Pakistan's Forgotten Plight: Modern-Day Slavery

A former slave, Chandar Sabahi. "We were treated like animals," she says. "Anyone who refused to work was beaten up."

Zia Mazhar / Free the Slaves

 

By E. Benjamin Skinner Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009

As Hillary Clinton pays her first visit to Pakistan as Secretary of State, an unfolding hostage crisis will test the Obama Administration's rhetoric on human rights in the region. Officials at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad say at least three landlords have held as many as 170 bonded farmworkers at gunpoint on their estates in the country's southeast Sindh province since late September. With U.S. attention focused on getting Pakistan to deal with huge security issues to Washington's satisfaction, will Clinton be able to press Islamabad's rulers to address a controversy involving rural poverty and modern-day slavery?

The crisis began after the workers' advocates successfully petitioned three district courts to declare as illegal the debts that the landlords were using to compel the workers into indentured servitude. Those debts average around 1,000 Pakistani rupees — roughly $12. The hostages, a third of whom are children, some as young as 4 months old, are landless peasants, known as haari in Urdu. According to Ghulam Hyder, a spokesman for Pakistan's Green Rural Development Organization, the landlords have killed one hostage already and are threatening to kill the others unless they drop the cases and return to work. The landlords also abducted Amarchand Bheel, an advocate for the laborers, as he traveled to court to plead their cause. 

A 2004 study by the International Labour Office (ILO) estimated that there are up to a million haari families in Sindh alone, the majority living in conditions of debt bondage, which the U.N. defines as modern-day slavery. Last fall, Pakistan's Daily Times newspaper quoted the labor minister of neighboring Punjab province as saying that landlords hold millions of forced laborers in "private prisons" across the country.

While the nation's 1992 Bonded Labour System Act mandates five-year sentences for violators, Pakistani officials have yet to record a single conviction. "The police are turning a blind eye on the issue," says Hyder, though he acknowledges that police in one of the districts acted successfully, in response to a court order, to free more than a dozen of the hostages. However, bonded families rarely press their rights because of the overwhelming influence of the landlords in local politics, the threat of retaliation and their families' dependence on the landlords for survival. 

The crisis has caused alarm in the U.S. State Department, as Clinton's first visit comes at a delicate moment in the ongoing war in neighboring Afghanistan. When told about the crisis on Friday in Washington, Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, immediately called the Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. to express his concern. As they prepare for Clinton's visit, American diplomatic officials in Pakistan have pressed the Sindh Home Secretary and the Pakistani Ministry of the Interior to resolve the crisis swiftly. "We are concerned about the situation and working with NGOs and the relevant Pakistani officials to address it," said Anne Patterson, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan.

This year, the State Department downgraded Pakistan to the Tier Two Watch List in its annual report on human-trafficking. Under a new U.S. law, a country ranked on that list for three consecutive years will automatically be downgraded to Tier Three, where it could face sanctions.

"Debt bondage is not a relic of history; it continues to exist in communities in South Asia," said Luis CdeBaca, President Obama's ambassador-at-large to monitor and combat trafficking in persons. "We are exploring ways we can help Pakistan to confront the scourge of captive workers, to deliver freedom for these workers and realize the promise of Pakistan's 1992 emancipation law."

See "Human-Trafficking Rises in Recession."
 

 http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1932723,00.html?xid=rss-mostpopular

 

 

 

 

Modern-day abolitionists battle global slave trade, human trafficking

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October 28th, 2009
By Michael Vick

Slavery. For most Americans, the word evokes thoughts of an ancient institution abolished in this country in the 19th century. But while slaves are no longer found in the cotton and tobacco fields of the South, more insidious forms of modern-day slavery continue unabated globally, even in the land of the free.

An estimated 27 million people now are enslaved worldwide, half of them children under the age of 18. Roughly 80 percent are women. Tens of thousands labor daily in the United States with little or no pay under threat of violence, a threat all too often made real. Human trafficking generates $31 billion annually, making it the third-most lucrative criminal activity behind narcotics and weapons trade.

And while they fight an uphill battle, a growing cadre of modern-day abolitionists fights to end slavery for good. Among them is the Not for Sale Campaign – an organization founded by University of San Francisco professor David Batstone.

“This is a crisis that I didn’t go looking for,” Batstone said. “It found me.”
The professor and his family regularly dined at the Pasand Madras Indian restaurant in Berkeley for years until reading a series of reports in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2000 exposing the owner as a labor and sex trafficker.

“I’d been working in social justice and human rights ever since I was in college,” Batstone said. “But this idea of slavery, I thought that was in the history books. What do you do when you find slavery in your own backyard?”

Batstone’s answer was to research the issue as thoroughly as possible, eventually enlisting the help of his students. From those humble beginnings, Not for Sale grew into an international organization with regional centers around the country and operations in South America, Asia and Africa.

In his global quest for answers, Batstone encountered a wide variety of circumstances that lead to slavery. Impoverished families sell their children to be house servants, often with the promise of an education, a ruse many traffickers use to obtain child sex slaves. A guerrilla army attacks an African village and kidnaps children to serve as soldiers. A man or woman is offered advance salary payment for a job, only to find upon accepting the job that the pay is low, the interest on the loan high, and escape impossible.

