Nuns Intercede for Victims of Sex Trafficking in Italy - NYTimes.com:
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Monday, September 23, 2013
BBC News - Italy's human trafficking problem worsening - UN
Source: BBC News
Italy's long coastline makes it vulnerable to seaborne illegal migrants
Italy's long coastline makes it vulnerable to seaborne illegal migrants
A UN expert on human trafficking has called on Italy to do
more to confront the problem.
more to confront the problem.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Chinese Workers Trafficked Into Italy’s Garment Factories - The Daily Beast
Source:: The Daily Beast
Chinese immigrants wait to be questioned in a holding cell after an early-morning raid in June 2010 at a textile factory in Prato, Italy. (Nadia Shira Cohen/The New York Times, via Redux)
Barbie Latza Nadeau reports on the growing number of Chinese immigrants trafficked into Italy to work in inhumane conditions at the country’s garment factories or in the sex trade.
Read her article here:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/08/20/chinese-workers-trafficked-into-italy-s-garment-factories.html
Barbie Latza Nadeau reports on the growing number of Chinese immigrants trafficked into Italy to work in inhumane conditions at the country’s garment factories or in the sex trade.
Read her article here:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/08/20/chinese-workers-trafficked-into-italy-s-garment-factories.html
Friday, July 12, 2013
Images of Human Trafficking - Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
Source: Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
These images of human human trafficking from the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons were used to illustrate the 2005 Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000: Trafficking in Persons Report. The Office assigned.US photographer Kay Chernush to take these photos in India, Thailand, Italy, and Hong Kong in 2005.
http://www.gtipphotos.state.gov/index.cfm
These images of human human trafficking from the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons were used to illustrate the 2005 Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000: Trafficking in Persons Report. The Office assigned.US photographer Kay Chernush to take these photos in India, Thailand, Italy, and Hong Kong in 2005.
http://www.gtipphotos.state.gov/index.cfm
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Undercover filmmaker: Trafficker priced me up – The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery - CNN.com Blogs
http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/23/undercover-filmmaker-trafficker-priced-me-up/
SOURCE: CNN.com Blogs
March 23rd, 2012
By Mimi Chakarova, Special to CNN
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/international/2012/03/23/price-of-sex-film-trafficking.cnn
SOURCE: CNN.com Blogs
March 23rd, 2012
By Mimi Chakarova, Special to CNN
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/international/2012/03/23/price-of-sex-film-trafficking.cnn
For the past decade, photographer-filmmaker Mimi Chakarova has examined conflict, corruption and the sex trade. Her film "The Price of Sex," a feature-length documentary made over seven years on trafficking and corruption, premiered in 2011. She was awarded the Nestor Almendros Award for courage in filmmaking at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York. It will air in the U.S. on The Documentary Channel on April 11 at 4.30p0.m. ET
She was wearing a polka dot skirt and her favorite pink flip-flops the day she left her village in Albania. Her mom called out her name before she got into her boyfriend's red Mitsubishi. She didn't turn to wave goodbye. She was 12 and angry.
Her stepdad has been raping her for as long as she can remember. She couldn't tell her mom. She knows she'd be sent away. She'd be the one blamed. Girls tempt grown men and bring it on themselves, they'd say. And there was also his drinking that made him do it, they'd add.
Once they were in Italy, her boyfriend changed - he told her she'll work for him as a prostitute. She thought he was playing some silly joke. She left home to be with him; to one day marry him. He is older. She's in love.
He slapped her back to reality. Told her how much money she cost him for the speedboat ride, her fake documents, the clothes and make-up he bought to make her look pretty and pass for 18.
She cried. And he cut her knee deep with a knife to make her stop. For the next seven years, the scar is a reminder she has no one but him to fear and return to.
Years later, I recorded her story at a secret shelter for women and saw court documents backing up what she told me. She pressed charges against her pimp but she says his uncle was a judge and released him on bail. The pimp left Albania until things cooled off. He is still free and has even bought a three-story house in her village in northern Albania.
Meanwhile, her family found out she was a "hooker who didn't even bring back any money, only an abortion and STDs." They disowned her. Her mom still doesn't know her husband was the first to abuse her.
That was the story of a young Albanian girl I met while filming "The Price of Sex" - sold into sex work in Italy and Belgium by a man who pretended to be her boyfriend.
The first woman I photographed had been trafficked to Turkey. She returned to Moldova, one of the poorest countries in Eastern Europe, wearing the same pants, blouse and shoes she left in.
Relying on her contacts in the town where she was sold, I retraced her journey to Turkey and met with one of her pimps - a man notorious for the sadistic abuse of the girls he owned.
Unable to take photographs, I posed as a Bulgarian woman for sale and spoke with Tania, a girl from Ukraine who was trafficked at the age of 23 and purchased as a slave by Yusuf.
I push my camera bag under the white plastic table, slouching down to appear more relaxed. The sun set four hours ago and the outdoor cafe where I'm sitting faces the fishing boats docked by the bay.
Only now the fear slowly seeps in as I notice a middle-aged man with an off-white cotton shirt and beige trousers approach the table.
