Source: [East Asia Forum]
Authors: Alistair D. B. Cook and Caitríona H. Heinl, RSIS
Human traffickers have an increasing number of targets online in Southeast Asia. The ASEAN region has a growing population of over 600 million — and internet users have doubled. Technology-facilitated trafficking is more diffuse and adaptive than initially thought, but online tools can also be creatively employed to counter cross-border trafficking.
Continue:
http://concernedyapcitizens.wordpress.com/2014/05/03/east-asia-forum-human-trafficking-in-asia-going-online/
Saturday, June 28, 2014
BBC News - Vietnam's lost children in labyrinth of slave labour
Source: BBC News
Last year, three teenage boys jumped out of a third-floor window in Ho Chi Minh City and ran as fast as they could until they found help. It was one in the morning and they did not know where they were going.
"I was really scared someone would catch us," recalled Hieu, 18.
Hieu, who did not want to give his real name, is from the Khmu ethnic minority. He grew up in a small village in Dien Bien, a mountainous area in north-western Vietnam, one of the country's poorest provinces and bordering China.
Continue:
Friday, June 27, 2014
Child sex trafficking a ‘serious problem’ | Sun.Star
Source: Sun.Star
CHILD sex trafficking remains a serious problem in the Philippines because it occurs in private residences and facilitated by taxi drivers who know of clandestine locations, the US Department of State said.
In its 2014 US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report released recently, the State Department also noted that Filipino children who fall victims to this illegal activity are getting younger and that more boys are being recruited.
Continue:
'Siddharth' Examines Trafficking of Children
Source: VOA
A new film by Indian-Canadian writer-director Richie Mehta tells the simple, wrenching story of a poor New Delhi man's search for his missing son. In Siddharth, which was screened recently at New York's Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Mahendra sends his 12-year-old son to work in a factory in a distant city.
Continue:
http://www.voanews.com/content/siddarth-examines-trafficking-of-children/1945516.html
A new film by Indian-Canadian writer-director Richie Mehta tells the simple, wrenching story of a poor New Delhi man's search for his missing son. In Siddharth, which was screened recently at New York's Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Mahendra sends his 12-year-old son to work in a factory in a distant city.
Continue:
http://www.voanews.com/content/siddarth-examines-trafficking-of-children/1945516.html
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Investors welcome federal bill calling for corporate disclosures on trafficking and slavery risks | ICCR (Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility)
Source: Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
June 12, 2014 -- The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of 300 investors with assets under management of over $100 billion, Calvert Investments and Christian Brothers Investment Services, commend Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) on the introduction of The Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2014 (H.R. 4842). The new bill calls on corporations to strengthen their commitment to end human trafficking and modern day slavery by requiring them to disclose the policies and management systems they have in place to better identify and eradicate these violations within their global supply chains.
Continue:
http://www.iccr.org/investors-welcome-federal-bill-calling-corporate-disclosures-trafficking-and-slavery-risks
June 12, 2014 -- The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of 300 investors with assets under management of over $100 billion, Calvert Investments and Christian Brothers Investment Services, commend Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) on the introduction of The Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2014 (H.R. 4842). The new bill calls on corporations to strengthen their commitment to end human trafficking and modern day slavery by requiring them to disclose the policies and management systems they have in place to better identify and eradicate these violations within their global supply chains.
Continue:
http://www.iccr.org/investors-welcome-federal-bill-calling-corporate-disclosures-trafficking-and-slavery-risks
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
H.R. 4842: New Bill Calls for Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery in Corporate Supply Chains - Corporate Social Responsibility
Source: Foley Hoag LLP
On June 11, Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced H.R. 4842, the Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2014. The bill, if passed, would require companies to file annual reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) disclosing their efforts to identify and address specific human rights risks in their supply chains. -
See more at: http://www.csrandthelaw.com/2014/06/h-r-4842-new-bill-calls-for-transparency-on-trafficking-and-slavery-in-corporate-supply-chains/#sthash.tUyNjW31.dpuf
On June 11, Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced H.R. 4842, the Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2014. The bill, if passed, would require companies to file annual reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) disclosing their efforts to identify and address specific human rights risks in their supply chains. -
See more at: http://www.csrandthelaw.com/2014/06/h-r-4842-new-bill-calls-for-transparency-on-trafficking-and-slavery-in-corporate-supply-chains/#sthash.tUyNjW31.dpuf
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Vietnam Trafficking Activist | June 20, 2014 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS
Source: PBS
'Vietnam’s modernized cities create an appeal for the newly educated and workers from rural areas. Across the border in China, a shortage of young brides has led to a system of deceiving Vietnamese into forced labor and marriages. “Whenever you have migration, which is a positive driver and a positive force,” says Florian Forster of the United Nations Organization for Migration, “then you have also the exploitation and abuse coming with it. And that leads to trafficking.” The California-based Pacific Links Foundation offers safe haven for young women who escape human traffickers on the Vietnam-China border . “The girls that we see, they are given a choice,” says the foundation’s co-founder and board president Diep Vuong, “Do you want to marry somebody or do you want work in the brothels?”
