Human Trafficking News

Equality Now Reports: CNN ON LASHING OF SAUDI ARABIAN RAPE VICTIM

2007-11-19T15:07:00.000-08:00

Taina Bien-Aime, Executive Director of Equality Now will be on the Glenn Beck show on CNN tonight, November 19th at 7pm, 9pm and midnight to discuss the case of the Saudi Arabian rape victim who has been sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months imprisonment. See below for further information. We hope you can watch the show.

EQUALITY NOW CONDEMNS SAUDI ARABIAN COURT RULING
SENTENCING RAPE VICTIM TO 200 LASHES AND 6 MONTHS IMPRISONMENT

New York, November 19, 2007. A 19-year-old woman from Qatif, Saudi Arabia, was brutally attacked and gang raped by 7 men approximately 18 months ago, according to media reports. While seeking justice in her case, the woman was herself sentenced in October 2006 to 90 lashes for being in the company of an unrelated man at the time of the attack. She appealed this decision to a higher court, and the Qatif General Court announced on Wednesday November 14, 2007, that the victim's sentence had been more than doubled to 200 lashes and 6 months in prison, a gross violation of human rights including the right to be free from discrimination and from torture and other cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment. Following this decision the rape victim’s lawyer had his license to practice revoked. While the courts have not clarified why the sentence was increased, media reports suggest that the harsher sentence for the rape victim and the confiscation of her lawyer’s license were directly related to their decision to speak with Saudi Arabian media about the injustice in this case. If true, this retaliation clearly violates the fundamental human right to freedom of expression.

Equality Now is calling on the Ministry of Justice of Saudi Arabia to immediately revoke this sentence of lashing and imprisonment of the rape victim, which is a travesty of justice. Equality Now is also calling on the Ministry to restore her legal representation by rescinding its decision to revoke the license of her lawyer. Taina Bien-Aimé, Executive Director stated, "This verdict by the Saudi Arabian court is blatantly discriminatory and violates several fundamental rights of the victim as well as her lawyer. We urge the Saudi Arabian authorities to undo this injustice immediately. They need to ensure that the victim is treated as a victim and not as a criminal. The international human rights community will continue to closely monitor the case and provide solidarity to advocates on the ground until the victim is safe from state sponsored violence and discrimination.”

Equality Now is an international human rights organization based in New York, Nairobi and London that works to protect and promote the civil, political, economic and social rights of girls and women. Equality Now’s Women’s Action Network comprises 30,000 groups and individual members in over 160 countries. For more information please visit www.equalitynow.org.

TAKE ACTION
Please contact the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington DC, or in your country if not the US, as well as the State Department in the US or your country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Call on these officials to convey your concern over this injustice and to take whatever action is in their power to protect this Saudi rape victim from lashing and imprisonment. In the US, please contact:

Saudi Arabian Ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, in Washington D.C. at (202) 342-3800
Or
Consulates General in: New York at (212) 752-2740, Los Angeles at (310) 479-6000, Houston (713) 785-5577

Philippine Women’s Network on Peace & Security: STATEMENT ON THE DEATH OF CHERRIE ANN GUZMAN-COLEMAN

2007-11-19T04:50:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share an important initiative that is being done by a sister agency in the Philippines. It is important to remember that human trafficking as a gender violence that crosses national boundaries as well as local boundaries, is embedded in our conceptions of gender. Kathleen Barry once called for a looking at how we in the U.S. prevent domestic violence in order to understand the sexual slavery committed abroad by U.S. expansion. It is important to remember/visibilize the violence that is committed abroad by U.S. military personnel; the history of modern day slavery is one also closely linked to a history of colonialism/occupation. The attitudes about humans, woman and her rights, and racist/m is one that does not stop when one exits their country, as delineated in the case of Coleman.
-Annie-

Philippine Women’s Network on Peace & Security

Amnesty International-Pilipinas * Buklod Center * KAISA Ka* Metro Subic

People’s Task Force on Bases Clean Up * WEDPRO * WomanHealth-Philippines

Member, International Women’s Network for Genuine Security

STATEMENT ON THE DEATH OF CHERRIE ANN GUZMAN-COLEMAN

On October 4, Cherrie Anne Guzman-Coleman died under suspicious circumstances, allegedly by hanging herself. Cherrie was the bride of SSgt. Glenn Edward Coleman of the 733^rd Air Mobility Squadron, which is stationed at the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. The two met when Cherrie worked for six months in Okinawa as an overseas performing artist, and had only been married for five months when Cherrie died. Coleman claims that Cherrie took her own life after a “slight” domestic disagreement. Cherrie’s friends have said that the couple often quarreled due to Coleman’s jealousy. They had seen Cherrie distraught, in tears and bruised after such incidents. On October 13, the battered body of Cherrie Ann Guzman-Coleman arrived in the Philippines and was claimed by her grieving mother, Ms. Myrna Vergara.

Almost 50,000 US forces and their dependents are stationed in Okinawa’s 42 military installations under Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright, current commander of all US forces in Japan. Sexual crimes and violence directed at women, including domestic violence, are the most common forms of human rights violations in the world. Violence against women is particularly pervasive in the context of military bases and prevailing military culture and training. The number and gravity of cases of violence against women have been especially shocking in Okinawa where US bases began its operations in 1945. In the past 62 years, hundreds of victims have been attacked, kidnapped, abused, gang raped or murdered, including a nine month old baby and girls with ages ranging from six to fifteen. Cherrie may well be the latest in a long line of women who have been attacked, kidnapped, abused, raped and even murdered by US servicemen in Okinawa.

Actions taken by Coleman and US military authorities in Okinawa have raised speculations that they have engaged in an attempt to cover-up the real facts regarding Cherrie’s death. The 20 year old Filipina’s death certificate, signed by medical examiner Capt. James Caruso of the US Naval Hospital in Okinawa did not contain cause of death, although an autopsy was supposedly carried out.

The Philippine Women’s Network on Peace and Security Network (PWNPS) calls on the Okinawan authorities, along with the Japanese Government, to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation on the death of Cherrie Ann Guzman-Coleman.

We call on the Philippine Government to assist the family of Cherrie through her mother, Ms. Vergara, to determine the actual cause of her death and seek justice for the untimely death of her daughter.

We call on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to fulfill its responsibility to protect and promote the well-being of all its citizens, including Cherrie Ann and all Filipino women living and working in military facilities all over the world.

Ref: Women’s Education, Development, Productivity & Research Organization (WEDPRO), Inc.

Convener and Secretariat: Philippine Women’s Network on Peace & Security (PWNPS)

Email: wedprophils1989@yahoo.com

Sex workers help police catch gangs, August 21, UK

2007-08-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

I find it incredibly important that women who identify as "sex workers" collaborate with social institutions to combat violence. However, one concern that is raised in this article, are simply more questions. The article focuses on "young girls who have been forced into the sex trade", but what of women (not girls) who are forced, exploited? Also: "Over the past two weeks, officers have been gathering information about brothels in the county that may be using woman brought into the country by traffickers." However, as many activist are finding and already know, international trafficking cross national borders is only one small component of human trafficking in the U.S. and around the world.