In the United States, victims are trafficked from at least 35 different countries, though most originate from China, Mexico and Vietnam. States with large port cities or along international borders – California, Florida, Texas and New York – have the highest incidence of modern-day slavery.

Slavery can also go largely unnoticed by law enforcement and the public because slaves typically occupy positions in the black market sex industry or in industries where cheap labor and poor working conditions are the norm – agriculture, domestic service, factory work, and restaurant and hotel work.

While acknowledging the abolitionist’s task is gargantuan, Batstone does not believe it to be impossible.

“I don’t ask people to become Harriet Tubman or Frederick Douglas or William Wilberforce,” Batstone said. “I ask them to be themselves.”

To that end, Batstone encourages consumers to become educated about their purchases. For example, he notes that tens of thousands of children labor in slave-like conditions in West Africa to produce chocolate, much of which is consumed in industrialized countries like the United States. By purchasing fair trade chocolate and other fair trade products, consumers ensure their money does not go to fund slavery.

Batstone’s group also researches massage parlors in San Francisco, many of which the group has found are fronts for prostitution and human trafficking. Often brought to the United States with the promise of a job as a model, hostess or restaurant worker, once in country young women and girls are instead forced to work in the sex industry. Far from home, often without passports and fearful of arrest or the threat of violence against themselves and their families, they are repeatedly sexually exploited.

A pair of measures enacted by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in June and sponsored by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Carmen Chu, respectively, aims to crack down on the parlors. Chu’s measure makes it more difficult to obtain a license to open a massage parlor and makes it easier to revoke the license, while Newsom’s measure increases fines for those who violate their permits and requires the parlors to close by 10 p.m.

Catholic San Francisco accompanied Not for Sale researchers Killian Moote and Christiana Hebets on a drive-by tour of San Francisco massage parlors the group monitors for illegal activity. Moote said the group has conducted both 12- and 24-hour surveillance on multiple locations in the city, and found that many are open at all hours of the day and night.

One additional tool in the abolitionist’s arsenal thanks to the Newsom-Chu measures is a regulation requiring massage parlors to have a window facing the street through which the public can view the business.

“Does that solve this problem? No,” Moote said. “But it creates a transparent window into an industry that’s non-transparent.”

Hebets said the group is careful to do background research on the establishments before conducting surveillance, and once it has sufficient evidence to warrant what Moote and Hebets called “high-probability of trafficking,” they turn the evidence over to law enforcement. The group also distributes posters in the neighborhood with resources for victims, always mindful not to get too specific regarding their targets of investigation.

“If the traffickers knew or had a suspicion that people were watching them, it would only push their business further underground and put victims in further danger,” Hebets said.

Melissa Farley, a psychologist and researcher who studies prostitution and keynote speaker at an Oct. 24 forum on human trafficking at St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Berkeley, said women and girls like those Not for Sale tries to help are caught up in a system of sexual exploitation frequently dismissed by a permissive culture as a “victimless crime.”

Farley said the shift in focus from treating prostitutes as criminals to treating them as victims of a crime has been the most positive development in stemming the tide of sex trafficking worldwide.

“Sex trafficking is demand driven,” Farley said. “Women and girls are the supply. For a long time, all we’ve been looking at is the supply. We’re beginning to look at the buyer, because without him, the whole industry would collapse.”

While researchers like Moote, Hebets and Farley gather evidence, policymakers and activists alike continue to push for action to combat slavery. Not for Sale held its first “Global Forum on Human Trafficking” in Carlsbad, Calif. Oct. 8-9, with speakers including Luis de Baca, United States ambassador-at-large to monitor and combat trafficking in persons.

In the U.S. State Department’s ninth annual “Trafficking in Persons” report, released in 2009, De Baca wrote that the peril trafficked victims face is a “debasement of our common humanity.”

“Globally, there are countless persons who labor in bondage and suffer in silence, feeling that they are trapped and alone,” De Baca wrote. “It is on their behalf, and in the spirit of a common humanity, that we seek a global partnership for the abolition of modern slavery.”

For more information, visit www.notforsalecampaign.org.

From October 30, 2009 issue of Catholic San Francisco.

http://www.catholic-sf.org/news_select.php?newsid=&id=56529

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Angola / Preventing Human Trafficking in Build Up to African Cup of Nations

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LUANDA, Angola, October 27, 2009/African Press Organization (APO)/ — IOM Press Briefing Notes


A two-day conference focusing on what can be done to prevent a potential escalation in human trafficking in Angola ahead of the African Cup of Nations football tournament to be held in the southern African country in early 2010, begins tomorrow, 28 October in Luanda.

Organized by the Angolan Interior Ministry and IOM, the conference will feature experts from various government ministries from Brazil, South Africa and Portugal as well as IOM officials from its mission in Germany to share with participants their experiences on fighting human trafficking during big sporting events.

2010 is a big year for major sporting events, particularly in Southern Africa. The African Cup of Nations takes place in Angola between 10-31 January while South Africa hosts the football world cup between 11 June and 11 July 2010.

