Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Denouncing ‘slavery in the modern age,’ UN launches plan against human trafficking

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses launch of Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons

31 August 2010 – The United Nations today launched a global action plan to combat human trafficking, with senior UN officials urging that governments worldwide take coordinated and consistent measures to try to defeat the scourge.

The plan, launched at a high-level meeting of the General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York, calls for integrating the fight against human trafficking into the UN’s broader programmes to boost development and strengthen security around the world.

It also calls for the setting up of a UN voluntary trust fund for victims of trafficking, especially women and children.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told today’s meeting that the action plan should serve as “a clarion call” to UN Member States, international organizations and civil society groups of the need to take immediate steps “to stop this terrible crime against human dignity, which shames us all.”

The UN has estimated that more than 2.4 million people are currently being exploited as victims of human trafficking.

“It is slavery in the modern age,” Mr. Ban said. “Every year thousands of people, mainly women and children, are exploited by criminals who use them for forced labour or the sex trade. No country is immune. Almost all play a part, either as a source of trafficked people, transit point or destination.”

The Secretary-General urged countries, philanthropists and others to contribute generously to the new trust fund for trafficking victims.

“The fund aims to help governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) provide these vulnerable people with protection and support for their physical, psychological and social recovery. After they have been exploited and abused, they should not be punished, too.”

The action plan – which focuses on preventing trafficking, prosecuting offenders and protecting victims – also stresses the importance of obtaining more research, data and analysis about the problem.

“We must improve our knowledge and understanding of this crime if we are to make good policy decisions and targeted interventions,” Mr. Ban said.

He added that the only way to succeed is to strengthen partnerships between States, organizations and programmes, such as the UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking, known as UN.GIFT since its creation in early 2007.

In his address to today’s meeting, General Assembly President Ali Treki emphasized the human rights aspects of the fight against trafficking.

“Abduction, coercion, trafficking across national and international borders, forcing women and children into sexual exploitation and servitude – this must not be accepted in today’s world,” he said.

“As this heinous crime flourishes, thousands of men, women and children are robbed of their safety, their freedom and their dignity. Human trafficking devastates families and tears communities apart. When the history of this horror calls, we cannot let this period be remembered as one in which the global community knew but did not act.”

Denouncing ‘slavery in the modern age,’ UN launches plan against human trafficking


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On the trail of human trafficking: sex industry in Nepal - CNN.com

By Siddharth Kara
August 31, 2010 12:50 p.m. EDT

View Video



STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Siddharth Kara is in Nepal investigating the sex industry
  • Kara focused much of the week on workers in massage pparlorsand dance clubs.
  • Kara will travel to urban and rural regions in several south Asian countries

RELATED TOPICS
Editors Note: Harvard human trafficking fellow Siddharth Kara is undertaking a research trip around South Asia, looking at issues of forced labor, trafficking and child bondage. He will be getting access to the heart of the problem, and telling CNN.com readers what he has discovered every week over the next ten weeks.

West Terai, Nepal -- Before venturing to this little-traveled quadrant of Nepal, I was interested to update my research on Katmandu's massage parlors and dance bars.

About four-and-a-half years ago, I gathered an extensive account of how commercial sex is sold with young Nepalese girls in Kathmandu, especially in the tourist area of Thamel.

In shelters, I heard numerous stories from young girls trafficked from rural areas into the clubs and parlors, where they were coerced to perform sex acts with tourists and locals alike.

Each dance bar has a distinctive musical theme -- American pop, Bollywood, etc -- and while one young girl dances on stage, others sit with men at tables trying to transact for sex. If the club is busy and a man does not transact quickly enough, a bouncer tells him to make way for someone who will.

Along with physical coercion, threats against family members ensure the trafficked girls do as they are told.

Small amounts of money sent to parents by the victims also pressure some to remain in sex work as long as possible.

Child labor in Bangladesh's shrimp industry

In the massage parlors, the situation remains largely the same. I am typically told there are actually no massages for sale. When I enquire what else might be for sale, the offer to see young girls in a back room quickly emerges.

At casual glance, there seemed to be fewer clubs and parlors operating in Thamel. Local colleagues told me that the police have started to crack down, and also demand higher bribes. This has pushed many establishments into less touristy areas in Kathmandu, which I intend to investigate when I return.