For more on debates about "sex workers" rights:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4066031.stm
and closer to home here in the Bay Area, California:
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2005

Sex workers help police catch gangs

21 August 2007

The Hunt's Post

WEB EDITORIAL - webdesk@herts24.co.uk

SEX workers have been calling police with vital information that could help in the fight to stamp out sex-trafficking in Cambridgeshire.

Police have has already rescued six woman from 'sex prisons' in the county, and have launched Operation Radium to hunt down the gangs behind the human trafficking.

Over the past two weeks, officers have been gathering information about brothels in the county that may be using woman brought into the country by traffickers.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Fullwood, who is leading the operation, said the response has been good - especially from women working in the sex industry.

He said these women wanted to help the young girls who have been forced into the sex trade, and who are often beaten and abused.

"The women who have been in touch with us see and hear things that other people wouldn't," said DCI Fullwood. "Their information as 'insiders' is very important to the intelligence-gathering and preparation side of Operation Radium."

Since the public launch of the operation two weeks ago, members of the public have provided detectives dozens of sites of suspected brothels in Peterborough, Cambridge, Huntingdonshire and the Fenland area.

"This stage of the operation may take many weeks to complete before we are in a position to take the tough action needed to bring the organisers of this sordid trade to justice," said DCI Fullwood. "In the meantime, it is vital that people keep calling us with any information they may have, no matter how trivial it may seem.

"Please remember that these brothels may operate under the guise of other businesses or even work from behind the facade of ordinary-looking homes in quiet streets.

"We are very, very grateful for the response we have had so far. Please keep the information coming in."

Posters and postcards seeking further information will be distributed across the region within the next few weeks.

INFORMATION: Anyone with information is asked to contact Cambridgeshire police on 0845 4564564 saying the call is in connection with Operation Radium, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111, again mentioning Operation Radium.

FORMER CALIFORNIA COUPLE PLEADS GUILTY TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING CHARGES, August 20, USA

2007-08-21T21:15:00.000-07:00

Robert Moossy
Director
Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit
Civil Rights, Criminal Section
U.S. Department of Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CRT
MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 2007 (202) 514-2007
WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514-1888

FORMER CALIFORNIA COUPLE PLEADS GUILTY TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING CHARGES

WASHINGTON - Elizabeth and James Jackson, of Culver City, Calif., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Los Angeles to felony charges related to forced labor and human trafficking. Elizabeth Jackson pleaded guilty to a single count of forced labor, and James Jackson pleaded guilty to a single count of alien harboring.

Elizabeth Jackson admitted to forcing a Filipino woman to work against her will in the Jacksons’ home for several months in 2001 and 2002 by creating a climate of fear through threats of abuse of the legal process. James Jackson admitted to harboring the same Filipino woman in the Jacksons’ Culver City home for several months in 2001 and 2002, even though he knew her work visa had expired.

Elizabeth Jackson faces a maximum sentence of 46 months in prison for her forced labor charge. James Jackson’s sentence will include 200 hours of community service, including providing immigration-related legal advice for indigents. Both of the Jacksons are scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 5, 2007.

“These defendants subjected their victim to what amounts to modern-day slavery,” said Wan J. Kim, Assistant Attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. “The Justice Department will remain dedicated to rooting out this horrible crime and prosecuting those who would enslave others.”

“No person should ever be forced to live in a world of fear, isolation and servitude, particularly in a country that prides itself on its freedoms,” said Julie Myers, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “Today’s guilty pleas should send a message to those who traffic in human beings that ICE is committed to protecting those who cannot protect themselves.”

“Freedom is the most basic of human rights and no one has the right to harbor illegal aliens and force them into labor,” said Salvador Hernandez, Deputy Assistant Director for the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “The FBI takes human trafficking crimes very seriously and is committed to investigating those involved in the systematic abuse and degradation of this essential right.”

The Attorney General has made the prosecution of human trafficking crimes a top priority. In the last six fiscal years, the Civil Rights Division, in conjunction with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, has increased by six-fold the number of human trafficking cases filed in court.

The case was prosecuted by Special Litigation Counsel Andrew J. Kline from the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit and Douglas Kern from the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Labor.

###

9 indicted in L.A. on sex-trafficking charges, August 10, LA, USA

2007-08-14T00:19:00.000-07:00

Human Trafficking and Guatemala: http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Guatemala.htm
Another article that was published on March 1, 2007: http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/mar/01/human_trafficking_horror_stories_shared_program/

9 indicted in L.A. on sex-trafficking charges

They are accused of luring young Guatemalans to U.S. with job promises but then forcing them into prostitution.

By Greg Krikorian
August 10, 2007

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has indicted nine people, including six members of the same family, for allegedly running a sex trafficking ring that lured young women and girls from Guatemala with the promise of honest work but then forced them into prostitution.

The 50-count indictment, unsealed Thursday, represents the largest sex trafficking case prosecuted in Southern California by the federal government in at least a decade, the U.S. attorney's office said.

It replaces smuggling charges first filed in December and adds both additional defendants and various charges, including sex trafficking of children and violation of the Mann Act, which bans the interstate or foreign transport of minors for prostitution.

The investigation by various federal and local agencies began last October when authorities were contacted by two alleged victims of the prostitution ring and a male customer who helped them escape. The following month, authorities say, they rescued two other women from the scheme.

According to the indictment, the victims were recruited in Guatemala for what they believed were legitimate jobs as baby-sitters, waitresses and other positions, then smuggled across the border with the understanding that they would repay the people who had helped them get into the United States.

Once in the U.S., they were forced into prostitution to repay inflated smuggling debts.

The minors were ordered to lie and say they were older than 18 if questioned by customers or the police, the indictment alleges.

In one case, an underage girl was told to solicit customers from a car rather than walking in downtown Los Angeles near 8th and Alvarado streets with other prostitutes.

Throughout their ordeal, authorities charge, the young women and girls were kept in line with the threat that if they did not repay their debts or tried to escape, they or their families -- including children -- would be beaten or killed.

The defendants, all of whom are in the United States illegally, also took some victims to reputed "witch doctors" in Los Angeles, warning them that a curse would be placed on them and their families in Guatemala if they tried to escape.

"This case is particularly egregious because the victims, some of whom were as young as 13 years old, all came here believing they would have a better life and could make money that they could send back to their families," federal prosecutor Caroline Wittcoff said. "Then, when they got here, they were all forced into a nightmare of prostitution."

J. Stephen Tidwell, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles office, said the case was a "dreadful" crime that was solved as part of a large effort by federal and local law enforcement agencies -- including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Los Angeles Police Department -- to combat human trafficking.

