Applying lessons learnt from training to young victims of human trafficking in the Lao PDR

http://www.unodc.org/laopdr/en/stories/applying-lessons-learnt-from-training-to-young-victims-of-human-trafficking-in-the-lao-pdr.html

Source: UNODC

La (not her real name) is 14 years old from Ban Pakpet, Sayaboury province. She was deceived by her 18 year old friend from the same village to go to Thailand to work as a labourer in a corn field. Her friend told her that she would receive Thai Baht 3,000 per month. In fact she received only Baht 1,200 after working very hard for many long days.She escaped from her workplace and tried to make her way back home. However as she was about to reach Chong Pong, Chiangrai, the Thai Police, found that she had no official documents and fined her, taking all the cash she had. With no money left for transport, she had to walk many kilometers to the Mekong River and the Lao border. On the Lao side, the army border guards found her and called the Police in Paktha district to deal with the case.

The police officer who received the call was participating in the Workshop on Human Trafficking for Legal and Law Enforcement Officials, as well as Victim Service Providers that was organized by UNODC from the 19-21 September 2012. The police officers left the workshop at 17:30 pm on the 21 ^st September 2012 to interview La. Instead of arresting her for illegal border crossing the police officers used interview techniques learnt from the training to comfort her and treated her as a victim and not a criminal. They found a safe place for her to stay while waiting for her relatives to pick her up.

In another case, Noi, (not her real name) a 16 year old girl from Meun District was persuaded by Ms. Seuy an older woman to work in Thailand. Ms. Suey told her parents that Noi would get good money. However when she arrived in Thailand, Noi was beaten, locked up and forced to work as a sex worker servicing 20 men a day. Noi was rescued in August 2012 and returned home where plans are being made to help rehabilitate her.

Capacity building of legal and law enforcement institutions at grass root levels is a key integral part of the fight against human trafficking

The problem of human trafficking continues to be an issue of serious concern among legal and law enforcement officers in Laos. Training and building capacity amongst criminal justice practitioners and law enforcement officers is an important factor to addressing this problem.

To deal with this problem a Core Training Group (CTG), consisting of a cross-cutting group of officials from the Lao legal sector, was established under a previous UNODC R76 Project. This trainer group forms an integral part of the   new X26 Project "Strengthening Criminal Justice Responses to Human Trafficking in Lao PDR". The CTG provided awareness-raising and training workshops at provincial level to sensitise their counterparts in the legal and law enforcement institutions on the issue of human trafficking and how to respond with the cases they are facing in their work. The projects are funded by the Government of the United States of America.

The CTG has completed training workshops at the provincial level for all 17 provinces throughout country. The representatives from the Courts, Prosecutor's office, Police, Lao Women's Union, Youth Union, the National Assembly, Social Welfare and Banking sectors have participated in the training.

The Project X26 is continuing to support the CTG to provide training workshops at the district level. Five capacity-building workshops for legal and law enforcement officials, as well as victim service providers at district level have been held.

Workshops have taken place in Vientiane Capital for law enforcement officers from 7 districts on 14-16 August 2012; in Vientiane Province, Meuan district on 5-7 September and Sanakham district on 10-12 September 2012; in Bokeo Province, Paktha district on 19-21 September and Houysai district on 24-26 September 2012. A total of 138 participants (24 women and 114 men) participated in the training workshops.

The Project is planning another three missions to the south in Thatphabath and Khamkerd district of Bolikhamsay Province this year and in Sebangphai and Hinboon districts of Khammouan Province and in Songkhone and Khanthaboury districts of Savanakhet Province early 2013.

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Migration to Australia linked to rights abuses, says academic | Connect Asia | ABC Radio Australia

SOURCE: ABC Radio Australia

Updated 4 October 2012, 16:24 AEST

Professor Susan Kneebone and Dr Julie Debeljak from Monash University's Faculty of Law spent three years researching human trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion - which includes Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and the Chinese provinces, Yunnan and Guangxi.