Beyond Kathmandu, the new insights I gained this week on forced labor in Nepal have been in west Terai, a flat agricultural area along the border with Uttar Pradesh in India.

Throughout this region, I met dozens of former Kamaiya. These are individuals caught in an ancient practice of generational debt bondage. Almost all Kamaiya belong to the lower-caste Tharu ethnic group, and almost all Kamaiya owners belong to the upper caste Brahmin group.

India's child labor problem

The essence of Kamaiya debt bondage is this -- each year Kamaiya enter a "contract" with a landowner to work a large parcel of land. In exchange, they are given a small hut and a few hundred kilograms of rice throughout the year. They receive no money and no share in the income from their work. If they need money for anything, they must borrow it and go deeper into debt. As the debt grows, the bondage is passed from one generation to the next.

The Kamaiya system was officially banned by the Nepalese government in 2000. Land, brick homes, money, economic training, and other support were promised to the Kamaiya in order to ease their transition.

Based on my observation, barely one in ten identified Kamaiya have been provided with a home. Few have received the cash, training, and other support promised.

As a result, none of the former Kamaiya I met is able to earn enough income to survive, and some have receded back into the Kamaiya system.

On the trail of human trafficking
Perhaps worse, many others have been trafficked to India for labor exploitation.

The situation of the Kamaiya demonstrates the importance of comprehensive and sustained liberation from any slave-like condition, be it a child slave in India, a sex trafficking victim in Moldova, or a labor trafficking victim in the U.S.

Just saying someone is "free" without providing ongoing human rights care and development will likely consign that individual to being re-exploited in any number of ways, especially by opportunistic human traffickers.

Despite the challenges, all former Kamaiya I met relished their new freedom.
"Now we are free!" a man named "Janat" declared, "No one can ever tell us what to do."

On the trail of human trafficking: sex industry in Nepal - CNN.com
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FactSheetonStateAntiTraffickingLawsJanuary2010.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Check this out:

Fact Sheet on State Anti-Trafficking Laws from US PACT
(Policy Advocacy to Combat Trafficking) , A Program of the
Center for Women Policy Studies, January 2010


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Follow this link

http://www.centerwomenpolicy.org/programs/trafficking/

to

Center for Women Policy Studies
US Policy Advocacy toCombat Trafficking (US PACT) 

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Coyote ugly: curbing human trafficking | Troy Media Corporation

August 29, 2010


By Mark Milke
Research Director
Frontier Centre for Public Policy


Mark Milke

CALGARY, AB, Aug. 29, 2010/ – The recent arrival of 492 Sri Lankans on the West Coast, courtesy of the MV Sun Sea, claiming refugee status again raised the rhetoric which was of little help to refugee claimants or to their potential host countries.

While some assume any concern about the immigration and refugee system is merely a cloak for anti-immigrant sentiment, others, also skating on the surface, suggest border controls should be abolished, similar to the absence of passports in the 18th century.

Sober reflection
Past migration patterns, unfortunately, don’t help with present-day realities. The choice really is not between shutting the door to all potential newcomers or doing away with the border altogether. Few want the first option – that would neither be compassionate nor economically smart – and the open-the-floodgates trial balloon is not a sober suggestion, given the reality of modern terrorism.

Some type of processes for allowing newcomers into the country will always be necessary. To understand what happens when governments lose control of significant parts of their borders, consider a recent story on the problem that exists on the Mexico-U.S. boundary. Reporter Monica Alonzo from New York City’s Village Voice newspaper: she began her investigative account of human trafficking this way:

“Maria was drifting off to sleep on the bedroom floor. She could hear women getting raped in the next room. Only, she didn’t hear screams – she heard the laughter of male guards. The women had been drugged by their rapists, who had done the same to Maria as soon as she walked into the house.”

The reporter was describing the increasing problem encountered by migrants who are ferried across the border into Arizona only to be held to ransom by their “coyote” escorts. Alonzo writes of  the brutality of the human smugglers who double-cross their paying prey by demanding extra cash from the victims or their families back in Mexico.