"This was one of those cases in which you could not succeed if you did it piecemeal" with individual agencies, he said.

Named in the indictment are Gladys Vasquez Valenzuela; her sisters, Mirna Jeanneth Vasquez Valenzuela and Albertina Vasquez Valenzuela; Albertina's children, Maria de los Angeles Vicente and Luis Vicente Vasquez; and Maribel Rodriguez Vasquez, who is the niece of Gladys, Mirna and Albertina.

Also charged were Mirna's live-in boyfriend, Gabriel Mendez; Maria's live-in boyfriend, Pablo Bonifacio; and Luis' live-in girlfriend, Flor Morales Sanchez.

All nine live in Los Angeles, the FBI said.

The most serious charges that many of the defendants face carry mandatory minimum sentences of 10 to 15 years for each count, Wittcoff said.

--

greg.krikorian@latimes.com

Pact on human trafficking with IOM signed, August, Thailand

2007-08-14T00:12:00.000-07:00

More literature:
A Modern Form of Slavery: Trafficking in Burmese Women & Girls in Thailand
by Human Rights Watch Staff (Editor), Asia Watch and the Women's Rights Project, Asia Watch, Sidney Jones

Sex and Borders: Gender, National Identity, and Prostitution Policy in Thailand
by Leslie Ann Jeffrey

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=120710

Pact on human trafficking with IOM signed

(IOM/TNA) -- The Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Thailand's Ministry of Social Development on Monday signed a counter-human trafficking pact extending a decade of cooperation.

The Thai Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS) endorsed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Cooperation in the Implementation of Projects Addressing Trafficking in
Persons and Assistance to at- Risk Groups.

Monday's MOU will facilitate and strengthen the establishment of a cooperation framework focusing on five areas:

-- cooperation in establishing care and assistance programmes for victims of trafficking, including: victim screening and identification procedures; building referral mechanisms and institutionalizing 'good practice' shelter management arrangements; and establishing operational standards and arrangements for the return of victims.

-- training and other capacity building support to Thai MSDHS staff, other relevant government officials, and others responsible for implementing national policies and programmes on human trafficking.

-- extending bilateral and multilateral cooperation between Thailand and other concerned countries on the issue of return and reintegration of victims.

-- help to develop bilateral and multilateral agreements, MOUs and standard operational procedures supporting bilateral cooperation on trafficking between Thailand and other countries in the best interest of the victims.

-- developing national awareness-raising and prevention strategies to reduce vulnerability to trafficking though cooperation with the ministry's provincial offices.

VN, China work together to fight human trafficking, August 8

2007-08-14T00:08:00.000-07:00

In anti-trafficking initiatives, it is important for destination and source countries to work with each other on combating cross national exploitation. An example in which organizations have taken up this ideology is evident in The Asia Foundation (http://www.asiafoundation.org/)

Article Source: http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=05SOC080807

VN, China work together to fight human trafficking

(08-08-2007)

HA NOI — Vietnamese and Chinese police have stepped up co-operation in the battle against human trafficking.

Progress of the teams was reviewed at a workshop on the prevention and fight against human trafficking on Monday by the Vietnamese police and their Chinese colleagues.

Since 2006, police have uncovered 110 cases of trafficking women and children and arrested 214 suspects. In active coordination, Chinese police have rescued and returned 511 victims to Viet Nam.

In the review period, 149 cases of human trafficking to China were discovered, involving as many as 271 people, including 59 children. Victims were from rural and isolated areas in northern provinces.

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of victims from central, Central Highlands and southwestern provinces. — VNS

MTV launches anti-human trafficking campaign, August 9

2007-08-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

To read more visit: http://www.newkerala.com/july.php?action=fullnews&id=52836
http://www.mtvexit.org
Or look below

You know when an issue has the attention of young people and it is seen as marketable; it is when it is on MTV. It focuses on Asia and the Pacific. Nice scope, but let's not forget: domestic trafficking.

MTV launches anti-human trafficking campaign

Mumbai, Aug 9 : MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom and the MTV Europe Foundation, a registered UK charity has announced the launch of MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) across Asia and the Pacific.

As a part of the anti-trafficking campaign by MTV-Exit a documentary, featuring gut wrenching stories of victims of human trafficking in Bangladesh and Nepal, presented by Bollywood star Lara Dutta, will be aired in September.

The documentaries will be followed by a series of public service announcements in 2007 and 2008, along with a multi-language website,www.mtvexit.org, and live awareness and prevention events.

According to United Nations (UN) estimates, there are 2.5 million victims of trafficking in the world with the majority being in Asia and the Pacific. It is the second largest illegal trade after drugs, with criminal traffickers earning over 10 billion US dollars every year through the buying and selling of human beings.

According to the UN '' Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, and receipt of a person for sexual or economical exploitation by force, fraud, coercion, or deception in order to make a profit. Often, victims are young men and women, who are guilty only of aspiring a better life for themselves and their families''.

It had been estimated that over the past decade in south Asia alone, some 30 million people, mostly children, had been trafficked.

And India is a major destination and a transit point for human trafficking in the sub continent. The majority of trafficking in India, both trans-border and in-country, happens for the purpose of sex work. A combination of growing demand for cheap domestic labour, labour and sex coupled with extreme poverty makes human trafficking an easy and lucrative business in India.

But trafficking can be fought through awareness and prevention.

Thus, MTV EXIT will highlight and address three major forms of trafficking in Asia and the Pacific: sex trafficking and forced prostitution, labour trafficking, and forced domestic servitude.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Bill Roedy, Vice Chairman, MTV Networks said,''Human trafficking has become a critical human rights issue facing young people across the Asia and Pacific. Victims are subject to horrendous abuses, including rape and torture, with women and girls particularly affected. Education is a key to prevention.

MTV EXIT is part of our commitment to help for highlighting issues affecting young people in Asia and across the world''.

The MTV EXIT initiative across Asia and the Pacific is an extention of the successful MTV EXIT European campaign, which has been raising awareness and increasing prevention of trafficking and exploitation in Europe since 2004. Many influential artists have supported MTV EXIT’s special programming and events in Europe, including Angelina Jolie, Helena Christensen and Roedy informed.

--- UNI

Still Here, by Being Stubborn, Not Mellow, New York Times, August 7

2007-08-13T23:55:00.000-07:00

Fox on Pimp Culture: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,97519,00.html
Hip hop videos: sex exploitation on the set: http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/vh1_news_presents/96137/episode.jhtml

Still Here, by Being Stubborn, Not Mellow

Separately, they’re the rappers Pimp C, left, and Bun B; together they’re known as UGK.

By KELEFA SANNEH
Published: August 7, 2007
The New York Times

What do rappers lose when they get older? In the case of Bun B and Pimp C, two rappers in their 30s from Port Arthur, Tex., who perform together as UGK, the answer is, not much.