View the video:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2014/06/20/june-20-2014-vietnam-trafficking/23429/
'Vietnam’s modernized cities create an appeal for the newly educated and workers from rural areas. Across the border in China, a shortage of young brides has led to a system of deceiving Vietnamese into forced labor and marriages. “Whenever you have migration, which is a positive driver and a positive force,” says Florian Forster of the United Nations Organization for Migration, “then you have also the exploitation and abuse coming with it. And that leads to trafficking.” The California-based Pacific Links Foundation offers safe haven for young women who escape human traffickers on the Vietnam-China border . “The girls that we see, they are given a choice,” says the foundation’s co-founder and board president Diep Vuong, “Do you want to marry somebody or do you want work in the brothels?”
View the video:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2014/06/20/june-20-2014-vietnam-trafficking/23429/
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Recruiting Lawyers to Help Trafficking Survivors | Kevin M. Ryan
Source Kevin M. Ryan
Huffington Post
With the passage of New Jersey's exemplary new law to fight human trafficking, state officials expect great growth in the need for lawyers to represent survivors. So Assistant Attorney General Tracy Thompson joined with the head of a survivors advocacy group to train more than two dozen attorneys recently. They were interested in serving as pro bono (free) lawyers to victims of sex or labor trafficking, and they were there to learn about what legal services they might need to provide.
Continue:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-m-ryan/survivors-of-trafficking_b_5494918.html
Related articles
Huffington Post
With the passage of New Jersey's exemplary new law to fight human trafficking, state officials expect great growth in the need for lawyers to represent survivors. So Assistant Attorney General Tracy Thompson joined with the head of a survivors advocacy group to train more than two dozen attorneys recently. They were interested in serving as pro bono (free) lawyers to victims of sex or labor trafficking, and they were there to learn about what legal services they might need to provide.
Continue:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-m-ryan/survivors-of-trafficking_b_5494918.html
Related articles
Scandal Detracts from True Trafficking Problem, Rights Workers Say
Source: VOA
PHNOM PENH — Cambodia remains a country mired in the problem of sex trafficking, where inequality and poor educations leave entire communities susceptible to the crime.
Cambodian sex trafficking was thrust into the limelight earlier this month, when a Newsweek expose uncovered a series of lies and exaggerations made by Somaly Mam, a Cambodian woman whose anti-trafficking efforts made her an international celebrity.
Continue:
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/scandal-detracts-from-true-cambodia-trafficking-problem-rights-workers-say/1938881.html
PHNOM PENH — Cambodia remains a country mired in the problem of sex trafficking, where inequality and poor educations leave entire communities susceptible to the crime.
Cambodian sex trafficking was thrust into the limelight earlier this month, when a Newsweek expose uncovered a series of lies and exaggerations made by Somaly Mam, a Cambodian woman whose anti-trafficking efforts made her an international celebrity.
Continue:
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/scandal-detracts-from-true-cambodia-trafficking-problem-rights-workers-say/1938881.html
Coca Cola : Opinion: Social Protection is Essential to Combat Child Labor | 4-Traders
Source: 4-Traders
Simon Steyne is head of Social Dialogue and Partnerships in the International Labor Organization's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor....
Many children work to earn money to go to school (even though working and going to school affects attendance and achievement). And when poor families, especially with insecure incomes, get hit by sudden shocks to their finances - for example, education costs, any medical costs, or the death or injury of a breadwinner - it can knock them sideways. That's often the first time a child - even a child in school - begins child labor to replace or fill the gap in an adult's income. Social protection ensures basic family incomes so children don't need to work to fill the gap. Social protection changes lives.
Read:
http://www.4-traders.com/THE-COCA-COLA-COMPANY-4819/news/Coca-Cola--Opinion-Social-Protection-is-Essential-to-Combat-Child-Labor-18596750/
Simon Steyne is head of Social Dialogue and Partnerships in the International Labor Organization's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor....
Many children work to earn money to go to school (even though working and going to school affects attendance and achievement). And when poor families, especially with insecure incomes, get hit by sudden shocks to their finances - for example, education costs, any medical costs, or the death or injury of a breadwinner - it can knock them sideways. That's often the first time a child - even a child in school - begins child labor to replace or fill the gap in an adult's income. Social protection ensures basic family incomes so children don't need to work to fill the gap. Social protection changes lives.
