Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Human Trafficking and Migration in Central Asia: Two Tales of Ordeal – 2 0 3 0 – Medium
"After stripping him of his documents, the couple held him against his will in their small apartment with poor sanitation and, for four months during the cold fall and winter season, they forced him to beg on the streets of Almaty, Kazakhstan, without an umbrella or jacket. Despite the average $33 he collected each day, they fed him once daily and would beat him if he refused to go out on the street."
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Human Trafficking and Migration in Central Asia: Two Tales of Ordeal – 2 0 3 0 – Medium:
Friday, April 26, 2013
Vietnamese Trapped in ‘Murky’ Trafficking Syndicates in Russia
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/trafficking-04222013184538.html
Source: Radio Free Asia
Source: Radio Free Asia
2013-04-22
A file photo of a poster in a street in Ho Chi Minh City appealing to people to be vigilant against human trafficking.
AFP
AFP
The re
The recent case of 15 Vietnamese women trapped in a Moscow sex-trafficking ring underscores a larger problem of human trafficking involving thousands of Vietnamese in Russia, according to a rights group.
Many of the Vietnamese are held captive by their own compatriots who run several thousand sweatshops and brothels in and around the Russian capital, according to anti-trafficking advocacy group Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA).
The U.S.-based CAMSA recently disclosed the plight of the 15 women who fell prey to a Vietnamese run sex trafficking ring in Russia which it charged had operated with the help of the Vietnamese embassy in Moscow.
After public exposure to the case prompted the brothel owner to let the women go in batches over the past month, the last of the 15 women returned home to Vietnam on Friday, CAMSA co-founder Nguyen Dinh Thang told RFA.
But the trafficker who brought them there and forced them into sex slavery remains at large, and Russian police have been “very slow” in responding to the case, he said.
Vietnamese-run sweatshops and brothels
CAMSA estimates Moscow has 3,000 Vietnamese-run sweatshops, each employing from a few to over a hundred workers, many of them victims of forced labor.
The city also has “numerous” brothels run by Vietnamese—serving mostly Vietnamese clients—where young women from the country are forced into prostitution after being lured to Russia with employment offers, Thang said.
He said he has personally worked on six cases involving some 300 Vietnamese victims of labor and sex trafficking trapped in Russia since last year.
“This experience would shine some light on the highly complex and murky human trafficking situation in this vast country,” he said at a U.S. congressional hearing on human trafficking last week.
“Vietnamese victims of human trafficking in Russia have practically no chance of finding freedom,” he said.
“The existing system in Russia makes it practically impossible for victims to escape and seek help."
Police 'complicity'
About half of the identified victims that CAMSA has tried to rescue over the past 18 months are still trapped by their traffickers.
Many of those who ran away from the sweatshops have been returned to their traffickers by Russian police, who have close links to traffickers, according to Thang.
“The syndicates that traffic them do so almost openly, counting on the complicity of the local police,” Thang said.
None of the cases that the group has brought to the attention of Russian authorities have been identified by the Russian government as human trafficking cases.
The Vietnamese government estimates that 30 percent of the 10,000 Vietnamese migrant workers in Russia traveled on an official labor export program and the rest made their own way on tourist visas, indicating some 7,000 are working there illegally.
But CAMSA estimates that figure is just the tip of the iceberg.
“We believe the actual number is many times higher,” Thang said.
Aside from being a destination country for people trafficked from Vietnam and other countries, Russia is also a source and transit country in the movement of trafficked victims, while Vietnam is also a destination country for people trafficked from around Southeast Asia, officials and rights groups say.
On the U.S. State Department’s annual global report on human trafficking last year, Russia was rated a “Tier 2 Watch List” country – a designation for countries in danger of falling down to the Tier 3 blacklist of countries that do not comply with minimum standards for addressing human trafficking.
Vietnam was upgraded last year from a “Tier 2 Watch List” to “Tier 2” ranking.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Vietnamese Women Fall Prey to Sex Racket
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/trafficking-03282013190106.html
Source: Radio Free Asia
Source: Radio Free Asia
Updated at 11:00 a.m. EDT on 2013-03-29
Fifteen Vietnamese women have been forced into sex slavery after going to work in Russia, according to one of them who managed to escape following a one-year ordeal at a Moscow brothel but is still living in fear of her captors.
Huynh Thi Be Huong said she was among four women who initially fled the Vietnamese-run brothel in January and, through relatives back home, sought help from the Vietnamese Embassy at the Russian capital.
But possible links between an official at the embassy, who had handled their case, and the brothel owner led to their recapture by the brothel's ringleaders, she told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
Be Huong said she and another woman finally managed to break free from the clutches of the prostitution ring but the 13 others are still trapped in the brothel.
Speaking after her return home in early March, she said the official at the embassy who is suspected of having links with the prostitution ring is a relative of the brothel’s owners.
Before letting her return to Vietnam, embassy officials and brothel owners had forced her to sign a statement saying that the brothel owners had not harmed her, Be Huong said.
Be Huong also said that she is afraid to return to her hometown, Go Quao, in southern Vietnam’s Kien Giang province, for fear of being targeted by traffickers again.
“I’m still scared but my wish is to rescue all the women left behind so I’m willing to do whatever I can,” she told RFA this month.
Interpol in Vietnam said it has alerted its Russian counterpart about the case, but it was not immediately clear whether the Russian authorities have begun investigations on the issue.
A Russian news agency reported last week that two Vietnamese women who had allegedly been exploited for sex slavery have been freed from an illegal Moscow brothel, but details on the victims were not explained.
Forced into sex slavery
Be Huong, 27, said she went to Moscow in December 2011 expecting a three-month stint at a restaurant, but instead discovered that she had been sold to work as a prostitute in the brothel.