Lots has happened to them since they first got together, in the late 1980s. They helped put nearby Houston on the hip-hop map, and they helped inspire a generation of Southern hip-hop stars, from OutKast to Lil Wayne. They had a fluke hit when Jay-Z invited them to add verses to his song “Big Pimpin’,” in 1999. Then they had an even flukier miss, a couple of years later, when record-company disputes sabotaged “Dirty Money,” the 2001 album that should have been their breakthrough. Soon after the album’s release, Pimp C went to prison, where he served almost four years on charges stemming from an aggravated-assault conviction. Bun B lobbied tirelessly for his imprisoned partner, shouting, “Free Pimp C!” whenever he got near a microphone, which was often.

Through it all, they have put together a solid sometimes brilliant series of albums, guest appearances and mixtape tracks. Almost from the start, UGK was known for tough but smooth rhymes delivered over elegant, leisurely beats. Their lyrics chronicle a Texan underworld full of pimps who talk slick, pushers who talk tough, snitches who talk too much. They are, among other things, astute chroniclers of Southern poverty, but they’re not particularly interested in being good guys.

They prove that once more on their long-awaited new double album, “Underground Kingz” (Jive), which arrives in stores today. In a silky song called “Gravy,” Bun B waxes physiological: “When I put one up in your dome/You’ll be leakin’ out plasma and pus, and your mouth’ll fill up with foam.”

Somehow, these two have grown older and wiser without outgrowing their genre; you never get the feeling that they think they’re too good for this kind of thing. Other veterans succeed by rising above the fray, but these two succeed by remaining part of it.

In 1992, when UGK made a major-label debut with “Too Hard to Swallow,” a long career hardly seemed guaranteed. On the contrary, some listeners probably thought these two were just a couple of Texas knuckleheads cashing in on the so-called gangsta-rap fad. And yet gangsta rap, broadly speaking streetwise protagonists, explicit lyrics, hard-boiled stories turned out to be hip-hop’s future, to the consternation of gripers past and present. Southern gangsta rap, in particular. It’s now clear that Bun B and Pimp C were ahead of their time.

Not that it would have mattered if they hadn’t been so obsessed with craft. Pimp C is the group’s main producer, and he has created a brilliantly effective template: hard, loping drums; slow-motion bass lines; suave nods to 1970s soul.

He’s also a flamboyant rapper, equipped with a pinched, braying voice and a tendency to lean hard into vowels, bending them to his will. (He also has a reputation for obstreperousness; he recently had to apologize to the entire city of Atlanta for claiming that it wasn’t really part of the South.)

Meanwhile, Bun B is the diplomatic wordsmith, respected and even beloved by his peers. He is equally capable of an unexpected insight or a brute-force barrage of steady syllables, with shifting stress patterns and varied line lengths to keep listeners off balance.

True to UGK form, the new CDs didn’t have a smooth voyage from recording studio to record store. The first single, “The Game Belongs to Me,” never caught on at radio, which helps explain why the album’s release date kept being moved back.

The second single is a glorious confection called “Int’l Players Anthem,” with a couple of spectacular guest verses from the members of OutKast and a lush beat (sampling Willie Hutch) by Three 6 Mafia. It’s just about perfect, and unexpectedly romantic, but it’s probably too unhurried too stubborn, you might say to be a pop hit.

In fact, stubbornness is one of this duo’s greatest virtues. You can hear it all over “Underground Kingz,” a double-album that’s solid to a fault. There are guests ranging from the dirty-rap pioneer Too $hort to the British motormouth Dizzee Rascal; from Z-Ro, the moody Houstonite, to Talib Kweli, the levelheaded Brooklynite. But most of the tracks were produced by or with Pimp C, who hews closely to the formula he invented. Fans have been waiting five years for a new UGK album, and apparently now it’s time to overdose.

There is plenty of old-fashioned trash talking here. More than once, Bun B reminds listen ers that he and his partner have brash new nicknames: Big Dick Cheney and Tony Snow. Throughout these two CDs, kilos are sold, foes are threatened, cars are painted and repainted, prostitutes are put in their place.

But you can also hear a bracing kind of clarity, and maybe it’s the kind that comes with age. In “Still Ridin’ Dirty,” Bun B provides some grim context for the unapologetic rhymes elsewhere on the album:

“You live by the gun, you’ll die by the slugs, man/You live off of fiends, you’ll die behind drugs, man.” This is an acknowledgment, but it’s not a disavowal. And in “How Long Can It Last,” he scoffs at the idea that drug dealers are having fun: “They wish they lived in the ’burbs, wish they didn’t have to hang/out on corners in low-income housing projects and slang.”

Bun B and Pimp C are keenly attuned to the way these antiheroes make a virtue of necessity, the way a struggle to survive comes to seem like a swashbuckling adventure. Indeed, they are never more vehement than when they’re expounding on the aesthetics and ethics of street life. At one point, Bun B lists the group’s core values: honor, respect, valor and guts. (Actually, “guts” isn’t the word he uses, but it’s close enough.)

And in “Take tha Hood Back,” Bun B fulminates against would-be kingpins who are “really hustlin’ wrong” by associating with snitches, and he sounds like the exasperated elder he is when he huffs, “I’m teachin’ classes: Dope Slangin’ 101.” Kids today: they just don’t sell crack the way they used to.

Like all veterans, these two look back fondly on the world that made them. It’s nostalgia, but if anything, it’s nostalgia for a crueler world, not a gentler one. All these years later, their seeming nihilism seems more like integrity: a clear-eyed commitment to an old-fashioned ideal, despite its contradictions.

Surely this is part of the reason they have lasted so long, and aged so well. In their rhymes you can hear the irrational, irresistible process by which bad old days are transformed into good ones.

BBC JOURNALISTS WHO REPORTED ON CHILD TRAFFICKING SCHEME IN BULGARIA

2007-08-13T23:51:00.000-07:00

Trafficking in Bulgaria: http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Bulgaria.htm

Another BBC Reporting: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6917308.stm

http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/bbc-journalists-who-reported-on-child-trafficking-scheme-in-bulgaria-have-criminal-reports/id_24299/catid_68
BBC JOURNALISTS WHO REPORTED ON CHILD TRAFFICKING SCHEME IN BULGARIA HAVE CRIMINAL REPORTS

15:36 Thu 09 Aug 2007

Two of the journalists from BBC who exposed a baby trafficker in the Bulgarian coastal city of Varna have criminal records themselves.

The journalists, who reported on trafficking for a recently aired edition of the BBC Ten O'Clock News, have records for driving without licences, participation in fraud conspiracy, and driving under the influence of alcohol.

The Bulgarian Interior Minister has requested an emergency meeting with UK Ambassador to Bulgaria to discuss the issue, Focus news agency reported.

Bulgarian INTERPOL desk sent an official requirement asking the London desk to provide more information about the BBC journalists.