“Kidnappers,” wrote the Voice reporter, “kick and punch hostages, beat them with baseball bats, submerge them in bathtubs and electrically shock them, burn their flesh with blowtorches, smash their fingers with bricks, slice their bodies with butcher knives, shoot them in their arms and legs, and cut open their backs with wire-cutters. The kidnappers usually videotape the sexual humiliation and violence and send the images to family members if ransoms aren’t paid.”

In the case of Maria and 12 other Mexican migrants, including two boys, each paid human smugglers $1,800 to ferry them safely across the border. But once they reached Phoenix, their coyotes-turned-captors demanded another $1,700 before they would be released.

Maria, her husband and the other captives were eventually freed after an anonymous tipster told local police about the house. After the raid and after giving Phoenix police information, they were eventually deported back to Mexico.

There is a plethora of issues in the illegal immigration conundrum, none of them easily solvable. What the Village Voice article exemplifies is how, in the absence of effective border controls, human smugglers exploit the shadowy existence of those in a country illegally. The Voice noted that in 2008 alone, and just in Phoenix, there were 368 reported kidnappings, most of them in the world of smuggled migrants such as Maria.

The U.S.-Mexico border is a mess and may be problematic until Mexico and central American countries become a lot more prosperous. In the meantime, no option is perfect. The U.S. could naturalize all illegal immigrants as it’s done before. That’s humanitarian. But absent a wide-open border, it won’t solve the problem of how to control illegal flows exacerbated by smugglers. A better option, suggested by some, is to try to legalize many more “guest workers” as is done in Europe.

Regardless, sympathy is due for anyone who wants to escape Mexican corruption, violence and poverty, or Tamils who want to leave Sri Lanka after undergoing repression there. But not every claim of refugee status is to be believed. So distinctions are necessary. And it’s critical that governments which wish to maintain some control of their borders, such as Canada, do so.

Immigration policy run by human smugglers
When they don’t – and there are plenty of Supreme Court and political hurdles in Canada in the way of such a basic government function – then it is human smugglers who run Canada’s immigration policy by default.
The point of trying to control a nation’s borders is not to turn our back on refugees and immigrants. The point of quick deportations is to remove the incentive for newcomers to pay human smugglers to get them here. It is to force them into safer and legal (albeit lengthy) channels in all but the most immediate cases of actual persecution.

Without that, the sloppy, ad hoc approach risks an explosion of brutality in the black market of human trafficking.

Channels: The Calgary Herald, Aug. 30, 2010

Coyote ugly: curbing human trafficking | Troy Media Corporation
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Spain breaks up male-prostitute trafficking gang - Europe, World - The Independent

Palma, MajorcaImage via Wikipedia

AP

Tuesday, 31 August 2010

Spanish police say that for the first time they have broken up a human-trafficking gang that brought men to the country to work as prostitutes.

Police say they arrested 14 people on suspicion of running the organization and another 17 alleged prostitutes for being in Spain illegally.

A police statement today says the men were recruited in Brazil and saddled with debts of up to €4,000 ($5,000) as the cost of bringing them to Spain.

The gang provided the men with cocaine, Viagra and the club scene drug known as "poppers" so they could be available for sex 24 hours a day.

The police statement said the arrests were made in recent weeks and the alleged ringleader was based in Palma on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.

Spain breaks up male-prostitute trafficking gang - Europe, World - The Independent



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Monday, August 30, 2010

Belize Human Trafficking Trial Set | NowPublic News Coverage

San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize, Central Ame...Image via Wikipediaby bettyAphilips | August 27, 2010 at 12:25 pm

The trial is a consequence of a national police raid on three ficha bars in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye. This was a raid that saw the chief of Belize’s criminal investigation branch refer to a hardcore human trafficking ring in this tourist area. And he also said his squad would be back if there were further evidence of human trafficking in action. We can live in hope.

We have three basic questions that we are asking ORT campaign supporters to send to the Belize government.

Are the bar owners being charged with human trafficking and profiting from prostitution or is Belize scapegoating a single bar employee? According to Belize law, it is the owners that should be standing trial. Ask Attorney General Bernard Q. Pitts this question.

What about the human trafficking victims? It is not known how many of the 24 arrested wound up in Hattieville prison because they are undocumented and in the country illegally. The Catch-22 for them is, they are in the country illegally because they’ve been trafficked. So why are the innocent being punished again? What has the Human Development and Social Transformation Ministry done to identify them and protect them? Ask Minister Peter Eden Martinez.