In total 120 people from various government ministries, including the Ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs, Social Reintegration, Justice, Education, Family and Tourism, will participate in the conference funded by the British Embassy in Luanda and the Norwegian government.

With lots of football fans expected to converge on Angola ahead of the tournament, increasing migration flows to and within the country, there are growing concerns among women’s rights groups in the country that the inevitable influx of tourists will set a fertile ground for sex work that could be exploited by human traffickers.

“Although this is a potential worry, we need to turn it into an opportunity by raising awareness of human trafficking on a scale that has not been seen before in Angola. With a lot of international attention on the region next year, we have to grab some of it to ensure traffickers don’t win. It is also an opportunity for both the government and civil society to engage more actively on countering human trafficking,” says Katharina Schnöring, IOM Chief of Mission in Angola.

In addition to co-organizing the conference, IOM is working with the Ministry of Interior, UNICEF and the organizers of the African Cup of Nations (ACN) on an information campaign that raises awareness on Human Trafficking of children during the ACN.

According to the US State Department’s 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report, Angola is primarily a source country for trafficking, mainly that of women and children internally for domestic servitude and young men for forced agricultural labour.

However, Angolan women and children are also trafficked to South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia and Portugal.

For further information, please contact Katharina Schnöring, IOM Angola, Tel: 00244 924 643 032 Email: kschnoring@iom.int


SOURCE

International Office of Migration (IOM)

Posted in Angola, UNITED NATIONS - ONU

http://appablog.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/angola-preventing-human-trafficking-in-build-up-to-african-cup-of-nations/

Warning on 2010 sex trafficking

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By Clayton Barnes October 26 2009 at 05:31PM Traffickers and pimps would exploit the opportunity of the World Cup with promises of jobs and thousands of dollars in cash, a child rights expert has warned. Speaking in the city at a round-table discussion on child sexual exploitation and the 2010 Fifa World Cup, Susan Kreston, a Fulbright professor and research fellow at the Centre for Psychology and Law at the University of the Free State, said women and children would be especially targeted during the event. Tough economic times and the five-week mid-year school holiday may lead to both adults and children searching for opportunities to get extra cash. Debt bondage is just one of the many ways people get trapped in trafficking' "Debt bondage is just one of the many ways people get trapped in trafficking," said Kreston. "The trafficker would offer the adult or child large amounts of money, or make promises of a good job with a good lifestyle in one of the 2010 host cities or abroad, but then the victims would be expected to sell their bodies or be mutilated as a form of repayment." Kreston said 12.3-million people were trafficked annually across the world. One in 10 of these was a child. She said children from as young as six were targeted by traffickers and pimps. They faced a future of being sexually violated up to six times a day. Child pornography and cases of children using their cellphones to film each other having sex and swopping or selling the pictures, were also expected to spike during the World Cup. "Children need to realise that this is a crime and that they could be selling these images to paedophiles who could make a living out of swapping their images with other criminals," she said. 'The closure of schools during the World Cup is our biggest concern' Kreston said an overarching law against trafficking was needed before the World Cup. She urged the government to fast-track the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Bill. Patric Solomons, the director of child rights group Molo Songololo, said child prostitution rings were growing rapidly across the Western Cape. He said police in several areas, including Mitchells Plain, Manenberg, Khayelitsha, Athlone, Delft and Eerste River, were investigating reports of children being prostituted along the main routes. "The closure of schools during the World Cup is our biggest concern," Solomons said. "The government, with the private sector and NGOs, needs to get programmes running during that period. If not, we will definitely see a large number of children being trafficked or lured into prostitution." The Department of Education said the five-week holiday period would not be changed. Earlier, officials said there was an extensive consultation process before the 2010 school calendar was determined. Solomons added that the 2010 local organising committee and the police had noted the lack of child safety measures in their World Cup plans, and were addressing this. It is believed that 40 000 women and children were trafficked during the World Cup in Germany in 2006, and it is estimated that close to 100 000 could be affected next year. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20091026124713537C392565

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Third Committee hears presentations from six UN Human Rights Experts, as debate on promotion, protection of human rights continues

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Source: United Nations General Assembly

Date: 23 Oct 2009

 Full_Report (pdf* format - 170.7 Kbytes)

GS/SHC/3958
Sixty-fourth General Assembly
Third Committee
26th & 27th Meetings (AM & PM)

Address Religious Freedom, Adequate Housing, Extreme Poverty, Violence against Women, Human Trafficking, Human Rights Defenders

States would better serve their societies -- particularly vulnerable groups like women, the extreme poor and trafficked persons -- if they took a human rights-based approach in designing and implementing social, economic and cultural policies, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) was told today as it rounded out its first week of discussions on the promotion and protection of human rights.

Hearing from six Independent Experts and Special Rapporteurs on a number of issues that ranged from human trafficking and violence against women to the right to adequate housing and freedom of belief, the Committee continued to engage with some of the most difficult and complex challenges facing their countries.

As one expert -- Raquel Rolnik, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living -- stressed, States must ensure that, in their efforts to protect people from one threat, such as the effects of climate change, they did not unintentionally violate other human rights.

