Ana Musteață confesses her daily longing for the freedom of being a mother

Chişinau, Moldova

On a cold, silent morning in a penitentiary across the Prut, a river bordering Moldova and Romania, a pale light streamed through the window bars, revealing the shadows of a dark past and an uncertain future. Ana Musteață, a strong woman and mother of seven, now finds herself in a desperate struggle to reunite her broken family.

We were privileged to have an interview with Ana Musteață, the woman whose experiences and struggles are mirrored in this disturbing story. In a hijab, the symbol of her conversion to Islam, Ana welcomed us into a room that showed no signs of restraint or imprisonment, giving us a glimpse into her world, alongside her youngest child, a wide-eyed and curious little girl, who was herself born in a russian prison.

A native of a village in the Republic of Moldova, Ana lived an ordinary life until she was lured into the trap of human trafficking and sentenced to five years in prison for complicity. She fell under the spell of a Turkish man who lured her with various gestures. He promised her a dream life, but instead she ended up behind bars. In fact, the man ran a nightclub in Turkey, where he recruited Moldovans for dancing services. Ana says she didn't know that the women were being trafficked. It all happened in 2011.

My naivety and their way of behaving got me into this situation. I wanted a nice life, as it seemed to me a nice life then, expensive gifts and all. After I found out what they were really up to, I broke off all relationships. For 11 years I have known absolutely nothing about him, about the person because of whom I am now in trouble, Ana said.

But Ana's story doesn't stop there. With seven children, whose fates are woven into a complicated tapestry of lives, Ana faces the challenges of detention and separation from her children. Two of them belong to a Moldovan man with whom she had a beautiful love story. They live in the Republic of Moldova. The other five belong to a citizen of Tajikistan. With the second man, the woman lived in the russian federation and was extradited from there. The blow was a double one for the detainee, as the father of her five children had moved away from them after the woman was detained. In other words, she left her own children - eight-year-old twins and two others aged five and four respectively - to fend for themselves.

- Did you ever think that the father of your children would do this to you and leave you with virtually no support whatsoever? - No, never in my life, that was the last thing I could think of, I didn't even think of that, I thought he would be there for me permanently, says Ana tearfully.

Wondering where the woman's four other children are... Thousands of miles away, in a rehabilitation center in russia, where they are waiting to be taken. With the help of the National Prison Administration, Ana managed to speak to the management of the russian center to tell them she wants to take her children home, which probably won't happen soon. The inmate says she saw her little ones, too, and her heart sank when the little ones told her...

They asked me, Mommy, when are you coming to take us? They want me to come and get them sooner.

Ana was sentenced to five years in prison, and the sentence is not final. The law requires inmates not to keep their children with them unless they are three years old. Heartbroken, Ana says she has no one to entrust her little girl to, and her hope of being released from behind bars is fueled by the thought of reuniting with her children.

- No, I don't. - No parents? - I have a father, but I haven't communicated with him for many years, but I wouldn't trust him with my child either, having been left alone by him. I couldn't give the child to a person who once betrayed me.