Read:
http://www.4-traders.com/THE-COCA-COLA-COMPANY-4819/news/Coca-Cola--Opinion-Social-Protection-is-Essential-to-Combat-Child-Labor-18596750/
Friday, June 20, 2014
Human trafficking report drops 4 nations to lowest tier - CNN.com
Source: CNN.com
Washington (CNN) -- After several years of what it calls broken promises, the U.S. government has singled out Thailand, Malaysia, The Gambia and Venezuela for taking insufficient action against human trafficking.
In its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, released Friday, the State Department downgraded the four nations to Tier 3, the lowest possible ranking it gives for a country's response to fighting modern-day slavery.
Continue:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/20/us/human-trafficking-report/
Washington (CNN) -- After several years of what it calls broken promises, the U.S. government has singled out Thailand, Malaysia, The Gambia and Venezuela for taking insufficient action against human trafficking.
In its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, released Friday, the State Department downgraded the four nations to Tier 3, the lowest possible ranking it gives for a country's response to fighting modern-day slavery.
Continue:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/20/us/human-trafficking-report/
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Labour standards: ILO adopts new Protocol to tackle modern forms of forced labour
Source: ILO
GENEVA – The International Labour Organization (ILO) has adopted a new legally binding Protocol designed to strengthen global efforts to eliminate forced labour.
The Protocol, supported by a Recommendation, was adopted by government, employer and worker delegates to the International Labour Conference (ILC) with 437 votes for 27 abstentions and 8 against.
Continue:
http://ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/media-centre/press-releases/WCMS_246549/lang--en/index.htm?utm_content=buffera61d7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
GENEVA – The International Labour Organization (ILO) has adopted a new legally binding Protocol designed to strengthen global efforts to eliminate forced labour.
The Protocol, supported by a Recommendation, was adopted by government, employer and worker delegates to the International Labour Conference (ILC) with 437 votes for 27 abstentions and 8 against.
Continue:
http://ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/media-centre/press-releases/WCMS_246549/lang--en/index.htm?utm_content=buffera61d7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Monday, June 16, 2014
World Cup 2014: On myths and reality of sex trafficking - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
Source: Al Jazeera English:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/06/world-cup-sex-trafficking-201465123438956286.html
Related article
 |
Three related topics have been receiving particular attention in the past weeks: human trafficking, child sexual exploitation and sex work. All three are supposed to increase during the upcoming weeks. But does research and the experience of other mega sport events actually substantiate the claims of an increase in trafficking and sex work? And what other issues should we be looking at from a human rights perspective?
Continue:
Related article
Exploitation In Taiwan's $2bn Fishing Industry
Source: malaysiandigest,com
"THE story of Yim Bun Then, a Cambodian rice farmer, is one you will not hear about when buying "Made in Taiwan" seafood at your local supermarket.
The 34-year-old is among 1,000 Cambodian men recruited by a Taiwanese-managed agency - Giant Ocean - from 2009 to work on mostly Taiwanese-owned fishing boats.
The workers were sent to waters off Africa as well as Japan, Fiji, Qatar and Malaysia. According to NGOs and the men themselves, they were promised $150 (£90) a month, but were paid about half that."
Continue:
http://malaysiandigest.com/world/504543-exploitation-in-taiwan-s-2bn-fishing-industry.html
"THE story of Yim Bun Then, a Cambodian rice farmer, is one you will not hear about when buying "Made in Taiwan" seafood at your local supermarket.
The 34-year-old is among 1,000 Cambodian men recruited by a Taiwanese-managed agency - Giant Ocean - from 2009 to work on mostly Taiwanese-owned fishing boats.
The workers were sent to waters off Africa as well as Japan, Fiji, Qatar and Malaysia. According to NGOs and the men themselves, they were promised $150 (£90) a month, but were paid about half that."
Continue:
http://malaysiandigest.com/world/504543-exploitation-in-taiwan-s-2bn-fishing-industry.html
Sunday, June 15, 2014
'It is overwhelmingly the case that fish exports from Thailand involve trafficked labour' – video | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional
Source: The Guardian
We caught up with professor John Ruggie, at a recent global supply chains summit, to discuss slavery, supply chains and governance failures. During his time at the UN Ruggie founded the guiding principles on business and human rights, which continue to influence campaigners, policymakers and business leaders today.
Check out this video here
'It is overwhelmingly the case that fish exports from Thailand involve trafficked labour' – video | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional:
We caught up with professor John Ruggie, at a recent global supply chains summit, to discuss slavery, supply chains and governance failures. During his time at the UN Ruggie founded the guiding principles on business and human rights, which continue to influence campaigners, policymakers and business leaders today.
Check out this video here
'It is overwhelmingly the case that fish exports from Thailand involve trafficked labour' – video | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional:
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Trafficked into slavery on Thai trawlers to catch food for prawns | Global-development | The Guardian
Source: The Guardian:
Kate Hodal and Chris Kelly
Tuesday 10 June 2014 07.05 EDT
There is nothing but a jagged line of splinters where Myint Thein’s teeth once stood – a painful reminder, he says, of the day he was beaten and sold on to a Thai fishing boat.