She suggested that negotiations on how to combat climate change would be much different if a human rights angle were introduced. In particular, people needed to be informed, in order to participate in decision-making on any adaptation, reconstruction or relocation process. In turn, this participation would strengthen the resilience of their communities.

Margaret Sekaggya, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, touched on this delicate balance between different rights in her comments on the introduction of stricter counter-terrorism, security and anti-extremism laws following 9/11, which had often had a significant restrictive impact on civil society. She stressed that, while the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights did allow for the restriction of the right to freedom of association because of national security, such restrictions must fulfil other conditions.

Magdelena Sepulveda Carmona, Independent Expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty, called on the Third Committee to encourage Member States to incorporate a human rights perspective into their responses to the global financial crisis. Lessons of past crises showed that States could address the negative impact of the current one on the poor by establishing and expanding social protection systems.


To be successful, however, the misconception that social protection systems were not affordable, or that they created dependency, must be overcome. In that regard, she highlighted far-reaching studies from the International Labour Organization (ILO) showing that most countries could not only afford a basic package of social security, but that such schemes actually contributed to a country's economy.

The Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, also urged Member States to fight that surreptitious transnational crime in a sprit of cooperation and with a human rights perspective. She proposed a global action plan with quantifiable time-bound targets to galvanize the political and economic will of Members States. In particular, such a plan should facilitate sustained technical assistance for identifying and protecting victims and should link anti-trafficking initiatives to the Millennium Development Goals to address the root causes of human trafficking.

Rashida Manjoo, the newly installed Special Rapporteur on violence against women, explained that her predecessor's 2009 thematic report to the Human Rights Council argued that the primacy accorded to political and civil rights -- or "first generation" rights -- had perpetuated a bias towards violations of human rights in the public sphere. Indeed, the report looked at the link between violence against women and women's access to economic and social rights -- or "second generation" rights -- like the right to housing, land and property, food, water, health, education and the rights to decent work and social security.

She said the report demonstrated that economic and social security was crucial for empowering women and preventing violence against them. The report also made a strong appeal for the adoption of an integrated perspective that combined the obligations set out in both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Earlier in the day, the Committee heard from Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir, who said that in the five years since she took up her mandate, it had become clear that religious intolerance was not a natural outcome of diverse societies, but once the roots of intolerance took hold, it was hard to contain. In that context, prevention was key to creating an atmosphere of religious tolerance. The structure of the State, its governance methods, educational policies and commitment to basic human rights were central ingredients in either preventing or contributing to friction.

During the interactive portion of her presentation, many delegates requested more information on educational methods that would promote tolerance of beliefs. Jordan's representative asked how society could teach children to respect their peers irrespective of religion and to see beyond religious symbols, such as a headscarf, turban or cross. Several delegations also raised questions about the double discrimination of race and religion, with Malaysia's delegate pointing out that there was an instrument to address discrimination based on race, but not on religion.

Ms. Jahangir agreed that the links between race and religion were not widely understood, with laws frequently confusing the two. But she did not believe the international community was ready to have a convention on religious freedom. Instead, she reiterated the need for education, as well as heightened public awareness.

Education was also important in teaching tolerance to children, particularly by orchestrating meetings between children of various faiths and communities, which had shown some success.

The Committee will reconvene at 10 a.m. on Monday, 26 October, to hear statements from the Special Rapporteurs on the right to education, the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism and on the human rights of migrants. It was also expected to hear from the Secretary-General's Representative on the human rights of internally displaced persons.

The Committee will also hear the introduction of the remaining reports related to human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and human rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives. It was also expected to begin its general discussion on these topics.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MUMA-7X54NX?OpenDocument

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Human trafficking surrounds us | The Star-Ledger Editorial Page - NJ.com

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By Star-Ledger Editorial Board/The Star-Led...

October 22, 2009, 5:41AM

When Akouavi Kpade Afolabi lured more than 20 young women from West Africa to New Jersey with promises of a better life, she lied.

Once here, the young women — who ranged in age from 10 to 19 — were made to work countless hours in her family’s two hair-braiding salons for no pay.

Her attorney argued the treatment of the girls was cultural. That’s hard to believe. But it was profitable — and criminal. She stole their meager tips, barred them from attending school and threatened them with violence and voodoo curses if they tried to leave.

Last week, she was convicted on 22 counts of human trafficking and visa fraud. She now faces her own captivity, 20 years in prison. A fitting punishment.

Sadly, such abuse is the story of tens of thousands of women from around the world who are trafficked to America in hopes of escaping the poverty of their homelands. They think they’ll be working in factories, as domestics and babysitters.

Alone in a foreign land and in deep debt for their travel and lodging, many soon realize they’re trapped in a tale of modern-day slavery.

They’re beaten, humiliated and sexually assaulted. Passports and other documents are taken away. Some are made to work long hours in factories and other businesses without food or pay. Others are forced to work as prostitutes. Several of the girls, who were smuggled from Togo and Ghana, were also used for sex by Afolabi’s son and her ex-husband. At least one was a minor.

