. Sometimes, an offer of employment represents a rare chance for the majority of them to escape from the problems, especially financial hardships they experience. Being completely unaware of possible negative outcomes of such an “opportunity” these women become victims of human trafficking – a form of contemporary slavery
The people are so reluctant to talk about, particularly when it affects their own families. The documentary “Life Betrayed” representing a story of a woman who became a victim of human trafficking due to a number of interrelated circumstances including but not limited to lack of educational qualifications, limited economic opportunities as well as severe cases of domestic violence was produced within the frames of the projects on “Combating Gender Based Violence in Azerbaijan” (UNFPA/Azerbaijan, SCWCA, the Government of Norway) and “Prevention and Response to the Sexual and Gender-Based Violence for IDPs and Refugees/Asylum Seekers in Azerbaijan” (SCFWCA, UNHCR, EC, Ward).
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Highlighting the issues of gender-based violence, this film is intended to break the silence on the problems of human trafficking by bringing together a personal life account of a victim as well as scattered imaginations about the phenomenon. It is interesting to note that in the vast majority of cases people just read official figures about human trafficking from various sources without clear understanding of the personal tragedies of those who face this vis-à-vis in their lives. There are also cases when the people are aware of such a case, and sometimes they also know the victims, however, they do not realize that this is regarded to be a criminal offense according to national and respective international legal documents.
By narrating the experience of the main character throughout the whole documentary the film provides a unique insight into the problem of human trafficking in Azerbaijan. Talking about the factors that had forced her into becoming a victim of human trafficking, a hero mostly attributes what happened to the cases of violence that she was subjected to from her relatives. She tells that she had a husband and a daughter, they were not rich, but they were happy. Her husband fell seriously ill when their daughter was four years old. Despite all her efforts to save him he died. The actual nightmare started right after this. The parents of her husband were forcing her to sell the apartment she had. Each expression of disagreement was a reason for being beaten by the relatives, the ones who were in fact supposed to be of assistance. Being financially dependent she could not resist such a behavior too much.
Perhaps that is why the offer of an employment in Dubai came as a salvation to her. She could not even imagine that she was about to become a victim of human trafficking and face sexual harassment instead of working as a cleaner at the hotel.
“All these things happened to me without my consent, but unfortunately, our society disapproves of women like me… However, we need society’s help and support… We as a society cannot solve the problem of domestic violence and trafficking unless we get the general public involved,” says a hero of the film.
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The launch of the documentary "Life Betrayed” was held in the “Europe” Hotel on April 30, 2009. The demonstration of the film was followed by the speeches of Mr. Peer Sieben, UNFPA Country Director for Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, Mrs. Hijran Huseynova, the Head of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children’s Affairs, and other representatives of state structures as well as national and international NGOs who stressed the importance of expanding the outreach campaigns on human trafficking and gender-based violence, its causes and consequences and the rights and responsibilities of those concerned. The importance of adopting respective legislation was emphasized among the major measures directed towards the elimination of these phenomena.
