Sri Lanka Sets Out to Protect Victims of Human Trafficking - International Organization for Migration

Sri Lanka Sets Out to Protect Victims of Human Trafficking - International Organization for Migration:

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Debate: Prevention and Victim Compensation | Human Rights Watch

Author(s): 

 Nisha Varia

Published in: 

 Anti-Trafficking Review

Afroza, a Bangladeshi woman who worked for sixteen years without getting paid and was not allowed to go home to visit her family. Keni, an Indonesian woman whose employers injured her with a hot iron, leaving disfiguring third-degree burns all over her body. Kartika, an older Sri Lankan woman whose employers made her work around the clock without pay, shaved her head to humiliate her and gouged pieces of flesh out of her arm with knives. 

Read more:

Debate: Prevention and Victim Compensation | Human Rights Watch:

Slavery at sea exposed - national | Stuff.co.nz

MICHAEL FIELD

Last updated 05:00 03/04/2011

NET PROFITS: New Zealand officials have long been aware of conditions on foreign-crewed fishing vessels but there have been no prosecutions

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Secret papers reveal the government has allowed fishermen from poor countries to be exploited in New Zealand waters.

Workers are fishing in rusting boats turned into high seas sweatshops that take large parts of the country's $1.4 billion-a-year catch.

The government papers reveal that thousands of men from poor areas are beaten and forced to work for days without rest, earning between $260 and $460 a month before paying much of it over to "agents".

Files obtained under the Official Information Act show the government has known about the problem for some time.

Foreign charter vessels – 21 in the last year – are hired by New Zealand companies to catch quota allocated to Maori under Treaty of Waitangi settlements. Many iwi granted quota under the Sealords Deal, cannot afford to buy boats, so they contract out their quota.

That catch, worth $300 million a year, is marketed as "Produce of New Zealand".

The boats compete with companies such as Nelson's Talley's Fisheries. Chief executive Peter Talley said the government knew what was happening but had responded only by setting basic standards for onboard observers.

"They do not care about the Filipinos, Indonesians and Ukrainians on the vessels."

Government papers show high-level awareness. One official reported that crewmen had told him they had never worked in such terrible conditions. "If these tales are correct, and I have no reason to doubt them, the conditions amount to little more than 'sweatshop' ones," he warned.

Skippers confiscate passports so crews can't flee despite violence. "Some crew members suggest they have been hit with pieces of wood, and even on the hands with a hammer," one paper said of crew from a ship whose name was censored.

Crew members are hit with fists and even with fish. "If anyone stands against the abuse, it has been known for them to be taken to a cabin and beaten. Individuals are reluctant to draw attention to themselves."

On one boat a crewman with tuberculosis got no help until fishing was completed. When he was finally put ashore, he was hospitalised for three weeks. Another crewman suffered appendicitis and received no help.

"Crews work when the fish are running, and are sometimes forced to work two or three days without a break. If fish are not running, they are sometimes not provided with an evening meal."

On one boat, three men working in the freezer were injured. "One suffered frostbite from working in the freezer, bad enough to require hospital treatment. When he returned to the vessel he was made to remove his dressings and get on with work."

Working conditions came into focus after last August's sinking of the 38-year-old Oyang 70, costing six lives, and four months later when the 31-year-old No.1 Insung, operating out of Bluff, sank in the Ross Sea with the loss of 22 lives.

Sources say the families of the crew lost on Oyang were mostly robbed of their insurance money by agents in Indonesia, while the Vietnamese on Insung earned as little as $238 a month, with deductions for agents, food and cigarettes from that.

A Talley's boat, Amaltal Atlantis, rescued the Oyang survivors 650km east of Dunedin. Nearby foreign charter vessels ignored distress calls.

"They wouldn't knock off fishing," Talley said. "We were the only ones who put man-overboard rafts into the sea. We picked up 41 of them. It is a crime, you are supposed to go to the aid of anyone in distress, but these guys are outside the law."

The foreign boats were old and none of their rescue boats were operational. "Life means nothing to them."

His claim is reflected in a government report recounting another unnamed foreign vessel losing a crewman overboard and not looking for him because it had no functional rescue craft. A New Zealand ship searched fruitlessly instead.

Talley says New Zealand fishing is like the wild west, and getting worse.

"I think because of the higher price of fuel around the world, and as more of these boats get displaced, New Zealand is ending up as the junkyard for these fleets. I think I can say without fear of contradiction that nothing has improved one bit, and, in many ways, things have got markedly worse."

Talley's has 11 ships, pays its crews New Zealand rates, and still makes a profit. "You would be amazed at the money these boys on our boats are making." Deckhands and factory workers earn between $40,000 and $80,000 a year.

Foreign charter vessels are chartered by New Zealand registered companies, in the case of the doomed Oyang 70, Southern Storm (2007) Ltd. On the morning the ship sank, 45% of the shares were held by Seoul's Oyang Corporation. Even as searchers were looking for the missing, the corporation had itself removed as a shareholder, leaving the company wholly-owned by Hyun Gwan Choi. Quota holders without their own boats hire foreign charter vessels and Talley says unscrupulous operators are using a model that doesn't require access to capital, catch entitlements, or ownership of processing factories or fishing boats.

"People are knowingly saying: 'I don't pay the crew, I just charter the boat. The crew is provided by an agent and the agent tells me he is paying full wages." The whole thing was wrecking the viability of New Zealand fishing. "All you need is an office, a secretary, a tough lawyer and you are in business. But it is not good for New Zealand."

The papers reveal government concerns that the low wages paid might become public. A Labour Department report, obtained under the Official Information Act, censors individual and boat names, but acknowledges crews were not being paid the minimum wage, and that agents take up to half of the money.

