Trafficking Monitor is a blog I created and curate. It offers posts highlighting the multifaceted nature of human trafficking and forced/indentured labour. I draw on a diversity of sources for my posts. You are invited to recommend materials for posting.
VietNamNet Bridge – By May 2010, 3190 children and women, victims of human trafficking, came home. Some 60 percent of them returned home on their own and 40 percent were rescued.
The information was provided by Deputy Minister of Social, War Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Trong at a conference reviewing five-year implementation of the scheme to assist women and children who are victims of human traffickers in 2005-2010.
Provincial departments of social, war invalids and social affairs reported to provide mental assistance and health check-up services to 2532 victims and finance 1037 victims to learn a trade and to re-join the community.
A survey of the Vietnam Women’s Union Central Committee shows that most of Vietnamese women and children who are sold to China had to work very hard, suffer from sexual abuses, and were forced to work as prostitutes. After being rescued and returning to Vietnam, many women suffer from mental disorders, social diseases, incurable diseases, and infertility.
The police reported over 3600 human traffickers and 235 human trafficking rings in Vietnam.
(SAN FRANCISCO) - In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified abolishing slavery in the United States: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Yet, over a hundred and forty-five years later, thousands of human beings are trafficked and forced to become sex slaves, domestic workers, child soldiers, or agricultural laborers.
The worldwide statistics are startling: about 27 million enslaved people worldwide; about 800,000 are trafficked across international borders each year; about 80 percent are women and young girls; about 100,000 children are exploited in the commercial sex trade each year; human trafficking is about a $32 billion industry growing faster than drugs or arms; and about 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States each year.
Most trafficking victims do not speak English and have little or no confidence in the police based on their experience back in their home countries. Traffickers usually confiscate the victims' passports if they have one. And often traffickers threaten to hurt family members back home to prevent escape or their cooperation with police.
In October 2000, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) (22 U.S.C. § 7101 et seq.) was enacted to protect victims and prosecute traffickers. The TVPA has been reauthorized in 2003, 2005, and 2008 with each authorization enhancing and strengthening the law. The U.S. also utilizes special visas known as "T" and "U" visas, which are intended to protect foreign-born trafficking victims from being deported if they cooperate with police and prosecutors.
That same year, the world embraced international standards, known as the Palermo Protocol, to combat modern slavery. Currently, 137 countries have adopted it.
Prior to the TVPA, no comprehensive federal law existed to protect victims of trafficking or to prosecute their traffickers. Although cases such as U.S. v. Flores (1997), a case of agricultural slave labor; U.S. v. Mahtani (1996), an example of domestic servitude; or U.S. v. Kim, Phan, and Ortiz (1998), a case of forced prostitution and sexual exploitation could have been called human trafficking cases.
Portland, Oregon has been named as one of the main hubs in human trafficking. Routes I-5 and I-89 are easy pathways for pimps and prostitutes between British Columbia/Seattle and Los Angeles and other California destinations in between.
In 2007, Oregon passed its own human trafficking laws, which makes it a class B felony to take part in human trafficking (ORS 163.266) and to induce others to take part in prostitution (ORS 167.017). A class B felony conviction is punishable by a maximum of prison for 10 years and a maximum fine of $250,000. In March 2010, House Bill 3623 was signed into law. HR 3623 requires the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to include informational materials regarding human trafficking with certain license renewal notices, if the materials are supplied by a nonprofit organization. The federal and Oregon laws, however, punish violations, but do little about prevention such as training for law enforcement and tracking human trafficking.
Unfortunately, no country, including the United States, has developed a comprehensive response to this massive, growing crime. To learn more about human trafficking or to find a local human trafficking center, contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888 or go to its website at trc.polarisproject.org.
