Human Traffickers Found to Exploit U.S. Visas and Data-Sharing Failures - The New York Times

Human Traffickers Found to Exploit U.S. Visas and Data-Sharing Failures - The New York Times:

BERNAMA - Malaysia To Sign Security Agreement With China, Vietnam

Source: BERNAMA

September 19, 2011 17:02 PM

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 (Bernama) -- Malaysia will sign an agreement on security cooperation with China and Vietnam to tackle transnational crime, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.

Among others, he said, the agreement involved the sharing of information on international syndicates indulging in human trafficking.

"The agreement is also crucial in studying the flow of manufactured goods in the context of trade which can sometimes be interpreted as goods that pose a nuclear threat, for example," he told reporters after launcing the third edition of the International Conference on Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing, here Monday.

Hishammuddin said the agreement with Vietnam involved, among others, human trafficking, workers' and students' visa besides security relations between the two countries.

In his speech earlier, the minister said he would travel to China and later Vietnam to ink the cooperation pacts in the next few months.

"Malaysia is serious about combating transnational crime and we shall pursue this agenda to ensure that Malaysia remains a highly secure, safe and prosperous nation for the benefit of its people and economy," he told the gathering.

Hishammuddin noted that Malaysia had signed an agreement on security cooperation with Saudi Arabia in April 2011 and a memorandum of understanding to prevent and combat transnational crime with the United Kingdom three months later.

"We should realise that transnational crime is now one of the major threats facing the world today. This is far bigger than the threat to the global system compared to double-dip recessions, political uprising in the Middle East or even earthquakes and tsunamis," he said.

He pointed out that transnational crime was far too complex for any one nation to combat effectively as it was a global problem which required global solutions with domestic enforcement.

The two-day conference is organised by a number of entities such as the Institute of Bankers Malaysia, Compliance Officers' Networking Group, Asian Institute of Finance and Malaysian Insurance Institute.

-- BERNAMA

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Seven years for trafficking, but where are the convicted? | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

WEDNESDAY 17 AUGUST RNW 

 17 August 2011 - 4:34pm | By Mirjam van den Berg (Photo: Mirjam van den Berg)

A Dutch court has sentenced two African males involved in the trafficking of under-aged Nigerian girls to four and seven years in prison. The two Nigerian accomplices received sentences of 6 and 24 months respectively. Not that the convicted seem to care much about their punishments – three of them have fled the Netherlands and their whereabouts remains unknown.

The judges ruled that Nigerian born Peter S. was in charge of a criminal organisation that trafficked young girls from Nigeria to the Netherlands. Whilst the girls were awaiting their asylum status in the Netherlands, thinking they would get a job and a better future, members of the organisation forced the girls to disappear from the asylum centres and brought them to Italy and Spain, where they had to work as prostitutes.

Warner ten Kate, public prosecutor in the Netherlands for human trafficking and people smuggling, is satisfied with the verdict. “For the first time, people actually got convicted for human trafficking. In a previous, similar court case [the so-called Koolvis case, ed.], suspects were only charged with people smuggling, which is considered a far lesser crime. This has been the first major case in which the Netherlands and Nigeria cooperated. This, and the severity of the sentences, sets a hopeful precedent for future cases against human trafficking.”

Voodoo pressure
It took almost five years to reach a verdict in this case, code name ‘Kluivingsbos’. The girls were very reluctant to testify and press charges. While still in Nigeria, they had been taken to a voodoo priest, who performed certain rituals on them. The girls believed bad things would happen to them or their family if ever they spoke out or refused to pay back their debts to their traffickers.

With the help of a former prostitute and Nigerian priest, the Public Prosecution Service managed to get ten girls to testify in the end. The defense however objected that the victims were put under extraordinary pressure and that their testimonies were heavily influenced and therefore not reliable. This further delayed the case. After a verbatim translation of the interrogation tapes, the judges ruled there was no reason to question the reliability of the testimonies.

Empty court room
With the evidence deemed reliable, the charges proven and the verdict spoken, the only thing missing in this case were the suspects and their lawyers. Press judge Sandra Schreuder wasn’t surprised by the empty court room. “The suspects all fled the Netherlands when their preliminary arrest ended. Normally people stay in custody until the case is brought to court. In this particular case it was very difficult and time consuming to gather enough evidence. When somebody is kept in custody for a very long time and you’re not sure they’ll ever be punished, you have to release them.”

Although Schreuder hopes some of the convicted will be intercepted at one point,  it seems doubtful that this will ever happen. “Although human trafficking is one of the most severe crimes you can commit and the sentences reflect that, the reading of the verdict, in the absence of the convicted, was more a legal formality,” she admits.

Undesirable alien
Anthony B from Sierra Leone, who was convicted to four years in prison, is ‘very disappointed’ by the court’s ruling, says his lawyer Wenzel Tuma. “I briefly spoke with my client. It’s very likely we will appeal against the verdict. My client was convicted for human smuggling in a previous case and served his time in prison. They brought forward the very same facts in this trial, so I don’t understand the motivation of the judges.”

“My client was released after seven months of preliminary arrest because the judges in this case didn’t expect the sentence would be any higher than that,” Mr Tuma continues. “He was classified as an undesirable alien and had to leave the Netherlands. Now the same judges sentenced him to four years in prison, which is simply bizarre. As to whether my client will ever appear before a Dutch court again, well, given that it isn’t possible for him to build a future in the Netherlands, it’s only logical he tries to build up a life in a different country. Nonetheless, we’re very hopeful the higher court will rule differently.”

 ===============================

Human trafficking, human smuggling, what’s the difference?

Public prosecutor Warner ten Kate explains: “Human smuggling is a crime against a state. Countries do not want people to cross their borders illegally. Human trafficking however, is a crime against dignity. People exploit their victims and force them to work in prostitution or under poor labour circumstances. There is a major difference between the two. Trafficking in human beings should be taken very seriously and requires international cooperation.”

Source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide

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New Assault on Human Trafficking

By Parameswaran Ponnudurai

2011-04-07

A fresh regional assessment still sees lack of progress in tackling the growing problem.