The papers reveal that a fisherman paid the minimum wage would get around $1400 a month, but officials imply that doesn't happen because it would be three to five times what an Indonesian deckhand might earn elsewhere.

Among the papers released is a 2008 Seafood Industry Council submission to government, noting "long-held concerns as to the condition and behaviour of some foreign charter vessels". The council now says charter vessel crew are paid above the New Zealand minimum wage and charter boats are not much older than the New Zealand fleet.

Auckland University's Jennifer Devlin, writing in the Australian and New Zealand Maritime Law Journal, questioned why New Zealand allowed "the exploitation of vulnerable workers in pursuit of profits for New Zealand fishing interests".

She pointed to an incident when 10 Indonesian fishermen escaped from the Korean vessel Sky 75 in Nelson. "They were fed rotten meat and vegetables, told to shower by standing on deck in the waves, made to continue working when sick or injured, and were constantly beaten. They endured all this for wages of $US200 a month – wages that weren't being paid."

NO PROSECUTIONS AND NO EXPLANATIONS

Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley refused to comment on the concerns raised by the Sunday Star-Times, describing them as "operational", before directing the newspaper to acting Immigration head Stephen Dunstan. Dunstan said that in 2006 a code of practice for foreign crews was revised, requiring employment deals to "align" with New Zealand standards. Disputes would be settled in our employment institutions.

Compliance is monitored by the Labour Department, which checks wage and time records to "help identify if any non-permissible deductions have been made".

"The code requires payment of minimum wage plus $2 an hour for actual hours worked, but in no case less than 42 hours a week. Deductions may not take wages below the minimum wage for hours worked."

There have been no prosecutions for safety or workplace offences, but Dunstan said that was the responsibility of Maritime NZ.

That authority would not say why there had been no prosecutions. It said the average age of foreign charted vessels was 25 years, and the average age of the domestic fleet 22 years.

"All foreign vessels operating in our waters must meet the same safety management and environmental protection standards as our ships," it said.

Meanwhile the Transport Accident Investigation Commission is involved in reviewing the Oyang 70 and No.1 Insung sinkings, but its authority does not extend beyond the old 12-mile territorial limit. Under international law, the responsibility for the final reports lies with the flag state of the vessel, in this case Korea. Its Maritime Safety Agency did not respond to requests for information.

- Sunday Star Times

Source: Stuff.co.nz

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State Department says Israel not preventing human trafficking | JTA - Jewish & Israel News

June 28, 2011

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Israel is not in full compliance with the minimum international standards to prevent human trafficking, but is making efforts to bring itself up to par, the U.S. State Department said.

Israel's rank in the U.S. State Department's annual report on human trafficking released Monday remained unchanged, The State Department classified Israel as a "tier two" country, the second ranking out of a possible four categories. This is the fifth year in a row Israel has received a tier two ranking, after increasing its rank in 2007.

According to the report, men and women, mostly migrants, are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking in Israel. Workers from Thailand, China, Nepal, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Romania legally and voluntarily come over for temporary work in construction, agriculture and as home health care providers. Some, the report said, "subsequently face conditions of forced labor, including through such practices as the unlawful withholding of passports, restrictions on movement, inability to change or otherwise choose one’s employer, nonpayment of wages, threats, sexual assault and physical intimidation."

The report also said many agencies that recruit laborers to come to Israel require them to pay between $4,000 and $20,000, putting them at risk for trafficking practices until the debt is paid off.

Citing Israel's Interior Ministry, the report said 14,000 migrants crossed into the country through the Sinai in 2010, up from 5,000 the previous year. The report said Bedouin groups in the area kept many of the migrants captive in the Sinai and "an unknown number of them were forced into sexual servitude or labor to build homes and serve as domestic workers."

Additionally, the report found that women from the former Soviet Union and China are forced into prostitution, but noted that the number has gone down since Israel passed an anti-trafficking bill in 2006.

The report recommended Israel "significantly increase prosecutions, convictions and punishment of labor trafficking offenders," while noting it kept up its strong law enforcement progress against sex trafficking. The government also runs two shelters for male and female trafficking victims, although international organizations said both lacked a sufficient number of beds for the total number of victims in the country.

The report analyzed 184 countries and identified 23 nations as failing to comply with international standards, up from 13 in 2010.

Source: JTA.org

Human trafficking by Kerala fishing trawlers - southindia - Kerala - ibnlive

Posted on Jun 09, 2011 at 12:01pm IST
 Express News Service , The New Indian Express

KOCHI: Braving rough seas and tiresome voyage of over 5,000 nautical miles, a large number of Sri Lankan Tamils have gone to Australia and South East Asian nations from Kerala in fishing trawlers, operating off Kerala coast.The state police have stumbled upon this fact after they took into custody 17 Lankan Tamils, who included two women and two children, from a lodge in the city on Tuesday. "Interrogation of those in custody has revealed that a large number of persons have already been to Australia and other South East Asian countries from Kerala. The rackets have entered into a tieup with local agents to provide them logistics support," a police official said. He said that a few relatives of those in custody were already in Australia.A police team led by Central Circle Inspector D S Suneesh Babu seized a largesized fishing boat named 'Sea Queen' from Murikumpadam on Wednesday. The boat was arranged to ship the Lankans to Australia.Police said the boat was reportedly bought by a human trafficking agent at a cost of `25 lakh and it had the capacity to carry 50 people and store 8,000 litres of diesel. Police said that the boat, bearing the Lankans would touch the Australian shores in 15 to 20 days.