To help you learn more about the issues and horrors surrounding human trafficking, the following films are recommended: "Lilia 4-Ever," a Swedish film depicting the struggles of Lilja, a 16-year-old girl living in an unidentified ex-Soviet republic; "Children for Sale," a Dateline documentary shot by a film crew that went undercover with a human rights group to uncover sex trafficking in Cambodia; "Promised Land," a film by Amos Gitai about human trafficking from Eastern Europe to Israel; "Trading Women," this film investigates the trade in minority girls and women out of Burma, Yunnan and Laos into Thailand; and "The Day My God Died," a documentary about young girls whose lives have been shattered by the child sex trade in Nepal and India.
Salem-News.com writer Ralph E. Stone was born in Massachusetts. He is a graduate of both Middlebury College and Suffolk Law School. We are very fortunate to have this writer's talents in this troubling world; Ralph has an eye for detail that others miss.As is the case with many Salem-News.com writers, Ralph is an American Veteran who served in war. Ralph served his nation after college as a U.S. Army officer during the Vietnam war. After Vietnam, he went on to have a career with the Federal Trade Commission as an Attorney specializing in Consumer and Antitrust Law.Over the years, Ralph has traveled extensively with his wife Judi, taking in data from all over the world, which today adds to his collective knowledge about extremely important subjects like the economy and taxation. You can send Ralph an email at this address stonere@earthlink.net
By GENEVIEVE BOOKWALTER
Posted: 03/08/2010 01:30:48 AM PST
FELTON -- When Jon Haro returned home after two tours of duty in the Vietnam war, he had no intention of going back to Southeast Asia.
But when fellow Twin Lakes Church members organized a mission trip to Cambodia last year -- near the Thailand border where Haro, 62, served as an Air Force sergeant -- he thought joining them might bring him some closure after rescuing downed aircraft there more than 40 years ago.
Instead, the trip to build a village church inspired Haro to return in December with laptop computers for a Southeast Asia safe house that holds nearly 100 girls rescued from sex slavery. His 28-year-old daughter and two friends will go with him.
Before leaving in December, Haro said he hopes to collect 50 donated, used computers to carry with him and deliver in person to one of four Southeast Asian safe houses run by Rapha House, a Christian organization based in Missouri. Haro, who is fluent in Thai, said carrying the computers himself will ensure they will all get to the girls. At the house he visited, Haro said 95 girls share six computers.
"I never planned on doing anything like this. I'm not a real do-gooder or anything like that," said Haro, who toured the house as part of his trip. But after that experience, "you're never the same person."
Rapha House runs secure safe houses for underage girls who have been rescued from sex slavery and human trafficking. The girls receive counseling and emotional support, and learn job
kills like sewing, cosmetology, agriculture and computer operation so they can earn an independent living. Rapha House officials asked that the safe house locations not be printed for security reasons.
Melissa Jackson, involvement administrator at Rapha House's Missouri headquarters, called Haro's gift "a huge part" in teaching the girls "everything that a normal job would require them to do."
"They need to learn how to cut and paste and all the good things," Jackson said. "They really could be a graphic artist somewhere."
According to UNICEF, 1.2 million children each year are put into slavery worldwide. According to Rapha House statistics, 80 percent of all trafficking victims are women and children.
Haro said he experienced mixed emotions returning to the region where he served decades ago.
"There was something different, and I realized I could stand up and look at everything," he said. That was not an option during the war.
Now that he's taken it all in, Haro said he hopes to come back to Santa Cruz next time with the girls' handmade bags and sell them to local churches. He would return all proceeds to the makers, he said.
In that region, "you have so many predators," Haro said. "If we help one or two little girls," the trip will be a success.
Salem-News.com writer Ralph E. Stone was born in Massachusetts. He is a graduate of both Middlebury College and Suffolk Law School. We are very fortunate to have this writer's talents in this troubling world; Ralph has an eye for detail that others miss. As is the case with many Salem-News.com writers, Ralph is an American Veteran who served in war. Ralph served his nation after college as a U.S. Army officer during the 
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