AFP

Hollywood actress Demi Moore (C-R) at a rehabilitation center for human trafficking victims in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, April 7, 2011.

Asian nations may have agreed to forge a network to curb human trafficking but the problem is still not being given adequate attention by countries placed on a special watch list by the U.S. State Department, officials and experts say.

About 40 countries in the region decided to establish a regional cooperation framework dealing with people smuggling after extensive talks at a ministerial conference in Indonesia's Bali island last week, according to officials.

This is the first time the region is taking a coordinated approach against human trafficking, which according to the United Nations is mostly linked to sexual exploitation of girls and women.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, who jointly chaired the talks with his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd, said the regional framework marked a "significant step forward" though it is nonbinding on member countries.

It will help resolve issues, such as illegal immigration, in a "systematic and contextual way," he said.

“This is a milestone in the development of a coordinated approach by nations in and around the Asia-Pacific to address the challenge of people smuggling,” Rudd said.

The framework would deal with bilateral arrangements to cripple people smuggling syndicates through coordinated border security arrangements and strengthened information and intelligence sharing, according to a statement at the end the Bali Process Ministerial Conference.

Sex and labor trafficking

The prevalence of forced labor and sexual servitude is highest in Asia, with almost three in every 1,000 inhabitants falling victim, according to the International Labor Organization. 

Also, data from the International Organization for Migration and World Bank show that the majority of the over 200 million transnational migrants in the world are from Asia.

Within the growing pool of Asian migrants—reflecting greater labor mobility in the region and in the world—is a huge population of people who are victims of sex and labor trafficking, they said.

While Asian nations have agreed to use the Bali Process to seek solutions to people smuggling problems, an assessment released by the State Department this week showed that countries are not making adequate efforts to tackle the trafficking problem in the region.

The department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons sent to Congress on Tuesday the "interim assessment" of progress made by countries placed on an annual special watch list.

Progress report

Among East Asian nations, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore made only "limited progress," Laos and Thailand made "some progress," China and Taiwan made "progress," while the Philippines and Fiji made "significant progress," according to the assessment report.

The number of countries in Asia downgraded in the State Department's annual human trafficking report last year was greater than the number upgraded, the department said.

Many Asian governments lack adequate laws, and more have failed to produce significant convictions of trafficking offenders, it said.

In the East Asia region, Burma, North Korea, and Papua New Guinea remained at the bottom level of countries that did not even meet the minimum standards on battling human trafficking.

"While some countries in Asia have passed legislation to prohibit trafficking, governments as a whole have not yet shown the political will to hold the traffickers to the fullest account, in the form of sentencing reflective of the severity of the crimes they commit," said Luis CdeBaca, the State Department's envoy on the human trafficking issue.

"Some countries only focus on sex trafficking—and not from a compassionate place, but by locking up the women as illegal immigrant prostitutes or criminals, rather than recognizing them as victims," he said at a symposium in February.

According to the latest State Department assessment, China did not revise its laws to criminalize trafficking in persons although the government has drafted amendments to its criminal code to raise the sentence for forced labor.

"China made progress in protecting victims of trafficking, but overall problems remain," it said.

In Laos, the government did not report any efforts to combat trafficking-related complicity by government officials and did not create "formal victim identification procedures" or train police and border officials to identify trafficking victims, the report said.

In Malaysia, the government has yet to properly address labor trafficking or to significantly improve its care and treatment of all trafficking victims, it said.

It also has not yet developed formal procedures to identify labor trafficking victims among vulnerable groups, such as migrant workers, in order to refer them to available protection services.

Conviction

The Philippines demonstrated "significant progress" in combating human trafficking, but the government has yet to obtain a labor trafficking conviction since introducing an anti-trafficking law in 2003, the report said.

In Singapore, the government reported investigating 21 potential trafficking cases between January and October 2010, though it did not cite any new sex or labor trafficking prosecutions or convictions, the report said.

"According to the Singapore government, cases investigated for trafficking may be charged under a range of statutes, including fraud, but did not report any such cases since June."

In Vietnam, the report said, the government has not developed formal procedures for the identification of labor trafficking victims.

The government did not publish data about individual cases where it identified or assisted Vietnamese migrant workers subject to forced labor.

Although workers have the right in principle to sue labor export companies, in effect the cost of pursuing legal action in civil cases remains prohibitively expensive, and there has been no indication of workers receiving legal redress in Vietnamese courts, the report said.

In Thailand, it said, the government has not demonstrated progress in providing legal alternatives to the removal of trafficking victims to countries in which they would face retribution or hardship.

'Good practices'

Officials who attended the Bali meeting said countries in the Asian region were studying plans to formulate a blueprint of "good practices" as part of information-sharing and capacity-building collaboration in efforts to stem human trafficking,

Southeast Asia—where countries of origin, transit, and destination co-exist—have already launched a handbook on international cooperation in anti-trafficking efforts to help investigators, law enforcement and criminal justice agencies.

"It acts as an operational manual to strengthen the regional network of collaboration and mutual legal assistance,” said Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Still, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR wants more comprehensive international and domestic legal frameworks to protect victims and check trafficking for sexual exploitation.

In addition, government officials "must receive more extensive training with respect to the requirements for the identification and protection of victims of trafficking, specifically those officials most likely to obtain first contact with victims," said Tyler Marie Christensen, from UNHCR's policy development and evaluation service.

Copyright © 1998-2011 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.

Trafficking Victims Await Captors’ Trial

2011-08-03

Scores of Lao women are in the care of Thai authorities after being rescued from a human trafficking gang.

AFP

Three young Laotian girls carry water in a village in Khammouane province, Nov. 27, 2002.

Nearly 60 Lao women are being housed in a rehabilitation center in southern Thailand while they wait to testify against their alleged captors who lured them across the border to work as prostitutes, according to officials.

The case highlights an alarming trend in which a growing number of Lao women have been trafficked for sex to Thailand and other destination countries around Southeast Asia.

The 59 Lao women, aged 18 to 30, were sent to the Sri Surat rehabilitation center in Thailand’s Surat Thani province shortly after they were rescued by Thai police on Friday.

“They just got here a few days ago. We have been providing them with accommodation and food,” said a center official.