The State Department estimates about 17,500 people — men, women and children — are brought here every year as forced laborers. Some 4,00 are believed to end up in New Jersey. Many are used for sex work.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-5th Dist.), chairman of the Human Trafficking Caucus, pushed for and succeeded in getting legislation enacted to help victims. The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 set aside $95 million for enforcement and anti-trafficking provisions and called for life imprisonment for anyone convicted of human trafficking. Under the law, the young women and girls victimized by Afolabi may be eligible for the same benefits granted to political refugees.

In this case, Immigration and Custom Enforcement has already granted the minor girls special nonimmigrant status, which will allow them to remain in the United States for three years while they apply for legal residency. ICE officials could not readily provide information on the adult victims.

Most people would like to think such things don’t happen in their communities, that forced servitude is a brutality of the past. But modern-day slavery is alive and well, even here in New Jersey. We would all do well to educate ourselves about how human trafficking works, and what it looks like.


http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2009/10/human_trafficking_surrounds_us.html

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Katie Ford’s new mission: End slavery

JAYME EMERALD BRUCAL - GATBONTON, GMANews.TV 10/22/2009 | 05:20 PM

SHE HAS TRAVELED all over the world searching for beautiful young women to cast in her modeling agency. Now she goes around the world searching for children, women and men to save them from slavery.

After Katie Ford gave up the chairmanship of modeling giant Ford Models in 2007, she made plans to pursue her interest in promoting the culture of indigenous peoples. But when a United Nations representative approached her to talk against human trafficking, Ford was compelled to chart a different future.

“Two years ago, I did not know that there was slavery," she recalled. "I was shocked. There are 27 million slaves in the world today --- 27 million, it’s mind boggling!" she exclaimed.

“I’m not talking about cheap labor. I’m talking not free to come and go, not earning money that they were promised and frequently being beaten up and threatened so that they don’t leave their situation. It’s like old time slavery. It exists everywhere," said Ford, who has made it her primary mission to spread awareness on how to end the slave trade.

The legendary trend-setter in the modeling industry flew in Monday to judge the Supermodel of the World pageant for the Philippine Fashion Week, which runs from October 21 to 28 at the Mall of Asia. The winner of the pageant will represent the Philippines in the Supermodel of the World pageant in New York and stands to win a $250,000 modeling contract with Ford Models.

“The most important thing, especially in the Philippines, is for people to be aware. Because so many people work abroad from the Philippines, they need to go to licensed employment agencies," she said.

Ford spent nine months learning about the human trafficking situation worldwide and working with the non–profit organization Free the Slaves.

The group estimates that slavery is a $40 billion industry. Majority of the slaves work in the fields, brothels, mines and factories in India, Southeast Asia and Africa.

According to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, sexual exploitation accounted for 79 percent of human trafficking activities, followed by forced labor. Among the victims, 66 percent are women and the target age is 14 – 24 years old.

Life passion

Ironically, majority of the illegal traffickers are also women.

“The victims are the same target age as models we scout," Ford said. “And having worked with young people for so long, and watching them develop into great careers, it especially touched my heart thinking about people coming across borders, (being enslaved) and not being able to do anything about it."

Empowered by her new life passion, she started her mission close to home. Ford talked to key players in the fashion industry in New York and encouraged them to come up with policies to ensure that their supplies are produced without slave labor.

“It’s called social auditing," Ford explained. “If companies put enough pressure on the suppliers of raw materials, they will be forced to check that (slavery) doesn’t exist."

Ford said two of the companies who have adopted the practice are Gap and Nike.

Katie's parents, Eileen and Jerry, founded Ford Models at Manhattan's stylish Upper East Side in 1946. For more than half a century, the modeling management firm helped shape the image of fashion and beauty for American women, launching such faces as Lauren Hutton, Christie Brinkley, and Veronica Webb.

Pinay Supermodel Charo Ronquillo warns fellow Filipinas of modern-day slavery. Courtesy of Ford Models

Considered as the most popular house of models in the world, Ford Models continues to reign on the catwalk with its roster of beauties. In 1980, it launched the Supermodel of the World pageant that opened the doors to ramp hopefuls from 55 countries, including local talents Melanie Marquez and Charo Ronquillo.

Katie Ford has asked her models to record videos in various languages warning about human trafficking, which will be posted on the website freetheslaves.net. Ronquillo, who now works under the Ford agency based in New York, recorded a message in Filipino.

She believes individuals can help solve the problem by practicing vigilance about incidents of slavery in their community, and tipping the authorities or NGOs on these cases.

Freedom in 25 years

Ford hopes they can eradicate slavery in 25 years, which means the target is roughly more than a million slaves to be saved per year. It’s a huge number, but she believes the incidence of slavery is already starting to go down.

“It’s starting to happen because it’s village by village now in India. These villages are watching and they are starting to take it on themselves. When they see their friends across the road get freed, then they want to be free," she said. “Of course, everyone wants to be free. They didn’t even know they could be free. That’s the unbelievable part, they didn’t even know it."

Ford said she has met a number of women who escaped prostitution and moved on to help set other slave workers free, just like them.

After the slaves gain freedom, the challenge is in rehabilitating them. This is not often successful, as Ford said some prostitutes become drug addicts during bondage by their slave–owners. Others remain enslaved psychologically such that eventually, they revert to slavery again.

