On Saturday, we were at the Rogner meeting with an expat friend who was leaving Tirana. It was breakfast time, and as our friend was finishing his tea the breakfast room started to fill up with over-dressed (or under-dressed) young women wearing blue sashes. These were the contestants for the Miss Globe 2007 beauty pageant being held in Tirana tonight at the Palace of Congresses. High heel boots and mini-skirts - or in a couple of cases micro-skirts, or possibly just belts - have never struck me as obvious breakfast attire, but the girls seemed happy enough tottering and wobbling around with their tea and toast. I'm not sure why they were wearing their sashes - perhaps in case they forgot which country they came from. As we were leaving they were boarding a large coach which I had seen a number of times around the city in the last few days for their next trip. I'm not sure how some of them made it up the steps, or how they managed to sit down, but perhaps these are the ki...
Comments
In any case, despite accusations of Albania being a source as well as a destination of THB, the report did not provide any hard evidence as to the extent of the problem in Albania. Rumours abound that there are as many as 30,000 sexworkers from Albania servicing the trade in the streets of Europe. However, I find these rumors to be greatly exaggerated.
So, the evidence is very hard to be backed. But then again we are talking about a shady business such as that of human trafficking, so real numbers would be hard to come by anyways.