“For the time being, we have no special programs to assist them. They have been involved in the daily routine of our center,” she said.

An official from the Thai Department of Special Investigation (DSI), who took part in the raid to free the women, said they would be cared for until the three suspects—a Malaysian, Singaporean and Thai—are tried.

“The Lao girls will stay here until they are called as witnesses in the prosecution of the three … suspected of forcing them into prostitutes, but as of now, we have no date set for the trial,” the official said.

“When the trial is over, the girls will be returned to Laos,” he said.

“Thai officials have given assurances to the families of the victims that they will be given good treatment while in Thai care.”

Trafficking raid

Authorities freed the 59 Lao women from a karaoke bar as part of a larger bust that rescued another 12 women from a spa on Friday, according to Thai police. Both raids took place in Thailand’s Songkhla province near the border with Malaysia.

Thirteen of those freed were girls under the age of 18, according to Lieutenant Colonel Noppadon Petsut, who is deputy commander of police in Sadao district, where the operation was carried out, Agence France-Presse reported.

Noppadon said that Thai authorities acted on a tip off from Lao embassy officials in Bangkok that a number of women had been lured into the sex trade in Sadao’s massage parlors and karaoke bars, adding that 70 of the young women were from Laos while the remaining woman was from Burma.

He said a Singaporean man, a Malaysian man, and a Thai woman have been charged with human trafficking and illegally procuring sex.

"Charges of human trafficking are very serious and carry a maximum sentence of the death penalty," Noppadon said.

Another officer involved in the raid told AFP it was believed that the women and girls had been sold to the suspects by brokers and later forced to work as prostitutes.

Alarming trend

Friday’s raid marks the latest in a string of sex trafficking scandals in which Lao women have been lured to Thailand with the promise of legitimate work.

In February, police rescued five Lao teenage girls from a karaoke bar in central Thailand’s Suphan Buri province where they were forced to work as prostitutes after being told they would be given jobs at a restaurant in Bangkok.

In October last year, police rescued 13 girls from Laos who were forced into prostitution in Thailand’s Lop Buri province and arrested four suspects involved in a syndicate smuggling underage girls.

Laos is primarily a source country for women and girls trafficked mostly to Thailand for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor as domestic or factory workers, government and relief officials say.

According to an official of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to Laos, some 35 percent of Lao nationals trafficked to Thailand end up in prostitution, a report in the Lao state-run Vientiane Times said in 2009.

Another 32 percent end up in forced labor, 17 percent work in factories, and 4 percent work on fishing boats, the report said.

A U.S. State Department global report on human trafficking this year said many Laotians, particularly women, pay broker fees to obtain jobs in Thailand, normally ranging from U.S. $70 to U.S. $200, but are subsequently subjected to conditions of sexual servitude and forced labor once they arrive in the neighboring country.

Lao men are subjected to conditions of forced labor in the Thai fishing and construction industry, while a small number of Lao women and girls reportedly were also trafficked to China to become brides for Chinese men, the report said.

Laos is also increasingly a transit country for Vietnamese, Chinese, and Burmese women who are subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor in Thailand, according to the report.

Reported by RFA’s Lao service. Translated by Viengsay Luangkhot. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Copyright © 1998-2011 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.

The Story Collective aims to end human trafficking through dance | StarNewsOnline.com

Dancers Laura Valentine (left) and Marissa Dunsmore from The Story Collective's original dance performance, "The Dollhouse." Photo courtesy of The Story Collective.

 

By Bob Workmon
StarNews Correspondent

Published: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 3:14 p.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 3:14 p.m.

Human trafficking – the sale and abuse of women and children for sex – shows up, occasionally, in some cable-news documentary or investigative report, usually late on a weekend night. Despite the resources and time devoted by reporters and new organizations trying to help those trapped in this modern-day slavery, it remains just under the radar for most of us.

What better subject, then, for artistic expression?

That question is posed with every ounce of sincerity possible. Bear with me.

The Story Collective, which is based in Wilmington, consists of choreographers and dancers, a composer and local musicians, a poet and writer, a sculptor and a photographer, among others, who have made the modern sex-slave trade the focus of their artistic expression. On Friday and Saturday night, audiences at the Brooklyn Arts Center in Wilmington will witness the group's first original production, "The Dollhouse."

Abigail Printy is the collective's director. In her office at the Glory Academy of Fine Arts near Castle Hayne, Printy sits behind her desk between a photo montage of happy faces on one wall and a wall that functions as a floor-to-ceiling blackboard chalked up with greetings and affirmations. Printy said from the cool distance between us, unequivocally, that The Story Collective creates work with one purpose in mind: the abolition of human trafficking.

"The Story Collective is a project of mine and two other women – Melanie Haulman and Laura Valentine. We created the organization and the show together as a personal project," Printy said. "The Story Collective was formed to gather artists together to raise awareness of and provoke involvement in the issue."

"The Dollhouse" is the first fruit of this collaboration, with choreography by Haulman and Valentine. Haulman is Glory Academy's artistic director, and Valentine is a teacher there.

"What we wanted to do was give people a glimpse into the world of trafficking, but do it a way that wasn't terrifying," Printy said, emphasizing just how overwhelming the subject can become.

Printy used the phrase "dark whimsy" to characterize the way in which the story is told.

"It follows a young girl who gets trafficked into the sex trade industry and follows her as she grows up through that," Printy said. "But then (it) also shows a story of redemption and rescue out of the industry."

"The Dollhouse" is a dance work, first and foremost. About 14 dancers will perform. Haulman's choreography, mostly steeped in ballet's graceful lines and poses, introduces the child at the beginning of the story, sketching out an innocence soon to be lost.

Valentine brings in modern and contemporary movement to express the emotional conflict and degradation that wears away at the girl as she grows up in a seamy netherworld.

"The dancers impacted the way the story developed, the way the choreography took shape," Valentine said by phone last week. "The choreography is more technical than most modern dance. It's more about connecting with the audience, so it's more raw, more emotional, creating a relationship between the dancers and the audience in order to communicate a concept."

That Printy, Haulman and Valentine should all become interested in this issue separately at about the same time, according to Printy, is remarkable on it own. But that it should begin to attract other artists to the project appears as testament to both the power of the message as well as the pervasiveness of the problem.