Police have taken into custody the boat owner identified as John Kennedy of Kollachil.
 "Of the 17 members, four men have been remanded in judicial custody and the rest made witnesses," said the police official. Those remanded were identified as Shivam Pillai, 33, of Arnadhapuram; Nagaranjam, 32, of 21/5 Udayarth Lane, Jaffna; Muruganandam,31, of Epathanavattram, Mannarmavattom, Tesalai; and Kanaka Lingam, 47, of Alardi, Vettikalai. Nagaranjam and Muruganandam were staying at Sri Lankan refugee camps in Tiruchirapalli and Madurai respectively.Police have launched a manhunt to nab the agent who has been identified as Senthiram. A team of intelligence officials has already questioned the persons in custody.Additional Chief Secretary (Home) K Jayakumar said the state police were already aware of the modus operandi of certain rackets which send Tamils to other countries from Kerala coast. "We have alerted the Centre about the development," he said.DGP Jacob Punnoose said the state police have been vigilant on tracking the activities of human trafficking agents in the state.

Human trafficking by Kerala fishing trawlers - southindia - Kerala - ibnlive

Sri Lankan housemaids rescued from modern-day slavery in Saudi Arabia | Asian Tribune

Tue, 2011-01-25 03:16

 

By Santhush Fernando in Colombo

Colombo, 25 January, (Asiantribune.com):

Sri Lankan Embassy in Saudi Arabia has rescued two migrant workers who had been forced to perform domestic chores for 17 and ten years as ‘domestic slaves’.

Out of the two, 51-year old Kusuma Nandani a resident of Mathugama had been forced to work for nearly 17 years at Amir Salman Housing Complex in Riyadh.

The other D. P. Hemalatha from Galnewa (Anuradhapura) is said to be 45-years of age and was rescued after nearly ten years from a residence at Quaiya, a desert location 300 kilometers from Riyadh.

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Labour will take appropriate action against their respective employees through the Sri Lanka Embassy in Riyadh.

Sri Lanka earns a staggering Rs. 425 bn (US $ 3.8bn) of private inward remittances annually from overseas domestic workers, with the majority employed in Saudi Arabia.

Of the 1.6 million Sri Lankan migrant workers in the Middle East, more than 600,000 work in Saudi Arabia, 300,000 in Kuwait, nearly 200,000 in United Arab Emirates (UAE), over 75,000 in Jordan, and 45,000 in Lebanon.

Source: Asian Tribune
Sri Lankan housemaids rescued from modern-day slavery in Saudi Arabia | Asian Tribune

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Battling sea-mediated human trafficking

11-25-2010 16:38 By Pooja Theresa Stanslas In Malaysia, open borders were the norm during late 19th and early 20th century leading to an influx of ethnic Indians and Chinese, but that has changed significantly in post-colonial Malaysia. The government’s choice however, cannot be between closing the doors to a foreign labor force and completely doing away with border controls. The first option will deprive the labor-intensive and labor-dependent economic sectors of workers and given the reality of non-traditional security threats the second option of opening up the borders will be tantamount to inviting transnational criminals to operate with impunity. Border control is an element of national sovereignty and when we lose control of significant parts of this through ineffective controls, transnational human trafficking syndicates will exploit the situation to engage in the lucrative illicit trade in human flesh. Trafficking in persons is estimated to generate $32 billion yearly, perpetuated mainly by the fact the risk to reward ratio is almost nil aided by natural forces of migration as well as poor socio-political and economic conditions in the country of origin and the relatively prosperous neighboring countries. Corrupt law enforcement officials worsen the situation. The seas, as an inexpensive mode of transport, have always been a popular medium for transnational movement of peoples since pre-colonial times especially through the Straits of Malacca, the Sulu-Sulawesi Sea and the South China Sea. However, the long, porous and less monitored coastlines of Malaysia has led to easy and inconspicuous access for a thriving trade in modern day slavery by human trafficking groups. Malaysia is a littoral state with 4,675km-long coastline and the growing illegal cross-border trafficking of humans in recent years has made the government anxious especially in view of rapid economic globalization, worldwide economic crisis and increasing maritime trade and the nation’s dependency on it. There are fears that extremists could use trans-border criminals to seep through the borders as evidence have emerged that extremists groups also engage in trafficking to fund their activities. Analyzing the trafficking problem is complicated by the difficulty of differentiating it with human smuggling. The latter relates to voluntary movements of people through illegal channels by engaging the services of smuggling syndicates; trafficking is involuntary involving significant deception, coercion and control of movement of victims. The issue becomes even more complex when smuggled migrants are forced to work in debt bondage to pay off the smugglers which effectively defines them as trafficked individuals. The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act (ATIP) was enacted in 2007 prompted by Malaysia’s blacklisting in Tier 3 in the 2007 and 2009 Annual U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Report. To date 168 have been prosecuted and only 16 convicted; 1,200 victims have been rescued since 2008. However, the government’s recent amendment to the ATIP to include smuggling of people will only hamper efforts at tackling trafficking effectively. Front-line law enforcement officials may treat trafficking victims as undocumented migrants aggravated by the illicit nature and quality of the crime. Selective restrictions in border control have led to the expansion of the fake document industry abetted by corrupt border officials. The trafficking prone areas or hotspots include the Straits of Malacca, the Sabah-Kalimantan-Philippines borders as well as the Singapore-Johor boundary and increasingly the South China Sea. Victims are mostly Indonesians, Filipinos, Cambodians, and Vietnamese with an increasing exodus from post-conflict states such as Iraq, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Tackling the trafficking threat in Malaysia is not easy. Though coordination and collaboration of national, regional and international bodies are essential in practice, it is a complex task. Vast ocean spaces and long stretches of less governed coastlines in the Southeast Asian archipelago produce porous borders complicating monitoring and security surveillance. As for law enforcement agencies, poor communication, duplication of efforts and conflicting mandates should not get in the way of effectual and immediate responses. Existence of deep-seated rivalries between competing government agencies, particularly when budgets and funding are at stake, should be minimized by having clear-cut boundaries related to jurisdiction. In addition, there have been allegations that law enforcement officials have been involved in facilitating trafficking by accepting bribes from traffickers. However, all is not lost. A multi-sector approach is the key toward an effective resolution. Outmaneuvering trafficking syndicates must involve strengthening border controls through greater law enforcement policy involving aggressive maritime security surveillance and augmented patrols. This must be accompanied by effectual anti-trafficking strategies such as victim identification and protection. Bringing ATIP back in line with U.N. definition of human trafficking is crucial. The victims should also be given temporary work permits to enlist their cooperation for the prosecution of offenders. Effective transnational and regional collaboration should not be hampered by cultural and linguistic differences and different laws, understandings and policies related to trafficking. These issues must be addressed at the ASEAN level as well as through transnational collaboration such as the Bali Process and the Five Power Defense Arrangements. Reforming our immigration policy is crucial to curb this undocumented migration in addition to greater Malaysia economic investment to generate employment in source countries. Traffickers target those who are already planning to migrate but due to strict immigration laws they fall victim to trafficking groups to facilitate their entry. Thus, a regularization policy will make it easier for legal entry of unskilled labor into Malaysia to meet their economic needs. This will also satisfy demand for cheap labor in economic sectors which locals do not find lucrative. The government is losing out millions to trafficking syndicates and a better migration management will ensure revenue from the foreign workers who will cease to find the need to engage trafficking intermediaries. Human trafficking phenomenon is governable when measures related to border security, migration and socio-economic and political factors are treated with utmost urgency and swift action. Pooja Theresa Stanslas works for a maritime research institute based in Malaysia.