What happened to the four minors who were picked up in the police raid? Are they in Hattieville at risk in the company of adult criminals? Where are these children, Mr. Martinez, Mr. B.Q. Pitts?

[TRAFFICKING MONITOR: In a personal communication, Ms. Phillips stated that the trial will occur on Tuesday, August 31, 2010, in the morning.].

Belize Human Trafficking Trial Set | NowPublic News Coverage


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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abby-ferber/holding-men-accountable-f_b_698121.html

FROM HUFFINGTON SOCIAL NEWS
Abby L. Ferber

Abby L. Ferber

Posted: August 28, 2010 08:54 PM

Too often when we think about human trafficking, and sex trafficking in particular, we think of it as a problem "out there." But this year, for the first time, the U.S. State Department included the U.S. in its annual report on trafficking, admitting that it is a grave problem in the U.S. as well.

Jewel Woods, Executive Director of The Renaissance Male Project, is trying to combat that myth. Woods recently began promoting RMP's efforts to address the role of the US in trafficking.

They recently produced a brochure: "Ten Things Men and Boys Can Do to Stop Human Trafficking." Woods co-chairs the Ohio attorney general's "Ohio Trafficking In Persons Study Commission Demand Reduction Sub-Committee." I asked Woods why the RMP, located in Columbus Ohio, has made this a major focus of its work these days:

"Toledo, Ohio has the dubious distinction of being one of four cities to lead the nation in the number of domestic minors involved in human trafficking...we realizes we need to deal with the demand-side of human trafficking because no one was dealing with it. We started working with the Lucas County Human Trafficking Coalition about a year ago, and RMP just started our first John School in Toledo."

The reality is, as Woods succinctly puts it, "there would be no human trafficking if there were was no demand for it!" That is why we need to target boys and men. Woods charges "we need to turn male spaces into circles of accountability where men learn about non-violence, social justice, and ending violence against women." And that is just what the RMP is doing.

The following list has been adapted from the RMP brochure, and suggests specific actions that men and boys can take to end this atrocity that is occurring here in the United States and around the world. (Contact RMP for the brochure and other resources)

1. CHALLENGE THE GLAMORIZATION OF PIMPS IN OUR CULTURE
Mainstream culture and the music industry have popularized the image of a pimp to the point that some men and boys look up to pimps as if they represent legitimate male role models and view "pimping" as a normal expression of masculinity. In reality, pimps play a central role in human trafficking and cause tremendous harm by routinely raping, beating, and terrorizing women and girls to keep them locked in prostitution.

2. CONFRONT THE BELIEF THAT PROSTITUTION IS A "VICTIMLESS CRIME"
Many men view prostitution as a "victimless crime." But it is not. For example, women who are involved in prostitution are at greater risk to be murdered, and suffer tremendous physical and mental trauma. The average age of entry into prostitution in the United States is 13 years old.

3. STOP PATRONIZING STRIP CLUBS
Strip clubs in the United States and abroad may be a place where human trafficking victims go unnoticed or unidentified. Men rarely consider whether women working in strip clubs are coerced into that line of work, because to do so would conflict with the pleasure of participating in commercialized sex venues. Strip clubs--like brothels-- are the most popular venues where the purchase of sexual services from women occurs the most.

4. DON'T CONSUME PORNOGRAPHY
Pornography manipulates male sexuality, popularizes unhealthy attitudes towards sex and sexuality, and eroticizes violence against women. Pornography leads men and boys to believe that certain sexual acts are normal, when in fact sexual acts that are non-consensual, offensive and coupled with violent intent result in the pain, suffering, and humiliation of women and children. In addition, a disproportionate amount of mainstream pornography sexualizes younger women with such titles as "teens", "barely 18", "cheerleaders," etc. Victims of human trafficking have also been forced into pornography. Men can stop the voyeurism of sex and sex acts that fuel human trafficking by refusing to consume pornography and encourage others to do the same.

5. TACKLE SEXISM ONLINE
Men spend a significant amount of time online discussing their sexual exploits. The internet provides many men with the ability to mask their identities while indulging in racist, sexist, and violent diatribes against women and girls. Choosing to be a critical voice online is an extremely important way to educate and inform men and boys about their choices.