And here we get to the question of, "What better subject, then, for art?" For this trio of artists and their collaborators, art never happens in a vacuum and this issue "burns" them, as Printy put it, prodding them to confront the questions, "If not now, when? If not this work, then how?"

"It is possible to end slavery in our lifetime if we work to do that. Ignoring it doesn't help fix the problem," Printy said. "Being aware and becoming educated about the issue, we can make a big difference."

All money from ticket sales will go to support Love 146, an organization dedicated to focusing attention on human trafficking, as well as efforts to eradicate modern-day slavery in the United States and abroad. More information is available at www.love146.org.

Features: 343-2343

Source: StarNewsOnline.com

UN Urges Businesses to Aid Fight Against Human Trafficking | Asia | English

 July 26, 2011

Ron Corben | Bangkok

Photo: AP

Women rescued by STOP, a group that rescues women from Delhi brothels, run a cafeteria for students at a Delhi University in New Delhi, India (File Photo)

Businesses are being urged to play a greater role in reducing international human trafficking, as a new United Nation initiative to combat trafficking is being introduced in Asia.

Human trafficking syndicates and the use of forced labor generate as much as $32 billion a year globally - almost a third of that in Asia. Labor and crime analysts forecast that profit could reach over $100 billion within the next half decade.


In Bangkok Tuesday, Noeleen Heyzer, the executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, introduced a new campaign to end trafficking.
“The scope and magnitude of human trafficking in fact is so huge that unless we change the way we do business, not as business as usual, but a different way of doing business we’re not going to be able to address this serious transnational crime,” she said.

At a regional economic conference, Heyzer said the private sector needs to play a role, because traditional partners such U.N. agencies and law enforcement organizations are no longer able to address the magnitude of the crime.

Human trafficking in Asia ranges from women and children forced into the sex trade to fishermen from Cambodia forced to work unpaid on boats in the region, to factory workers laboring with little pay.

UNESCAP urges businesses to sign the Athens Ethical Principles, in which companies pledge to help educate the public about trafficking and to avoid any use of trafficked labor. Some 10,000 companies globally have signed the protocol, but few of them are Asia.

David Arkless is president of corporate affairs of the Manpower Group, an international labor management and recruiting company. He sits on the board of the End Human Trafficking Now organization. He told the conference economic forces are pressing the international community to better deal with cross-border labor mobility.

"We’ve got a whole set of layered issues here," he said. "Humanitarian, economic, human and the way the demographics is driving the economic world. We’re going to have to get this thing under control sooner rather than later. It is overwhelming."

UNESCAP and other groups also call for reforms in the use of migrant labor, including in countries such as Bangladesh, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, which rely on remittances from workers employed overseas.

Arkless notes that fighting human trafficking benefits companies. He says both businesses and their employees see higher productivity and staff retention if workers are well treated. And companies fear a consumer backlash if they are found to exploit workers.

Source: voanews.com

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Tina Frundt: Slavery Ended in 1865? That Myth Puts our Kids in Danger

Tina Frundt

7/20/11 01:48 PM ET

Anyone who paid attention in a high school history class has heard this story: Slavery ended in the United States in 1865 when Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. It's got all the features of a great story -- patriotism, triumph over evil, and a tall, handsome hero with a penchant for cool hats. The only problem is, the story isn't exactly true.

Slavery didn't end in 1865, it was just made illegal. But modern-day slavery, now called human trafficking, still exists across America. The U.S. State Department estimates up to 17,000 people are trafficked -- enslaved -- in the U.S. each year.

Modern-day slavery is just as horrific as historical slavery -- people are forced to work on farms, in factories, or in the commercial sex industry. They have no rights, no ability to leave, and no control over their situation. And this industry affects school-age children -- one study from the University of Pennsylvania found up to 300,000 American children at risk for modern-day slavery in the form of child sex trafficking. So why do textbooks still teach the myth that slavery ended in 1865?

Incorporating modern-day slavery into school curriculum is important to me as a survivor of modern-day slavery, a mother, and an advocate for trafficked children. That's why I support the Change.org campaign calling on McGraw-Hill, one of the largest producers of history textbooks in the U.S., to amend their teaching that slavery ended in 1865 and include information about modern-day slavery. If we can correct this misinformation in textbooks, we'll be taking the first step toward educating children on modern-day slavery.

On a personal level, this issue matters to me as a person who was enslaved in America long after 1865. I was enslaved by a pimp at age 14, who used the vulnerability an unstable and abusive childhood in foster care had given me as a tool to force me into prostitution. He offered me attention and love, so I ran away from home to be with him. The abuse started almost instantly, and I survived it for over a year before escaping.

Now, as a mother, I've watched children learn about trafficking the hard way. My oldest daughter graduated from a prestigious high school in Northern Virginia. As a teenager, she has referred two of her classmates to Courtney's House, the Washington, DC shelter for child sex trafficking victims I run. As my daughter watched her peers become trapped and enslaved by pimps she asked me "Mom, why don't we learn about this in school?" It was a good question without a good answer.

But it's not just my daughter's high school teaching the myth that slavery in America ended centuries ago. Most high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools in the U.S. teach the same thing. And it's written in most history textbooks that slavery has an expiration date, and that date is far, far passed.
McGraw-Hill has several textbooks, including United States Adventures in Time and Place, World Issues, and Social Studies World History, which directly or indirectly present the end of the Civil War as the end of slavery in America. In doing so, they not only present an untrue statement, but miss a critical opportunity to educate children about how to protect themselves from modern-day slavery.

Kids and teens need comprehensive education about slavery so they can make informed decisions to protect themselves and their peers against would-be exploiters. That education starts with modern-day slavery in textbooks, but also includes the age-appropriate material in curriculum and education for parents. Education about human trafficking is key to preventing it, key to making sure I don't get any more referrals of child sex trafficking victims from my oldest daughter's high school or start getting them from my youngest daughter's middle school.