Source: The Korean Times Battling sea-mediated human trafficking

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Human trafficking a domestic and international issue, RCMP report says

An RCMP report on human trafficking found that many of its victims came from within Canada. Photograph by: RCMP video, Handout

SOURCE: THE GAZETTE

By Janice Tibbetts, Postmedia News
September 13, 2010

OTTAWA — The RCMP, in its first expansive assessment of trafficking in humans, revealed Monday that there are currently 36 cases before the criminal courts in Canada and that most victims are Canadian citizens or permanent residents who are not necessarily recruited from overseas.

The report, which examined human trafficking in Canada from 2005 to 2009, concluded that many human trafficking suspects, who mainly recruit their victims for sexual exploitation, are also linked to major criminal networks involved in conspiracy to commit murder, credit card fraud, mortgage fraud and immigration fraud in Canada and abroad.

The three ethnic communities that are highlighted in the report are Eastern Europeans, Asians, and Africans and the methods of trafficking humans vary depending on their country of origin, says a summary of the report.

Victims include live-in foreign domestic workers who were smuggled into Canada by their employers, Eastern European women recruited by organized crime to work in escort services, African women who were trafficked for sexual exploitation outside of Canada, and workers in bawdy houses run by Asian prostitution rings.

"Control tactics employed by traffickers to retain victims in exploitative situations include social isolation, forcible confinement, withholding identification documents, imposing strict rules, limitation of movement, as well as threats and violence," said a summary of the report.

The RCMP describe the findings as a "preliminary baseline of human trafficking activities" that affects Canada both domestically and internationally.

Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings, mainly for sexual exploitation or forced labour and it is widely described as a form of modern-day slavery.

The report lists 17 key findings, which include

Recent convictions of human trafficking have mostly involved victims who are citizens and/or permanent residents of Canada trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation has been mostly associated with organized prostitution occurring discreetly behind fronts, like escort agencies and residential brothels.

Human trafficking suspects usually share similar ethnicity with their associates and have ethnic ties to source countries of their migrant workers.

Suspected transnational trafficking networks are believed to have operators based in source countries to facilitate the recruitment and transport segments of the trafficking process. Some organizers likely provide high quality false travel documents for migrants to travel deceptively to Canada.

Organized crime networks with Eastern European links have been involved in the organized entry of women from former Soviet States into Canada for employment in escort services in the Greater Toronto Area and possibly in massage and escort services in the Montreal area.

Human trafficking has been identified in bawdy houses operated by Asian prostitution rings. The establishments are discreet and staffed solely by Asian migrants or persons of Asian descent.

Asian sex workers have been observed to travel inter-provincially between Canadian cities and possibly to the U.S, to prostitute in bawdy houses.

Major Canadian cities with an established network of Asian organized crime are destinations for migrant sex workers from Asia. Organized crime groups operate multiple bawdy houses across a city and some are believed to associate with prostitution rings in other cities.

Investigations found that Asian sex workers are not necessarily recruited from overseas. Most foreign nationals that were found working in bawdy houses had entered Canada legally and looked for sex work after they arrived in Canada.

Some convicted offenders of domestic human trafficking were found to be affiliated with street gangs known to law enforcement for pimping.

Domestic human trafficking victims have mostly been recruited through the Internet or by an acquaintance. The victims were groomed, manipulated, and coerced to enter the sex trade.

African nationals who were identified as victims of human trafficking were trafficked for sexual exploitation outside of and before arriving in Canada.

Significant human trafficking indicators were identified in some cases involving foreign national domestic workers who were smuggled into Canada by their employers. These live-in domestic workers were controlled, threatened, underpaid, and forced to work by their employers.

