Child workers often an overlooked issue in trafficking: NGOs:
Showing posts with label Non-governmental organization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Non-governmental organization. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Monday, May 18, 2015
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Give slavery victims ‘freedom from prosecution for minor crimes’ | World news | The Guardian
Police chief says plans laid out in modern slavery bill for legal discretion will help bring cases against gangs exploiting people
READ HERE:
Give slavery victims ‘freedom from prosecution for minor crimes’ | World news | The Guardian:
Sunday, November 30, 2014
The global slavery index is based on flawed data – why does no one say so? | Global development | The Guardian
In the 20 years I have been working in the field of anti-trafficking, it has moved from the margins to the mainstream. New laws have been adopted; new institutions established; hundreds of millions of dollars spent to support prosecutions, victim protection and prevention. Today, trafficking is the focus of a major social movement that, according to the publicity of its self-proclaimed leaders, is uniting millions of individuals against the scourge of “modern slavery”.The global slavery index is based on flawed data – why does no one say so? | Global development | The Guardian:
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
LexisNexis and STOP THE TRAFFIK launch a new report looking at human trafficking within the cotton industry | LexisNexis Business Information Solutions
LONDON, 01 OCTOBER 2014 – LexisNexis® Legal & Professional (www.lexisnexis.com), a leading global provider of content and technology solutions, and STOP THE TRAFFIK a leading Non-Governmental Organisation dedicated to the eradication of human trafficking, announce the publication of their joint report titled ‘Dressed to Kill’.
Forced labour is unfortunately a very big part of human trafficking. To raise awareness for both consumers and organisations, this report by LexisNexis® and STOP THE TRAFFIK is designed to help the cotton industry – as well as the broader public - understand what is happening today and offers guidance on how to take actions to eliminate or reduce the risk.LexisNexis and STOP THE TRAFFIK launch a new report looking at human trafficking within the cotton industry | LexisNexis Business Information Solutions:
'via Blog this'
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Cambodia Won’t Let Somaly Mam Start New NGO
Somaly Mam may want to forget all about Newsweek’s cover story on her in May and start over in her anti-sex-trafficking activism, but Cambodia won’t let her, according to The Cambodia Daily.
Cambodia Won’t Let Somaly Mam Start New NGO:
Friday, May 16, 2014
Some NGOs in Nepal do more harm than good say experts
Source: Thompson Reuters Foundation
Author: Rachel Browne and Alia Dharssi
“Right now, everybody is just doing their own thing, following the money, and it’s very sensationalised and it really causes more chaos than help in a lot of ways,” said Michelle Kaufman, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who has studied anti-trafficking programs in Nepal."
http://www.trust.org/item/20140507213441-lnbvr/
Author: Rachel Browne and Alia Dharssi
“Right now, everybody is just doing their own thing, following the money, and it’s very sensationalised and it really causes more chaos than help in a lot of ways,” said Michelle Kaufman, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who has studied anti-trafficking programs in Nepal."
http://www.trust.org/item/20140507213441-lnbvr/
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Forced labour: it's about politics, not crime | Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional
Source: Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional
For many NGOs, governments and development agencies, there are two principal causes of forced labour: poverty, which makes people vulnerable to exploitation, and criminality, in the form of employers willing to exploit the poor.
Continue reading here:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/nov/07/forced-labour-slavery-crime?CMP=
For many NGOs, governments and development agencies, there are two principal causes of forced labour: poverty, which makes people vulnerable to exploitation, and criminality, in the form of employers willing to exploit the poor.
Continue reading here:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/nov/07/forced-labour-slavery-crime?CMP=
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Human trafficking is a labour issue, says Bandana Pattanaik | CHENNAI YOUTH TIMEZ
SOURCE : Posted by Guardian on Youtube
Women who travel from Bangladesh, India and Nepal for domestic work in the Middle East are vulnerable to mistreatment, says Bandana Pattanaik, international co-ordinator of Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, which comprises more than 100 NGOs. The alliance aims to protect women by providing safer routes of travel and bolstering employment rights – many female migrant workers say they are underpaid, overworked and unprotected by law.
http://youthtimezmaa.wordpress.com/2013/09/01/human-trafficking-is-a-labour-issue-says-bandana-pattanaik/
Women who travel from Bangladesh, India and Nepal for domestic work in the Middle East are vulnerable to mistreatment, says Bandana Pattanaik, international co-ordinator of Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, which comprises more than 100 NGOs. The alliance aims to protect women by providing safer routes of travel and bolstering employment rights – many female migrant workers say they are underpaid, overworked and unprotected by law.
http://youthtimezmaa.wordpress.com/2013/09/01/human-trafficking-is-a-labour-issue-says-bandana-pattanaik/
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Trafficking in Persons Report 2013: TIP Report Heroes
http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2013/210547.htm
Each year, the Department of State honors individuals around the world who have devoted their lives to the fight against human trafficking. These individuals are NGO workers, lawmakers, police officers, and concerned citizens who are committed to ending modern slavery. They are recognized for their tireless efforts—despite resistance, opposition, and threats to their lives—to protect victims, punish offenders, and raise awareness of ongoing criminal practices in their countries and abroad.