In less than a month, I'll be speaking to over 10,000 educators about the importance of teaching children and teens the truth about modern-day slavery, giving them the tools to make safe decisions, and educating them about the dangers they and their peers face. I hope to be able to announce that McGraw-Hill is taking the lead and working to set the record straight: that slavery didn't end in 1865, but still happens in America today.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

Sex trafficking to Israel takes a detour... JPost - International

BY ARIEH O’SULLIVAN / THE MEDIA LINE 
07/25/2011 14:25

 They answered an ad promising lucrative work as au pairs in Amman, but found themselves caught up in the web of sex trafficking between Israel and Jordan.

Israeli border guards late Wednesday detected something was not quite right about three nervous women crossing the Allenby Bridge from Jordan. They told a story of being nurses who wanted to tour Jerusalem, but soon burst into tears.

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“They were hugging each other and crying hysterically. At once I understood that something traumatic was happening,” said Dana Koldron, shift manager at the border crossing.

The incident may point to new routes being established by gangs of trafficking in humans as Israel, under international pressure to do more to stop the trade in women used for sex, tightens other points of entry.

Once the three women understood they were in safe hands, their harrowing story came out. The three women, two sisters in their 50s and a daughter in her 30s, said they were from Guatemala and had answered an ad promising lucrative work as nannies in Amman, Jordan.

They flew to Jordan together with five other women, but immediately upon arrival, they were split into two groups of four and were held against their will in an apartment, Population, Immigration and Border Authority (PIBA) spokeswoman Sabin Hadad told The Media Line.

“After one day, a man came buy and took away one of the women, who was 18 years old and they never saw her again. A few days later a Jordanian and Palestinian appeared and informed them that they were going to cross the border. The Palestinian, who was the driver, briefed them to tell the Israeli border inspectors that they were nurses and coming to tour Jerusalem,” Hadad said.

Koldron told Israel Radio that the Jordanian had quickly abandoned them and the Palestinian was questioned but released. If there was someone waiting for them on the Israeli side, they quickly disappeared.

“We understood that this is trade in humans, for the purpose of slavery,” Koldron said.

The three women were allowed to enter Israel and handed over to the Guatemalan ambassador, who promised to return them to his country.

Hadad said they believed their destination was east Jerusalem, but also possibly the Palestinian Authority.

“We suspect that this was a case of human trafficking. We can’t say it’s exactly sex trafficking, but let’s just say we believe they were being used for ‘improper’ motives,” Hadad said.

“This has never happened to us along this border before that we are aware of. It’s very rare. But our inspectors go through courses in order to be able to detect suspicious behavior and their antennas pick this up,” Hadad added.

A recent US State Department report slammed Israel over its human trafficking record, saying it had not done enough to even reach minimum standards to stop it. Israel is seen at a destination country where foreign women are subjected to forced prostitution.

“The government of Israel does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking,” the report from June 27 read. “However, it is making significant efforts to do so.”

In 2006, Israel passed an anti-trafficking law which prescribes penalties of up to 16 years imprisonment for trafficking an adult or for slavery. Many women involved in sex trafficking slip into the country through Ben-Gurion International Airport. Others cross into Israeli from the Egyptian Sinai.

Last month saw a dramatic increase in the number of people who attempted to infiltrate into Israel illegally. According to the PIBA, some 1,200 people were caught trying to sneak into Israel, bringing the total number of illegal entrants to 3,500 so far this year. Approximately 14,000 crossed into Israel in 2010, compared with about 5,000 the year before.

But the increased patrols along the border as well as Israel’s current construction of a formidable barrier along the 150 mile frontier with Egypt may have caused traffickers of women to seek other routes, such as through Jordan.

Guatemala’s ambassador to Israel refused to return repeated telephone calls on the incident.

 
Source:  JPost - International

Cambodia Rapped for Poor Anti-Trafficking Efforts | News | Khmer-English

Friday, 01 July 2011

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

Photo: AP

Cambodia remains a Tier 2 country, putting it in a category above China, which is on a “watch list,” and Burma, which is a major source of trafficking. Other Tier 2 countries in Asia include Indonesia, Laos and Singapore.

Cambodia remains both a source and destination for trafficked persons, especially for the sex trade, fishing industry and increasingly labor export to Malaysia, an annual US report says.

“Cambodia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking,” according to the US State Department, which issued its annual human trafficking report this week. “However, it is making significant efforts to do so.”


The country remains a Tier 2 country, putting it in a category above China, which is on a “watch list,” and Burma, which is a major source of trafficking. Other Tier 2 countries in Asia include Indonesia, Laos and Singapore. “Endemic” corruption remains a major problem to curb trafficking, the report said.

“Cambodian men, women, and children migrate to Thailand, Malaysia, and other countries for work, and many are subsequently subjected to sex trafficking or forced to labor in the Thai fishing and seafood processing industry, on agricultural plantations, in factories, in domestic work, or for begging and street selling,” the State Department found.

It also noted the rising trend of Cambodian workers who travel to Malaysia to work as domestic servants. In 2010, the report said, labor recruiting agencies sent 16,395 workers to Malaysia, compared to a total 2,654 in 2008. Of those in 2010, nearly 12,000 were women sent as domestic workers.

“Cambodian migrants become victims of labor trafficking when they pursue what they believe to be legitimate employment opportunities abroad, but are then forced or coerced to work through debt bondage,” the report said.

Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said the government welcomed the report and was seeking to be “No. 1 in fighting human trafficking.”

“But this is far away,” he said. “We must try to move forward. This report will contribute to our road map.”
Samneang Seila, country director for the French-based Action for the Children, said the report was an accurate reflection of Cambodia’s trafficking problems.

“The protection of victims is still limited and law enforcement is not strong yet,” he said. “In particular, punishment remains low, so that offenders can continue the offenses in Cambodia. If the protection of victims is weak, I believe that children still face the danger of human trafficking or sex exploitation.”

The State Department noted an increase in prosecution of trafficking cases, but it said there had been no labor trafficking convictions.

“Prosecutors sometimes failed to charge trafficking offenders using the most appropriate articles of the 2008 law,” the report said. “In some cases, Cambodian police were reportedly unwilling to pursue investigations of several suspected trafficking establishments during the year because the establishments were thought to be owned by or affiliated with high-ranking officials. Information leaks by law enforcement authorities to traffickers were reported to significantly harm efforts to enforce anti-trafficking laws.”