The report comes a week after the federal government announced a national campaign to educate Canadians about the crime of human trafficking, in which victims are mainly forced into the sex trade. The advertising campaign is designed to alert Canadians on how to spot and recognize possible trafficking cases.

The government announced its anti-trafficking campaign as it struggles with how to handle migrants who land on Canadian shores seeking refugee status. A ship carrying almost 500 people from Sri Lanka arrived earlier this summer and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has suggested they could be part of a human smuggling operation.

Human smuggling can often turn into trafficking if passengers are unable to make the payments for the journey.

A RCMP news release said that more than 40 law enforcement organizations, as well as the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, contributed to the RCMP report.

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

Human trafficking a domestic and international issue, RCMP report says

Malaysia: Revised law threatens anti-trafficking efforts - Bikya Masr

SOURCE: BIKYAMASR

Sep 10th, 2010 | By Bikya Masr Staff | Category: Health, News

NEW YORK: Changes to Malaysia’s anti-trafficking law will undermine efforts to combat human trafficking and reduce protections for undocumented migrants, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to Prime Minister Najib Razak. Recent amendments to the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act (ATIP Act) will go into effect in October 2010.

The amendments will harm trafficking victims by making it more likely that they will be treated as undocumented migrants subject to immediate deportation, undermining government efforts to counter trafficking, Human Rights Watch said. The revised law also narrows the legal definition of “human trafficking,” undercutting protections for children and adults who are tricked, rather than forced, into being trafficked.

“If Malaysia wants to end human trafficking, it needs to start treating trafficking victims as victims,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Prime Minister Najib should return the amended anti-trafficking law to Parliament to stop trafficking victims from being re-victimized and to ensure that Malaysian law reflects international best practice.”

International law and practice recognize that “people smuggling” and human trafficking are dissimilar and require different law enforcement strategies. The revised Anti-Trafficking Act incorporates provisions on smuggling that are contrary to Malaysia’s obligations under the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, which Malaysia ratified in 2009.

Any changes to strengthen Malaysian law against people smuggling should be incorporated into the Immigration Act and other legislation focused on border control, not anti-trafficking legislation, Human Rights Watch said.

“Threatening to imprison migrants for people smuggling is a surefire way to push them underground and dry up any cooperation between them and the authorities to combat human trafficking,” Robertson said.

Human Rights Watch also urged the Malaysian government to provide effective protection of the basic rights of undocumented migrants and refugees. The government should permit the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees timely access to migrants seeking asylum and immediately release from detention all those determined to be refugees.

“With more and more people fleeing desperate conditions and political persecution in Burma, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and other countries, it’s critical for Malaysia to be willing to receive and help refugees,” Robertson said.

HRW

Malaysia: Revised law threatens anti-trafficking efforts - Bikya Ma

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Coyote ugly: curbing human trafficking | Troy Media Corporation

August 29, 2010

By Mark Milke
Research Director
Frontier Centre for Public Policy

Mark Milke

CALGARY, AB, Aug. 29, 2010/ – The recent arrival of 492 Sri Lankans on the West Coast, courtesy of the MV Sun Sea, claiming refugee status again raised the rhetoric which was of little help to refugee claimants or to their potential host countries.

While some assume any concern about the immigration and refugee system is merely a cloak for anti-immigrant sentiment, others, also skating on the surface, suggest border controls should be abolished, similar to the absence of passports in the 18th century.

Sober reflection
Past migration patterns, unfortunately, don’t help with present-day realities. The choice really is not between shutting the door to all potential newcomers or doing away with the border altogether. Few want the first option – that would neither be compassionate nor economically smart – and the open-the-floodgates trial balloon is not a sober suggestion, given the reality of modern terrorism.

Some type of processes for allowing newcomers into the country will always be necessary. To understand what happens when governments lose control of significant parts of their borders, consider a recent story on the problem that exists on the Mexico-U.S. boundary. Reporter Monica Alonzo from New York City’s Village Voice newspaper: she began her investigative account of human trafficking this way:

“Maria was drifting off to sleep on the bedroom floor. She could hear women getting raped in the next room. Only, she didn’t hear screams – she heard the laughter of male guards. The women had been drugged by their rapists, who had done the same to Maria as soon as she walked into the house.”

The reporter was describing the increasing problem encountered by migrants who are ferried across the border into Arizona only to be held to ransom by their “coyote” escorts. Alonzo writes of  the brutality of the human smugglers who double-cross their paying prey by demanding extra cash from the victims or their families back in Mexico.

“Kidnappers,” wrote the Voice reporter, “kick and punch hostages, beat them with baseball bats, submerge them in bathtubs and electrically shock them, burn their flesh with blowtorches, smash their fingers with bricks, slice their bodies with butcher knives, shoot them in their arms and legs, and cut open their backs with wire-cutters. The kidnappers usually videotape the sexual humiliation and violence and send the images to family members if ransoms aren’t paid.”

In the case of Maria and 12 other Mexican migrants, including two boys, each paid human smugglers $1,800 to ferry them safely across the border. But once they reached Phoenix, their coyotes-turned-captors demanded another $1,700 before they would be released.

Maria, her husband and the other captives were eventually freed after an anonymous tipster told local police about the house. After the raid and after giving Phoenix police information, they were eventually deported back to Mexico.

There is a plethora of issues in the illegal immigration conundrum, none of them easily solvable. What the Village Voice article exemplifies is how, in the absence of effective border controls, human smugglers exploit the shadowy existence of those in a country illegally. The Voice noted that in 2008 alone, and just in Phoenix, there were 368 reported kidnappings, most of them in the world of smuggled migrants such as Maria.