“It is a house with three rooms, and when the clients came we laid out the mats and that was how we worked,” she said.
The brothel, which served mostly Vietnamese clients, was run by a woman in her 40s from central Vietnam’s Nghe An province.
Be Huong identified her as Thuy An, saying she beat the women working there severely and controlled the money they received from clients.
“She assigned people to guard us. She did not let newcomers go out. Everybody had to work.”
“For each customer we served, we got points, which were added up in a book. At the end of the month, the points would be divided in half: half for her, half for us.”
“If we did not obey her and work, she would punish us to the extent where we could not lift our heads,” she said.
One of those brought was as young as 16 years old when she arrived, she said.
When contacted by RFA last month, Thuy An said she was not breaking the law.
“I’m running a legal business. I have been living here for many years. I don’t want to have any bad rumors about my name,” Thuy An, who also goes by An Ot, told RFA last month.
But Be Huong said the women were forced to work as sex slaves and that Thuy An had urged her to ask her relatives back home to send ransom money to allow her to be sent home.
“For one year and two months, I could not send a single dong [a unit of Vietnamese currency] back to my family, and I still was forced to work,” Be Huong said.
Making a break for it
Then in January, Be Huong escaped from the brothel with three other women—Thu Linh, Ngan Giang, and Nguyen Pham Thai Ha—and while living in hiding from the brothel owners in Moscow contacted relatives asking for help to get back home.
“She told me to report it to the police. I reported it to the police [in Vietnam], and they contacted the Vietnamese Embassy in Russia,” said Be Huong’s mother Le Thuy, in Kieng Gang province, who had not heard from her daughter for a year until then.
Refused help from the embassy
Relatives put her in touch with the Vietnamese Embassy in Moscow who refused to help them, and shortly afterward they were recaptured by the traffickers, according to Be Huong.
“I got the number of Nguyen Dong Trieu, who is in charge of security matters at the embassy. I called him but he refused to help us,” Be Huong said.
Trieu, a consular envoy at the embassy, had told Be Huong that prostitution is not illegal in Russia so there was nothing he could do to help, according to her sister Danh Hui, who lives in Texas and contacted the U.S.-based trafficking organization Coalition to Abolish Modern-Day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA) for help with the case.
“Be Huong told me that he said in Russia, prostitution is legal, unlike the way it is in Vietnam or other countries. He said it as if he did not want to help her,” Danh Hui said.
Recaptured by brothel owners
Shortly after the women contacted Trieu, the four women were recaptured by the brothel owners in February, Be Huong said.
She later found out Trieu was a relatives of Thuy An’s, and that Thuy An often called him “brother” or “uncle,” she said.
“Two days after my talk with Trieu, Thuy An, Huy, and another man came to our hiding place,” and forced the women to go back to the brothel, Be Huong said.
“We had no choice and could not resist.”
Be Huong’s mother said no one knew how the brothel owners learned where the women were hiding, and her sister said that it was only after the women got in touch with Trieu that they were found.
“After Be Huong talked to a man at the Vietnamese Embassy, she got caught,” she said.
Trieu refused to comment when contacted by RFA last month.
Back at the brothel, Thuy An beat the women until their faces were swollen for running away, Be Huong said.
But Be Huong was not beaten because she had been in touch with embassy officials, she said.
“She thought that if she gave me any bruises then when the embassy sent for me they would see them.”
Forced to write a letter at the embassy
In March, Thuy An told Be Huong she was letting her go and brought her to the embassy in Moscow.
“She said, ‘It’s because you couldn’t do your job that I’m letting you go, not because of what your sister in the U.S. has done,” Be Huong said.
At the embassy, a staff member named Kien, who knew Thuy An, forced Be Huong to write a letter saying that what she had told her relatives about Thuy An was not true, and that Thuy An and embassy officials were helping her to return to Vietnam.
“He told me to write a letter saying, ‘Thank you for the help from Thuy An and the embassy, who got involved so that I could go back to Vietnam.’”
Be Huong wrote the letter and was put on a plane, arriving back in Vietnam on March 3.
Remaining concerns
Thuy An also told her to call her relatives and retract what she had alleged about Thuy An, she said.
But Be Huong remains concerned about the women still in Russia and is still hiding from “Thuy An’s people” in Vietnam, she said.
“I hope she will be punished by the law and my friends will be freed,” Be Huong said.
“Be Huong has to hide in Saigon [Ho Chi Minh City] and dare not go home because [Thuy An] sent people to our place,” her sister said.
In Texas, Danh Hui has raised her sister’s case with Texas lawmakers Sheila Jackson and Al Green, who has promised to “do what he can.”
Thao Vu, the sister of one of the 13 women left behind at the brothel, Pham Thi Be Trang, said she had not heard from her and was working with CAMSA to get her back home.
Through CAMSA, Thao Vu, who lives in California, has submitted information on the case to California congresswomen Zoe Lofgren.
Reported by Gwen Ha for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
Fifteen Vietnamese women have been forced into sex slavery after going to work in Russia, according to one of them who managed to escape following a one-year ordeal at a Moscow brothel but is still living in fear of her captors.
Huynh Thi Be Huong said she was among four women who initially fled the Vietnamese-run brothel in January and, through relatives back home, sought help from the Vietnamese Embassy at the Russian capital.
But possible links between an official at the embassy, who had handled their case, and the brothel owner led to their recapture by the brothel's ringleaders, she told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
Be Huong said she and another woman finally managed to break free from the clutches of the prostitution ring but the 13 others are still trapped in the brothel.
Speaking after her return home in early March, she said the official at the embassy who is suspected of having links with the prostitution ring is a relative of the brothel’s owners.
Before letting her return to Vietnam, embassy officials and brothel owners had forced her to sign a statement saying that the brothel owners had not harmed her, Be Huong said.