Continue:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jun/10/-sp-migrant-workers-new-life-enslaved-thai-fishing
Kate Hodal and Chris Kelly
Tuesday 10 June 2014 07.05 EDT
There is nothing but a jagged line of splinters where Myint Thein’s teeth once stood – a painful reminder, he says, of the day he was beaten and sold on to a Thai fishing boat.
Continue:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jun/10/-sp-migrant-workers-new-life-enslaved-thai-fishing
Monday, June 9, 2014
Fighting human trafficking - SFGate
Source: SFGate:
The city of San Francisco has only two part-time public health inspectors to oversee the hundreds of massage establishments that line the city's streets. On a recent Friday night, we went along with them and officers from theSan Francisco Police Department.
Each and every massage parlor was cited for at least one violation - and many of them showed clear evidence of human trafficking. The whopping number of problems found by the team shows how important it is for San Francisco to fully engage with its human trafficking issue - by adding more inspections staff, dealing with the problem of demand and offering more services to victims.
CONTINUE:
Sex Trafficking, Lies & Money: Lessons From the Somaly Mam Scandal | The Nation
Source: The Nation:
First Greg Mortenson, the world-famous author of Three Cups of Tea, raised millions of dollars for schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan that turned out not to exist. Now Somaly Mam, the world-famous Cambodian campaigner against sex trafficking, one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, has stepped down from her eponymous foundation in the wake of charges that she fabricated her harrowing autobiography of having been sold into sex slavery as a child.
Continue:
http://www.thenation.com/article/180132/sex-trafficking-lies-money-lessons-somaly-mam-scandal#
First Greg Mortenson, the world-famous author of Three Cups of Tea, raised millions of dollars for schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan that turned out not to exist. Now Somaly Mam, the world-famous Cambodian campaigner against sex trafficking, one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, has stepped down from her eponymous foundation in the wake of charges that she fabricated her harrowing autobiography of having been sold into sex slavery as a child.
Continue:
http://www.thenation.com/article/180132/sex-trafficking-lies-money-lessons-somaly-mam-scandal#
Friday, June 6, 2014
The Hidden Indentured Class
Source: The American Prospect
Anna and her husband were supposed to be in the U.S. on their honeymoon. They arrived at Los Angeles International Airport in the spring of 2007 and found Daniel waiting for them with a sign bearing their names. Daniel was an acquaintance, someone Anna’s father-in-law—who lived in Houston—knew through church. He had offered to show them parts of Southern California before they continued on to Texas. It was an attractive detour for a Southeast Asian couple in the U.S. for the first time.
Continue here:
http://prospect.org/article/hidden-indentured-class
Anna and her husband were supposed to be in the U.S. on their honeymoon. They arrived at Los Angeles International Airport in the spring of 2007 and found Daniel waiting for them with a sign bearing their names. Daniel was an acquaintance, someone Anna’s father-in-law—who lived in Houston—knew through church. He had offered to show them parts of Southern California before they continued on to Texas. It was an attractive detour for a Southeast Asian couple in the U.S. for the first time.
Continue here:
http://prospect.org/article/hidden-indentured-class
Thursday, June 5, 2014
'Everyone has a little bit of Congo in their pocket' - Telegraph
Source: Telegraph:
A tiny portion of the price you paid for your smartphone, tablet or laptop could have been funneled to warlords in the Congo, lengthening a war that has already cost six million deaths - the deadliest conflict since WWII. It could also have led to slavery and systematic rape.
Continue here:
HONOLULU: 4 Hawaii farms settle Thai workers suit for $2.4M - Business Breaking News - MiamiHerald.com
Source: MiamiHerald.com:
HONOLULU -- Four Hawaii farms are settling a discrimination lawsuit for a total of $2.4 million over allegations that they exploited hundreds of Thai workers.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a federal lawsuit in 2011 against California-based labor contractor Global Horizons and six Hawaii farms, with allegations including subjecting workers to discrimination, uninhabitable housing, insufficient food, inadequate wages and deportation threats.
Read story here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/03/4155840/4-hawaii-farms-settle-thai-workers.html
HONOLULU -- Four Hawaii farms are settling a discrimination lawsuit for a total of $2.4 million over allegations that they exploited hundreds of Thai workers.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a federal lawsuit in 2011 against California-based labor contractor Global Horizons and six Hawaii farms, with allegations including subjecting workers to discrimination, uninhabitable housing, insufficient food, inadequate wages and deportation threats.
Read story here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/03/4155840/4-hawaii-farms-settle-thai-workers.html
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