The U.S.-Mexico border is a mess and may be problematic until Mexico and central American countries become a lot more prosperous. In the meantime, no option is perfect. The U.S. could naturalize all illegal immigrants as it’s done before. That’s humanitarian. But absent a wide-open border, it won’t solve the problem of how to control illegal flows exacerbated by smugglers. A better option, suggested by some, is to try to legalize many more “guest workers” as is done in Europe.

Regardless, sympathy is due for anyone who wants to escape Mexican corruption, violence and poverty, or Tamils who want to leave Sri Lanka after undergoing repression there. But not every claim of refugee status is to be believed. So distinctions are necessary. And it’s critical that governments which wish to maintain some control of their borders, such as Canada, do so.

Immigration policy run by human smugglers
When they don’t – and there are plenty of Supreme Court and political hurdles in Canada in the way of such a basic government function – then it is human smugglers who run Canada’s immigration policy by default.
The point of trying to control a nation’s borders is not to turn our back on refugees and immigrants. The point of quick deportations is to remove the incentive for newcomers to pay human smugglers to get them here. It is to force them into safer and legal (albeit lengthy) channels in all but the most immediate cases of actual persecution.

Without that, the sloppy, ad hoc approach risks an explosion of brutality in the black market of human trafficking.

Channels: The Calgary Herald, Aug. 30, 2010

Coyote ugly: curbing human trafficking | Troy Media Corporation

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The Associated Press: Rights group: Mideast maids unprotected from abuse

By BARBARA SURK (AP) – 2 hours ago

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Reforms undertaken by governments in the Middle East to protect domestic workers from abuse are insufficient to shield women working as house maids from abuse and violence, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

Millions of mostly Asian women who work in countries like Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates remain at risk of human trafficking, forced labor, confinement and sexual violence, the New York-based group said.

Although several governments have made improvements for migrant domestic workers in the past five years, reform has been slow and incremental, Nisha Varia, the group's senior researcher of women's rights told The Associated Press.

"There has been a big change in the sense that these countries are recognizing there is a problem," Varia said in a phone interview. "But while many governments are introducing reforms, most have yet to implement them."

The 26-page report released Thursday documents progress in extending protections to mostly Asian women working as house maids in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and the Emirates.

Women working in private homes often work 20-hour days, face forced confinement and are sometimes physically and sexually abused, the report said.

Their passports are confiscated upon arrival, leaving employers in full control of their house maids' lives under what is known as a "sponsorship system."

The custom remains the biggest factor contributing to abuse, leaving women trapped in abusive situations since they are not allowed to legally change an employer, HRW said.

The group also urged that it's essential that domestic workers' rights — now governed by immigration law in most Mideast countries — are included in the labor law, assuring them of basic rights such as setting their work hours, regulating the quality of food and housing they get and guaranteeing them a day off a week.

"Governments will have to think creatively how to reach out to women working in private homes," Varia said. "It is a unique working environment."

While Human Rights Watch praised Jordan for including domestic work in the country's labor law, it said that "enforcement remains a big concern."

Most migrant workers in the Middle East — 1,5 million, according to HRW's assessment — are employed in Saudi Arabia. About 200,000 migrants work in Lebanon and 660,000 in Kuwait.

Domestic work in foreign countries is an important source of employment for women in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Nepal, India, and Ethiopia. Their earnings abroad amount to much of the billions of dollars of remittances sent home each year.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The Associated Press: Rights group: Mideast maids unprotected from abuse

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Women worked to death in Lebanon | Dalila Mahdawi | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Image by CWGL via Flickr

Four Ethiopian domestic workers are thought to have killed themselves in three weeks. Lebanon must protect these women

o Dalila Mahdawi
o guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 10 November 2009 21.00 GMT

They mop floors, take out the rubbish, walk the dog, buy groceries and care for the children, the elderly or disabled. Many a well-to-do and lower middle class Lebanese family relies on migrant domestic workers to take care of their household, but when it comes to providing for these women, not all return the favour.

Migrant domestic workers – women who work as live-in or freelance housekeepers, cooks, and nannies – form a vital presence in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East, where women's increased participation in the workforce has not been accompanied by state-backed social or childcare services.

There are thought to be about 200,000 women, mostly from the Philippines, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka, in Lebanon alone. But although they are becoming an intrinsic part of the country's social fabric, their contribution is often overlooked. While many Lebanese people are careful to ensure their housekeepers are well treated, a significant number abuse them. In extreme cases, migrant domestic workers are killed or kill themselves.

The spate of suicides has become so bad in recent weeks it prompted Lebanese blogger Wissam to launch the grimly named Ethiopian Suicides blog. The website is dedicated to monitoring media reports on the deaths of foreign migrant domestic workers in Lebanon. "I have a dream," Wissam says. "That migrant domestic workers will be treated humanely in Lebanon and will stop trying to commit or commit[ting] suicide."

In the last three weeks alone, Wissam notes, four Ethiopian women have died. Lebanese police say the deaths of Kassaye Atsegenet, 24, Saneet Mariam, 30, Matente Kebede Zeditu, 26, Tezeta Yalmiya, 26 were probably suicides. But as human rights activists here will testify, the truth about what happened to them may never be known because police usually only take into account the employer's testimony. Migrants who survive abuse or suicide attempts are not usually provided with a translator, meaning their version of events often does not get registered with officials.

Sadly, violations against such workers occur throughout the region and in some cases the women end up in slave-like conditions.

