Minister and wife plead guilty to forced labor of African woman | ajc.com

5:39 p.m. Friday, July 8, 2011By Aaron Edwards

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A married couple in Ellenwood pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to exploiting an African woman and forcing her to work for them, authorities said.

Juna Gwendolyn Babb, 56, and Michael J. Babb, 54, could face 10 and three years in prison, respectively.

According to evidence presented in court, in March 2005, Juna Babb visited Swaziland in southern Africa and invited a then 29-year-old cook to travel to the United States and work as a caterer for a wedding. The wedding never existed. Juna Babb instead harbored the women in her home, concealed her from law enforcement detection and kept her working as a housekeeper until early 2007.

Juna Babb also threatened the victim with travel debts for taking her from Africa to the United States, and with deportation since she was in the country illegally. Prosecutors say that because of these tactics, the woman was trapped and did not know where to go for help.

Michael Babb pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony for concealing his wife’s conduct and for lying to federal agents, authorities said.

"This case reminds us that modern day slavery is occurring in our communities," United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said. "It is especially disturbing that the victim was exploited by a minister and his wife."

This isn't an isolated case in Georgia.

Last month, a Nigerian citizen in Atlanta was convicted for trafficking women from Nigeria to work as nannies.

She was convicted by a federal jury on charges of two counts of forced labor, two counts of trafficking for forced labor, one count of document servitude, one count of alien harboring and two counts of making false statements in an application to become a U.S. citizen.

A new law went into effect July 1 that is intended to discourage human trafficking and provide greater protections to people subjected to those offenses.

The law, HB 200, swept through the Georgia Senate, passing unanimously in March after a long push for legislation of its nature in the state.

Source: ajc.com

PM sets ball rolling on combating human trafficking and smuggling

By LUNGA MASUKU on March 06,2010

MBABANE – Government was inspired by the United States of America to come up with the law that combats trafficking and smuggling of human beings.

Speaking during a press conference at Cabinet offices yesterday, Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini said the government was concerned with the lives of innocent people, in particular women and children.
He was launching a task force that would deal and coordinate the exercise to arrest any traces of human trafficking.

“The amount of suffering that exists in this cruel trade is almost incomprehensible. How gratifying it is that Swaziland today can reflect with some pride on what we have achieved in recent months as we join the global fight to prevent people smuggling and trafficking, to protect the victims and prosecute the evil doers.
In launching a dedicated task force to spearhead the preliminary, highly important initiatives, and then in promulgating the new legislation, the country can be judged as a determined member of the growing global campaign to prevent trafficking and protect its victims.

The new act makes it a criminal offence to be involved in the trafficking and smuggling of people. It also provides for the protection and support of trafficked and smuggled persons. A number of international conventions and protocols form the basis of the Bill and more than half the countries in the world have now enacted criminal legislation prohibiting all forms of what is, in most cases, modern day slavery,” said Dlamini.
implementation

Dlamini said the act also provides for the establishment of an inter-agency task force which will perform the functions of coordinating implementation of the Act and will formulate and protect, as well as carry out the public education programmes to increase an awareness and understanding of the causes and consequences of the act of people-smuggling and trafficking.

The premier said government was happy with the work of the task force. He said the task force had undertaken a public education programme across the four regions of the country where it taught the public on what was this human trafficking.

“You have the opportunity to make a substantial impact on the lives of actual and potential victims of this despicable trade in human beings. And there is much to do. We need the policies and programmes that I have outlined above.
We require the communications – the toll-free number that will form the link between the infrastructure to protect victims and the trained counsellors to bring them out of the horrors experienced and back into the world from which they came.

On behalf of His Majesty’s Government, I have the honour to officially launch the new task force to combat people trafficking and people smuggling,” said Dlamini.

…it’s all systems go, says PM

MBABANE – The People Trafficking and People Smuggling Prohibition Act of 2009 has come into force.

This came to light during a press conference held at the Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini’s offices yesterday.
This is contained in a government legal notice of 2010 which states that the appointment of the task force was done under section 6 of the People Trafficking and People Smuggling Prohibition Act, 2009.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by section 6 of the People Trafficking and People Smuggling the Prime Minister makes the following notice. A member of the task force appointed under this section shall, until the member sooner resigns, hold office for a period not exceeding three years,” reads the notice in part.
The objectives of the task force are to ensure the implementation of the legislation on the prevention, suppression, and punishment for people trafficking and people smuggling.
suppression

The task force has to come up with policies tailored at preventing and suppression of human trafficking.
“It is to prevent and suppress people trafficking and people smuggling and raise awareness through education. It must assist and protect victims and ensures that perpetrators of people trafficking and people smuggling face the full force of the law,” reads the legal notice in part.

Functions of the task force include the formulation and overseeing the implementation of a national strategy and national action plan to prevent people trafficking and smuggling. It will also coordinate the formulation and dissemination of public education campaigns to inform and warn the public on human trafficking and smuggling.
smuggling

The task force will also be expected to ensure that laws dealing with people smuggling and trafficking were effectively enforced.
“The task force will have to collaborate with neighbouring states and secure bilateral agreements to control people trafficking and people smuggling. They will also have to establish a data base where statistics and information submitted by government and NGO’s in order to allow further investigations into unclear cases.”

The task force will meet once a month and the PM has the prerogative to adjust the frequency of meetings. The task force will submit quarterly reports to the PM’s office.


PM sets ball rolling on combating human trafficking and smuggling

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