Despite the passage of an anti-corruption law in April 2010, the State Department said, “endemic corruption at all levels continues to create an enabling environment for trafficking, and in some cases, actively helped facilitate trafficking. Police and judicial officials continue to be both directly and indirectly involved in trafficking.”
The report noted that the government had not improved its efforts to protect victims of trafficking, and had done “incomplete” work to prevent trafficking in 2010.

Soeung Mariyan, head of legal project for Afesip, which helps prevent trafficking and rehabilitates victims, said anti-trafficking work has been hurt by law enforcement officials being “inactive and involved in corruption.”
The courts also have not played a strong role in preventing cases of trafficking, including in labor export, she said.

“We’ve seen that the court never charges a company involved in human trafficking, particularly the export of workers,” she said. “We’ve seen that some labor recruitment companies unfairly fulfill their jobs.”

In a case she is currently reviewing at court, a victim said she signed up with a recruiting company without her parents’ permission. She was locked in a room at the company without enough food or water, “a crime of detention.”

The court was unable to convict the heads of the company, but instead charged a middleman for a related crime, she said.

“We can’t completely blame the prosecutor, but we must also put the mistake on the investigating judge who was careless in his work,” she said. “The investigating judge didn’t even call the company to clarify the allegation.”

Am Sam Ath, lead investigator for the rights group Licadho, said the report could serve as a “compass” for Cambodia’s leadership.

Source: www.voanews.com

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Beyond borders | Magazines | DAWN.COM

Beyond borders

By Hilda Saeed | InpaperMagzine

Yesterday

          Photo by White Star

The UN data reveals that globally, human trafficking is the third-largest and fastest growing trade, with drugs and weapons generating a staggering total of 31 billion dollars each year.

No sector of the world market is immune to this dilemma: 161 industrialised and developing countries are being affected, with millions of people—largely women and children—now reduced to living lives of appalling tragedy and modern-day slavery.

To combat this trans-national organised crime, the UN introduced an International Convention in 2000, the first legally binding instrument in over half a century. It sets out an agreed definition of human trafficking and addresses its cruel chain of abduction, kidnapping, coercion, deception, abuse of power and taking undue advantage of the victim. The helpless victims are vulnerable to exploitation, prostitution, forced sexual labour, slavery, and even the sale of organs.

According to Asia Times, human trafficking is an undeniable part of Asia’s persistent tragedy; a widespread scourge. The shadowy criminals who deal in such human misery have established a systematic trafficking chain worldwide, consisting of several steps—the first of which is recruitment, where trust is built between the recruiter and the potential victim. The victims are most susceptible to false promises, better paid work abroad, or marriage (in which the recruiter poses as the potential ‘husband’). The root causes for such vulnerability are oppressive poverty, ignorance, discrimination and social exclusion.

The next step is transportation and arrival, when the victim is passed on to the subsequent member of the chain, who takes them to a temporary destination. Passports are taken away in order to continue control and eradicate any possibility of escape. Middlemen, intermediaries or brokers act as facilitators in the chain of procurement, arranging visas, procuring travel documents, providing pre-departure orientation, guidance and training, and even negotiating the initial work contract.

When the victims reach their final destination, they suffer the worst forms of abuse, and are deprived of even their most fundamental rights. This core of contemporary slavery involves force, fraud and coercion—there is just no escape. Slavery is thriving, with millions being coerced into this trade.

It is essential to address the greatest tragedy, the demand side of trafficking, which arises from the widespread demand for cheap labour and sex, paid for in human terms by these unwitting victims, who lose their most fundamental human rights in the process.

Data from the UN and Pakistan indicates that in South Asia, about one million Bangladeshis and more than 200,000 Burmese women have been trafficked to Karachi alone for slave trade and sale into prostitution. Since the early ’90s, it has been estimated that 200,000 Bangladeshi women have been trafficked to Pakistan in the last decade, at the rate of 200 to 400 per month. In addition, most Bengali women are forced into slave trade for the equivalent of 1,500 to 2,500 US dollars each.

Besides Karachi, other entry points include Lahore, Kasur, Bahawalpur, Chor and Badin. The victims enter illegally, suffering immense deprivation on the journey; many reportedly die en route. Two hundred thousand undocumented Bangladeshis and Burmese are currently in prison or shelters; others with undocumented lives have been lost to slavery and/or the sex trade.

Political turmoil in Afghanistan is also accompanied by kidnapping and the sale of women at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border where, as of 1991, they’re sold like cattle in the marketplace at minimal rates. Auctions of girls are arranged for three kinds of buyers: rich visiting Arabs, state-funded medical and university students, and wealthy local gentry. The data also claims that the police charges a 15 per cent commission on each sale.
Currently, trafficking of girls between the ages of eight and 15 is rising. Orphaned girls are sold as ‘wives’ to rich men, for further profitable sale.

India and Pakistan are the main supply source for children under the age of 16. Nineteen thousand Pakistani children have been trafficked to the UAE alone. Hundreds of thousands of children are involved in the sex trade; including in Pakistan, where reports indicate that paedophilia is rife in street children. Children are kidnapped even from internet cafes, or other points where children gather.

Strict law enforcement is critical, especially along borders. Since 2005, an Inter Agency Task Force is responsible for coordinating with coast guards, maritime agencies, and police. This linkage has led to the arrest of over 2000 illegal migrants, including 47 (human} smugglers, including agents, sub-agents and traffickers. Further checking is carried out by the anti-trafficking unit and coordinating and monitoring cell.

Proactive measures to combat this crime include the Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking Ordinance; Pakistan has now been removed from the unsavoury category of International ‘Watch List’. The National Plan of Action, with guidelines for further on-going action has been launched, supported by comprehensive legislation for greater protection of victims. Amendments to the trafficking ordinance are in the pipeline.
A ministerial committee oversees progress, for speedier prosecution of arrested individuals, and greater security at entry and exit points, with enhanced policy and legislative steps, matched by technical steps, and forgery detection.

