The charges faced in Romania by a high-profile ‘influencer’ highlight how the region has become a hub for sex trafficking.
Andrew Tate, one of the most polarising figures on the internet, is revered by his audience of young men. Formerly a professional kickboxer, he soared to online popularity by expounding his opinions on masculinity, money and women.
In June last year, he was brought before a court in Bucharest, charged with rape and human trafficking. His brother and two associates are alleged to have established an organisation to exploit women, primarily in Romania. The indictment claims that seven victims, recruited under the pretense of a romantic relationship, were put under surveillance, forced into debt and coerced into pornography. The Tate brothers have denied the accusations.
Andrew Tate, who grew up in Luton in England, has a record of violent and public misogyny. In 2016, he was removed from the British ‘reality’ television show Big Brother after a video which appeared (he claimed it had been edited) to show him attacking a woman. He has made comments such as ‘I’m not a rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want’ and suggested that women should ‘bear responsibility’ for being raped.
The Romanian authorities accuse Tate of utilising the ‘loverboy’ method to attract his victims. Traffickers prey on vulnerable women who think they have found a loving partner, only to be forced into prostitution or other sexual crimes.
Before his arrest, Tate bragged about his recruitment of women for his ‘camming’ website. On one page he proclaimed that ‘my job was to meet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her, test if she’s quality, get her to fall in love with me to where she’d do anything I say, and then get her on webcam’. In a text exchange with a Moldovan victim, Tate wrote: ‘You must understand that once you are mine …’ He encouraged her to move to Romania to be with him; she says they even discussed marriage and accused him of rape as well as trafficking.
Tate has also played into stereotypes of eastern-European women, claiming that he has been jumped by Moldovan men because they [the men] ‘understand that Americans only go to Moldova to f*ck their women’. He says that ‘either Russia or Moldova have the most beautiful girls … if a Romanian girl wants to be a sl*t she’ll only do it for money. Only an English or American girl is stupid enough to be a hoe for free.’ Such fetishisation perpetuates trafficking and the culture of shame which prevents many victims from speaking out about it.
Amended directive
In 2011 the European Union adopted a directive to prevent and combat human trafficking and protect its victims. Following a proposal in December 2022 by the European Commission and after discussion in the European Parliament and ‘trilogue’ negotiations among the EU institutions, in January this year provisional agreement was reached between the member states and the parliament on an amended directive. This will expand its purview, take into account the amplifying role of information and communication technologies and require member states to make conscious use of the services of a victim of trafficking a criminal offence.
In the United States, meanwhile, the State Department recognises Romania and Moldova as ‘tier 2’ countries. This means neither hits the minimum requirements for the elimination of trafficking but they are working towards compliance. Standards include ‘the government of the country should prescribe punishment that is sufficiently stringent to deter and that adequately reflects the heinous nature of the offense’. Romania is weaker in this area, with 24 per cent of convicted traffickers receiving a sentence of less than three years.
Romania is recognised as one of the primary countries of origin for human trafficking across Europe; in 2021, 71 per cent of identified victims were of sex trafficking. Moldovan women are often trafficked through Romania and there are reports of traffickers working in both countries to exploit Moldovan women.
Despite the strides by both governments to improve the situation, trafficking in Romania and Moldova is a longstanding issue, in part due to the incidence of poverty. Women living in poverty are especially vulnerable to becoming victims, as they are often desperate to escape poverty and believe they are being presented with an opportunity to do so.
Both countries grappled with communist authoritarianism until the late 1980s and have struggled to build stable economies since. Romania has the highest poverty rate in the EU, while Moldova, now a candidate country since the war in Ukraine, remains among the poorest countries as a whole.
Crucial moment
The Tate case is one of the most high-profile to come out of Romania but many reports ignore how sex trafficking has been a longstanding issue in Romania and its neighbour—his status as an ‘influencer’ has given it currency. Because of the global attention garnered by the case, however, there is an opportunity for the media to bring attention to the larger context.
This is a crucial moment for both countries to work on the prevention and prosecution of sex trafficking. The war in Ukraine has caused an unprecedented number of vulnerable refugees to flee to Moldova and Romania. Given these countries are already known hubs for trafficking, if their governments do not act swiftly the number of individuals trafficked could increase exponentially.
Not only should those who engage in trafficking be subject to the full rigours of the law. The international community must continue to support anti-trafficking legislation and victim rehabilitation.
Charlotte Freer is studying international studies and Russian at American University in Washington DC. Her main area of interest is national identity and lived experience in post-Soviet countries; she lived for a time in Chisinau, Moldova.