The young woman by his side looks straight ahead. Her clothes are a few sizes too small by intent. They sit down at opposite ends of one another. I introduce myself in Russian.
The pimp doesn't understand but he doesn't need to. He is here to price me. He adjusts his gold-rimmed glasses, lights a cigarette and puts his cell phone on the table.
The young woman, Tatiana, also known as Tania, is average – small, tired and looking much older than 25.
We start talking. I'm nervous: "I am coming from Istanbul. For work."
"So you know what this is about?" she asks slowly as if speaking in code and then takes another drag on her cigarette.
"Yes."
"Let's talk then," she smiles at Yusuf who is staring at my breasts without trying to be discreet. "You'll live with him. There is plenty of work," she pauses to adjust the thick strap of her orange tank top. "Sometimes 30 a day."
She tells me the clients are handsome, she denies Yusuf hits her – though in both cases I know the truth.
"Look, Yusuf likes you," she says. "You can start tomorrow."
My hand is shaking as I try to write down the digits of Tania's cell phone number.
"It's your first time, huh?" Tania smiles. "I was the same, hadn't done this before. But after a couple of days, you'll forget everything," she pauses and pulls out another cigarette.
"Home, friends, memories... " she looks down and inhales the smoke. "Nothing will matter."
Tania stares into the distance where boat lights flicker. Her next client is waiting in one of these boats. "Think about it," she stands up. "We'll be back in a bit."
She walks away with Yusuf close by her side like a father or an older uncle.
Working to expose this misery makes you want to never leave your house again. But you can't hide. You've promised too many people to carry on. You've connected the dots for a decade. You can break it down into the most basic elements: supply and demand.
The supply is steady - poor women and kids need a way out. They leave in search of jobs. They are duped, sold, used up and deported back to where they came from. Penniless, ashamed, scared.
And the demand? It's something few are willing to tackle. It's not only fishermen, construction workers and soldiers who frequent the brothels of Turkey, Russia, Kosovo, the United Arab Emirates, the U.K., Israel, Greece, Italy and many other countries where women are trafficked to. You also have cops, politicians, policy makers, U.N. personnel. Men who'd rather remain anonymous.
And after all, this human trafficking phenomenon isn't a new criminal trend. It's existed since the beginning of documented time. But what is astonishing to me is how recently we agreed to agree that sex slavery should be punished by law.
Think about it. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defined the Palermo Protocol in 2000 and implemented it in 2003. That's only nine years ago! And The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act was passed by the U.S. Department of State in 2000.
Awareness matters. People must know. We must change perceptions.
But let's not fool ourselves. As long as the huge discrepancy between poor and rich countries continues to exist, as long as access to justice is denied or corrupt, as long as stigma keeps women silent, and law enforcement agents take bribes or use the trafficked women as bargaining chips, we can make films, go to schools, speak until our voices grow weak and still only make a pitiful dent.
The first question we must answer is "Why is human trafficking only second to drugs in profitability?"
Then think of Henry Ford's words: "Show me who profits from war and I will show you how to stop the war."
Apply this to trafficking. If we, as an international community, agreed that the trafficking and selling of human beings is unacceptable and we've had nine years to reduce the numbers, then what else is standing in the way? Do the lives of poor women matter?
I am posing these questions because unless we honestly answer them, all of my work and the persistent effort and dedication of others in the field won't be enough in this lifetime.
And I don't think it is fair for the next generation should inherit one of the worst human rights abuses known to mankind. The time is now.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Mimi Chakarova.
The Numbers
Monday, September 12, 2011
Cutting Edge: The Child Sex Trade | Watch Free Documentary Online
Liviu Tipurita returns to his homeland of Romania to investigate stories he has heard that there has been a sudden rise in the trafficking of children into the sex trade. He meets an old friend, fifteen-year-old street kid Laurentiu, who tells him he’s been selling sex to foreign pedophiles since he was twelve, and that a wealthy German has bought him a passport so that he can be trafficked to the West. Laurentiu introduces Liviu to his gang of street kids, some as young as eleven, being preyed on by the pedophiles.
Liviu follows up stories of kids trafficked to Italy, and on the streets of Milan films a fourteen year old boy being pimped by his own father. Over weeks of investigation, several more cases of families selling their own children for sex are documented.
Back in Romania, he hears about an English pedophile/trafficker called Tom. Co-producer/director Andrew Smith infiltrates Tom’s pimping network, and films damning evidence of how underage boys are preyed upon and trafficked to wealthy pedophile clients in the West. (Excerpt from hardcashproductions.com)
Click below to watch the full documentary.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Documentary Film : Combat Trafficking With Italian Carabinieri Labour Inspectors by ILO & Karen Naets Sekiguchi
Combat Trafficking With Italian Carabinieri Labour Inspectors :
Source: ILO
Documentary Film : Combat Trafficking With Italian Carabinieri Labour Inspectors by ILO & Karen Naets Sekiguchi
Director: ILO & Karen Naets Sekiguchi | Producer: ILO & Karen Naets Sekiguchi
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2009 | Country: Switzerland
Tags: Europe, Human Rights, Poverty, Trafficking
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2009 | Country: Switzerland
Tags: Europe, Human Rights, Poverty, Trafficking
Synopsis: Twenty-one billion dollars: that’s how much the victims of forced labour lost in wages and in fees paid to agencies last year worldwide, according to “The Cost of Coercion”, the ILO’s Global Report on the economic costs of coercive labour practices. And the plague of forced labour is going global, now becoming part of the fabric of even the wealthiest and most progressive societies. This elite unit monitors the application of labour law and social security to combat illegal and disguised employment, exploitation of labour in sweatshops, trafficking in human beings and works toward the elimination of inhuman working conditions, including slavery.
