Caritas chief says prostitution happens closer than many think

LRT reported that prostitution and human trafficking can take place much closer to people’s everyday lives than they realise, according to Milita Žičkutė-Lindžienė, general secretary of Lithuanian Caritas.

Working with victims of human trafficking and prostitution, prisoners, homeless people and other vulnerable groups has shaped Žičkutė-Lindžienė’s life and taught her to hear a person’s story before judging them.

“Caritas is an inseparable part of my life. I grew up and matured here, and discovered people and their stories,” she said.

She said her work with people affected by human trafficking and prostitution changed her understanding of the violence a person can experience.

“These were people who had experienced some of the most brutal crimes,” Žičkutė-Lindžienė said. Human trafficking, she added, means turning a person into a commodity through buying, exploiting and abusing them.

She said society still often blames victims for what happened to them. People may say that victims were at fault or acted carelessly, she noted, but an apparently innocent offer can sometimes lead to exploitation in another country.

Over 15 years, Žičkutė-Lindžienė said, she had changed from the young woman who joined Caritas as a social worker. She studied not only victims’ experiences but also the demand for prostitution and the people who pay for it.

Her later work with prisoners, homeless people and other vulnerable groups taught her to consider people’s wider circumstances, she said. It brought greater acceptance, less judgment and less desire to decide for others what they should do.

Trying to solve everything for another person can also become a “saviour syndrome”, she said, because people need to understand for themselves what they need to change and why. “To get to know another person, I think you first need to know yourself better,” she said.

Hard to escape exploitation

Žičkutė-Lindžienė said she was shaken not only by victims’ stories but also by the environments in which many of them grew up. She met many women and girls from families marked by neglect and a lack of love.

She said the brutality was especially disturbing because it showed how a person could be completely turned into an object or a commodity, with their dignity and honour disregarded.

Escaping such circumstances is very difficult, she said, because victims are often left alone without a support network or knowledge of where to seek help. Violence and threats create fear, while shame and fear that the situation will become public can make people withdraw and give in to intimidation.

She stressed that human trafficking and prostitution are not problems that exist only somewhere far away. Prostitution can take place in an apartment next door while people nearby continue living their ordinary lives.