“It’s not an overnight thing because it’s a whole societal change, but it can be done," she said. “I would say there are many people working hard to make it happen. I am just one little drop in the ocean. And it needs the entire ocean, it needs everybody doing what they can do to end it." – GMANews.TV

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/175304/katie-fords-new-mission-end-slavery

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Human trafficking victims address UN event as Ban calls for broad-based action

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (centre)

22 October 2009 – The United Nations hosted a special event at its New York Headquarters today for the victims and survivors of human trafficking, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issuing a broad-based call to action for States to tackle the root causes and ensure swift justice against the perpetrators.

“Our fight against human trafficking is guided by three Ps: prevention, protection and prosecution,” he said in an opening address at the event at which four survivors bore living witness with accounts of their own horrific plight, including a girl who was abducted at age 14 by Ugandan rebels and kept as a sex slave for eight years.

“We must also empower victims. They need support systems, information and education. They need viable ways to earn a living. They also need criminal justice systems to pursue traffickers, and subject them to serious penalties. Conviction rates in most countries are microscopic compared to the scope of the problem. But when States help victims, the victims can help States break up trafficking networks.”

Mr. Ban cited a litany of abhorrent practices, including debt bondage, forced labour, torture, organ removal, sexual exploitation and slavery-like conditions. “Human trafficking injures, traumatizes and kills individuals. It devastates families and threatens global security,” he declared of a worldwide industry that generates billions of dollars in profit at the expense of millions of victims.

“Human trafficking touches on many issues, from health and human rights to development and peace and security. Our response must be equally broad, and must tackle this challenge at its roots,” he added, noting that the global economic crisis is making the problem worse as jobs and food get scarcer and rising social exclusion makes minorities and women especially vulnerable.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, whose office organized the Giving Voice to the Victims and Survivors of Human Trafficking Special Event, stressed that persisting economic disparities, conflict and discrimination, particularly against women and migrants, continue to push those least able to protect themselves into dangerous situations from which they cannot escape.

Central to the battle “is eradicating discrimination and the unjust distribution of power that underlie trafficking, that grant impunity to traffickers, and that deny justice to victims,” she said. “A victim-centred approach to trafficking demands that we listen to the victims and survivors of trafficking. We must use their first-hand insights to craft better and more effective responses.”

She added that according to international trafficked persons should not be subjected to summary deportations, nor held in detention or prosecuted for immigration or other offences that are a direct outcome of their situation. They should be given the support to recover their dignity and rights and their mobility should not be further curtailed, nor should they be denied the right to make decisions.

Victims who addressed the event included Charlotte Awino, abducted at age 14 by Lord’s Resistance Army rebels in Uganda and kept as a sex slave for eight years; Buddhi Gurung from Nepal, trafficked for labour to Iraq to work on a United States military base; Kika Cerpa from Venezuela, forced into prostitution by a man she thought of as her boyfriend; and Rachel Lloyd, an activist who survived commercial sexual exploitation as a teenager and started a New York organization to aid girls victimized by sex traffickers.

Today’s event came on the eve of the presentation to the General Assembly of the latest report on the scourge by UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons Joy Ngozi Ezeilo.

News Tracker: past stories on this issue

UN agency calls for better monitoring to combat human trafficking in Europe

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=32683&Cr=trafficking&Cr1=

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Human trafficking conference underway at ORU

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Statistics show Oklahoma ranks among the top states in the nation in terms of human trafficking, particularly among children who are being forced into prostitution.

People from across the nation are gathering here at ORU this week to work together to protect children and rescue victims.

Chances are you have seen a documentary about human trafficking that depicts young children being sold as prostitutes in third world countries. Mark Elam with "Oklahomans Against Trafficking Humans" says the fact is, it's happening right here in Green Country.

He says, "Every time the FBI does a sting operation around the nation, they find Oklahoma kids being prostituted and trafficked. It has to do with our location: The I-35 corridor as well as I-40. You've go to come through Oklahoma wherever you are going. And so your kids are very vulnerable."

This conference will be held Monday night and all day Tuesday. It brings together law enforcement, experts, councilors and citizens to better understand the issues involved in trafficking.

Chris Burchell worked trafficking cases in Texas for 27 years. He now leads a non-profit organization called ""Texas Anti-Trafficking in Persons" that fights the industry.

Burchell says some of the young victims are abducted, others are runaways who are lured into the business. "These people will tell them what they want to hear. Develop relationships with them, try to make mom and dad look like the bad guys. And before you know it they are providing sex services to people."

Elam warn that kids are being approached by traffickers on the internet. "We've worked a number of cases recently where we are becoming aware of the fact that predators and pedophiles and traffickers are going online to recruit and find victims."

Burchell says pimps are also using it to sell their victims. "I can tell you it's happening here. There are websites you can get on right now and you can contact a pimp with a matter of minutes right there in your hometown."

This conference will be held at at the Mabee Center on Tuesday. It is open to the public.
For more information about what you can do to help, call Oklahomans Against Trafficking Humans at 1-800-955-0128.

 http://www.kjrh.com/news/local/story/Human-trafficking-conference-underway-at-ORU/LHOV7Zm8mkK4KZ196s4xUg.cspx

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EU home to 270,000 human-trafficking victims

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The alarming rise in the number of human trafficking victims in the European Union has prompted the United Nations to issue a request for increased efforts in combating the illegal trade.