Laura Anyola Tufon
Cameroon
In her 10 years as the Northwest Regional Coordinator of the Justice and Peace Commission, Laura Anyola Tufon has been relentless in her commitment to fight child trafficking and forced labor in Cameroon. Despite a challenging environment where poverty, culture, and tradition converge to create vulnerabilities that facilitate trafficking in persons, Ms. Anyola is directly involved in the identification of, and delivery of assistance to, victims of human trafficking. In 2012, she identified 80 trafficking victims, and provided assistance to over 100 such individuals.
Ms. Anyola’s leadership has transformed her organization into a model for Central Africa. In 2009, the Justice and Peace Commission created the first community-based protection system in Cameroon to identify at-risk children and to protect victims from being re-trafficked. Additionally, Ms. Anyola has worked within the appropriate legal systems to compel traffickers to compensate survivors and their families, leading to nearly 300 victims and their families receiving reintegration assistance and education.
Ms. Anyola continues to call for the government to enforce its human trafficking legislation by regularly prosecuting traffickers and ensuring that victims receive the protection they need.
Katrin Gluic
Croatia
Katrin Gluic has spearheaded Croatian Police efforts to combat human trafficking since January 2010. She is frequently identified as a driving force for creating necessary changes on anti-trafficking efforts, including those related to Croatia’s EU accession.
As a chief police inspector within the National Police Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime (PNUSKOK), Ms. Gluic coordinates trafficking investigations in Croatia. She oversees initial assistance to victims as a leader of Croatia’s highly effective and innovative mobile teams, which she helped to create. These teams consist of specialized government, Red Cross, and NGO personnel, and rapidly deploy in order to handle initial care and placement of victims in suspected trafficking cases. She also designed and executed an extensive anti-trafficking training program involving several branches of the Ministry of Interior, including the border police, police academy, and virtually all police precincts.
Ms. Gluic has been pivotal in Croatia’s international cooperation in the fight against trafficking. In 2012, she coordinated efforts to shut down an international forced prostitution and narcotics ring, creating joint initiatives with counterparts in Spain, Serbia, Hungary, and Slovenia. She ensured that victims returning to Croatia received the assistance they needed in the difficult process of reintegration.
Simona Broomes
Guyana
Simona Broomes is a courageous leader in assisting human trafficking victims and raising awareness about human trafficking in Guyana. After 25 years as a miner, in 2012 she established the Guyana Women Miners Organization (GWMO), a volunteer membership and advocacy organization, to empower women miners and address the economic discrimination and physical intimidation that women miners face. The GWMO is the first organization of its kind in Guyana comprising women miners advocating on a cross-section of social and economic issues. Ms. Broomes has worked relentlessly to engage the government, the international community, and the media to raise public awareness about human trafficking, identify traffickers, promote access to victim care in remote mining communities, improve the law enforcement response, and increase job training for women in mining.
In April, Ms. Broomes was physically assaulted by traffickers while rescuing victims. Despite the dangers of retaliation, however, she has assisted several victims, and GWMO members have temporarily housed survivors before transporting them from remote areas to government care and law enforcement officials in the capital. Under her dynamic leadership, the GWMO and its 440 members have become undeniably powerful anti-trafficking advocates and a recognized force in combating human trafficking while promoting equality and economic opportunities for women in Guyana.
Mohammed Bassam Al-Nasseri
Iraq
Mohammed Bassam Al-Nasseri has played a critical role in the development, passage, and implementation of Iraq’s comprehensive 2012 anti-trafficking legislation. As a capacity building officer at the International Organization for Migration, Mr. Al-Nasseri has provided superior leadership and unflagging support to the International Trafficking in Persons Working Group in Iraq, a forum for Iraq’s Central Committee to Combat Trafficking in Persons, to coordinate with the international community to fight human trafficking.
