The pressure of unprecedented globalisation has meant that human trafficking and modern day slavery are inescapable realities of our political system. From Pope Francis declaring human trafficking as a “crime against humanity” to forced labourin Thailand’s seafood industry, the issue of human trafficking has been contemplated in 2014 in a way that it has not been before. Contemplation, however, does not effectively tackle the unfavourable issue of human trafficking; neither does it halt thegrowing vulnerability of migrants in a period of brisk economic change. A new year entails a new direction, and a contemporary approach to a perennial issue.
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Showing posts with label Chiang Mai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chiang Mai. Show all posts
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Human Trafficking: What Now? | WGBH News
Source: WGBH News
January 31, 2013
By PHILLIP MARTIN
"Individuals can take heroic steps to stop human trafficking, like the cab driver in Saigon who rescued 11- and 12-year-olds enslaved in garment factories.
Read/listen the full article in:
http://www.wgbhnews.org/post/human-trafficking-what-now#.UQ1gXGK_OSM.facebook
Be sure to check out all six stories in this series (go to Related Content at the end of this article)
January 31, 2013
By PHILLIP MARTIN
"Individuals can take heroic steps to stop human trafficking, like the cab driver in Saigon who rescued 11- and 12-year-olds enslaved in garment factories.
“These children should not be working Welles this,” the cab driver said. “They should be at home with their families and in school.”
Another way to chip away at human trafficking begins with a tip to police, and ends with a raid of a spa in Wellesley, Mass. and an indictment against its owners.
“[The owner] did tell law enforcement that she knew that what are known as ‘happy endings’ were taking place at that location,” a prosecutor said.
Or you organize against organized crime, as activist Ben Savasti did in Chiang Mai, Thailand."
Read/listen the full article in:
http://www.wgbhnews.org/post/human-trafficking-what-now#.UQ1gXGK_OSM.facebook
Be sure to check out all six stories in this series (go to Related Content at the end of this article)
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Human Trafficking: The Myths and the Realities | The Daily Muse
http://www.thedailymuse.com/education/human-trafficking-the-myths-and-the-realities/
President Obama declared January National Human Trafficking Awareness Month, making now a great time to raise awareness, donate to an anti-trafficking organization, or get involved in a volunteer project to combat trafficking.
In order to make real change, though, we need to understand the issue—which is even larger and more complex than most people realize.
Through my experience researching human trafficking and migration in Asia, Africa, and North America, I’ve come to understand the origins, networks, and culture behind it. Most recently, I’ve worked with the Children’s Organization of Southeast Asia in Chiang Mai, Thailand, an organization that provides intervention, education, and empowerment opportunities in trafficking communities.
At first, I found the magnitude of the issue difficult to grasp: Trafficking occurs in nearly every country, and its networks are vast and formidable to investigate. According to the United Nations, there are between 27 and 30 million modern-day slaves in the world. And the U.S. State Department cites that 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across borders every year. But these numbers are often under-reported and victims are usually hidden in the shadows, meaning that real, concrete statistics are often elusive.
It also means that there’s a lot of incorrect information out there. Everyone talks about human trafficking as a problem we need to tackle and eradicate, but to do so, we first need to separate the facts from fiction. Here are some of the most common trafficking myths, and the truth about what’s really happening.
Myth: Human Trafficking and Human Smuggling Are the Same
Though the two terms are often used interchangeably, human trafficking is not human smuggling. Trafficking is the recruiting, transporting, harboring, or receiving of a person through force in order to exploit him or her for prostitution, forced labor, or slavery. Human smuggling, on the other hand, is the transport of an individual from one destination to another, usually with his or her consent—for example, across a border.
It’s an important distinction—and one that must be clear in order for law enforcement andpolicymakers to properly address each issue.
Myth: Most Traffickers Are What the Movies Show You
A couple of years ago, while sitting at dinner in a trafficking village, I realized that traffickers are not always powerful gangsters the way mainstream movies like Taken tend to portray them. Trafficking occurs in a wide range of socioeconomic classes, and the people involved could be anyone—there’s no one type of trafficker. In some villages I visited, the traffickers were politicians and local law enforcement. In other parts of the world, they’re businessmen or restaurateurs.
While organized crime plays a large role in global human trafficking, communities, local governments, and even families are often involved in the process, too. Many times, it’s strictly about economics—those who sell their children are not “evil” or “bad” people, they simply feel that they have no other choice.
Myth: Human Trafficking Only Refers to Forced Prostitution
I met a nine-year-old girl from a local Hill Tribe in Thailand who wasn’t going to school. Instead, she was building one—her family was so poor that she was forced into laying bricks for many hours a day. She is free from this life now, but there are thousands of children throughout the world still forced in to this type of labor. Human trafficking does not always equal prostitution—it can include indentured servitude, other exploitation in the workforce (in factories or on farms), and even the organ trade.
Myth: Only Women Are Trafficked
Men and young boys are also trafficked, and they often get much less attention then trafficked women do. In part, that’s because it’s very difficult to get young boys out of trafficking, especially sex work, because the activity generates the kind of quick money that cannot be made anywhere else. Men and boys often remain invisible in the trafficking dialogue, or it is assumed they are only trafficked for labor. The short film Underage by photographer Ohm Phanphiroj reveals the struggles of young men trapped in the sex industry in Bangkok.
Myth: Everyone Trafficked is Kidnapped or Deceived
When women in places like Ukraine respond to ads for entertainment or waitressing jobs, they risk falling in with sham placement agencies that may confiscate their documents and force them into sex work. Or, an uncle in Vietnam may tell his niece she’s going away to work at a restaurant, when in fact, she will be shipped to a brothel.