The United Nations announced on Sunday that estimates showed there could be around 270,000 victims of human trafficking in the EU, while authorities in the 27-nation bloc said only a small percentage of the figure had been brought to their attention.


The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which disclosed the startling findings on European Anti-Trafficking Day, expressed concern that a 2006 report had only estimated 9,000 victims — 30 times less than the revised figure.


EU Anti-Trafficking Day aims to raise awareness for victims and people affected by the human smuggling trade and the plights they face, ranging from forced slavery and hard labor to prostitution and going through sexual abuse.


While 10 percent of the victims are minors, the majority of trafficking victims are women who are forced into prostitution, according to the agency.


A damning UNODC report titled “Trafficking in Persons: Analysis on Europe” also shows that on average, less than 1 in 100,000 people are being convicted for human trafficking in Europe than "for rare crimes like kidnapping."


The report goes on to blame the police for lack of action.


ZHD/MD

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=109015&sectionid=351020605

NGO: Immigration police ineffective in battling human trafficking - Haaretz - Israel News

Haaretz.com

By Dana Weiler-Polak

The Interior Ministry unit responsible for locating victims of human trafficking has not found a single person being trafficked for forced labor or sexual exploitation, although a 2004 government estimate put the number of victims of human trafficking between 2,000 and 3,000.

A report by the Knesset Research and Information Center, which conducts research for legislators, indicates that the ministry's Oz unit is the government body responsible for reducing human trafficking. But the authorities are not doing enough to reduce "modern-day slavery," said Hanny Ben-Israel, a lawyer for the workers advocacy group Kav La'Oved.

"Treatment of the matter is insufficient, due primarily to a lack of awareness that this is a serious criminal offense," she said. "A failure to locate victims shows only that the unit is disconnected from what's happening on the ground, and when someone doesn't know what he's supposed to be looking for, it's no surprise that he doesn't find it."

Since the Oz unit was founded four months ago, to replace the Interior Ministry's Immigration Administration, it has not provided police with any information that could lead to a criminal investigation, making it difficult for the law-enforcement authorities to bring to justice those responsible for human trafficking.

However, things may begin to change shortly. Starting next week, Oz unit members are scheduled to undergo training in how to identify victims of trafficking.

For now, though, the unit may be ignoring human trafficking even when its inspectors do come across it.

"It's not just that they didn't find anyone, but that they even ignored a clear case of trafficking when they raided an escort service, arrested the women and deported them to Moldova," said Yonatan Berman, a lawyer for the advocacy group Hotline for Migrant Workers. "We offered to give the unit workshops on this issue, but we haven't received any response."

Berman said his group alone receives dozens of complaints concerning human trafficking every year, adding, "It's clear that the situation is actually a lot worse than that."

Indeed, the numbers may be on the rise.

Ben-Israel said Kav La'Oved has recently been receiving more complaints than usual about human trafficking, which includes forced prostitution or sexual exploitation as well as what the U.S. State Department describes as "forced labor, including the unlawful withholding of passports, restrictions on movement, non-payment of wages, threats, and physical intimidation."

"We have recently encountered an uptick in complaints on the matter," she said. "It's a serious phenomenon, especially in agriculture. We recently dealt with a series of serious incidents involving laborers who were working 18 hours a day, their passports were taken from them, they were threatened, they worked without protection - really modern-day slavery."

This year's State Department report on human trafficking classified Israel as a country whose government does not fully comply with the minimum standards required to eliminate human trafficking, but is "making significant efforts" to comply with those standards.

"Israel is a destination country for men and women trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation," the report says. "Low-skilled workers from China, Romania, Turkey, Thailand, the Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and India migrate voluntarily and legally to Israel for contract labor in the construction, agriculture, and health care industries. ... Women from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Belarus, and China are trafficked to Israel for forced prostitution, often by organized crime groups across the border with Egypt."

The report recommends that Israel significantly increase "prosecutions, convictions, and sentences for forced labor offenses, including the unlawful practice of withholding passports as a means to keep a person in a form of labor or service; increase investigations, prosecutions, and punishments of internal trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation; and extend comprehensive protection services to victims of forced labor."

While the Oz unit has 160 inspectors and a NIS 50 million annual budget, it has "focused solely on locating illegal aliens and dealing with them," said MK Orit Zuaretz (Kadima), who heads the Knesset subcommittee on trafficking in women.

"Even though the unit was supposed to replace the Immigration Administration, including in everything related to locating and identifying trafficking victims, that hasn't been done," said Zuaretz.

"Law enforcement in the field of fighting human trafficking requires the active inspection of employers," said Kav La'Oved lawyer Anat Kidron. "Such inspection is not being done to a sufficient extent, and therefore a significant number of the victims of trafficking are not being found."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1122541.html 

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Cebu a transit point for child trafficking - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

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By Ma. Bernadette A. Parco
Cebu Daily News First Posted 06:47:00 10/21/2009

CEBU remains a destination, source and transit area for human trafficking, where women and children victims are brought to be “processed” before being sent to other provinces, said Ligaya Abedesco of the Visayan Forum Foundation.