6. END SEX TOURISM
Men in the United States routinely travel overseas and have sex with women in developing countries. When men engage in these practices, they do not acknowledge the fact that many trafficked women and children come from developing countries-- even in countries where prostitution is "legal."

7. TALK TO MEN AND BOYS ABOUT MEN'S ISSUES IN MALE SPACES
The only way to change men is by engaging spaces where men and boys talk and develop their ideas and attitudes towards sex and sexuality. Males spaces such as barbershops, locker rooms, fraternities, and union halls are the real classrooms where boys learn to become men and where men develop most of their ideas about how to interact with women. If men do not feel comfortable talking about these issues in male spaces, they can drop off informational brochures and make themselves available to talk with other men and boys when they have questions
or concerns.

8. SUPPORT ANTI-HUMAN TRAFFICKING POLICIES
One of the most important acts men can do to stop human trafficking is to support
anti-trafficking legislation at the local, state and federal level. Many states have no anti-trafficking legislation.

9. SUPPORT CREATION OF "JOHN SCHOOLS"
Strategies aimed at ending human trafficking must focus on eliminating the demand. "John Schools" are education programs designed to educate customers apprehended by law enforcement who attempted to purchase sex. By teaching the legal and health effects of buying sex and the realities of prostitution, such schools impart knowledge that can reduce demand, making men consciousof how their actions can spur on human trafficking. Learn whether or not your local community has a John School. If not, encourage your local prosecutor's office or city counsel to start one.

10. RAISE SONS AND MENTOR BOYS TO CHALLENGE OPPRESSION
No boy is destined to be a "john", a pimp, or a human trafficker. Raising young men in circles of accountability, to be respectful and protective of all women and children is one of the most important things men can do to stop human trafficking.

Privilege
White Man Falling










http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abby-ferber/holding-men-accountable-f_b_698121.html


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Labour condemns UK 'opt out' from EU directive against sex trafficking | World news | The Guardian

Denis MacShane appeals to Lib Dems, as coalition invokes its right not to sign up

British Minister for Europe Denis MacSha
Labour's former Europe minister, Denis MacShane, launched an appeal to the coalition government to rethink its stance on sex trafficking. Photograph: Gerard Cerles/AFP/Getty Images

David Cameron and Nick Clegg stand accused of sending the "wrong signal" to pimps and human traffickers across the world after the coalition decided against endorsing an EU directive designed to co-ordinate European efforts to combat the trade in sex slaves.

As new figures show that fewer traffickers are being jailed than at any time in the last five years, Labour called for a government rethink on the directive, appealing to the pro-European Liberal Democrats to explain to their coalition partners the benefits of EU action.

Denis MacShane, Labour's former Europe minister, launched the appeal after the government decided not to sign up to the directive. The document includes a common definition of the crime of trafficking, to make it easier to convict offenders in the EU's 27 member states.

Campaigners regard co-ordinated EU action as essential because many victims are trafficked through the new member states of Bulgaria and Romania. The directive would allow suspects to be prosecuted for offences in other member states, and would boost the rights of victims.

The coalition is invoking a special British right on any EU justice and home affairs measures. The directive will be decided in the EU by the system known as qualified majority voting, according to which no member state can wield a veto. But Britain has the right to decide whether to "opt in".

MacShane called for the coalition to do so. In a letter to Clegg, he wrote: "Women in particular will be alarmed to learn that the Liberal Democrats are willing to support these efforts to weaken the directive. It is the wrong signal to send to the pimps and traffickers. I hope you can persuade the prime minister to drop his opt-out policy on this welcome effort to combat sex-slave trafficking."

His comments were endorsed by the charity Anti-Slavery International. Klara Skrivankova, co-ordinator of the charity's programme on trafficking, said: "Despite significant positive steps, the government cannot become complacent and say that the UK is already doing enough. Without international co-operation, the government will lose the battle with the traffickers. By choosing not to opt in to the directive, the government is failing in its efforts to combat this transnational crime."

A Home Office spokesman said: "Human trafficking is a brutal form of organised crime, and combating it is a key priority for the government. The UK already complies with most of what is required by the draft EU directive.