Varna's police officers detained the Bulgarian named in the BBC report.

Charity condemns escort job ads, August 8, UK

2007-08-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

The power of media/advertisements are evident in understanding human trafficking / commercial sexual exploitation. While this article illustrates how language is used to gloss over the full scope of what an individual may experience in applying for an ad such as the one below, what is also important is recognizing how gender, race, and sexuality are also represented in advertisements.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6937887.stm

Charity condemns escort job ads

A charity warns the adverts will lead women into prostitution

A government website aimed at helping people find work has been condemned for advertising escort jobs.

Jobcentre Plus is part of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its website offers several personal escort positions around the country.

A charity which helps sex trade workers says the ads, for jobs paying up to £100-an-hour, will "clearly" lead women into prostitution.

A DWP spokeswoman said a court ruling meant it could not refuse the adverts.

One of the adverts - for a unisex escort agency - is seeking people in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

They have to be free to work between two and 15 hours a week and available day and night, Monday to Sunday. The job, the website states, is permanent and no pension details are available.

The job description reads: "Duties involve providing clients with a personal escort service in an unsupervised environment.

"Experience is preferred but is not essential. Duties will involve escorting and accompanying members of the public which may cause embarrassment to some people.

"Some cash handling will also be involved."

'Career choice'

But Frances Broderick, from charity Eaves, told Channel 4 news that the adverts were "clearly helping women into prostitution".

"I'm shocked that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are even advertising this as an opportunity," she said.

"It's clearly not a suitable career choice for the DWP to be promoting."

Labour MP Fiona MacTaggart, a former junior Home Office minister, told the programme: "At the moment, it's quite legal to buy or sell sexual services and I think maybe the time has come to tackle that, to actually change the law... to make it illegal to buy sex."

But the adverts cannot be banned by the website following a court ruling four years ago in a case brought by the sex toy and lingerie chain Ann Summers.

A DWP spokesman said: "The High Court over-turned Jobcentre Plus's policy which did not accept certain types of adverts connected with the sex and personal service industries."

He added there were safeguards in place to ensure customers were fully aware of the nature of the jobs and no benefit sanctions would occur if they did not apply for such vacancies.

Stopping Sexual Abuse of Children, August 9, Russia

2007-08-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

To learn more about post-war and sex exploitation/violence visit the women for genuine security website: http://www.genuinesecurity.org/

Stopping Sexual Abuse of Children

By Cesar Chelala

One of the worst tragedies of post-Soviet Russia has been the increase in child abuse, particularly child prostitution. Besides the moral and ethical implications, the impact that sexual exploitation has on children's health and future development demands urgent attention. It is a problem that shows no signs of abating.

To read rest of article, visit: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/08/09/006.html

AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY: Anti-Pornography Website

2007-08-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

ECPAT: Pornography and Trafficking
http://www.ecpat.net/eng/index.asp
Traffick Jamming with PRE: http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/blog/2006/10/pornographyprostitutiontraffic.html

AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY
Anti-Pornography Website
http://www.againstpornography.org

Welcome to Against Pornography! (Launched 07/25/2007) Against Pornography is a feminist anti-pornography website which aims at raising the awareness about the harms of pornography (as well as of prostitution) to women and children -- both inside and outside of the industry -- and, also, the harms of pornography to its users, to relationships and to the society in general. The goals of this website are also to create a venue for people to speak of the harms of pornography, to encourage them to take action against pornography, to educate them on the dangers of it, and to urge men to reclaim their fantasies from corporate power and regain their humanity.

Pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry. The annual revenue of that industry is $12 billion in the U.S. and $57 billion worldwide. What was once called "softcore" pornography is now part of the mainstream media. The sexual objectification of women can be easily noticed on cable TV shows, MTV, reality TV shows, in fashion, advertising, men and women's magazines, music videos, Hollywood films, video games, etc... At the same time, hardcore pornography has become increasingly more violent, aggressive and misogynistic.

The pornographers have also taken advantages of the latest technological inventions ( DVD's, the Internet, cell-phones, etc...) to make more profit and increase the sales of their misogynistic material.

Pornography is usually defended in many countries as "freedom of speech" or "freedom of expression".

Pornography is everywhere! Its sexist, racist, classist -- and sometimes homophobic - messages and images have infiltrated the mainstream media and spread throughout the society and culture in America as well as in Britain. While the culture is glorifying pornography, a painful truth remains: Women and children are being sexually abused, sexually exploited and sexually victimized at rates that are epidemic! Many people in this society are becoming increasingly desensitized to violence.

Within such an overwhelming cultural, societal, technological and environmental "terrorism", a feminist critique of pornography is needed more than ever. Nevertheless, such a critique is largely censored from the mainstream media. When intelligent, educated, kind, considerate and potentially powerful feminist authors -- having with them piles of evidence of the harms of pornography -- want to get their articles published in the mainstream press, they are turned down, in order to protect the pornography business from criticism.

Asian pop stars back fight against human trafficking, August 7

2007-08-13T14:47:00.000-07:00

Ricky Martin Fondation: http://www.rickymartinfoundation.org/english/default.aspx

Asian pop stars back fight against human trafficking

Tue Aug 7, 2007 9:48PM IST

By James Pomfret

HONG KONG (Reuters Life!) - Two of Asia's hottest pop acts, Thailand's Tata Young and South Korea's Rain, are to help highlight the fight against rampant human trafficking in Asia in an MTV-backed initiative on Wednesday.

"How could people do this to each other?" Thai pop sensation Tata Young told Reuters by phone from Bangkok.

"To hear all these stories of children and women and men going through human trafficking and exploitation, it hurts me so bad," added the confident, brassy 26-year-old, whose skimpy outfits and best-selling albums have led to her being dubbed Asia's Britney Spears.

Young will help host shows and documentaries on youth music channel MTV which is aiming to raise awareness of what has been described as a "tragic form of modern day slavery" in collaboration with the U.S.-based Agency for International Development (USAID).

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) says economic disparities in Asian countries such as Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia fuel the trafficking of children and women towards Thailand.

Australia, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan are also considered major destinations by the ILO for the trafficking of prostitutes from Indonesia and the Philippines.

Human trafficking is a major global problem, particularly in Asia and Africa. The United Nations estimates 2.5 million people are currently coerced into forced labour or prostitution in a trade worth $7-10 billion annually.

Another Asian star, South Korea's King of Pop, Jung Ji-Hoon -- better known as Rain, will also help MTV publicise the cause.

Read rest of article, visit: http://in.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idINIndia-28869620070807

Caring for the trafficking victims, August 7, UK

2007-08-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

Bay Area Social Services:
Standing Against Global Exploitation: http://www.sagesf.org/
AATC: http://endtrafficking.wordpress.com/

National:
Rescue & Restore: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/
Polaris Project: http://216.128.14.181/polarisproject/

Caring for the trafficking victims

View Gallery

By Kirsty Nicolson

ONCE the victims of sex trafficking have been rescued it's voluntary organisations that help care for them.