Mr. Al-Nasseri also served as a tireless advocate for 35 stranded Ukrainian and Bulgarian construction workers in Iraq. During daily visits to the construction site where the workers were living in crowded, dark, dirty, and unventilated conditions without electricity, money, or water, Mr. Al-Nasseri delivered essential medical assistance, potable water, and hot food, and assisted the workers so they could call home. Mr. Al-Nasseri worked closely with various government ministries on the workers’ case. Through his advocacy efforts, the workers were spared from even more dire circumstances and were repatriated back to their home countries, where they continue to participate in legal proceedings against their former employer. Mr. Al-Nasseri’s heroic and continuing involvement in this case is just one example of his exceptional commitment to fighting human trafficking.
Javier Antonio Morazán & Juan Victoriano RuÍz
Nicaragua
The partnership that Javier Antonio Morazán and Juan Victoriano Ruíz have forged in their efforts to combat human trafficking has been one of the most important law enforcement advances in Nicaragua.
Mr. Morazán, the Head of the Public Prosecutor’s Anti-Corruption and Anti-Organized Crime Unit, is one of the Nicaraguan government’s most knowledgeable officials on human trafficking. Since 2009, he has been personally responsible for the vast majority of convictions against traffickers, and under his leadership, the number of human trafficking prosecutions went from zero to a record-high of 35 in 2012.
But Nicaragua’s progress in prosecutions is not due solely to Mr. Morazán’s work in the Public Prosecutor’s office. Without Lieutenant Ruíz and his team’s efforts to collect evidence against traffickers and shut down human trafficking rings, none of the success of Mr. Morazán’s unit would have been possible. As the head of the Nicaraguan National Police’s Anti-TIP Unit (NNP), Lieutenant Ruíz leads a small but dedicated group of officers responsible for investigating human trafficking cases throughout Nicaragua. Over the three years since Mr. Ruíz assumed leadership, the NNP has investigated an average of 24 cases a year, compared to an average of 11 cases a year over the two years before Mr. Ruíz’s unit was created.
Each of these officials is extraordinary in his own right; however, what is truly remarkable is the partnership they have formed. Their work together, and the level of coordination and trust they have developed, has been key to advancing Nicaragua’s success in the fight against human trafficking.
Ippei Torii
Japan
Ippei Torii has been a forceful leader in anti-trafficking efforts as the secretary general for Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan (SMJ), which has provided shelter and assistance to more than 4,000 foreign workers in Japan who have escaped from exploitative conditions or sought help recovering unpaid wages. SMJ has offered advice and assistance by telephone to more than 1,200 foreign workers in Japan’s Industrial Trainee and Technical Intern Program (TTIP), a government-run program that recruits unskilled labor to work at factories and farms in Japan. Awareness of Mr. Torii’s network has spread by word of mouth by foreign workers, who distribute mobile phone numbers of SMJ staff to those in need of assistance.
The organization has also engaged in public awareness and lobbying campaigns both domestically and abroad to raise concerns about how traffickers exploit the TTIP to coerce foreign workers into conditions of forced labor. Mr. Torii meets regularly with various ministries that are responsible for oversight of the program, and he has provided guidance to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants. His persistence has kept this issue squarely before the press and on the political agenda in Japan.
Susan Ople
The Philippines
Susan “Toots” Ople is founder and president of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, a Philippine non-profit organization dedicated to helping distressed Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) with labor and migration issues. The Ople Center provides free legal assistance to survivors of human trafficking, as well as other free reintegration services. It represents the OFW sector on the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), a successful multi-agency government body that, with the help of the private sector, civil society, and international partners, combats all forms of human trafficking. With an estimated 10 million Filipinos working abroad, the Ople Center has been a leader in calling for an increased focus on combating labor trafficking.
Ms. Ople works tirelessly to reintegrate trafficking victims into Philippine society, believing that skills training combined with good job placement will empower these workers to secure safer employment. Through her leadership, the Ople Center has entered into partnerships with hotels, private sector companies, and legislative offices to secure jobs and training for trafficking survivors. One woman trained at the center, a former domestic worker in Libya, now heads the housekeeping unit of a major resort hotel in Cebu, while another trafficking survivor works as an employee of IACAT.
Paul Holmes
United Kingdom
Paul Holmes is an internationally-renowned expert in combating human trafficking. His expertise is founded upon a long and successful career as an operational officer and criminal investigator with New Scotland Yard. For the past 10 years he has provided anti-trafficking expertise across six continents, primarily in the design and delivery of specialized training for practitioners and performing technical capacity assessments for national governments.