"The government will review the UK's position once the directive has been agreed, and will continue to work constructively with European partners on matters of mutual interest. By not opting in now but reviewing our position when the directive is agreed, we can choose to benefit from being part of a directive that is helpful but avoid being bound by measures that are against our interests."

The row over the directive came as new figures challenged the claim by law enforcement agencies that they are cracking down on criminal gangs which have forced an estimated 2,600 foreign women into prostitution in brothels in England and Wales. Only five people were convicted of human trafficking for sexual exploitation in the first six months of this year, according to figures from the UK Human Trafficking Centre, compared with 33 and 34 in the previous two 12-month periods. A further nine were convicted of other offences, having been arrested on suspicion of trafficking.

The apparently significant fall in the rate of convictions for the crime, which carries a maximum 14-year sentence, follows claims last month by the Crown Prosecution Service that "combating human trafficking is a high priority for the CPS and the criminal justice system".

The number of prosecutions has remained reasonably steady, at 114 in 2008/09 and 102 in 2009/10, according to figures released by Dominic Grieve, the attorney general; but the conviction rate has dropped.

A spokesman for the CPS said the number of convictions varied for several reasons, including the fact that fewer cases may be brought to prosecutors for consideration, and that fewer defendants may be involved in each trial.

"We acknowledge that it is challenging to successfully prosecute human trafficking cases, but we are committed to bringing prosecutions when there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to do so," he said.

Labour condemns UK 'opt out' from EU directive against sex trafficking | World news | The
Guardian

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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Migrant workers in UK suffering 'modern-day slavery' | UK news | The Guardian

Channel 4's Dispatches says thousands of workers endure sexual, physical and psychological abuse from employers

Domestic abuse
The Channel 4 investigation says many migrant workers work up to 20 hours a day for little or no pay. Photograph: Don McPhee

Thousands of foreign domestic workers are living as slaves in Britain, being abused sexually, physically and psychologically by employers, according to an investigation to be screened tonight.

More than 15,000 migrant workers come to Britain every year to earn money to send back to their families. But according to a Channel 4 Dispatches investigation, many endure conditions that campaigners say amount to modern-day slavery.

Kalayaan, a charity based in west London that helps and advises migrant domestic workers, registers around 350 new workers each year.

About 20% report being physically abused or assaulted, including being burnt with irons, threatened with knives, and having boiling water thrown at them.

"Two-thirds of the domestic workers we see report being psychologically abused," said Jenny Moss, a community advocate for the charity. "That means they've been threatened and humiliated, shouted at constantly and called dog, donkey, stupid, illiterate."

A similar proportion say they were not allowed out alone and have never had a day off. Nearly three-quarters say they were paid less than £50 a week.

"The first thing to understand when we're talking about slavery is that we're not using a metaphor," said Aidan McQuade from Anti-Slavery International. "Many of the instances of domestic servitude we find in this country are forced labour – a classification that includes retention of passports and wages, threat of denunciation and restriction of movement and isolation."

Lobby groups and charities say that a large proportion of domestic workers are paid less than £50 a week for working 20-hour days. Others have their wages withheld completely. In some cases, the workers are young people who were trafficked over to the UK as children and forced to endure years of violence and forced labour.

The programme also investigates claims that foreign diplomats are among the worst offenders. Their workers, unlike those brought in on a domestic worker visa, cannot change their employer and face being homeless or being deported if they escape. The Dispatches study says it is also extremely difficult to prosecute diplomats for treating their workers as slaves.

Accurate figures are hard to establish because the abuse happens behind closed doors. But campaigners say that every year, hundreds of domestic workers run away from employees they claim have mistreated them.

Marissa Begonia left three young children in the Philippines when she came to Britain as a domestic worker 16 years ago. Now the head of Justice 4 Domestic Workers, a new campaigning organisation run by and for migrant workers, Begonia says most of their clients are forced to work abroad, without ever seeing their families, because of extreme poverty in their home countries.

"It's a matter of life and death," said Begonia. "You have two choices only: you watch your children die slowly, starving, or you leave them and come to the UK to work to make sure your children survive." The Metropolitan police specialised crime unit specifically targets forced labour, including domestic workers. "We've now got 10 cases of domestic servitude we are investigating," said detective chief superintendent Richard Martin, who heads the unit.