Be Huong also said that she is afraid to return to her hometown, Go Quao, in southern Vietnam’s Kien Giang province, for fear of being targeted by traffickers again.
“I’m still scared but my wish is to rescue all the women left behind so I’m willing to do whatever I can,” she told RFA this month.
Interpol in Vietnam said it has alerted its Russian counterpart about the case, but it was not immediately clear whether the Russian authorities have begun investigations on the issue.
A Russian news agency reported last week that two Vietnamese women who had allegedly been exploited for sex slavery have been freed from an illegal Moscow brothel, but details on the victims were not explained.
Forced into sex slavery
Be Huong, 27, said she went to Moscow in December 2011 expecting a three-month stint at a restaurant, but instead discovered that she had been sold to work as a prostitute in the brothel.
“It is a house with three rooms, and when the clients came we laid out the mats and that was how we worked,” she said.
The brothel, which served mostly Vietnamese clients, was run by a woman in her 40s from central Vietnam’s Nghe An province.
Be Huong identified her as Thuy An, saying she beat the women working there severely and controlled the money they received from clients.
“She assigned people to guard us. She did not let newcomers go out. Everybody had to work.”
“For each customer we served, we got points, which were added up in a book. At the end of the month, the points would be divided in half: half for her, half for us.”
“If we did not obey her and work, she would punish us to the extent where we could not lift our heads,” she said.
One of those brought was as young as 16 years old when she arrived, she said.
When contacted by RFA last month, Thuy An said she was not breaking the law.
“I’m running a legal business. I have been living here for many years. I don’t want to have any bad rumors about my name,” Thuy An, who also goes by An Ot, told RFA last month.
But Be Huong said the women were forced to work as sex slaves and that Thuy An had urged her to ask her relatives back home to send ransom money to allow her to be sent home.
“For one year and two months, I could not send a single dong [a unit of Vietnamese currency] back to my family, and I still was forced to work,” Be Huong said.
Making a break for it
Then in January, Be Huong escaped from the brothel with three other women—Thu Linh, Ngan Giang, and Nguyen Pham Thai Ha—and while living in hiding from the brothel owners in Moscow contacted relatives asking for help to get back home.
“She told me to report it to the police. I reported it to the police [in Vietnam], and they contacted the Vietnamese Embassy in Russia,” said Be Huong’s mother Le Thuy, in Kieng Gang province, who had not heard from her daughter for a year until then.
Refused help from the embassy
Relatives put her in touch with the Vietnamese Embassy in Moscow who refused to help them, and shortly afterward they were recaptured by the traffickers, according to Be Huong.
“I got the number of Nguyen Dong Trieu, who is in charge of security matters at the embassy. I called him but he refused to help us,” Be Huong said.
Trieu, a consular envoy at the embassy, had told Be Huong that prostitution is not illegal in Russia so there was nothing he could do to help, according to her sister Danh Hui, who lives in Texas and contacted the U.S.-based trafficking organization Coalition to Abolish Modern-Day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA) for help with the case.
“Be Huong told me that he said in Russia, prostitution is legal, unlike the way it is in Vietnam or other countries. He said it as if he did not want to help her,” Danh Hui said.
Recaptured by brothel owners
Shortly after the women contacted Trieu, the four women were recaptured by the brothel owners in February, Be Huong said.
She later found out Trieu was a relatives of Thuy An’s, and that Thuy An often called him “brother” or “uncle,” she said.
“Two days after my talk with Trieu, Thuy An, Huy, and another man came to our hiding place,” and forced the women to go back to the brothel, Be Huong said.
“We had no choice and could not resist.”
Be Huong’s mother said no one knew how the brothel owners learned where the women were hiding, and her sister said that it was only after the women got in touch with Trieu that they were found.
“After Be Huong talked to a man at the Vietnamese Embassy, she got caught,” she said.
Trieu refused to comment when contacted by RFA last month.
Back at the brothel, Thuy An beat the women until their faces were swollen for running away, Be Huong said.
But Be Huong was not beaten because she had been in touch with embassy officials, she said.
“She thought that if she gave me any bruises then when the embassy sent for me they would see them.”
Forced to write a letter at the embassy
In March, Thuy An told Be Huong she was letting her go and brought her to the embassy in Moscow.
“She said, ‘It’s because you couldn’t do your job that I’m letting you go, not because of what your sister in the U.S. has done,” Be Huong said.
At the embassy, a staff member named Kien, who knew Thuy An, forced Be Huong to write a letter saying that what she had told her relatives about Thuy An was not true, and that Thuy An and embassy officials were helping her to return to Vietnam.
“He told me to write a letter saying, ‘Thank you for the help from Thuy An and the embassy, who got involved so that I could go back to Vietnam.’”
Be Huong wrote the letter and was put on a plane, arriving back in Vietnam on March 3.
Remaining concerns
Thuy An also told her to call her relatives and retract what she had alleged about Thuy An, she said.
But Be Huong remains concerned about the women still in Russia and is still hiding from “Thuy An’s people” in Vietnam, she said.
“I hope she will be punished by the law and my friends will be freed,” Be Huong said.
“Be Huong has to hide in Saigon [Ho Chi Minh City] and dare not go home because [Thuy An] sent people to our place,” her sister said.
In Texas, Danh Hui has raised her sister’s case with Texas lawmakers Sheila Jackson and Al Green, who has promised to “do what he can.”
Thao Vu, the sister of one of the 13 women left behind at the brothel, Pham Thi Be Trang, said she had not heard from her and was working with CAMSA to get her back home.
Through CAMSA, Thao Vu, who lives in California, has submitted information on the case to California congresswomen Zoe Lofgren.