With a focus on a victim-first, human rights-based approach to criminal justice responses to trafficking, his interactive training program encompasses the full range of reactive and pro-active investigative techniques. Within the training sphere, his uniquely practical and effective style has secured his reputation as one of the world’s foremost trainers on the subject. He has developed and published wide-ranging investigative “good practice” manuals for a number of national governments and international organizations such as the United Nations, the International Organization for Migration, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and Interpol. Additionally, he has held various advisory roles in the international arena and currently serves as a member of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime Expert Group on the Palermo Protocol.
In Memoriam
Eunice Kisembo
Uganda
2012 saw the tragic loss of Eunice Kisembo, the former Head of the Counter Trafficking in Persons Office of the Government of Uganda. Her trailblazing efforts were critical in addressing human trafficking in Uganda, assisting Ugandan victims of trafficking around the world by aggressively investigating potential trafficking crimes, and establishing Uganda’s National Task Force against Human Trafficking.
Laura Anyola Tufon
Cameroon
In her 10 years as the Northwest Regional Coordinator of the Justice and Peace Commission, Laura Anyola Tufon has been relentless in her commitment to fight child trafficking and forced labor in Cameroon. Despite a challenging environment where poverty, culture, and tradition converge to create vulnerabilities that facilitate trafficking in persons, Ms. Anyola is directly involved in the identification of, and delivery of assistance to, victims of human trafficking. In 2012, she identified 80 trafficking victims, and provided assistance to over 100 such individuals.
Ms. Anyola’s leadership has transformed her organization into a model for Central Africa. In 2009, the Justice and Peace Commission created the first community-based protection system in Cameroon to identify at-risk children and to protect victims from being re-trafficked. Additionally, Ms. Anyola has worked within the appropriate legal systems to compel traffickers to compensate survivors and their families, leading to nearly 300 victims and their families receiving reintegration assistance and education.
Ms. Anyola continues to call for the government to enforce its human trafficking legislation by regularly prosecuting traffickers and ensuring that victims receive the protection they need.
Katrin Gluic
Croatia
Katrin Gluic has spearheaded Croatian Police efforts to combat human trafficking since January 2010. She is frequently identified as a driving force for creating necessary changes on anti-trafficking efforts, including those related to Croatia’s EU accession.
As a chief police inspector within the National Police Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime (PNUSKOK), Ms. Gluic coordinates trafficking investigations in Croatia. She oversees initial assistance to victims as a leader of Croatia’s highly effective and innovative mobile teams, which she helped to create. These teams consist of specialized government, Red Cross, and NGO personnel, and rapidly deploy in order to handle initial care and placement of victims in suspected trafficking cases. She also designed and executed an extensive anti-trafficking training program involving several branches of the Ministry of Interior, including the border police, police academy, and virtually all police precincts.
Ms. Gluic has been pivotal in Croatia’s international cooperation in the fight against trafficking. In 2012, she coordinated efforts to shut down an international forced prostitution and narcotics ring, creating joint initiatives with counterparts in Spain, Serbia, Hungary, and Slovenia. She ensured that victims returning to Croatia received the assistance they needed in the difficult process of reintegration.
Simona Broomes
Guyana
Simona Broomes is a courageous leader in assisting human trafficking victims and raising awareness about human trafficking in Guyana. After 25 years as a miner, in 2012 she established the Guyana Women Miners Organization (GWMO), a volunteer membership and advocacy organization, to empower women miners and address the economic discrimination and physical intimidation that women miners face. The GWMO is the first organization of its kind in Guyana comprising women miners advocating on a cross-section of social and economic issues. Ms. Broomes has worked relentlessly to engage the government, the international community, and the media to raise public awareness about human trafficking, identify traffickers, promote access to victim care in remote mining communities, improve the law enforcement response, and increase job training for women in mining.
In April, Ms. Broomes was physically assaulted by traffickers while rescuing victims. Despite the dangers of retaliation, however, she has assisted several victims, and GWMO members have temporarily housed survivors before transporting them from remote areas to government care and law enforcement officials in the capital. Under her dynamic leadership, the GWMO and its 440 members have become undeniably powerful anti-trafficking advocates and a recognized force in combating human trafficking while promoting equality and economic opportunities for women in Guyana.
Mohammed Bassam Al-Nasseri
Iraq
Mohammed Bassam Al-Nasseri has played a critical role in the development, passage, and implementation of Iraq’s comprehensive 2012 anti-trafficking legislation. As a capacity building officer at the International Organization for Migration, Mr. Al-Nasseri has provided superior leadership and unflagging support to the International Trafficking in Persons Working Group in Iraq, a forum for Iraq’s Central Committee to Combat Trafficking in Persons, to coordinate with the international community to fight human trafficking.