"Some victims are being chained to the kitchen sink, working seven days a week, 20 hours a day, for little or no pay. We have had cases of workers being forced to eat scraps off the table, so some of them are not even fed properly, and are assaulted and abused. We've had cases where women have been raped."

Children are also being bought to the UK to work in conditions of slavery. Christina was trafficked from Nigeria to London when she was just 12 years old. She says the woman in charge of her was of Nigerian origin, but worked as a British civil servant first with the Home Office and then Customs and Excise.

"I got beaten up all the time but I had no choice: I had nowhere to go," said Christina, who worked for the woman for five years, until she escaped in 2005. "She hit me with a frying pan and with a belt, so many, many times. It was horrible. I wanted to die."

From abuse to justice

Patience is a domestic worker from west Africa, whose former boss was a London solicitor. She says that for almost three years she worked 120 hours a week for little money. "I was treated like a slave, not allowed to go out, to make friends … she'd pinch me, slap me. I didn't have anyone to talk to." A neighbour helped Patience escape, but then, she says, the police did not believe her. She finally won her case at an employment tribunal and took action against the police, who reopened the investigation. The solicitor was convicted of assault.

Migrant workers in UK suffering 'modern-day slavery' | UK news | The Guardian
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Australia Urged to Combat Modern Day Slavery | News | English

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 30:  Spray paint cans...Image by Getty Images via @daylifeFROM VOA NEWS.COM

Phil Mercer | Sydney 28 August 2010

Human rights advocates are urging Australia to do more to protect vulnerable foreign workers from slavery. Forced labor has been the focus of a meeting of human trafficking experts in Sydney. Rights advocates believe there is a hidden army of migrants who are being held against their will after being coerced or tricked into traveling to Australia.

It used to be Australia's sex industry that drew the focus of law enforcement authorities to the trafficking of women. Now, rights advocates say, such forced labor affects many different sectors, including construction, hospitality and agriculture.

There is very little hard data because of the shadowy nature of the problem. Victims are usually too afraid to come forward fearing arrest or deportation.

The Salvation Army, a charity, has estimated that more than 1,000 people are brought to Australia each year as modern day slaves.

Jenny Stangar from the Salvation Army believes that slavery in Australia has become a serious concern.

"We have a lot of information about people not necessarily having been trafficked to Australia but some have been trafficked, and some people get here and they wind up in a situation of forced labor, which means that they are working under some kind of threat," said Stangar. "And it is essentially a situation where they have lost their free will. They cannot leave that job."

The victims of human trafficking come in all ages and from a range of countries, including Thailand, Korea and China. Others have traveled from Eastern Europe and India.

Organized criminal gangs often lure them with promises of a happy, new life in Australia.

But Fiona David, a human trafficking consultant who has worked for the United Nations, says many end up in misery.

"The sorts of factors that are relevant are people coming to Australia having paid very large fees to recruiters, then finding themselves in situations of crippling debt. They may be, I guess, inherently vulnerable perhaps because of their family situation, family obligations. It is not about locks and chains. It is much more subtle ways of controlling people's behavior," said David.

Activists meeting in Sydney are calling on the Australian government to conduct more research to gauge the true scale of the problem and to coordinate a new national plan to protect vulnerable foreign workers. The Salvation Army says it believes the global financial crisis has made international forced labor an issue.

The United Nations estimates that human trafficking has become a $30 billion industry, where about two million victims are trafficked annually around the world.

Australia Urged to Combat Modern Day Slavery | News | English


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Saturday, August 28, 2010

The SI information films regarding Sweden’s view on Human Trafficking

From: Swedish Institute

Together with The NewsMarket, the Swedish Institute has produced four short films aiming to spread information about Swedish efforts in this field and hopefully trigger interesting and engaging discussions on the subject.

The most recent production was made in connection to the release on the Evaluation of the Ban on Purchase of Sexual Services, July 2nd 2010.

This film was made in connetion to a meeting opportunity organized by the Swedish Institute for some 60 key Swedish, Ghanaian and Nigerian actors engaging with human trafficking 5-12 May 2010. The meeting was organized with regards to that it has been a considerable increase in the number of Nigerian prostitutes arriving in Sweden the last few years. Abow video includes expert soundbites and general views from the meeting.