Reported by Gwen Ha for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Professor explains horrors of human trafficking - The Oracle: University of South Florida
http://www.usforacle.com/professor-explains-horrors-of-human-trafficking-1.2811410#.USKDVR3Wj0t
Source: The Oracle: University of South Florida
Source: The Oracle: University of South Florida
Published: Monday, February 18, 2013
Updated: Monday, February 18, 2013 00:02
For many students, the thought of a young child sold into a world of violence and abuse for a mere $200 by her mother or father is a scenario thought about when watching Hollywood-produced movies such as “Taken.”
Yet for numerous women and children around the world, the scenario is a ruthless reality.
The topic was the focus of a lecture by Leonardo Territo, a professor in the department of criminal justice at Saint Leo University and professor emeritus in the department of criminology at USF, who spoke to a small crowd of about 20 in the John and Grace Allen Building on Friday.
Territo, who served as chairman of the department of police administration and director of the Florida Institute for law enforcement at St. Petersburg College, gave students in the Honors College a deeper insight into the content of the book he co-wrote titled “International Sex Trafficking of Women and Children.”
Due to corrupted living conditions in many countries such as Russia and Cambodia, Territo said the appeal of coming to America runs high for many women living in such places looking for a better way of life.
According to Territo, about 14,500 to 17,000 foreign women and children are trafficked into the U.S each year and physically controlled by their captor.
Territo said a reason for this is the use of false advertisements that con many women into becoming sex slaves unknowingly.
“Generally there will be ads in newspapers offering lucrative job opportunities such as waitress jobs or nanny openings,” he said. “She will be drugged and repeatedly raped. She’ll be moved place to place, not able to establish relationships with others.”
Territo spoke of the brutality of human trafficking.
He shared the story of a 13-year-old Cambodian girl named Long Pross, who had her eye gouged out with a piece of metal by a pimp because she asked to be set free.
“Many girls in places such as Cambodia may be sold for as little as $200 to $300 and will not likely see their parents again,” Territosaid.
But foreign women and children are not the only casualties of this brutal business.
According to Territo, roughly 100,000 to 300,000 American children are sexually exploited annually.
Students such as Monica Restro, a freshman majoring in civil engineering, were alarmed by the statistics.
“Coming in, I knew it was a problem in foreign countries but not in the U.S.,” Restro said. “It really opened my eyes to the awful people who live here and do these things.”
In the U.S, Territo said pimps seek out troubled young women, often runaways, at public places such as shopping malls or bus stops in order to take advantage of them. The pimps, he said, are master manipulators and work by schmoozing their underage prospects at first. These pimps will buy them lavish gifts and shower the girls with affection.
“It’s often the first time in these girls’ lives that a man has treated them that way,” Territo said. “The average age of a young person entering prostitution is 14 years old. Many think, ‘Who would want to be intimate with a girl that small?’ You’d be surprised.”
Often times the younger the girl is the more expensive she is to the customer, Territo added.
Territo said he hopes education about human trafficking continues to spread throughout the community. He said the industry is all about money, and there is no lack of customers.
“It’s a tragic subject, but an important subject,” Territo said.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
I’m not for sale: Atlanta a hub for human trafficking | Kaleidoscope - UAB Campus News
http://studentmedia.uab.edu/2012/03/im-not-for-sale-atlanta-a-hub-for-human-trafficking/
Source: Kaleidoscope - UAB Campus News
Mar 13, 2012
Source: Kaleidoscope - UAB Campus News
Mar 13, 2012
$300 for Maryam.
That’s how much the young Kazakh girl was sold for by her parents to a man claiming to take her to Russia to put her to work as a shop assistant.
After arriving in Russia, she found home in a barred cell with a locked metal door.
According to the 2007 Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report, 17-year-old Maryam refused after being told she would be used as a prostitute. She was beaten, raped and starved for five days before giving in.
A passenger zips through the security checkpoint at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Wednesday, November 21, 2007, the day before Thanksgiving on what is expected to be one of the heaviest travel days of the year. (Pouya Dianat/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/MCT)
Also in the report was Jenny, a 14-year-old Nigerian girl, who was sold to a married couple in the United States as a nanny for their children.
For five years, she was raped by her employer and abused by his wife.
These are two of hundreds of thousands of human beings trafficked in the world today, from Svay Pak in Cambodia to the southeastern United States.
These are two of hundreds of thousands of human beings trafficked in the world today, from Svay Pak in Cambodia to the southeastern United States.
Despite the growing awareness of human trafficking and its existence around the world, the issue itself continues to grow as well.
Many efforts are made each year to help reduce this issue in places such as Svay Pak and Atlanta, two cities separated by about 10,000 miles of ocean and land. What they share, however, goes much deeper than distance.
Agape International Missions is a Cambodian based organization aimed at preventing child sex trafficking and restoring hope to its victims.
Don Brewster, Executive Director and CEO, said he first came to realize the problem of sex trafficking by an NBC dateline special.
“[I] Put together a team to spend a month in Cambodia researching the problem, determining the greatest need, and developing a plan to meet it,” said Brewster.
“We rescue some girls, we also get girls from other NGOs who rescue girls, but don’t have aftercare, and from the Cambodian government.”
NGOs, or non-government organizations, such as Agape International Missions, rescue and provide help for victims of sex trafficking.
Being based in Cambodia, a central transit country for sex trafficking, Brewster witnesses the purchasing of young girls by men from all over, including western men from the United States, which he claims is particularly difficult to see.
“American men coming to Svay Pak to find little girls to rape and torture,” he said. “Taking a little girl into the hospital wearing blood soaked clothes that are the result of her being raped.”
This is the reality forced upon many young girls due to various circumstances. Brewster says that many of the young girls are sold into slavery by the parents, the parents are tricked or the girls are kidnapped.