Reflecting the concern of sender countries for the wellbeing of their citizens, Ethiopia and the Philippines have placed bans on working in Lebanon and Jordan, but this has not stemmed the flow of illegal migrants smuggled in through third countries. Without the necessary work papers and embassy support, migrant women become even more vulnerable to human rights abuses.

One reason the women are driven to the edge is that, in Lebanon at least, they are not given protection under the country's labour law. Such exclusion means that those who withhold salaries, confiscate passports, confine their employees to the house or otherwise abuse them, can literally get away with murder. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that five months after parliamentary elections, a Lebanese government is only now being formed.

The campaign to grant migrant domestic workers greater rights in the region has been led by Human Rights Watch. This summer, it contacted Lebanese beach resorts and found that 17 out of 27 private facilities practised some form of discrimination against such women by prohibiting them from swimming in the pool or even the Mediterranean sea.

A study conducted by the organisation last year found that more than one migrant domestic worker was dying in Lebanon each week – mostly from suspected suicide or by falling off a balcony while trying to escape abusive employers. The numbers sent ripples throughout the rights community and resulted in far more sustained local media coverage on the issue of domestic migrant workers. Judging by Wissam's recent statistics, however, this does not appear to have persuaded the authorities to take sufficient measures to protect their rights.

The embassies of countries that supply migrant workers have a duty to protect their citizens. They could start by offering amnesty and assistance to all illegal workers, increasing their legal protection capabilities and properly informing women at home of their rights and responsibilities while working abroad. Many countries, such as Nepal or Madagascar, which are sending women to the Middle East in increasing numbers, would do well to increase their diplomatic representation from consular level to embassies.

Many migrant workers come to the Middle East seeking a better life for the families they left behind. The Lebanese themselves have a long history of migration and hardship, and should know first-hand the difficulties of living and working in a foreign country. Just as many Lebanese abroad work hard with the hopes of eventually returning home, the Lebanese should ensure that these women get to go back to their countries – alive and well, not in body bags.


Women worked to death in Lebanon | Dalila Mahdawi | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

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Spate of suicides by foreign maids in Lebanon sheds light on abuse - CNN.com

Image via Wikipedia

By Olivia Sterns, CNN
December 2, 2009 12:02 p.m. EST

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* 10 maids die in seven weeks, all suicides or falls from high buildings
* HRW: abusive work conditions, isolation and lack of recourse are causes
* 200,000 foreign maids work in Lebanon -- one for every four families
* Poor regulation of domestic labor and racism conspire against maids

London, England (CNN) -- A recent spate of suicides by foreign maids in Lebanon is prompting outrage among human rights groups, who say the government is doing too little to protect migrant domestic workers from severe abuse.

Over the past seven weeks at least 10 women have died, either by hanging themselves or by falling from tall buildings. Six of these cases have been reported in local media as suicides and four more have been described as possible work accidents.

An Ethiopian woman working as a cleaner in Lebanon told CNN by phone that she was sad about the recent suicides, and that she had a friend who killed herself several years ago, when she too was working as a live-in maid.

"If the Madame maybe she is very bad, they feel there is no way, no solution," said the woman who asked not to be identified, referring to abuse by the female employer. "Everyone has a different case," though she added.

This is modern day slavery ... these suicides are just the tip of the iceberg
--Wissam, Ethiopiansuicides.blogspot.com

"We are clearly seeing a high rate of suicide. The two leading causes of death for migrants is suicide [and] dying while trying to escape from employers," said Nadim Houry, Senior Researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Lebanon.

"This pattern [of abuse] is on going," Houry told CNN, citing "bad working conditions, isolation and a feeling of helplessness that comes from lack of recourse," as the sources of desperation that can drive these women to their deaths.

"It is ridiculous ... this is modern day slavery," said Wissam, a Lebanese activist who started a blog after he noticed four Ethiopian women committed suicide within 10 days in October.

"What about the things we don't know? These suicides are just the tip of the iceberg of the mistreatment of these women," he said.

In August 2008 HRW reported that more than one domestic worker was dying each week, either from suicide or failed escapes from abusive employers.

Rampant Abuse

There are more than 200,000 migrant domestic workers in Lebanon -- roughly one per every four families. Overwhelmingly they are women in their 20s and 30s who come alone from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nepal and Madagascar, to earn money to support families back home.

According to HRW, more than one third of foreign domestic workers in Lebanon are denied time off and more than 50 percent work at least 10 hours per day.

A 2001 International Labor Organization survey of Sri Lankan domestics in Lebanon found that 88 percent were given no time-off. Among the 70 respondents, nearly 30 percent said they were not given enough food to eat.

Over the past several years there have been increasing reports of exploitation documented in the media, including testimonies from domestic workers about withholding of wages, verbal or physical abuse and restrictions on free movement. Statistics on abuse are difficult to find though, because employees are often afraid to complain, prevented from doing so, or simply don't know how.

"The isolation is key ... Their passports are confiscated and they are often locked in. They are far from home, and not all of them can contact their families -- some can once per month," Houry told CNN.

One Nepalese maid who spoke to HRW from her hospital bed, after jumping from the third floor of her employer's building to escape, said she had seen snow-capped mountains from the window and thought she could walk across to find her village. She did not understand that Lebanon was thousands of miles away from her home in Nepal. "She just had no idea where she landed," Houry said.

Both charity organizations and foreign embassies in Lebanon say they have their hands full dealing with runaways and incidents of abuse.

In August, the Philippines Embassy reported that 117 women who had escaped from maltreatment were sleeping on the embassy floor. The Catholic relief organization CARITAS also estimated that they have an average of 40 runaway domestics sleeping in their shelter at any one time.