One of these is Chaste – (Churches Against Sex Trafficking in Europe) – whose work includes advising the police, helping provide victims with a safe home and offering initial counselling.

Special report: Operation Radium - 'Evil and disgusting' trade in sex slaves
Sickened police officers visited 36 suspected city brothels in a matter of weeks in search of human sex slaves.
-----------------------

During the past three years the organisation has helped 91 victims.

Chairman Dr Carrie Pemberton said: "Some of the things that happen to these women are horrendous.

"Many are raped – some gang raped – to 'break them in' and often they are beaten, some with an inch of there lives.

"You don't have to be handcuffed in a locked room to be a prisoner.

"Some of these women are so terrified what will happen to them and their families that they do not dare leave.

"What happens to some of them is so horrendous that they are treated with less respect than animals."

She said the whole culture of using prostitutes needed changing, adding that some men who use the brothels may be abusing these women, who have been trafficked, without realising it.

External links:
For more information about Chaste, or to offer it vital support, visit www.chaste.org.uk

Another organisation that helps is the Poppy Project at www.poppy.ik.com

Information can also be found at www.endchildexploitation.co.uk

Is the US Able to Combat Human Trafficking?

2007-08-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

Polaris Project Provides Perspectives on Human Trafficking Movement: http://www.humantrafficking.com/humantrafficking/trafficking_ht3/what_is_ht.htm
CATW Resource on the Demand and the Debate
http://action.web.ca/home/catw/readingroom.shtml?x=53793

Exclusive: Is the US Able to Combat Human Trafficking?
Jim Kouri, CPP

Author: Jim Kouri, CPP
Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
Date: August 6, 2007

The ability to eliminate human trafficking is critical to homeland security and human life. While Congress passes laws to protect against this crime, FSM Contributing Editor Jim Kouri reveals insufficient funding is holding us back from making real progress. Who is responsible?

Is the US Able to Combat Human Trafficking?

By Jim Kouri, CPP

Human trafficking is a transnational crime whose victims include men, women, and children and may involve violations of labor, immigration, antislavery, and other criminal laws.

To ensure punishment of traffickers and protection of victims, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), which is subject to reauthorization in 2007. The Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) lead federal investigations and prosecutions of trafficking crimes.

The Government Accountability Office reviewed strategies, reports, and other agency documents; analyzed trafficking data; and interviewed agency officials and task force members.

Since the enactment of the TVPA in 2000, federal agencies have investigated allegations of trafficking crimes, leading to 139 prosecutions; provided training and implemented state and local initiatives to support investigations and prosecutions; and established organizational structures, agency-level goals, plans, or strategies.

For example, agencies have trained new and current personnel on investigating and prosecuting trafficking in persons crimes through their agency training academies and centers, provided Web-based training, and developed and disseminated guidance on case pursuance. Agencies have also sponsored outreach and training to state and local law enforcement, nongovernmental organizations, and the general public through a toll-free complaint line, newsletters, national conferences, and model legislation.

Finally, some agencies have established special units or plans for carrying out their anti-trafficking duties. Federal agencies have coordinated across agencies on investigations and prosecutions of trafficking crimes on a case-by-case basis, determined by individual case needs, and established relationships among law enforcement officials across agencies.

For example, several federal agencies worked together to resolve a landmark trafficking case involving over 250 victims. However, DOJ and DHS officials have identified the need to advance and expand U.S. efforts to combat trafficking through more collaborative and proactive strategies to identify trafficking victims.

Prior GAO work on interagency collaboration has shown that a strategic framework that includes, among other things, a common outcome, mutually reinforcing strategies, and compatible polices and procedures to operate across agency boundaries can help enhance and sustain collaboration among federal agencies dealing with issues that are national in scope and cross agency jurisdictions.

To support U.S. efforts to investigate trafficking in persons, the Bureau of Justice Assistance has awarded grants of up to $450,000 to establish 42 state and local human trafficking law enforcement task forces.

BJA has funded the development of a train-the-trainer curriculum and a national conference on human trafficking and taken further steps to respond to task force technical assistance needs.

Nevertheless, task force members from the seven task forces we contacted and DOJ officials identified continued and additional assistance needs. BJA does not have a technical assistance plan for its human trafficking task force grant program.

Prior GAO work has shown the need for agencies that administer grants or funding to state and local entities to implement a plan to focus technical assistance on areas of greatest need. BJA officials said they were preparing a plan to provide additional and proactive technical assistance to the task forces, but as of June 2007, had not received the necessary approvals.

# #
Family Security Matters contributing editor Jim Kouri, CPP is currently vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org). He�s former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by
read full author bio here

� 2003-2007 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved

If you are a reporter or producer who is interested in receiving more information about this writer or this article, please email your request to pr@familysecuritymatters.org.

Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of The Family Security Foundation, Inc.

Other Articles by Jim Kouri, CPP...
Postal Security: Detecting Bio-Chemical Hazards and Weapons
Is the US Able to Combat Human Trafficking?
Homeland Security Attempts to Enhance Security of Passports and Visas
Third Suspect Arrested in DOD Bribery Cases in Iraq and Kuwait
Financing the Global War on Terrorism
US and Mexico Resume Voluntary Interior Repatriation Program Jim Kouri
Homeland Security Dept. Facing Manpower Shortages
Justice Department Unveils Measures to Enhance National Security Oversight
Counterterrorism: US Aids Colombia with Protection of Oil Pipelines
Task Force Arrests 22 Gang Members in "Operation Valley Star"

Click here to support Family Security Matters

APD arrests two in human trafficking ring, August 6, Austin Texas USA

2007-08-13T14:28:00.000-07:00

New Task Force:
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2004/11/22/daily29.html

Coalition Against Human Trafficking in Texas:
http://www.cahthouston.org/

http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=189740

APD arrests two in human trafficking ring
8/6/2007 6:04 PM
By: News 8 Austin Staff

Austin police have arrested two men in connection with a local prostitution and human trafficking ring.

Gustavo Luna and Javier Torres-Cruz have been charged with aggravated promotion of prostitution.

They're accused of forcing female immigrants to serve as prostitutes as payment for getting into the United States.

APD says it's a vicious cycle that never seems to end.

"What happens is what you're brought here for and the kind of work you're forced into almost becomes a way of life. And becomes like the Stockholm syndrome where you feel you become indebted to and comfortable with the person who is holding you against your will," Duane McNeil of APD said.

Investigators say the ring is operated through business cards that are passed out to prospective clients in the area.

Bail for Luna and Torres-Cruz has been set at $100,000 each.