“Or forced by cultural expectations to meet the economic needs of their families,” he said.
According to Brewster, the Cambodian world of sex trafficking of children focuses on young girls.
“In Svay Pak, it’s primarily prepubescent girls. Nation wide, most girls fall into ages ranging from early teens to early twenties,” he said. “All data available is anecdotal; however, it clearly indicates the number of girls far exceeds boys. Basically, boys are not the organized crime that girls are.”
The awareness of human trafficking spreads throughout the globe in an effective way. That includes the UAB campus and student body. Just last October, Exodus Cry’s “Incurable Fanatics” tour screened their documentary “Nefarious: Merchant of Souls”, which details sex trafficking and how it flourishes in countries all over.
Blaire Pilkington, Exodus Cry Director of Philanthropy, was quoted in the Kaleidoscope, “After seeing a 50 year-old-man fondling a 12-year-old girl, I knew I had to do something. This is not just a problem in Cambodia; it is global.”
About 140 miles east of Birmingham is one of the largest hubs for sex trafficking in the United States. Atlanta is host to about 400 children under the age of seventeen being trafficked each month.
Many of the trafficking that occurs within Atlanta seeks home in other nearby cities as well, including Birmingham.
It’s a new market. A fight to prevent this is being made, however.
Meet Justice is an NGO that fights human trafficking and other social injustices. It is also the parent organization of Innocence Atlanta, a campaign seeking to raise awareness of the sexual exploitation of children in Atlanta and to bring about a solution.
Elizabeth Clymer, web writer and representative of Meet Justice, claims that a major factor for Atlanta’s large trafficking problem is its airport.
“Because Atlanta is home to one of the largest International airports in the world, many international victims do come through Atlanta,” said Clymer. “However, many victims of sex trafficking in America are actually U.S. citizens.
“It’s hard to quantify the amount of trafficking that comes through this city because there are so few resources available to track it.”
According to Clymer, the FBI will begin to gather statistics from local law enforcement agencies in 2013 that will detail the demographics and numbers of trafficking in the state.
Despite the growing number of young women and girls being trafficked each year, the efforts being made to put a stop to it increase as well. And out of the depths of sex trade is encouragement from one survivor to a potential other.
“I can tell you that many young girls and women have come out of a terrible time in their lives to help others do the same,” said Clymer.
Richard Parrish
Staff Writer
riparris@uab.edu
Staff Writer
riparris@uab.edu
Related articles
Monday, August 9, 2010
Focus shifts to trafficking of males
Image via WikipediaThursday, 06 August 2009 10:59
Governments and non-governmental organisations must raise awareness of the growing problem of male trafficking in Eastern Europe if victims are to get the help they need, people trafficking monitors say.
More and more men are falling victim to people traffickers, although unlike most trafficked women who end up in prostitution, these men are instead forced to work as virtual slaves by gang masters.
Hundreds of thousands of men are believed to have fallen victim, with Eastern European states such as Belarus and the Ukraine experiencing some of the worst of what migration watchdogs say is a “growing problem” worldwide.
Public perception
“This is a growing problem, and awareness of the issue of male trafficking has to be raised if we are to help its victims,” Jean-Phillipe Chauzy, head of communications at the International Organisation for Migration’s (IOM) head office in Brussels, told IPS.
“The public perception is that human trafficking victims are all vulnerable females forced into prostitution and sexual slavery, but this is not the case. It does not occur to many people that the scale of trafficking is much broader, and that it affects a sizeable amount of men. Organisations have to work now to make sure people know about this.”
Human trafficking has become a global business worth many billions of euros. Estimates of people trafficked every year run into the millions. Figures from the IOM show that a large percentage of trafficked people are men.
In a report on Belarus and the Ukraine released earlier this year, the IOM said that in these two countries male victims respectively accounted for 28.3 per cent and 17.6 per cent of all victims assisted by IOM and partner groups between 2004 and 2006.
Tricks and incentives
Like female victims, men are tricked into going abroad for work. When they arrive, gang masters use a combination of abuse, threats, non-payment of wages and restriction of movement to stop them going home.
A small number, according to organisations like the International Red Cross, are forced into sexual slavery. The majority, however, are put to work in appalling conditions for up to 14 hours a day, seven days a week for little pay, mostly on construction sites.
In Belarus alone it is thought that up to 800,000 “missing” people – both men and women – could be working in Russia against their will. It’s not illegal in Russia for employers to retain staff passports or keep workers virtually imprisoned in a work compound.
Joe Lowry, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies representative for the Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, told IPS: “Russia is a primary end destination for trafficked men. No visas are needed for people from Belarus and the Ukraine, and checks in and out of Belarus are not as tight as there is a customs union between Belarus and Russia.”
The economic crisis has plunged already poor countries in the region into even deeper poverty and increased the social vulnerability that makes people easy prey for traffickers.
Lowry says that this is especially true for men during the economic crisis. “The number of males being trafficked is rising…The economic crisis has put pressure on men to go out and find work to support their families, and in such times people begin to take more risks,” he told IPS.
Support networks
Experts say that like female trafficking victims, men are also left physically and mentally harmed by their ordeals. However, they say that these men often have a harder time getting help than women do if they escape their traffickers.
The stigma which can be a barrier to many women seeking help after they are trafficked is felt just as strongly, if not more strongly, by male victims: “for men who went abroad to find work, to come back and admit they were conned and fell victim to traffickers is something that the male psyche may not handle very well,” Lowry points out.
Yet, many male victims are simply unaware that there is any help available for them.
“If you end up in a country with no passport, no job and no money, the chances are that you will end up being exploited. But the safety net in such cases is much broader for women than for men,” the IOM’s Chauzy told IPS.