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/connect-asia/migration-to-australia-linked-to-rights-abuses-says-academic/1025362

Migration to Australia linked to rights abuses, says academic (Credit: ABC) 

They argue Australia should take a broader look at why asylum seekers flee their home countries, as economic migration is often linked to human rights abuses.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane

Speaker: Professor Susan Kneebone, Monash University's Faculty of Law; author, Transnational Crime and Human Rights: Responses to Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion

KNEEBONE: Well one of the most successful programs I would say is the COMMIT process. COMMIT stands for Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking, and in 2004 the countries in the region joined together and created a memorandum of understanding, an organisation known as UNIAP, which is the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on human trafficking in the Mekong sub--region. In fact is the lead agency on this project, because trafficking is an issue which occurs obviously across borders for the most part, although it also occurs internally, and no one country can really tackle the problem alone. So there has been terrific cooperation between the countries on these issues and UNIAP has really directed the shall we say dialogue on the issues towards, gradually towards a more protective approach to victims of human trafficking. Initially responses were very much 101 policing, teaching policemen to catch traffickers. But in countries where the rule of law is often quite fragile, where you don't have stable institutions, stable courts, you don't have many lawyers, it's really starting at the wrong end of things. And gradually over the years that I've been watching this issue I've seen UNIAP swing towards much more of a human rights and protection angle for victims of trafficking. 

COCHRANE: So on the ground how does that manifest itself, because many of our listeners will recognise a situation where police and border authorities and various other officials are actually part of the problem rather than part of the solution, so how does tackling it from a human rights perspective actually work on the ground?

KNEEBONE: Well I think what it will do eventually when people come to realise that this is the angle to take in order to get the cooperation of trafficked victims, is that police will be more concerned with assisting the person rather than pushing them towards being a witness in a prosecution. And just to give a practical example, at the moment a lot of the protection measures in fact involve detention in shelters, they're effectively detention measures rather than rehabilitation measures. But there are some excellent shelters for example in Lao PDR there are some excellent shelters, which are in fact funded by the Japanese government where the rehabilitation does include social and psychological rehabilitation. But gradually as the message gets out attitudes will change. One of the things that governments in the region have done themselves is in fact to promote safe migration. They've realised the more people are at risk of being manipulated by others, in other words under the power of others, the people who are less empowered have less knowledge are the ones who are likely to be trafficked. And so they are in fact training people to migrate themselves safely and facilitating them in crossing borders, rather than imposing impediments.

COCHRANE: Australia has a lot of controversy at the moment about people entering the country by boat and whether they're coming for genuine asylum seeker reasons or as economic migrants. Is there anything Australia can learn in terms of the asylum seeker issue that you've come across in your research?

KNEEBONE: I do think that this issue shows that people are going to move if they have to move. That people don't willingly leave their homes, and that these people are all what we could broadly call forced migrants, they are leaving because they've got very good reasons. And I think that something the Australian government could recognise is that in fact they also have to assist people to make these journeys safely, which indeed they're doing. But then they should not be penalised when they finally get to their destination, because that is not going to work as a deterrent, people are going to move and continue to move because they have to move in order to survive. 

COCHRANE: Do you think the Australian government should be more understanding of the reasons that are forcing people to migrate and not just drawing a line in the sand with human rights abuses on one side and economic factors on the other?

KNEEBONE: Absolutely, the two actually merge. Often economic reasons for moving are the result of human rights abuses, a lot of the people who are moving in the greater Mekong sub-region for example, are moving because of issues such as massive developments which unsettle their traditional ways of life. As well as it has been suggested, climate change reasons. So the economic reasons and the human rights reasons are in fact linked.

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'Drastic action' needed to halt trafficking | Bangkok Post: news

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/304115/drastic-action-needed-to-halt-trafficking

Source: Bangkok Post


25/07/2012 

Human trafficking in Thailand will trigger trade sanctions from the international community if drastic suppression and prevention measures are not taken, a regional meeting was told yesterday.