Undoubtedly, there is critical need for greater vigilance along all South Asian borders. Better law enforcement and large-scale national campaigns against human trafficking, including by NGOs are essential, as is the imperative to keep this horrendous trade constantly on the media radar, and in the public mind, with frequent updating of current information.


Source www.dawn.com

Authorities failing to enforce law aimed at tackling sex with trafficked women | Law | The Guardian

Only 40 cases have been prosecuted since new offence came into effect in April 2010, Home Office strategy reveals

• Alan Travis, home affairs editor
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 July 2011 14.06 BST
• Article history

 
The Home Office strategy says targetting those who pay for sex from trafficked women is a key element in disrupting the market for human trafficking. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

The failure of police and prosecutors to enforce a law that criminalises men who pay for sex with trafficked women is jeopardising the attempt to tackle human trafficking into Britain.

A Home Office strategy published on Tuesday says that only 40 cases have been prosecuted since the new offence came into effect in April 2010 and that includes prosecutions of kerb crawlers.

"Enforcement of this offence would be a key part of the chain that leads to women being trafficked into
the country and help deter those that may consider paying for sexual services from someone who may be trafficked, thereby reducing demand," says the strategy.

The document calls for a greater effort to target the demand for "inexpensive, unprotected and often illegal labour" and to create a business environment where it is neither considered desirable or readily available.

"There is growing awareness amongst consumers of the harm caused by unethical business practices. But more needs to be done to increase understanding and encourage greater corporate moral and social responsibility within the private sector," the strategy acknowledges.

Home Office minsters are to review by the end of this year the current legislation on trafficking to ensure that it supports the effective prosecution of human traffickers. The strategy recognises that there are some problems caused by the fact that trafficking for sexual exploitation is prosecuted under the 2003 Sexual Offences Act while labour trafficking comes under the 2004 Asylum and Immigration Act which has a different standard of proof.

"While there have been successful prosecutions under both, there are some disparities which make the legislative framework less straightforward than it could be for prosecutors. In addition, the different levels of proof mean that it is more difficult to prosecute for labour exploitation," says the new strategy. Crown Prosecution figures show that just 48 people were prosecuted over trafficking offences in England and Wales.

The official strategy says a key element in disrupting the market for trafficking and reducing its profitability is to target those who pay for sexual services from trafficked women. In particular it cites the 2009 Policing and Crime Act which introduced an offence of paying for the sexual services of a prostitute subjected to force, deception, threats or any other form of coercion.

"This means that someone who pays for the sexual services of a woman (whether or not they know the woman has been trafficked) can be arrested and prosecuted," says the strategy. It notes that as of June only 40 offences have involved somebody being charged since April 2010 and that includes cases of kerb crawling.

The strategy confirms that from this month the Salvation Army will play a central role in the £2m-a-year programme to support the adult victims of trafficking.

It also advocates a more targeted focus on the countries that are the major source of trafficking; extending the use of powers to seize the assets of traffickers and establish closer relationships with overseas law enforcement agencies.

The immigration minister, Damian Green, said the new strategy would send the message that Britain was not a soft touch for traffickers. "We will pursue and disrupt trafficking networks overseas wherever possible to stop them before they ply their trade in the UK and then bring them to justice," he said.

Human rights charities have criticised Britain's human trafficking strategy in the past, arguing that it has backfired, increased the suffering of victims and undermined attempts to prosecute the criminal gangs who abused them. The Crown Prosecution Service earlier this month issued new guidance that women and children who were suspected of having been trafficked should no longer be treated as criminals.

 Source: The Guardian

Human trafficking laws: Human trafficking laws needed in Lehigh Valley and beyond. - mcall.com

5:33 a.m. EDT, July 14, 2011

Human trafficking laws: Human trafficking laws needed in Lehigh Valley and beyond. - mcall.com

Many of us know Pennsylvania as the home of agriculture and tourism. In terms of our economy, they are our most stable revenue generators, and both are industries that shine and make us extraordinary within the United States. However, there is one industry that runs rampant in big cities and small towns alike — secretive in the manner it does business by exploiting and degrading human life for the sake of profit. It's the industry of human trafficking.

Human trafficking, including sexual slavery and forced labor, is one of the most heinous crimes committed across the globe and within the United States, plaguing both urban and rural areas. According to the United Nations, approximately 2.5 million people worldwide are forced into human trafficking, including 100,000 in the U.S. and often they are runaways. The U.N. also estimates the total market value of illicit human trafficking at $32 billion. That figure includes the "sale" of individuals ($10 billion) and the profits from the activities or goods produced by these victims.

The great majority of victims within this modern-day form of slavery are women and young girls. Many are forced into prostitution or otherwise exploited sexually. It is virtually impossible for them to get out. Young boys and girls are also trafficked into conditions of child labor within a diverse group of industries, such as textiles, fishing or agriculture. This is just one reason why Pennsylvania is a valuable target for trafficking practices.

In previous years, the Department of Homeland Security has warned that trafficking is becoming more and more prevalent in small towns and that Pennsylvania is a destination due to our many interstate highways that connect Ohio, New Jersey and New York. We who reside in eastern Pennsylvania, in very close proximity to New York City, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., should be particularly concerned.

What is disconcerting is that many individuals do not believe this to be a problem or an issue that could be happening right down the street from where they live. But reality tells us it can and does happen close to us.

According to state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, Upper Merion Township has been a hotbed for human trafficking. Law enforcement has been cracking down in Berks County over the past year with the raiding of local "spas." York County has also seen its share of problems. In recent years, Immigration and Customs Enforcement uncovered a network of brothels, including two in York County where women were being sexually exploited.

Since our federal and state governments have not passed much legislation or emphasized curbing this phenomenon, we should be doing our best to engage this issue at the county and local levels.
 
Just recently, the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association announced the formation of the first regional Human Trafficking Response Team in central Pennsylvania. The team is comprised of law enforcement agencies, social service networks, advocates, and professional trade associations. Discussing the benefits of the response team, Coalition Against Rape CEO Delilah Rumburg said it "will hold traffickers accountable for the crimes they commit within our neighborhoods and along our interstates, and extend crucial services to victims." This is a much-needed step in the right direction to fight this problem in Pennsylvania.