Yet, growing awareness of the problem among the general public, as well as among NGOs in the field, can now help get the message to victims that there are organisations who can help them, Chauzy notes.
PAVOL STRACANSKY - IPS
Focus shifts to trafficking of males
Monday, May 31, 2010
Tajikistan: Tajik Islamic Party official accused of human trafficking - Ferghana.Ru Information agency, Moscow
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Ferghana.Ru
The law enforcement bodies of Tajikistan accuse the Islamic Renaissance Party leaders of human trafficking.
Davlat Najmiddinov, who heads the anti-organized-crime department in the province's Kulob district, told RFE/RL that Abdufattoh Abdukholiqov is suspected in "two case of selling women". He is still free, but law enforcement officers already filed the criminal case against him.
Najmiddinov informed that Abdukholiqov and some Nematullo Sharifov offered $500 for the daughter of one of the residents.
"The detained the suspects in the Kulyab area and found the exhibits: the passport and the ticket for underage girl from Dushanbe to Yekaterinburg", said IAM representative.
Najmiddinov also said that two months ago the suspects paid $200 for elder sister of this girl that was sent to Yekaterinburg, where she became the second wife of Tajik businessman (the native of Sogd Oblast), living in Kazakhstan.
Abdukholiqov denies all charges. "We were going to build a family for these girls, but not to traffic them – he mentioned. – We know this family. Their elder daughter got divorced few years ago and we were trying to find someone for her. Our friend from Sogd Oblast wanted to marry her".
Regarding 16-year old girl Abdukholiqov said "She was from poor family and we decided to help her get married. We found the friend in Moscow, but the law enforcement officers did not allow her leaving the country".
Meanwhile the experts say that the poverty and ignorance of rights are the major reasons why local mafia groups organize the human trafficking.
"The seminars proved the majority of people have no information about human trafficking and become victims" said Makhbuba Sharifova, the Director of Mariam public organization. According to her, "the criminals make up to $50 thousand for each girl. In the last years, the major destinations for them were Kyrgyzstan and Russia".
Najmiddinov informed that three human trafficking cases were filed only in Kulyab group of districts, the Khatlon Oblast.
Tajikistan: Tajik Islamic Party official accused of human trafficking - Ferghana.Ru Information agency, Moscow
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Kyrgyz children slaves liberated in Russia
Published 29 December, 2009, 06:18
Edited 29 December, 2009, 11:31
In an illegal sewing factory in the town of Noginsk in the Moscow region, investigators found 15 exhausted Kyrgyz children aged from 11 to 17 who were forced to work long hours with little food and even less money.
The children were selected by ruthless employees who target poor families, telling them their children would be well looked after – but the reality is often very different. Children from Kyrgyzstan claim they worked twelve hours a day and were frequently physically abused.
“The parents were promised that the children will work with two days off a week, paid salaries and be provided with an opportunity to communicate with parents,” said Anastasia Lokteva, Press Officer for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. “In reality, the children were kept in barrack-like buildings, worked 12-hour night shifts, and ate twice a day mainly mayonnaise and bread.”
“I began working when I was 15,” said one of the underage slaves. “I came here with my brother. We work 12 hours a day.”
It is thought that around 2,000 children work as slaves in factories similar to this one throughout Russia, and without proper regulation and enforcement the problem will keep on growing. Over the past several years, there has been an increasing movement to combat human trafficking, but despite these efforts there are still basic issues that need to be tackled.
“We propose to toughen responsibility of employees, first of all, it should be criminal responsibility with serious administrative fines for the use of illegal workers,” said the Director of Moscow’s Bureau of Human Rights, Aleksandr Brod. “Second, the law enforcement agencies should work well and very precise procedures should be conducted on the state borders, as we are aware of corruption when law enforcement officials openly provide protection for such factories. They just receive money illegally for such services and close their eyes.”
In the past few years, the number of cases investigated has remained low and the number of people who are sentenced is even lower.
For the time being, these boys have escaped a life of modern day slavery, but there remain thousands of other children still caught in the trap.
http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-12-29/kyrgyz-children-slave-release.html
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Edited 29 December, 2009, 11:31
In an illegal sewing factory in the town of Noginsk in the Moscow region, investigators found 15 exhausted Kyrgyz children aged from 11 to 17 who were forced to work long hours with little food and even less money.
The children were selected by ruthless employees who target poor families, telling them their children would be well looked after – but the reality is often very different. Children from Kyrgyzstan claim they worked twelve hours a day and were frequently physically abused.
“The parents were promised that the children will work with two days off a week, paid salaries and be provided with an opportunity to communicate with parents,” said Anastasia Lokteva, Press Officer for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. “In reality, the children were kept in barrack-like buildings, worked 12-hour night shifts, and ate twice a day mainly mayonnaise and bread.”
“I began working when I was 15,” said one of the underage slaves. “I came here with my brother. We work 12 hours a day.”
It is thought that around 2,000 children work as slaves in factories similar to this one throughout Russia, and without proper regulation and enforcement the problem will keep on growing. Over the past several years, there has been an increasing movement to combat human trafficking, but despite these efforts there are still basic issues that need to be tackled.
“We propose to toughen responsibility of employees, first of all, it should be criminal responsibility with serious administrative fines for the use of illegal workers,” said the Director of Moscow’s Bureau of Human Rights, Aleksandr Brod. “Second, the law enforcement agencies should work well and very precise procedures should be conducted on the state borders, as we are aware of corruption when law enforcement officials openly provide protection for such factories. They just receive money illegally for such services and close their eyes.”
In the past few years, the number of cases investigated has remained low and the number of people who are sentenced is even lower.