Documentary's URL: http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/festival/play/4154/Combat-Trafficking-With-Italian-Carabinieri-Labour-Inspectors#videoDetail
Source: ILO
Documentary Film : Combat Trafficking With Italian Carabinieri Labour Inspectors by ILO & Karen Naets Sekiguchi
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Children of the Night and IOION: Partners in the Fight Against Human Trafficking - PR.com
This Holiday Season Human Trafficking on US Streets are at an all time High. Children of the Night works to get these Children off the street and back home or at a shelter.
Los Angeles, CA, December 07, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Human Trafficking has seen a 109% increase from 1996-2000 and has not declined. Half of all human trafficking victims in the world are under the age of 18. This holiday season there are families affected by runaway children, broken homes and seeming hopelessness.
Children of the Night is dedicated to bringing children victims of human trafficking home or getting them shelter. IOION, a colorful Italian sport watch company, is teaming up with Children of The Night to help children off the streets and home for the holidays.
IOION joins the campaign with their Glow-in-the-dark watches. For the holiday season IOION will donate 50% of all online purchases of the Glow-in-the-dark IOIONS to Children of the Night. This partnership will help COTN continue to provide a 24 hour hotline for children in need, and COTN provides a plane ticket home to any child in need from any location in the United States, or houses them in their 24-bed shelter. IOION’s partnership is long term, as they will continue to support COTN with 25% of all online GLOW purchases year round.
Children of the Night is a private, non-profit, tax-exempt organization founded in 1979 by Dr. Lois Lee. They are dedicated to assisting children between the ages of 11 and 17 who are forced to prostitute on the streets for food to eat and a place to sleep. Since 1979, Children of the Night has rescued girls and boys from prostitution and the domination of vicious pimps. COTN provides all programs with the support of private donations, including the 24 Hour hot line, Shelter services, rescue services, and psychological and educational programs. This partnership with IOION help bring further to light the severity and presence of Human Trafficking on American Streets and garner further awareness of this crime and how to help the victims.
IOION time pieces, born in Italy, are a light weight unisex watch made with tourmaline-infused silicone. IOION is a trailblazer in the rubber wristwatch trend, producing their first style –the sports watch IOION Classic in 2007. The IOION American launch in 2010 brought the naturally electrically charged, environmental and health friendly watches to the forefront of fashion and functionality. Now IOION is blazing a new trail –Coloring our lives with purpose.
All 5 IOION styles, including the Classic, Evo, Analog, Bud and Pod come in Glow In the Dark. It is easy to wear the IOION waterproof, ionized and stylish pieces with pride knowing that it helps COTN take one more child off the streets. IOION timepieces look great in triplets and pairs, and with a retail price between $20-35 customers can grab all their favorite styles in GLOW.
IOION is available in stores and at www.ioion.us
IOION is represented and distributed in North America by LYB Productions.
###
Children of the Night is a private, non-profit, tax-exempt organization founded in 1979 by Dr. Lois Lee. They are dedicated to assisting children between the ages of 11 and 17 who are forced to prostitute on the streets for food to eat and a place to sleep. Since 1979, Children of the Night has rescued girls and boys from prostitution and the domination of vicious pimps. COTN provides all programs with the support of private donations, including the 24 Hour hot line, Shelter services, rescue services, and psychological and educational programs. This partnership with IOION help bring further to light the severity and presence of Human Trafficking on American Streets and garner further awareness of this crime and how to help the victims.
IOION time pieces, born in Italy, are a light weight unisex watch made with tourmaline-infused silicone. IOION is a trailblazer in the rubber wristwatch trend, producing their first style –the sports watch IOION Classic in 2007. The IOION American launch in 2010 brought the naturally electrically charged, environmental and health friendly watches to the forefront of fashion and functionality. Now IOION is blazing a new trail –Coloring our lives with purpose.
All 5 IOION styles, including the Classic, Evo, Analog, Bud and Pod come in Glow In the Dark. It is easy to wear the IOION waterproof, ionized and stylish pieces with pride knowing that it helps COTN take one more child off the streets. IOION timepieces look great in triplets and pairs, and with a retail price between $20-35 customers can grab all their favorite styles in GLOW.
IOION is available in stores and at www.ioion.us
IOION is represented and distributed in North America by LYB Productions.
###
Source: PR.com
Children of the Night and IOION: Partners in the Fight Against Human Trafficking - PR.com
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