Mr. Al-Nasseri also served as a tireless advocate for 35 stranded Ukrainian and Bulgarian construction workers in Iraq. During daily visits to the construction site where the workers were living in crowded, dark, dirty, and unventilated conditions without electricity, money, or water, Mr. Al-Nasseri delivered essential medical assistance, potable water, and hot food, and assisted the workers so they could call home. Mr. Al-Nasseri worked closely with various government ministries on the workers’ case. Through his advocacy efforts, the workers were spared from even more dire circumstances and were repatriated back to their home countries, where they continue to participate in legal proceedings against their former employer. Mr. Al-Nasseri’s heroic and continuing involvement in this case is just one example of his exceptional commitment to fighting human trafficking.
Javier Antonio Morazán & Juan Victoriano RuÍz
Nicaragua
The partnership that Javier Antonio Morazán and Juan Victoriano Ruíz have forged in their efforts to combat human trafficking has been one of the most important law enforcement advances in Nicaragua.
Mr. Morazán, the Head of the Public Prosecutor’s Anti-Corruption and Anti-Organized Crime Unit, is one of the Nicaraguan government’s most knowledgeable officials on human trafficking. Since 2009, he has been personally responsible for the vast majority of convictions against traffickers, and under his leadership, the number of human trafficking prosecutions went from zero to a record-high of 35 in 2012.
But Nicaragua’s progress in prosecutions is not due solely to Mr. Morazán’s work in the Public Prosecutor’s office. Without Lieutenant Ruíz and his team’s efforts to collect evidence against traffickers and shut down human trafficking rings, none of the success of Mr. Morazán’s unit would have been possible. As the head of the Nicaraguan National Police’s Anti-TIP Unit (NNP), Lieutenant Ruíz leads a small but dedicated group of officers responsible for investigating human trafficking cases throughout Nicaragua. Over the three years since Mr. Ruíz assumed leadership, the NNP has investigated an average of 24 cases a year, compared to an average of 11 cases a year over the two years before Mr. Ruíz’s unit was created.
Each of these officials is extraordinary in his own right; however, what is truly remarkable is the partnership they have formed. Their work together, and the level of coordination and trust they have developed, has been key to advancing Nicaragua’s success in the fight against human trafficking.
Ippei Torii
Japan
Ippei Torii has been a forceful leader in anti-trafficking efforts as the secretary general for Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan (SMJ), which has provided shelter and assistance to more than 4,000 foreign workers in Japan who have escaped from exploitative conditions or sought help recovering unpaid wages. SMJ has offered advice and assistance by telephone to more than 1,200 foreign workers in Japan’s Industrial Trainee and Technical Intern Program (TTIP), a government-run program that recruits unskilled labor to work at factories and farms in Japan. Awareness of Mr. Torii’s network has spread by word of mouth by foreign workers, who distribute mobile phone numbers of SMJ staff to those in need of assistance.
The organization has also engaged in public awareness and lobbying campaigns both domestically and abroad to raise concerns about how traffickers exploit the TTIP to coerce foreign workers into conditions of forced labor. Mr. Torii meets regularly with various ministries that are responsible for oversight of the program, and he has provided guidance to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants. His persistence has kept this issue squarely before the press and on the political agenda in Japan.
Susan Ople
The Philippines
Susan “Toots” Ople is founder and president of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, a Philippine non-profit organization dedicated to helping distressed Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) with labor and migration issues. The Ople Center provides free legal assistance to survivors of human trafficking, as well as other free reintegration services. It represents the OFW sector on the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), a successful multi-agency government body that, with the help of the private sector, civil society, and international partners, combats all forms of human trafficking. With an estimated 10 million Filipinos working abroad, the Ople Center has been a leader in calling for an increased focus on combating labor trafficking.
Ms. Ople works tirelessly to reintegrate trafficking victims into Philippine society, believing that skills training combined with good job placement will empower these workers to secure safer employment. Through her leadership, the Ople Center has entered into partnerships with hotels, private sector companies, and legislative offices to secure jobs and training for trafficking survivors. One woman trained at the center, a former domestic worker in Libya, now heads the housekeeping unit of a major resort hotel in Cebu, while another trafficking survivor works as an employee of IACAT.
Paul Holmes
United Kingdom
Paul Holmes is an internationally-renowned expert in combating human trafficking. His expertise is founded upon a long and successful career as an operational officer and criminal investigator with New Scotland Yard. For the past 10 years he has provided anti-trafficking expertise across six continents, primarily in the design and delivery of specialized training for practitioners and performing technical capacity assessments for national governments.