For the time being, these boys have escaped a life of modern day slavery, but there remain thousands of other children still caught in the trap.
http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-12-29/kyrgyz-children-slave-release.html
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Burmese 'Trafficked' To Thailand
2009-11-04
Burmese migrant workers fall prey to traffickers with the promise of work in Thailand.
Burmese migrant laborers repair a fish net at a fish market on Phuket island in Thailand, July 21, 2009.
BANGKOK—Burmese migrant workers in Thailand have described paying large fees to human traffickers who promised them jobs in the southeast Asian kingdom, only to sell them into forced labor on arrival.
One Burmese migrant from Myawaddy currently in the care of social services in Bangkok said he had been promised passage to Thailand and a job in the construction industry by a Burmese named Ko Sein Aung.
"He was the carrier who handed us over to the person taking us across to Thailand along the illegal route. We had to pay him for that. It was 2,000 baht (U.S. $60)," the worker said.
"He told us we would get a job in construction. He said we would earn 195 baht (U.S. $6) a day. We were all sold off including me for 22,000 baht (U.S. $658) each to the fishing industry."
He said people in charge of the boats locked up the workers every night, before taking them back to the boats the next morning. They were not paid for their work.
"Every day when the boat we were working on reached the jetty and after we had unloaded the fish at night we were taken to our rooms and kept there, and the door locked from the outside," he said.
"That was how we were detained. The next day only when the fishing boat is due to leave were we sent to the boat."
Forced to migrate
Currently, Thailand is home to an estimated 2 million Burmese migrant workers, of whom only around half are there legally.
Burmese workers are highly visible in and around Bangkok and near the Central World Plaza, and Burmese children under 10 years old can be seen selling food on street stalls.
Many of the migrants say they were forced to move because of extreme poverty back home.
An ethnic Karen migrant from the troubled border area between Thailand and Burma said some of the trafficking was being carried out by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which recently made a ceasefire agreement with Burma's military government.
"It was Ko Than Win from the DKBA who told us that he would find us work in Thailand. We had to pay him 15,000 kyat (U.S. $2,304)," the Karen migrant said.
"He took us to Bangkok. He said he would give us a good job in the shrimp industry. We had to wait 10 days along the way," he said.
"We were hungry. We were just given plain rice with nothing else."
Help for refugees
Some of the migrants are being taken care of by social services in Thailand after reporting beatings and other physical abuse after being sold off as slave labor, Thai officials said.
"There are a total of 47 Burmese nationals with us here," an official at the Patuhtani social welfare and rehabilitation department of the Thai government identified as Mr. Suwan said.
"We have arranged food and accommodations for them and are helping them with their rights and claims for damages," he added.
The group included men, women, and three 15-year-old children, according to a Thai lawyer surnamed Sriwun who is helping the refugees.
"Our lawyers’ group is helping refugees who have been treated unjustly, no matter what nationality they are," he said.
He said the Thai authorities had arrested a Burmese woman and two Thai nationals in connection with the allegations of human trafficking.
According to Mr. Suwan, the case could take up to 18 months to bring to trial.
The Myawaddy migrant said he was discovered by an aid group while working on the fishing boat. He had already been beaten following on escape attempt, he added.
"After we were caught they put me back in my room and beat me," he said. "A woman beat me with a two-yard pipe that she always carried. She beat me continuously. She also threatened to kill my father."
Trafficking hub
According to the U.S. State Department's latest Trafficking in Persons Report, Thailand is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.
"Women and children are trafficked from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, Russia, and Uzbekistan for commercial sexual exploitation in Thailand," the report said, saying the trafficking victims were usually from poorer rural areas who were attracted by the kingdom's relative prosperity.
But it lauded efforts by the Thai government to address the problem, including the expansion of a network of temporary shelters for trafficking victims from 99 to 138, with at least one temporary shelter in each Thai province.
The Thai government refers victims of trafficking to one of eight longer-stay regional shelters run by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS), where they receive psychological counseling, food, board, and medical care, the report said.
In 2008, Thai government shelters provided protection and social services for at least 102 repatriated Thai victims and 520 foreigners trafficked to Thailand.
Original reporting by RFA's Burmese service. Director: Nancy Shwe. Translated by Soe Thinn. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
One Burmese migrant from Myawaddy currently in the care of social services in Bangkok said he had been promised passage to Thailand and a job in the construction industry by a Burmese named Ko Sein Aung.
"He was the carrier who handed us over to the person taking us across to Thailand along the illegal route. We had to pay him for that. It was 2,000 baht (U.S. $60)," the worker said.
"He told us we would get a job in construction. He said we would earn 195 baht (U.S. $6) a day. We were all sold off including me for 22,000 baht (U.S. $658) each to the fishing industry."
He said people in charge of the boats locked up the workers every night, before taking them back to the boats the next morning. They were not paid for their work.
"Every day when the boat we were working on reached the jetty and after we had unloaded the fish at night we were taken to our rooms and kept there, and the door locked from the outside," he said.
"That was how we were detained. The next day only when the fishing boat is due to leave were we sent to the boat."
Forced to migrate
Currently, Thailand is home to an estimated 2 million Burmese migrant workers, of whom only around half are there legally.
Burmese workers are highly visible in and around Bangkok and near the Central World Plaza, and Burmese children under 10 years old can be seen selling food on street stalls.
Many of the migrants say they were forced to move because of extreme poverty back home.
An ethnic Karen migrant from the troubled border area between Thailand and Burma said some of the trafficking was being carried out by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which recently made a ceasefire agreement with Burma's military government.
"It was Ko Than Win from the DKBA who told us that he would find us work in Thailand. We had to pay him 15,000 kyat (U.S. $2,304)," the Karen migrant said.
"He took us to Bangkok. He said he would give us a good job in the shrimp industry. We had to wait 10 days along the way," he said.
"We were hungry. We were just given plain rice with nothing else."
