For years, Armenian girls had worked as prostitutes in the United Arab Emirates under Ikush's patronage. The madam had taken all the money the girls earned. Besides that, she and her friend, Yenok Yenokyan [Irina's maiden name is Danielyan. She was married to Yenok and had taken his surname] regularly beat up Hermine Zakaryan and subjected her to sexual exploitation.
For years, Irina had transported groups of women to the United Arab Emirates, and her name occurred frequently in various trafficking cases. According to the charges, a group of Armenian girls worked as prostitutes in Dubai under her patronage from 2001 to 2005. In addition, she forced Hermine Zakaryan to submit to sexual exploitation by having her beaten on a number of occasions.
The Court of First Instance of the Shengavit District sentenced Gayane Melkonyan and Susanna Nikoghosyan to five and two years imprisonment respectively on January 31 of this year. In 2004 and 2005, they had gathered a group of Armenian girls whom they tricked and sent to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkey to work as prostitutes. Melkonyan and Nikoghosyan, however, had started their work much earlier.
Armenia is a source country and, to a lesser extent, a transit country for women and girls trafficked to the United Arab Emirates and Turkey for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Armenian men and women are trafficked to Russia for the purpose of forced labor. Women and girls also transit through Moscow to the U.A.E.
A number of NGOs are implementing projects aimed at raising the level of awareness towards human trafficking.
The US State Department's 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report places Armenia on its "Watch List" (countries that require special supervision).
"My son has to go to school in September, my mother is terminally ill and she needs medication. I really needed money and nobody would help me. My sisters and brothers are married and have their own problems. And finding a job in Uzbekistan is practically impossible. "
“And so in the beginning of 2003 the next phase of my activities began. I called Anahit Mlkhasyan, a Dubai pimp, and got Nune Kcheyan's phone number in Yerevan, which I can’t recall now. I called Nune, and asked her to find girls for me and send them to Dubai, so that they would do prostitution for me. She demanded $1,000 for each girl she would recruit.
On May 25 2005, The Court of First Instance of the Kotayk Province, Judge Gagik Heboyan presiding, reviewed the request from the Abovyan prison and released prisoner Marietta Musayelyan before she had completed her sentence. Muselyan had been wanted by the police since 2003 and was sentenced to one year and six months in prison. She served only seven months.