Côte d’Ivoire: Peace Process Fails to Address Sexual Violence

2007-08-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

Suggested read: Kathleen Barry, http://www.amazon.com/Female-Sexual-Slavery-Kathleen-Barry/dp/0814710697

Unicef report on commercial sexual exploitation:
http://www.unicef.org/newsline/01pr97.htm

Cote d'Ivoire - Ivory Coast

Direct Website Link to Report:

http://hrw.org/reports/2007/cdi0807/

http://hrw.org:80/english/docs/2007/08/01/cotedi16558.htm

Côte d’Ivoire: Peace Process Fails to Address Sexual Violence

National Authorities and International Community Must Act to Reverse Impunity

(Abidjan, August 2, 2007) – Pro-government and rebel forces in Côte d’Ivoire have subjected thousands of women and girls to rape and other brutal sexual assaults with impunity, Human Rights Watch said in a new report issued today. Despite recent progress in the peace process, the latest accord fails to address this widespread sexual violence or the need for accountability.

Sexual violence has been the silent crime of Côte d’Ivoire’s military and political crisis. Combatants responsible for rape and other acts of sexual violence have enjoyed almost complete impunity, while the survivors have been denied both justice and medical attention.

Peter Takirambudde, Africa director of Human Rights Watch

While the worst sexual violence took place during the height of the armed conflict from 2002 to 2004, women and girls continue to be subjected to acts of sexual violence.

“Sexual violence has been the silent crime of Côte d’Ivoire’s military and political crisis,” said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director of Human Rights Watch. “Combatants responsible for rape and other acts of sexual violence have enjoyed almost complete impunity, while the survivors have been denied both justice and medical attention.”

The 135-page report, “My Heart is Cut": Sexual Violence by Rebels and Pro-Government Forces in Côte d’Ivoire, details the widespread nature of sexual violence throughout the five-year military-political crisis. The report, which is based on interviews with more than 180 victims and witnesses, documents how women and girls have been subjected to individual and gang rape, sexual slavery, forced incest and other egregious sexual assaults.

Fighters on both sides have raped women old enough to be their grandmothers, girls as young as 6, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. They have also inserted guns, sticks, pens, and other objects into their victims’ vaginas. Combatants have abducted women and girls to serve as sex slaves, and have forcibly conscripted them into the fighting forces. Sexual violence has been often accompanied by other gross human rights violations against the victims, their families and their communities, including torture, killing, mutilation and even cannibalism.

Côte d’Ivoire – once considered a pillar of stability and progress in West Africa – has for at least seven years been consumed by a political and military crisis rooted in ethnic, religious, political and economic issues. Efforts to resolve the armed conflict between the government and northern-based rebels have produced a string of unfulfilled peace agreements, the deployment of more than 11,000 foreign peacekeeping troops, and the imposition of a UN arms embargo and travel and economic sanctions. In March, the government and rebels signed the Ouagadougou Agreement, envisioned to bring about an end to the crisis and lead to elections later this year. To date, both sides have taken encouraging steps toward its implementation, but the peace process has not resolved key issues that have contributed to the breakdown of previous accords in the past, particularly the criteria for establishing Ivorian citizenship, disarmament, and accountability for abuses by all sides.

Victims of sexual violence told Human Rights Watch about the acute physical and psychological distress they suffered as a result of rape. The report details how some rape victims died because of the sexual violence they endured. Others were raped so violently that they suffered serious bleeding, tearing in the genital area, long-term incontinence, and severe infections. Others suffered from botched abortions following the sexual assault. Many complained of bleeding, deep abdominal aches, and burning pains. Countless victims suffered from sexually transmitted infections and were put at high risk for the transmission of HIV/AIDS. Deterred by shame and poverty, few survivors of sexual violence ever receive the medical help they need.

The Ivorian government and the rebel New Forces (Forces Nouvelles) have made scant efforts to investigate or prosecute perpetrators of even the most heinous crimes involving sexual violence. This failure has contributed to an environment of increasingly entrenched lawlessness where impunity prevails. For its part, the international community has consistently sidelined initiatives to combat impunity in Côte d’Ivoire, presumably due to a fear of upsetting negotiation efforts.

“The government and the rebels alike have turned a blind eye to rape and other abuses committed by their forces,” said Takirambudde. “This has only emboldened perpetrators on both sides of the military divide.”

Sexual violence took place throughout Côte d’Ivoire, especially in the hotly contested western regions, which experienced the most fighting. Mixed groups of Liberian and Sierra Leonean fighters – operating as mercenaries in support of both the Ivorian government and rebel forces – were guilty of especially egregious and widespread sexual abuse. However, even after the end of active hostilities, from 2004 onwards, sexual violence has remained a significant problem throughout both rebel- and government-held areas.

In rebel-held territory, and particularly in the west, some women were targeted for abuse because of their ethnicity or perceived pro-government affiliation, often because their husband, father or another male relative worked for the state. Many others appeared to have been targeted randomly for sexual assault. Women and girls were subjected to sexual violence in their homes, as they sought refuge after being found hiding in forests, when stopped at military checkpoints, while working on farms, and at places of worship. Numerous women and girls were abducted and subjected to sexual slavery in rebel camps where they endured sexual abuse over extended periods of time. Resistance was frequently met with horrific punishment or even death. Some sex slaves, intimidated by their captors and the other circumstances, felt powerless to escape their life of sexual slavery. An unknown number of such women and girls remain with their captors.

Pro-government forces – including members of the gendarmerie, police, army, and militias – were widely responsible for rape and other forms of sexual abuse against women and girls, especially in the heavily contested western region and along frontlines. In addition to sexual violence associated with open hostilities, pro-government forces targeted women and girls whom they suspected of supporting the rebels, particularly women who were Muslim, came from the north or from neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali, or were thought to support opposition political parties. Law enforcement officers, militia men, and other pro-government forces abused women at checkpoints, during raids, in makeshift prisons, and in marketplaces. The scale of violations by pro-government forces appeared to increase during periods of heightened political tension.

Human Rights Watch called on the Ivorian government and rebels to investigate and punish perpetrators in accordance with international standards. The United Nations Security Council should expedite the publication of the report of the 2004 UN Commission of Inquiry into human rights violations committed since 2002, and should discuss its findings and recommendations. The Ivorian government and its development partners must act promptly to provide much-needed medical, psychological and social services to the countless survivors of sexual assault. Lastly, given the fact that rights abuses have very often escalated during periods of heightened political tension, Human Rights Watch emphasized that drawdown or withdrawal of United Nations peacekeepers must wait until after presidential and legislative elections.

“Ivorian and rebel authorities must demonstrate their commitment to the rule of law now and in the future by committing to prosecute key individuals responsible for atrocities, including those atrocities documented in this report,” said Takirambudde. “The organizations and governments working to consolidate peace, namely the United Nations, the French government and the African Union, must assist them in developing a concrete strategy for doing this.”