Roots of the Problem

The abuse faced by migrant domestic workers is a common problem throughout the Arab Middle East, both because of generally poor labor regulation and also cultural prejudice.

"The responsibility lies primarily with the state. There are no inspectors who can check on working conditions. The laws need to be modified," Houry said.

"The mistreatment of these women and the absence of any government protection is not just in Lebanon -- it's in all the Arab countries," Wissam said.

Neither the Lebanese Labor Ministry, nor General Security, who regulate migrant workers, could be reached for comment on this article.

Because domestic work is performed in the private sphere, it is not considered formal labor and is not covered by Lebanon's labor laws.

In January, the government issued a uniform contract for all maids, which took the critical step of guaranteeing one day off per week and decent working conditions. Rights activists say that the contracts though are not being enforced.

Both Houry and Wissam also pointed to social norms of prejudice that condone abuse. "There is racism against people of poor background and darker skin," Houry said.

This past summer an HRW investigation found that 17 private beaches, out of a nation-wide total of 27, do not allow Asian or African domestic workers to swim, which they argued reflects latent cultural racism in Lebanon.

"There is a mind set among some that says these women have to work for me, and if they don't do it, I have to beat them," Wissam said. "This misconception dehumanizes these women."

Spate of suicides by foreign maids in Lebanon sheds light on abuse - CNN.com

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LEBANON: Plight of the trafficked domestic worker

Image via Wikipedia

BEIRUT, 30 September 2009 (IRIN) - Abbey was a nurse at a French hospital in Madagascar when a recruitment agency suggested to her boss that she travel to Lebanon for three years to work and learn Arabic so she could better care for the Arab sailors whose ships docked at the Indian Ocean island.


Abbey, not her real name, was presented by the recruitment agent with a three-year contract, which included transport to the Lebanese hospital, and a salary of US$1,000 per month.
On arrival there, however, she was put in a house with another Madagascan domestic worker where she was forced to cook, clean and care for three children and a newborn.
"We didn't sleep day or night; we had to be up whenever the baby cried. We didn't even have time to shower or eat during the day because we were always rocking him so he didn't cry. It was like that for two and a half years," Abbey told IRIN.
From her salary of just $150 a month, Abbey said she had to give her Lebanese employer money to buy food for her: "So basically, we were working for free."
 
Cases like Abbey's are not uncommon in Lebanon, which is a country of destination for women trafficked from Africa, Sri Lanka and the Philippines for the purpose of domestic labour.
In June, Lebanon was added to the US State Department's human trafficking tier 2 watch list [http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/123132.htm] for its failure to protect victims of trafficking or to prosecute those responsible.
Inclusion on the list, which includes neighbouring Syria on tier 3 (the worst category), [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82686] for a second year could mean Lebanon faces US sanctions on non-humanitarian and trade-related aid and US opposition to loans and credits from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
 
Deception, exploitation
Being deceived about the job she was brought to Lebanon to perform makes Abbey's case one of trafficking under the established UN definition [http://www.unescap.org/esid/Gad/Issues/Trafficking/index.asp] of the "recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force".
However, the US State Department's 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report [http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/] makes clear it considers trafficking to include the conditions a worker is kept in, including forced labour and debt bondage. That makes not only Abbey's life after arriving in Lebanon a case of trafficking but means the situation of many of Lebanon's estimated 200,000 migrant domestic workers [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78865] can also be considered trafficking.
"Women from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Ethiopia who travel to Lebanon legally to work as household servants often find themselves in conditions of forced labour through withholding of passports, [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=83948] non-payment of wages, restrictions on movement, threats, and physical or sexual assault," said the TIP report.
'
Local rights activists praised the recognition of exploitative labour conditions as trafficking.
"Working on trafficking is very difficult because of the definition set by the UN, but if you simplify it you see that there are three main components: the recruitment; deception or coercion; and then that the purpose of recruitment is exploitative. This is considered trafficking," said Ghada Jabbour, gender and trafficking specialist at Lebanese NGO KAFA.
The TIP report said that exploitation includes the specific crimes of "involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery".
 
After escaping from the home she was forced to work in, Abbey has spent the past 10 years working as a freelance domestic worker, facing jail if she is caught by police without the identification papers she was never issued with, and owing $5,000 in fines to the General Security Directorate, a Lebanese intelligence agency, for overstaying her visa.
 
Little protection
Domestic workers remain outside Lebanon's Labour Law and its protection.
Last year, according to the 2009 TIP report, the Lebanese government reported no criminal prosecutions, convictions, or punishments for trafficking offences, a significant decrease from the 17 prosecutions reported in 2007.
The Lebanese Penal Code does not specifically prohibit forced labour or trafficking, but Article 569's prohibition against the deprivation of an individual's liberty to perform a task could be used to prosecute forced labour. Commercial sexual exploitation, deprivation of freedom and use of false documents are also criminalized in Lebanese law.
The TIP report urges authorities to investigate and prosecute claims by domestic workers who have escaped abusive employers, and implement the new unified contract for domestic workers [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=83948] created in March this year, but which rights groups say remains largely unimplemented.
 
Valuable trade
Activists believe the value of the trade in domestic workers is such that the political will to comply with international regulations against trafficking remains lacking.
"The money that is collected through domestic workers coming to Lebanon is millions of dollars per year. You have the residency fees, the visa and recruitment fees on both sides for the worker and the employer," said KAFA's Jabbour.
"The government takes a lot of money in the process by regulating domestic workers and there are a lot of stakeholders. Politicians are also involved in this issue and it goes underground, which is why it's difficult to get laws to protect these women."

http://www.tayyar.org/Tayyar/News/PoliticalNews/en-US/128988024720725404.htm#

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