The US State Department placed Thailand on its Tier 2 Watch List in its 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report last month, which showed that human trafficking was a matter of grave concern, said Pol Lt Col Paisit Sangkhahapong, an expert at the Department of Special Investigation's anti-human trafficking centre.

The kingdom is a source, destination and transit country for human trafficking, while other countries in the Mekong region are only transit points, he told a meeting on measures to suppress and prevent trafficking in the region.

The meeting in Bangkok was attended by representatives from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, China, Malaysia and Thailand.

Pol Lt Col Paisit said Thailand would be at risk of facing trade sanctions unless drastic prevention and suppression measures were taken.

"Forced prostitution, human trafficking and labour exploitation in factories and fishing trawlers are serious problems in Thailand," he said.

"Many migrant workers from Cambodia and Myanmar are forced to work on fishing trawlers. Migrant workers are exploited in Thailand, while Thais are lured by human trafficking gangs into the flesh trade in Japan, Australia and Middle East countries."

Pundit Sriwilai, director of Laos' anti-human trafficking department, said trafficking was a transnational crime that all countries must combat jointly.

Laos has strictly enforced the criminal code and a law to protect women and children from human trafficking gangs.

Girls aged 15-18 are the main victims, he said.

DSI chief Tarit Pengdith, who presided over the meeting, said human trafficking was a major problem that needed to be urgently tackled before the launch of the Asean Economic Community in 2015.

Trafficking in women and children into the sex trade was the most serious problem in the Mekong region, followed by forced labour on fishing trawlers and the smuggling of children to become street beggars, he said.

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Brothel protection charge leads to warrant | National news | The Phnom Penh Post

Image via WikipediaSource: The Phnom Penh Post

Thursday, 20 October 2011 12:01

Kim Yuthana and Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

Phnom Penh municipal court has issued an arrest warrant for the deputy chief of the municipal police commissions for allegedly accepting bribes in exchange for warning brothel owners of impending raids, officials said yesterday.

Municipal court investigating judge Phou Povsun said that he had issued an arrest warrant for Iem Rattana, who is also the former chief of the municipal anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection police, after he did not appear in court for questioning.

“I decided to issue the arrest warrant because he did not come to explain in court, although the court summoned him three times,” he said.

He added that a brothel owner in the capital who was arrested by anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection police informed the court in June that Iem Rattana and another brothel owner had accepted US$1,200 per month from him in exchange for protection against raids.

Phou Povsun also said that three officials questioned by the court in February stated that they had received US$200 from Iem Rattana to report to him in advance when authorities planned brothel crackdowns.

Iem Rattana could not be reached for comment.

Choun Narin, chief of the municipal criminal police, said that he was yet to receive the arrest warrant for Iem Rattana from the court.

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak and National Police spokesman Kirt Chantharith could not be reached by the Post for comment yesterday.

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Trafficking Racket Smashed

2010-10-14

Thai police free 13 girls smuggled from Laos and forced into prostitution.

RFA. Victims of human trafficking were freed from karaoke bars in Thailand's Lop Buri and Prachinburi provinces.

BANGKOK—Highlighting the rising human trafficking problem in Southeast Asia, police in Thailand rescued 13 girls from Laos who were forced into prostitution and arrested four suspects involved in a syndicate smuggling underage girls.

Another victim, also from Laos, was believed to have been tortured to death, police said. The girl’s body was removed from a hospital morgue and cremated in an attempt by the mastermind of the ring to destroy evidence.

“This crime in punishable by death … It is a very serious crime,” Thai police officer Suraseth Hakphan said, commenting on the incident this week.

Most of the girls were working at a karaoke bar in Thailand’s Lop Buri province, police said.

Five women who were believed to have smuggled the victims from Laos and pushed them into prostitution managed to escape the police dragnet.

Police are looking for the five, all from Laos, as well as several others involved in the smuggling racket.

“Authorities in Laos are taking a serious view of this problem as it involves our nationals,” said an official of the embassy of Laos in Bangkok.