Help for refugees
Some of the migrants are being taken care of by social services in Thailand after reporting beatings and other physical abuse after being sold off as slave labor, Thai officials said.
"There are a total of 47 Burmese nationals with us here," an official at the Patuhtani social welfare and rehabilitation department of the Thai government identified as Mr. Suwan said.
"We have arranged food and accommodations for them and are helping them with their rights and claims for damages," he added.
The group included men, women, and three 15-year-old children, according to a Thai lawyer surnamed Sriwun who is helping the refugees.
"Our lawyers’ group is helping refugees who have been treated unjustly, no matter what nationality they are," he said.
He said the Thai authorities had arrested a Burmese woman and two Thai nationals in connection with the allegations of human trafficking.
According to Mr. Suwan, the case could take up to 18 months to bring to trial.
The Myawaddy migrant said he was discovered by an aid group while working on the fishing boat. He had already been beaten following on escape attempt, he added.
"After we were caught they put me back in my room and beat me," he said. "A woman beat me with a two-yard pipe that she always carried. She beat me continuously. She also threatened to kill my father."
Trafficking hub
According to the U.S. State Department's latest Trafficking in Persons Report, Thailand is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.
"Women and children are trafficked from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, Russia, and Uzbekistan for commercial sexual exploitation in Thailand," the report said, saying the trafficking victims were usually from poorer rural areas who were attracted by the kingdom's relative prosperity.
But it lauded efforts by the Thai government to address the problem, including the expansion of a network of temporary shelters for trafficking victims from 99 to 138, with at least one temporary shelter in each Thai province.
The Thai government refers victims of trafficking to one of eight longer-stay regional shelters run by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS), where they receive psychological counseling, food, board, and medical care, the report said.
In 2008, Thai government shelters provided protection and social services for at least 102 repatriated Thai victims and 520 foreigners trafficked to Thailand.
Original reporting by RFA's Burmese service. Director: Nancy Shwe. Translated by Soe Thinn. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
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Lao Girls 'Trafficked for Sex'
2009-11-04
A rising number of Lao girls are being lured into Thai brothels with the promise of work.
Three young Laotian girls carry water in a village in Khammouane province, Nov. 27, 2002.
BANGKOK—A growing number of girls from Laos are being trafficked into neighboring Thailand and forced into prostitution, a nongovernment group in Thailand says.
The Bangkok-based Mirror Foundation said the numbers of minors, aged from 15 to 19, trafficked into prostitution from Laos to Thailand had risen by 20 percent compared with last year.
"There are voluntary and also unwilling girls, aged 15-19, who were brought from Laos by Lao brokers," group spokesman Niran Keokaseth said.
He said the agents persuade the girls to leave their poverty-stricken villages to come to Thailand with promises of employment.
"[They say] there are good jobs in Thailand, such as working in hair salons and beauty shops," Niran Keokaseth said.
"However, once they arrive, there are no such available jobs. It's just a lie," he said. "Then they are forced to work as prostitutes."
Experts cite the 2008 global financial crisis as a major cause for this trend, as factories close, joblessness worsens, and migrant workers and others become prey for unscrupulous brokers.
Trafficked from around the world
According to the U.S. State Department's latest Trafficking in Persons Report, Thailand is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.
"Women and children are trafficked from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, the People's Republic of China, Vietnam, Russia, and Uzbekistan for commercial sexual exploitation in Thailand," the report said, saying the trafficking victims are usually from poorer rural areas who were attracted by the kingdom's relative prosperity.
But it lauded efforts by the Thai government to address the problem, including the expansion of a network of temporary shelters for trafficking victims from 99 to 138, with at least one temporary shelter in each Thai province.
The Thai government refers victims of trafficking to one of eight longer-stay regional shelters run by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS), where they receive psychological counseling, food, board, and medical care, the report said.
In 2008, Thai government shelters provided protection and social services for at least 102 repatriated Thai victims and 520 foreigners trafficked to Thailand.
Original reporting by RFA's Lao service. Director: Viengsay Luangkhot. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
The Bangkok-based Mirror Foundation said the numbers of minors, aged from 15 to 19, trafficked into prostitution from Laos to Thailand had risen by 20 percent compared with last year.
"There are voluntary and also unwilling girls, aged 15-19, who were brought from Laos by Lao brokers," group spokesman Niran Keokaseth said.
He said the agents persuade the girls to leave their poverty-stricken villages to come to Thailand with promises of employment.
"[They say] there are good jobs in Thailand, such as working in hair salons and beauty shops," Niran Keokaseth said.
"However, once they arrive, there are no such available jobs. It's just a lie," he said. "Then they are forced to work as prostitutes."
Experts cite the 2008 global financial crisis as a major cause for this trend, as factories close, joblessness worsens, and migrant workers and others become prey for unscrupulous brokers.
Trafficked from around the world
According to the U.S. State Department's latest Trafficking in Persons Report, Thailand is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.
"Women and children are trafficked from Burma, Cambodia, Laos, the People's Republic of China, Vietnam, Russia, and Uzbekistan for commercial sexual exploitation in Thailand," the report said, saying the trafficking victims are usually from poorer rural areas who were attracted by the kingdom's relative prosperity.
But it lauded efforts by the Thai government to address the problem, including the expansion of a network of temporary shelters for trafficking victims from 99 to 138, with at least one temporary shelter in each Thai province.
The Thai government refers victims of trafficking to one of eight longer-stay regional shelters run by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS), where they receive psychological counseling, food, board, and medical care, the report said.
In 2008, Thai government shelters provided protection and social services for at least 102 repatriated Thai victims and 520 foreigners trafficked to Thailand.
Original reporting by RFA's Lao service. Director: Viengsay Luangkhot. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
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