Chinese Human Trafficking Ring Busted, Women Saved From Forced Prostitution In Angola

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/17/chinese-human-trafficking-ring_n_1099736.html

The Huffington Post Tara Kelly First Posted: 11/17/11 04:52 PM ET Updated: 11/17/11 05:09 PM ET

Angolan and Chinese police jointly broke up a criminal ring that abducted Chinese women and forced them into a life of prostitution, according to a report from the Xinhua News Agency. China's Ministry of Public Security told China Daily Wednesday that police rescued 19 Chinese women.

Ghana's Citi News notes the women served Angola's expatriate communities, according to an investigation from Enslavement Prevention Alliance-West Africa.

The operation, which targeted women from poor socio-economic backgrounds, allegedly promised to pay for their plane tickets and visa applications in exchange for employment as a servant or foot masseur.

But as soon as they arrived in Angola, they were put under strict surveillance and had their passports taken away, forcing them into sex slavery to pay back their traffickers, according to China Daily.

"Although we found we had been cheated, the local public security was in disorder and we didn't have enough money to go back to China. We were mentally and physical exhausted, almost desperate. Finally we had to obey them," said Li Jie, one of the women victims from Sichuan province, in an interview with China Daily.

Police arrested 11 suspects in Angola last month, while another five suspects were later arrested in China, according to Xinhuanet, the English language version of the Xinhua News Agency.

According to the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, China is both a source of and destination for human trafficking. Other trafficking destinations include Thailand, Malaysia, Africa, Europe and America.

Human trafficking has become big business across the globe, one that the Clinton Global Initiative estimates to be worth up to $50 billion, with about 20 million modern-day slaves worldwide.

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

Image by Erik D via Flickr

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/