One of the rescued girls was freed from another karaoke bar in Prachinburi province, after police pried open the padlock of a crammed room she was living in.

Lao trafficking to Thailand

Human trafficking from Laos is a serious problem.

Most of the girls trafficked from the tiny Southeast Asian state end up in Thailand.

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 last year.

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

About 200,000 to 450,000 people are trafficked annually in the Greater Mekong sub-region, which includes southern China, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, the countries joined by the Mekong River, the official 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 Bounchanh Mouangkham for RFA’s Lao service. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.

Copyright © 1998-2010 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.

Source: Radio Free Asia

Trafficking Racket Smashed

Human-trafficking gang cracked in Laos-Thai operation

IRIN Asia | LAOS: Domestic trafficking goes undetected | Laos | Gender Issues | Human Rights | Migration

Image via Wikipedia

Strip clubs address human trafficking | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun

By TOM GODFREY, Toronto Sun

Last Updated: October 27, 2010 7:31pm

TORONTO SUN FILES

Toronto-area strip club operators say they’re being good citizens with a plan to air public service warnings about the perils of human trafficking.

Members of the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada will vote on Nov. 18 on whether to go ahead with a public awareness campaign at their 18 Toronto strip clubs.

The association decided to go on the offensive following a campaign against human trafficking that was launched Sept. 7 by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and the RCMP.

Association spokesman Tim Lambrinos said posters alerting dancers and club goers about the trafficking of female sex slaves will be posted inside clubs.

Lambrinos said the posters will advertise a toll free number — 1-866-311-2322 — for dancers to call to report problems or seek help.

‘Pro-active move’
“This is a pro-active move should there be a problem,” said Lambrinos. “There has never been a problem in the five years we have had a toll-free line.”

Lambrinos said the warnings will also be read by a club DJ every hour or two.

“Our clubs have a unique opportunity in that we can reach people through our DJ,” he said. “We will air all our bulletins.”

He said the clubs should also be allowed to air amber alerts and other public service messages.

Lambrinos said the association is also looking at hiring a firm to conduct a security audit of massage parlours.

“We will be documenting some of the illicit activity taking place at massage parlours,” he said. “We believe police are coming down on us because parlours are harder to investigate.”

Police have said there are hundreds of massage and holistic parlours in Toronto and many are merely fronts for illegal sexual activity.

Strip clubs address human trafficking | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun

Source: The Toronto Sun

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Senior officials vow to step up efforts to curb human trafficking in Mekong - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Image via WikipediaBy Dennis Atienza Maliwanag
INQUIRER.net First Posted 11:36:00 10/29/2010

BANGKOK, Thailand--(UPDATE) Senior officials in Mekong have vowed to step up efforts to curb human trafficking in the Asian sub-region.

"Stopping human trafficking is a responsibility of all. But the government has the biggest responsibility in addressing this problem," Zhang Yanhong, chief of All-China Women's Federation of China, said at the conclusion of the 3rd Mekong Youth Forum here Friday.

Thirty youth leaders from Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam met with the officials to recommend ways on how to address the issues of migration and human trafficking that have been affecting children and the youth in Mekong.

About 200,000 people, including children, are trafficked annually in Mekong for forced labor, prostitution, begging and even forced marriage.

Saw Win, director of Myanmar's Department of Social Welfare under the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, told the forum that he would bring up the recommendations raised by the youth leaders during the 2010 senior officials meeting in Yangon.

The youth leaders, in their five-page recommendations, asked Mekong governments to provide better protection for migrant workers and their children.

They also recommended the formation of a regional youth committee on migration and trafficking, greater participation of the youth in policy-making processes and inclusion of trafficking and migration in the school curriculum.

Senior officials vow to step up efforts to curb human trafficking in Mekong - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Source: Inquirer.Net

Over 15,000 people trafficked in Mekong, says UN agency - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Image via WikipediaBy Dennis Atienza Maliwanag
INQUIRER.net First Posted 19:14:00 10/27/2010

BANGKOK, Thailand—At least 15,000 people from Mekong were trafficked in 2009 with 71 percent of cases documented in China, data from the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking showed.