The videoplayer abow focus on Sweden's perspectiv and work against human trafficking and includes soundbites from Kajsa Wahlberg, Detective Inspector, National Police Board, Claes Borgström, Lawyer, Borgström & Bodström Advokatbyrå, Jonas Trolle, Detective Inspector and Patrik Cederlöf, National Coordinator Against Prostitution/Trafficking as well as general views of street scenes and surveillance shots.


The film above is made in connection to Sweden’s Presidency of the EU (July–December 2009) and the conference “Towards Global EU Action against Trafficking in Human Beings” that was held in Brussels, October 19-20. The Objectives of the conference were to address EU efforts to combat human trafficking and increase cooperation with countries where trafficking originates as well as with countries through which trafficking passes. To protect vulnerable groups such as women and children, the EU aims to strengthen ties between the police and judicial authorities of the Member States, as well as to strengthen international cooperation.

The film includes highlights from the conference and shoundbites from H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden, Beatrice Ask, Swedish Minister for Justice, President of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council, Tobias Billström, Swedish Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy, Joy Ngozy Ezeilo, UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons as well as general views of child victims of trafficking.

Further interviews and more material will be available for international media and other key organizations through The NewsMarket and the Swedish Institute.

For questions, please contact:

Ulrika Rosvall Levin, Project Manager, telephone: +46 (0)8 453 78 83,
cell phone: +46 (0) 73-231 85 34, e-mail: ulrika.rosvalllevin@si.se.

Magdalena Bergqvist, Assistant Project Manager, telephone: +46 (0)8 453 79 11, cell phone: +46 (0) 73 732 31 85 42, e-mail: magdalena.bergqvist@si.se

2010.04.30


Swedish Institute - Information films
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Newsvine - Belize Human Trafficking Victims Talk " Belize Bank Parking Lot"

FROM NEWS VINE.COM
Wednesday August, 25, 2010
By humantrafficking

This is about a girl with the street name Marisa, a Honduran working in San Pedro at a ficha bar across the street from Belize Bank. She was owned by a Chinese group, openly known for having girls for sale. The bank and the bar are on the main street of San Pedro one block from the old immigration office on the island.

The trafficked girls of San Pedro in most cases do not understand they are trafficked. They understand they have no place for help and that they are considered whores. They are a close-knit group, these girls on the island working in these bars. The ones who are free after work stick together and, in fact, often live together in shacks. This is a form of protection for each other. The only one they have.

Marisa had spent a year on the Island at first working as a housekeeper at a large resort. This was a typical resort in that it seldom paid on time. Having to pay for her room weekly, she found herself often on the street if she did not get paid by the resort.

She made the choice for survival, meaning food and a roof over her head. So she began to work in a bar. She managed to limit her interaction with men to short visits in the bathroom. Oral sex was her role.

Through our efforts to help to these women and young girls, our reputation was known within the system. We are well known by the underground of the prostitution, ficha bars and trafficked women in San Pedro, Belize and other parts of the country.

We were in San Pedro one night when a girl known as Yenny reached us and told me that Marisa was in trouble. Her boss had beaten her and she at was at Belize Bank parking lot. At 2 in the morning we found Yenny and made our way to the parking lot.

We found Marisa in a ball in the corner of the lot. The bar owner had beaten her by holding her hair and smashing her head on a concrete pillar. Then he had scraped his nails across her face to disfigure her.

Marisa was in shock and bleeding. We gathered her up and took her to a safe house in the San Pablo area of San Pedro. Like an army medical unit, these women treated Marisa. Using a needle and thread they stitched her head. Cleaned her up and placed her on a bed shared by five girls. They all sat through the night comforting Marisa.

I returned the next day to see a child of just 18 with her eyes swollen shut, black and blue. She stayed at the safe house for a week. I made arrangements and had her taken off the Island and returned home.

Always the question is asked why did girls like this do not run? To answer the question think about how powerless you feel when the electricity goes out at your home or the water stops. Or you are at an ATM machine out of money and the machine is down. You have somewhere you can go while you wait for power and water to be returned. You can call a friend if you need money. You could be on the street and stop a police officer. These opportunities do not exist for the trafficked and so-called “worthless” women of San Pedro, Belize and rarely in the rest of the country.

Newsvine - Belize Human Trafficking Victims Talk " Belize Bank Parking Lot"



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