"I went to Vienna to babysit for 1,000 euros and they raped me there. Every night a different man"

Katarina (16) accepted an invitation from an unknown woman to work as a babysitter for 1,000 euros in Vienna for two months. But instead of Vienna, she ended up as a victim of human trafficking in a tavern by the highway, where she was raped and forced into prostitution.

"It all started when a woman appeared in our house one day who claimed that she needed a babysitter for two children in Vienna. My father didn't want to let me go, he was suspicious, but mom was persistent. She believed it was a good opportunity for me, and I trusted her," the unfortunate girl tells her story.

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After much persuasion, her father agreed, especially as they were offered 1,000 euros in advance. Katarina was overjoyed, unaware that at that moment hell was starting for her.

"We didn't even reach Vienna. The woman who recruited me drove me to some tavern on the highway where a man was waiting. He sized me up and said that she had chosen well, that I would be good for the pole. It was at that moment that I realized what was happening to me," says Katarina.

At night, she was forced to pole-dance and strip. And after that came the worst. At first, she refused the men who were sent to her room, but then they would complain.

"They gave me customers who did what they wanted with me. And when I tried to defend myself, a man would come and keep me locked up and beat me up, often rape me, just to show me that I had no choice," says the unfortunate girl.

Foto-ilustracija: Profimedia

She was silent and did not try to escape because they threatened to kill her family. Far from them, not knowing exactly where she was, she was spending her days locked in a room, waiting for her wounds to heal. But it did not happen because the abuse happened every day.

"I was scared, but when I was beaten so badly that I couldn't get up after one of the many rapes I knew I had to run. I was lucky for the first time in a long while because there was nobody in the tavern, I ran out and started running through the woods, even though everything hurt," she recalls.

It took a lot of courage once she reached the police to talk about everything that she had been through.

"I realized after a while that I had to speak because if I was silent, another girl would end up like me," says the brave girl.

Her story launched a big campaign in the fight against human trafficking. The UNITAS Fund, the Center for the Protection of Victims of Trafficking in Humans of the Republic of Serbia, and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development and the Ministry of Interior joined forces.

The documentary "Observers" ("Posmatraci") was made, directed by Nikola Ljuca, aimed at raising awareness of this type of crime, as well as presenting ways to prevent human trafficking.

Photo: Profimedia, Alamy

Katarina's story is one of three covered in the documentary, all three show models used by criminals to recruit people, and all three are true stories. We recall that today is EU Anti-Trafficking Day.

The film has so far been screened in numerous elementary and secondary schools across Serbia, in order for children to realize that they are not alone in the problem that might affect them, that they should not feel ashamed and that they should share their fears and doubts with their loved ones and specialized institutions.

Watch the trailer:

(Jasmina Stakic)