I hope leaders in Northampton, Lehigh and surrounding counties will follow suit and implement their own Human Trafficking Response Team. I challenge them to begin this process.

We also need to make sure that police throughout the Lehigh Valley receive enhanced training. Local law enforcement officers play an essential role, as many are the first to encounter potential victims of trafficking at the crime scene. Thus, police need to become more proactive rather than reactive.

It's no secret that the best way to successfully prosecute human trafficking is with collaboration among local law enforcement, federal authorities and social service providers. Let's begin to establish a stronger dialogue and solid plan locally to weed out perpetrators of human trafficking.

As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "The problem of modern trafficking may be entrenched, but it is solvable. By using every tool at our disposal to put pressure on traffickers, we can set ourselves on a course to eradicate modern slavery."

Jeff Warren is a member of Easton City Council and chair of council's Public Safety Committee.

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Is Thailand Losing the Battle Against Human Traffickers?

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2082074,00.html

 By Andrew Marshall / Bangkok Friday, July 08, 2011

A girl dances at a nightclub in Pattaya, Thailand, in 2009

Nicolas Asfouri / AFP / Getty Images

The policeman's hand hovers over his holstered Glock pistol, but the precaution is unnecessary: Operation Graceland starts not with a bang but with whimpers.

It's sunset. I join a dozen officers from the Anti-Human Trafficking Division (AHTD) of the Royal Thai Police as they burst into a two-room apartment off Bangkok's sleazy Sukhumvit Road. Crammed inside are 12 women from Uzbekistan, aged from 19 to their early 30s, and soon most of them are crying. One woman faints and is heaved onto a bed by her sobbing compatriots. Another wails. The police seem overwhelmed.

Then comes the hard part. Some of these women have been lured with false promises from a poor Central Asian nation and forced to sell their bodies to tourists in the Thai capital. Some are "minders" who threaten and beat the other women on behalf of unseen bosses. How to separate the victims from the villains?

Rescues are rare and, as Thailand's plodding investigation of the Uzbek case shows, less effective than their advocates claim. Successful trafficking convictions are rarer still: there were just 3,619 worldwide in 2010, reports the U.S. State Department, despite at least 60 countries — including Thailand — passing tough new antitrafficking laws in the past decade. There are 12.3 million people in forced prostitution and labor globally, estimates the State Department. But while millions of dollars are blown on conferences and awareness campaigns, rescuing victims and jailing their tormentors is proving as hard as ever. (Read how U.S. budget cuts affect human trafficking.)

Study Operation Graceland — the name derives from a notorious Bangkok hotel where the Uzbeks worked — and you begin to understand why. It led to the safe repatriation of two young women, but barely dented the network that trafficked them.

The operation began with a brave and desperate Uzbek woman called, let's say, Matluba, to protect her identity. Nearly half of Uzbekistan's 28 million people live on less than $1.25 a day. Matluba, now in her mid-20s, hailed from a village near Samarkand, the second largest city after the capital, Tashkent. Estranged from her husband, and with a newborn daughter to support, she was told by a woman who had returned from Thailand that she could earn a $100 a day there working in a warm, nice place. She fell for the bait.

When Matluba reached her destination — a one-room Bangkok apartment shared with nine other Uzbek prostitutes — her passport was confiscated. By day, she was confined to the apartment by a minder, another Uzbek woman. By night, she was forced to sleep with — and sometimes drug and rob — clients at a hotel nearby. Matluba saw none of the estimated $240,000 a month earned by her 40-strong gang. She was told that she owed $6,000 for her ticket and visa, and had to hand all earnings to her minder.

Matluba's eventual savior was a client from New Zealand, who reported her plight to his embassy. With the help of the U.N. and the Freeland Foundation, a Bangkok-based organization that fights human and wildlife trafficking, an escape plan was hatched. Matluba got her passport back by telling her minder that a hotel reception required it to visit a man's room. Then she snuck away to meet Steve Galster, Freeland's director, who gave her warm clothes for the Tashkent winter and a lift to Bangkok's main airport.

Two days later, thanks to Matluba's testimony, Operation Graceland was launched. The AHTD drove the weeping Uzbeks to police headquarters, hoping that questioning would help to separate victims from victimizers. Women are often reluctant to identify themselves as trafficked. Some fear their captors. Others fear the police, whose corruption in many countries stymies countertrafficking efforts. Many women prefer to quietly pay off their debts, in the hope of one day keeping their earnings. "It's often in their interests to close ranks with the traffickers," says Galster. (Read about sex trafficking in Iraq.)

Still, the AHTD identified two victims among the Uzbeks: Nila and Lusa (also not their real names), both 19. Nila went to Bangkok on the promise of a hotel job and refused to sell sex until her minder had shown her a video of men gang-raping an Uzbek woman for trying to escape. Lusa knew she would be a prostitute in Bangkok. She hoped to raise money for a 3-year-old child she had left behind. Of the remaining nine women, eight were either deported for immigration violations or released without charge.

Only one was arrested: Shahina Rajabova, 30. What happened next exposes a major flaw in prosecuting suspected traffickers: cases against them usually stand or fall on whatever testimony can be coaxed from their victims. Rajabova was charged with trafficking, which carries a 10-year sentence under Thai law, and illegally confining the women. But the case against her largely depended upon two traumatized teenagers languishing in a government shelter. Lusa and Nila phoned home to hear that their families had been threatened. They were pressured by Uzbek diplomats in Bangkok, who wanted the case dropped. When they finally appeared in court, Lusa and Nila denied Rajabova had abused them. They now claimed she had looked after them.

The young women are now back in Uzbekistan. The case against their alleged trafficker is in limbo. She has been released on bail and, says the State Department, "has reportedly resumed her involvement in Bangkok's sex industry."

Catching traffickers without relying on victim testimony requires undercover work. But complex investigations stretch the resources and resolve of police in developing countries. Traffickers can't be arrested and jailed without dedicated police and prosecutors, who need more training and funding to investigate effectively. Only then might we improve our abysmal global conviction rates. The U.N. calls trafficking "a crime that shames us all." The real shame is that so few people are jailed for it.

Source: time.com

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