With a focus on a victim-first, human rights-based approach to criminal justice responses to trafficking, his interactive training program encompasses the full range of reactive and pro-active investigative techniques. Within the training sphere, his uniquely practical and effective style has secured his reputation as one of the world’s foremost trainers on the subject. He has developed and published wide-ranging investigative “good practice” manuals for a number of national governments and international organizations such as the United Nations, the International Organization for Migration, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and Interpol. Additionally, he has held various advisory roles in the international arena and currently serves as a member of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime Expert Group on the Palermo Protocol.
In Memoriam
Eunice Kisembo
Uganda
2012 saw the tragic loss of Eunice Kisembo, the former Head of the Counter Trafficking in Persons Office of the Government of Uganda. Her trailblazing efforts were critical in addressing human trafficking in Uganda, assisting Ugandan victims of trafficking around the world by aggressively investigating potential trafficking crimes, and establishing Uganda’s National Task Force against Human Trafficking.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Victim Identification First Step to Ending Human Slavery | Philadelphia News | Новости Филадельфии
Source: Philadelphia News
http://thephilanews.com/victim-identification-first-step-to-ending-human-slavery-40895.htm
http://thephilanews.com/victim-identification-first-step-to-ending-human-slavery-40895.htm
By Jane Morse
Staff Writer
Identifying human trafficking victims is the first step in ending modern-day slavery, says U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Before an audience of diplomats, nongovernmental organization representatives and anti-trafficking activists at the rollout of the 13th annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, Kerry said, “There are countless voiceless people, countless nameless people, except to their families, or perhaps a phony name by which they are being exploited, who look to us for their freedom and for the possibility of life itself. … As we look at the challenge of modern-day slavery, regrettably our focus has to begin with the victims.”
Based on information U.S. diplomats have collected from governments worldwide, some 46,000 trafficking victims have been identified in the last year, the secretary said. That’s a mere fraction of the estimated 27 million men, women and children who are believed to be enslaved for labor or for the sex industry. Nonetheless, there was a 10 percent increase in victim identification last year, according to the report.
Because many trafficking victims go unrecognized and many remain hidden through fear and the power of their enslavers, traffickers are able to operate with impunity in this billion-dollar criminal enterprise, the report says. And while a majority of the word’s countries now criminalize all forms of human trafficking, government officials unevenly apply anti-trafficking laws, according to the report. Even so, trafficking convictions rose in the last year by 20 percent, from 3,969 to 4,746, the report says.
This year’s report focuses on victim identification as a top priority in the global movement to combat trafficking in persons. It details training and techniques that make identification efforts successful. These innovations, the report says, will enable more effective delivery of services to trafficking victims and aid in developing improvements in the global response to trafficking.
“Only through vigorous victim identification can we ensure that trafficking survivors get the services they need, can participate in freedom and can have their voices heard,” Kerry writes in the introduction to this year’s TIP report.
“Ending modern slavery must remain a foreign policy priority,” Kerry writes. “Human trafficking undermines the rule of law and creates instability. It tears apart families and communities. It damages the environment and corrupts the global supply chains and labor markets that keep the world’s economies thriving.”
Human trafficking is also “an assault on our most dearly held values of freedom and basic human dignity,” Kerry writes. “American leadership means protecting those values at home and working to advance them around the world.”
The United States will support people who are working to prevent trafficking, who come to the aid of victims, and who work to bring traffickers to justice, Kerry says. “We will continue to do so by bringing together an array of stakeholders — from civil society and the faith community to the private sector and government leaders — to forge partnerships aimed at spurring innovation and improving collaboration,” he writes.
“Governments bear primary responsibility for responding to this crime,” he says, and the annual TIP report is “the gold standard in assessing how well governments — including our own — are meeting that responsibility.“
This year’s report includes narratives for 188 countries and territories. The two new entries are on Bhutan and St. Maarten. The report is used by the U.S. government as a diplomatic tool in its bilateral and multilateral relations.
Read the complete report at the State Department website.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Duped women fight back as Burma gets to grips with human trafficking | Kate Hodal | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/dec/24/women-burma-human-trafficking
Source: guardian.co.uk
NGO Walk Free is challenging firms including Apple and HSBC to tackle trafficking within Burma's emerging private sector
Kate Hodal in Rangoon
guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 December 2012 02.00 EST
People watch US singer Jason Mraz perform at the MTV EXIT show, a free concert to raise awareness of human trafficking in Burma. Photograph: Nyein Chan Naing/EPA
The tiny drinks stall Chit Htet had been running for the past few years in Rangoon was doing so poorly that when the 35-year-old's sister-in-law promised her a job in Burma's southern province, Chit Htet didn't think twice.