She noted a change in the profile of trafficked persons due to the shortage of jobs.

“Many young professionals who cannot be absorbed into the work force are attracted to work outside Cebu. They are given an offer that is attractive and hard to refuse,” said Abedesco, one of the guests at the 888 News Forum held at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel yesterday.

The foundation helps marginalized migrants and tackles issues of domestic work, child labor and human trafficking.

A total of 175 cases of human trafficking were reported since 2007 based on government records .

Human trafficking is a crime against humanity because “persons are viewed and sold like commodities or profit” said lawyer Andrey Sawchenko of the International Justice Mission.

He said people involved in the illegal trade choose Cebu due to the cheap transport costs.

“They choose those who are desperate to find any source of income. They (the targets) are promised an offer that is too good to be true. That is why they are easily caught in this net,” said Sawchenko.
Sawchecnko also cited an improvement in the implementation of Republic Act No. 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.

He noted 15 convictions on the national level of which three or four are in Metro Cebu.

“In 2007, there has been an upswing in prosecutions,” he said.

More than 60 persons were charged, including owners of establishments, recruiters and those connected in transporting the victims, he said.

During the same forum, Bobby Joseph of the National Independent Travel Agencies or NAITAS, said Cebu’s human trafficking scenario has little impact on the tourism industry.

“Human trafficking is usually outbound,” he said.

CEBU remains a destination, source and transit area for human trafficking, where women and children victims are brought to be “processed” before being sent to other provinces, said Ligaya Abedesco of the Visayan Forum Foundation.

She noted a change in the profile of trafficked persons due to the shortage of jobs.

“Many young professionals who cannot be absorbed into the work force are attracted to work outside Cebu. They are given an offer that is attractive and hard to refuse,” said Abedesco, one of the guests at the 888 News Forum held at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel yesterday.

The foundation helps marginalized migrants and tackles issues of domestic work, child labor and human trafficking.

A total of 175 cases of human trafficking were reported since 2007 based on government records .

Human trafficking is a crime against humanity because “persons are viewed and sold like commodities or profit” said lawyer Andrey Sawchenko of the International Justice Mission.

He said people involved in the illegal trade choose Cebu due to the cheap transport costs.

“They choose those who are desperate to find any source of income. They (the targets) are promised an offer that is too good to be true. That is why they are easily caught in this net,” said Sawchenko.
Sawchecnko also cited an improvement in the implementation of Republic Act No. 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.

He noted 15 convictions on the national level of which three or four are in Metro Cebu.

“In 2007, there has been an upswing in prosecutions,” he said.

More than 60 persons were charged, including owners of establishments, recruiters and those connected in transporting the victims, he said.

During the same forum, Bobby Joseph of the National Independent Travel Agencies or NAITAS, said Cebu’s human trafficking scenario has little impact on the tourism industry.

“Human trafficking is usually outbound,” he said.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/news/view/20091021-231421/Cebu-a--transit-point-for-child-trafficking

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Human trafficking subject of conference at UD

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By Dave Larsen, Staff Writer 12:11 PM Monday, October 19, 2009

Dayton Daily News

DAYTON — The FBI has identified Ohio as a source, route and destination for human trafficking.

“A Global Report on Trafficking in Persons,” released in February by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said that a country with at least 100 reported cases of human trafficking is considered to have a serious problem with the modern-day form of slavery.

“Ohio probably has 100 cases,” said Mark Ensalaco, director of the University of Dayton’s Human Rights Program, on Monday, Oct. 19. If Ohio was a country, “we would ... qualify,” he said.

As many as 17,000 persons are trafficked into the U.S. each year from Asia, Central and South America and Eastern Europe, and are exploited for commercial sex, including prostitution, stripping and pornography, or exploited for labor in domestic servitude, sweatshops or migrant agricultural work, according to U.S. State Department figures.

“It’s everything maids to exotic dancers to prostitutes on the streets to, who knows, people working in commercial agriculture even in this area,” Ensalaco said.

UD on Nov. 9-10 will host the Dayton Human Trafficking Accords Conference, university officials announced Monday in a meeting with the Dayton Daily News editorial board.

The event will feature a talk on the evening of Nov. 9 by Benjamin Skinner, winner of the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction for his book, “A Crime So Monstrous: Face to Face With Modern Day Slavery.”

On Nov. 10, the conference will include working sessions for area law enforcement officials and victims advocates to assess the extent of human trafficking in Ohio and what is being done for victims, Ensalaco said. Attendance to the working sessions is by invitation only.

The public session, “Trafficking is Slavery,” will include a forum with former trafficking victims, a screening of the film “Playground” and a conversation with filmmaker Libby Spears.

“The idea is to make the University of Dayton available as an academic resource to the community and see what we can do moving forward,” Ensalaco said.

For more information on the conference contact UD’s Human Rights Program at (937) 229-2765 or visit academic.udayton.edu/HumanRights/Trafficking%20Conf.htm.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/human-trafficking-subject-of-conference-at-ud-354286.html

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