But other times, trafficking victims clearly understand the situations they’re entering and know they will be exploited. They choose to go anyway because they believe they will ultimately profit. Some make the choice to be trafficked because of the lack of jobs within their communities. In other cases, poor families will send their own daughters into sex work or labor for the lucrative one-time pay-off, as well as the potential for more in the future—once a trafficked person pays off her “debt” (the travel and document fees traffickers tell their victims that they owe), she can begin to earn profit.
In fact, many villages use the world trafficking interchangeably with “working.” When some sex workers or factory workers return to the village after “working” in the city, they build large houses and appear “rich” after working, even though their type of work and hardship isn’t discussed. As a result, others in the community strive for similar material gain and continue the trafficking cycle.
But know that when children are involved in sex work or labor, they have not made that choice for themselves. That is always human trafficking.
Myth: Trafficking Only Happens in Other Countries, Not in the United States
While trafficking is often thought of as something that happens across international borders, it also happens in America—every single day. According to Polaris Project, there are 100,000 to 300,000 children prostituted in America and many more at risk. (You can learn how to identify a trafficking victim at the State Department website.)
While it’s daunting—and at times depressing—to attempt to understand human trafficking on a global and local level, it’s also empowering. Once you know the realities of human trafficking, you’re better prepared to raise awareness and start taking action.
The Daily Muse’s Human Trafficking Series
Part 3: Take Action: 7 Ways to Join the Fight Against Human Trafficking
Photo courtesy of Gabriela Pinto.
Natalie Jesionka is lecturer, reporter, and human rights advocate. Natalie serves as the Director of Human Rights Programs at the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights, and is the founder of the The Prizm Project, the first human rights education organization for young women. She lectures on women and war, gender and conflict, and human rights at Rutgers University. She runs Shatter the Looking Glass, an ethical travel magazine. To find out more about her work, visitwww.shatterthelookingglass.com.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Thai Police Rescue 6 Burmese Children « The Sail
Irrawaddy news, 27 July 2011
A street beggar with a child waits for donations on a foot bridge near downtown Bangkok. (Photo: AP)
Thai police rescued six Burmese children, one as young as four years of age, from a trafficking gang in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, on Tuesday morning. Three Burmese have been arrested—two women and a man—under suspicion of human trafficking, sex offences, and forcing the children to work as beggars.
Lt Col. Hsaiphim Tijarat from Mae Ping Police Station in Chiang Mai said that his officers are still investigating the case, but three suspects—Tin Ngwe (57), Shwe Kyi (54) and Ma Cho (47)—are currently being questioned.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, Hsaiphim said, “Among the suspects, Tin Ngwe is accused of three crimes: human trafficking, forcing the children into begging and sexual molestation. When we finish questioning the suspects, their cases will be sent to the court.”
Interviewed by The Irrawaddy at the police station, Tin Ngwe said he was originally from Pegu Division and had migrated to Thailand in April 2010 with hopes of earning a better income. He said that he had previously worked as a trash collector in Shan State before moving to Thailand with his wife, Shwe Kyi, who was also arrested on Tuesday.
“When I woke up on Tuesday morning, about 30 people had broke in to our house and surrounded us. The police officers said that we were being arrested for human trafficking and for forcing the children to beg on the street,” he said. “I was accused of sexually molesting one of the girls.
“But the girl who has complained that I molested her is my granddaughter. She is the daughter of my own daughter. How can anyone think that I would be so stupid as to abuse my own granddaughter?” he said, adding that all the children are his relatives, and that he has been taking care of them in Chiang Mai.
The girl in question was named as Wai Mon Oo, 18, who has told police that she used to share a house in the Nong Hoi district of Chiang Mai with Tin Ngwe and Shwe Kyi. She reported that she fled two months ago before she filed a complaint with the authorities.
The other children involved are reportedly aged four, six, seven, 16 and 22, the latter perhaps having the mentality of a child.
The six rescued in the raid are currently being housed at the Chiang Mai Shelter for Children and Families where medical staff are checking their blood types and DNA, according to Ms. Mingkwan Weerachart, the head of the shelter.
“When we talked with the children from Tuesday’s raid, we found that they were forced to take a drug that made them dazed,” she told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. “We believe the suspects intoxicated the children because their dazed appearance could be used to cause people to feel pity for them. When the case is over, we will send the children back to their own country.”
She said that the trafficking of children has recently become common, and that children from other countries, notably Laos, have also become victims of human trafficking gangs.
But suspect Ma Cho told The Irrawaddy that the children were not victims of human trafficking.
“We beg because we are so poor,” she said, tearfully. “We don’t have jobs and have no income. If we were really involved in human trafficking as the police say, we wouldn’t need to beg anymore.”
Ma Cho said her own personal daily income from begging is 200 to 500 baht [US $6.70—$16.70]. She said she usually begs at the Night Bazaar area in central Chiang Mai, a popular shopping area for tourists.
In June, 15 Burmese children who were suspected of being victims of human trafficking were apprehended at a police checkpoint in Chiang Mai Province. However, Thai authorities concluded they were illegal migrants, but not victims of trafficking, and they were consequently deported.
Washington-based HumanTrafficking.Org says that the mismanagement of the country’s economy and a lack of job opportunities are the main reasons for Burma’s significant trafficking problem.
Christian relief agency World Vision, which is active in Thailand, says on their website that Burmese people are trafficked to other Asian countries, such as China, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Korea and Macao, but that the primary destination is Thailand.
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