But she had been duped. After taking food and drink offered to her by the sister-in-law, Chit Htet fell asleep – and woke up to discover she had been smuggled into Thailand, where, her sister-in-law said, she would now be working to "pay off her job-placement debts" in a pineapple factory. "I was given 300 baht [£6] every 15 days as salary but had to pay for my own water, electricity and rent, which meant that I could only afford to eat one egg a day – half at breakfast and half at dinner," says Chit Htet.
Working in the factory with thousands of others – at least 1,000 of whom she estimated to be Burmese nationals like herself, and many of whom she says had been trafficked by her own sister-in-law – Chit Htet plotted her escape. Guards patrolled the compound and workers were only allowed out in escorted minivans to the local market. But one day she found a Thai colleague's mobile lying around and made the call to police that freed her.
Burma has been fighting trafficking within its borders for the past eight years – it signed the 2004 UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and in 2007 established its own anti-trafficking taskforce – with more than 1,700 victims rescued to date. But rights groups say it still lacks the teeth to prosecute and prevent cases from reoccurring – meaning that repeat offenders like Chit Htet's sister-in-law often walk free.
However in a landmark agreement between the Burmese government and the Australian anti-trafficking NGO Walk Free in December, the Burmese government committed to working with local businesses to eradicate all trafficking within its private sector. This would mean that in Burma's nascent economy, businesses would be required to identify, eradicate and prevent forced labour in their operations and supply chains – preventing situations like Chit Htet's from occurring on Burmese soil.
"This chance to work with Walk Free is a great opportunity to persuade the domestic private sector to work with us on this initiative and, together, I am sure we will end human trafficking in Myanmar," Police Brigadier General Khin Maung Si told the Guardian.
Although slavery is illegal in every country in the world, the International Labour Organisation estimates that nearly 21 million people around the world can be considered modern-day slaves – defined as those working under threat of violence, abuse and harsh penalties – in a market generating roughly $32bn (£19.7bn) profit every year. More than half of those people are in Asia, and more than a quarter are women andchildren.
Burmese women are trafficked out of the country every year – the majority of whom are sold into forced marriages, prostitution or forced labour. According to the Burmese government's most recent plan of action, around 80% of Burma's trafficking victims end up in China, with the rest primarily going to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
Burma's female workforce has been migrating for decades now, says Ma Mar of the Burmese charity FATE (Fight Against Trafficking and Exploitation of Women), seeking greater economic opportunities abroad to send money back home. "Before it was just women who were poor," she says. "Now it's women who are educated – lawyers, teachers, graduates – because their education has no value. They don't get a decent income to provide for their family but feel they are the ones responsible for providing food and [so they] take the risk of going to places like Saudi Arabia, China, Thailand."
Whether they go abroad or move within Burma, many end up particularly vulnerable to human traffickers because they don't know how to protect themselves, says Ohnmar Ei Ei Chaw, national project director of the UN's anti-trafficking unit in Burma. In many cases, this is because victims often fall prey to family members, like Chit Htet, or to neighbours working on behalf of agents.
Walk Free aims to change that by making businesses a safer place for employees. Founded by mining tycoon Andrew Forrest, the charity is calling on the world's largest companies to pledge zero tolerance of slavery. As one of the partners of MTV Exit (End Exploitation and Trafficking), the NGO organised a concert in Rangoon on 16 December in partnership with USAid, Ausaid, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Burmese government to raise awareness about human trafficking. Videos reenacting trafficking situations were played on large-screen TVs, and speakers, including the US ambassador to Burma Derek Mitchell, asked the crowd to "promise never to trust anyone who promises you an offer that sounds too good to be true".
"Business has always been a key driver of social change, shaping modern life through innovation and new technology," Walk Free says. "If corporate giants – 25 of the world's top businesses whose net worth makes up $5 trillion – prioritise the abolition of modern slavery as their next major innovation, we could quickly deal a major blow to the slavery industry in this generation." Those targeted by the group include Google, Apple, Microsoft, HSBC and Coca-Cola.
While Walk Free and the Burmese government are still in the initial phases of the agreement, the NGO is calling on the experiences of victims like Chit Htet to help raise awareness about trafficking – by identifying where to place posters, billboards and hotlines in trafficking hotspots in Burma and surrounding countries.
"We [survivors] should be going to communities where there is trafficking and talking about our experiences," Chit Htet and a group of other survivors recently told Forrest. "So we can show them we are not different – we are just like them."