A total of 10,824 trafficked people were rescued in China during a nine-month drive in 2009 to curb human trafficking in the world’s second largest economy, according to the Chinese Ministry of Security.

A study by the International Labour Organisation found that forced prostitution, labor, and even forced begging were the key sectors of employment for trafficking victims in China, said UNIAP.

“Women and children may also be victims of forced marriages or illegal adoption,” it said.

Next to China is Vietnam with 2,935 cases and Cambodia with 901.

Thailand has the lowest number of documented victims of human trafficking at 103 in 2009 but the kingdom, with its robust economy, is a favorite destination country and transit point for human traffickers, agencies said.

“Men, women and children, primarily from Myanmar, are trafficked to Thailand for forced labor in fishing-related industries, factories, agriculture, construction, domestic work, and begging,” UNIAP said.

Women and children, it said, were trafficked from Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, China, Vietnam, Russia and Uzbekistan for the bustling sex industry in Thailand.

Myanmar’s Anti-Trafficking Unit recorded 155 cases of human trafficking in 2009, involving cases of forced marriage, prostitution and forced labor, the UN agency said.

UNIAP said that human trafficking was widespread in Mekong but little was known about specific patterns and trends in this Asian sub-region.

“Human trafficking is a crime involving the cheating of people into sexual servitude or labor for the purpose of their exploitation,” it said. “It affects individuals, families and entire communities in almost all parts of the world.”

In the Asia-Pacific Region, the ILO estimated that around 9.49 million people were into forced labor in 2005.

Over 15,000 people trafficked in Mekong, says UN agency - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Source: Inquirer.net

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30 Mekong youth leaders discuss human trafficking, migration - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Image via WikipediaINQUIRER.net
First Posted 17:45:00 10/26/2010

BANGKOK, Thailand – Thirty youth leaders from Mekong have gathered here to discuss the problem of child trafficking and migration in the Asian sub-region and tell their governments what needs to be done, organizers said.

The youth delegates from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and Yunnan province of China tackle the vulnerabilities faced by children and youth in the Greater Mekong Sub-region.

“As we are all aware, human trafficking is a modern form of slavery and a severe problem worldwide. It is one of the worst violations of human rights,” according to the Ministry of Social, Development and Human Security in Thailand.

With a robust economy, Thailand is a favorite destination country for trafficked persons in Mekong, said Brian Jungwiwattanaporn, Regional Cross-border Program information coordinator of Save the Children-UK. Thailand hosts about two million documented and undocumented migrants, he added.

“Trafficked persons are deceived, sold or subjected to slavery-like conditions, under different forms and various sectors such as construction, agriculture, domestic service, prostitution, pornography, sexual tourism, and organ removal, among others,” the Thai ministry said.

The 2010 Mekong Youth Forum is the third such forum in the region. The Philippine Educational Theater Association helps facilitate the workshops.

On the last day of the forum Friday, senior government officials from the six Mekong countries will listen to the issues the youth delegates will raise in a bid to influence state policies to better protect children in the region, said Jungwiwattanaporn.

“The Mekong Youth Forum 3 is a time for them to speak and be listened to. It is also a time for them to listen more closely to each of us adults, especially those in government,” said Edelweiss F. Silan of Save the Children Regional Cross-Border Programme.

“There are expectations that after this forum, there will be joint actions between children and adults to bring about true changes that will curb the human trafficking and risky migration situations in our region,” Silan said.

The 2010 forum, which began on October 24 and will run until October 29, is also meant to institutionalize child and youth participation in local, national and regional anti-trafficking processes.

Hosted by the government of Thailand, this year’s forum is jointly organized by the International Labour Organization (ILO), Save the Children UK, World Vision, and the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP). Dennis Maliwanag

30 Mekong youth leaders discuss human trafficking, migration - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Source: Inquirer.Net

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