Some details have been changed to protect identity
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Webinar panellists call for partnerships in efforts to combat trafficking globally
Panellists during a webinar on "Trafficking Prevention and the Victims: New United Nations and Academic Perspectives" called on governments, international organisations and NGOs to strengthen partnerships and build on their collective efforts to fight human trafficking around the world.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Trafficked teens go after broker | National news | The Phnom Penh Post - Cambodia's Newspaper of Record
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012010553806/National-news/trafficked-teens-go-after-broker.html
Three teenage boys who were held as slaves on a Thai fishing boat for weeks have been returned to Cambodia and have filed a complaint with the Anti-Human Trafficking department in an attempt to seek out the broker who tricked them, Cambodian NGO Action Pour Les Enfants said yesterday.
The teenagers, aged 16 and 17, were repatriated with assistance from APLE on December 31 after their ordeal.
“From our research, we know that the boys were lured and cheated by masterminds to cross the border illegally in Thailand and then were tricked to work on a Thai fishing boat,” APLE country director Samleang Seila told the Post.
“It is a serious labour abuse to have these boys trafficked under-age,” Samleang Seila said.
“The victims crossed in the wilderness along the border at Poipet into Thailand where other brokers picked them up and took them to the fishing boat where they were held.”
Samleang Seila said the boys were forced to perform hard labour and work overtime until Thai authorities rescued them.
Human trafficking of young, and often under-age, males to fishing boats in Thailand made headlines last year as returnees described the horror and merciless conditions of their captivity aboard the boats. APLE often cooperated with Thai authorities to repatriate tricked and trafficked victims, Samleang Seila said.
In this instance, on December 12, when the families of the boys reported them missing after they had disappeared three days earlier, APLE contacted the Thai Senate Committee on Labour and Social Welfare to coordinate a rescue.
Keo Thea, director of the municipal Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection office, declined to comment in detail about the complaint for fear the brokers would take flight or go into hiding.
“We are investigating and we will continue our investigations until we catch the brokers,” Keo Thea said. Toek Salin, the 45-year-old father of one of the victims, said his son had been studying in grade 11 at school, but he had not realised his son had wanted to work.
“We never allowed our son to work, just to study only, but then one day, he did not come home from school, and we had no idea where he was or what had happened,” Toek Salin said.
Between December 6 and 12 last year, 60 Cambodian fishermen were rescued from boats in Indonesia and repatriated after being lured to Thailand supposedly to work in high-paying jobs.
Instead, the fishermen were subjected to abusive working conditions on the boats and were not paid, the Post reported.
- Sen David
- Thursday, 05 January 2012
Three teenage boys who were held as slaves on a Thai fishing boat for weeks have been returned to Cambodia and have filed a complaint with the Anti-Human Trafficking department in an attempt to seek out the broker who tricked them, Cambodian NGO Action Pour Les Enfants said yesterday.
The teenagers, aged 16 and 17, were repatriated with assistance from APLE on December 31 after their ordeal.
“From our research, we know that the boys were lured and cheated by masterminds to cross the border illegally in Thailand and then were tricked to work on a Thai fishing boat,” APLE country director Samleang Seila told the Post.
“It is a serious labour abuse to have these boys trafficked under-age,” Samleang Seila said.
“The victims crossed in the wilderness along the border at Poipet into Thailand where other brokers picked them up and took them to the fishing boat where they were held.”
Samleang Seila said the boys were forced to perform hard labour and work overtime until Thai authorities rescued them.
Human trafficking of young, and often under-age, males to fishing boats in Thailand made headlines last year as returnees described the horror and merciless conditions of their captivity aboard the boats. APLE often cooperated with Thai authorities to repatriate tricked and trafficked victims, Samleang Seila said.
In this instance, on December 12, when the families of the boys reported them missing after they had disappeared three days earlier, APLE contacted the Thai Senate Committee on Labour and Social Welfare to coordinate a rescue.
Keo Thea, director of the municipal Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection office, declined to comment in detail about the complaint for fear the brokers would take flight or go into hiding.
“We are investigating and we will continue our investigations until we catch the brokers,” Keo Thea said. Toek Salin, the 45-year-old father of one of the victims, said his son had been studying in grade 11 at school, but he had not realised his son had wanted to work.
“We never allowed our son to work, just to study only, but then one day, he did not come home from school, and we had no idea where he was or what had happened,” Toek Salin said.
Between December 6 and 12 last year, 60 Cambodian fishermen were rescued from boats in Indonesia and repatriated after being lured to Thailand supposedly to work in high-paying jobs.
Instead, the fishermen were subjected to abusive working conditions on the boats and were not paid, the Post reported.
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