Selected testimony from victims interviewed for the report:

One young woman who was in her late teens when she was detained in 2003 as a sex slave in a rebel camp recounted:

They took me and for a week they raped me all the time, they locked me in a home. They used to tie me up with my legs spread apart and arms tied behind me to rape me. They’d rape me three or four in the night, they would put their guns next to you and if you refuse they kill you. They killed one of my friends and made us bury her. We were about 10 or 15 girls there, being raped.

A mother who was raped and whose two adolescent daughters had firewood shoved into their vaginas by rebels in 2002 described her agony:

Frankly I don’t know how I will cope. They took sticks to put in the vaginas of my two daughters ... When they took out the wood they put their hands in. Really, they ruined my children. The blood was running ... they told me to wipe it up. Wood, hands ... when they were done ... they beat my girls again and said they will kill us. I had to clean up the blood from my daughters.

A woman of Malian origin, living in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood of Abidjan, described how she was raped by soldiers in front of her husband on March 25, 2004:

During the crisis which followed the opposition march, I was raped by the military. They came into our house. My husband was in the living room and my three children were in their rooms. The soldiers locked the kids up. I was just coming out from the shower. They forced my husband to sit and watch them raping me under the threat of their guns. This shame prevents me from looking at my husband today.

A Muslim woman of Malian origin described the gang-rape of her sister by seven uniformed pro-government soldiers who wanted to ascertain the whereabouts of their brother, an opposition activist:

My big brother was in the RDR ... They came looking for him. We [my sisters and I] said “he is out.” They said, “we will kill the three of you if you don’t get him to come.” They found a notebook with his number and called him. He said “I am coming, just take some money, please don’t hurt them.” They hit me with a gun and broke my arm. Then they took my beautiful tallest older sister, tied her up and raped her over and over.

A woman who had been raped for over a year during the war by rebels in Bouake explained her appalling physical condition after managing to escape:

I could hardly walk, was bleeding all the time. I had no money for cloths to stop the bleeding or even for food ... I was so sick, they chased me away from the hospital, my living conditions were awful, I smelled bad, I couldn’t sleep, I crawled like a baby because I couldn’t walk, I felt so bad, I didn’t have anyone to help me.

Arrests made in Chinese human trafficking ring, August 5

2007-08-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

Country Assessment:
http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/China.htm
http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/china

Human Trafficking a Huge Problem in China: http://usinfo.state.gov/gi/Archive/2006/Mar/08-981845.html

From MaltaMedia.com
http://www.maltamedia.com/artman2/publish/local/article_2948.shtml

Local
Arrests made in Chinese human trafficking ring
By MaltaMedia News
Aug 5, 2007 - 4:50:45 PM

Five persons of Chinese origin were arrested by Italian police in connection with the organisation of illegal human trafficking based in Malta, Italy and China, Alice News reported.

The arrests were made in Rome, Palermo, Catania, Avellino and Ragusa.

The criminal group brought the Chinese migrants in Malta through the granting of a regular visa for studying purposes. The 200 Chinese were then accompanied illegally by motorboats to the Sicilian coasts.

Another eight persons within organisation, Alice News said, had been responsible for organising an illegal trip which had caused the death of two Chinese illegal immigrants in Donnalucata, Ragusa in November 2004.

Meanwhile, a Spanish resident was also arrested and another seven warrants against Europeans are expected to be issued.

US continues combating human trafficking, August 5

2007-08-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

US Department of Justice Site: http://www.usdoj.gov/whatwedo/whatwedo_ctip.html
Facts: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/33109.htm

US continues combating human trafficking

By Jim Kouri

(AXcess News) New York - Human trafficking is a transnational crime whose victims include men, women, and children and may involve violations of labor, immigration, antislavery, and other criminal laws.

To ensure punishment of traffickers and protection of victims, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), which is subject to reauthorization in 2007. The Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) lead federal investigations and prosecutions of trafficking crimes.

The Government Accountability Office reviewed strategies, reports, and other agency documents; analyzed trafficking data; and interviewed agency officials and task force members.

Since the enactment of the TVPA in 2000, federal agencies have investigated allegations of trafficking crimes, leading to 139 prosecutions;provided training and implemented state and local initiatives to support investigations and prosecutions; and established organizational structures, agency-level goals, plans, or strategies.

Sex tourism drives illicit trade, experts say, August 5, Caribbean

2007-08-13T13:44:00.001-07:00

Campaigns Against Sex Tours: http://www.equalitynow.org/english/campaigns/sextourism-trafficking/sextourism-trafficking_en.html

Historical: http://www.caribvoice.org/Travel&Tourism/sextourism.html

Sex tourism drives illicit trade, experts say

By SUZANNE SHEPPARD Sunday, August 5 2007

THE LURE of sea, sand and sex tourism makes Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean islands attractive, not only to holiday makers, but to organised crime rings involved in the illicit and highly lucrative human trafficking trade.

Read More: http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,61837.html

Five minors rescued from Maharashtra brothels, August 5, India

2007-08-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Strengthening law enforcement response to human trafficking: http://www.unodc.org/pdf/india/vacancies/TORs%20psychosocial%20needs%20assessment%20_%20prosecution%20procedures_%20revised.pdf

Rehabilitation for survivors:
http://aasara.blogspot.com/2007/07/rehabilitation-for-women-victims-of.html

Save the Children:
http://www.savethechildren.in/india/key_sectors/child_trafficking.html

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=249479

Five minors rescued from Maharashtra brothels

Express News Service

Kolkata, August 5: The Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU), which was inaugrated a month back, has rescued seven young girls from Mumbai and other suburbs of Maharashtra and brought them back to Kolkata. A six-member team went to Maharashtra to rescue the girls, who were trafficked from South 24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas. The girls were sold in various parts of Maharashtra for being used as commercial sex workers. The AHTU team visited Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Kalyan of Maharashtra and rescued the girls. Of the seven, five are minors. Six of them are from South 24-Parganas and one is from Barasat in North 24- Parganas. Officials said in most of the cases, the touts were either female traffickers or young men. After questioning the girls, AHTU officials have not ruled out the involvement of acquaintances or relatives. Officials said that one of girl’s father had sold her to tout, who had taken her to Maharastra. “After conducting a preliminary investigation, we believe that one of theminor’s father might have taken a sum of Rs 1 lakh from the tout,” said Sanjay Mukherjee, DIG, CID. At present, the girls are staying in a city-based NGO. They will be handed to their parents. But if the parents are involved in the trafficking, the girls will not be returned to them, officials stated. “Many cases have been reported from South 24-Parganas. We will send more teams to Maharashtra soon to rescue more girls from different parts of the state,” added Mukherjee. According to police data, in four different operations conducted in the past three months, 20 traffickers were arrested and 14 child victims rescued. Recently, the state government has decided to form a network to fight the menace of human trafficking. The social welfare department will act the nodal agency. The health, backward classes welfare, self-help group and self-employment, panchayat and rural development departments will be a part of the network. Police, CID, NGOs and the state women’s commission will play a key role in the initiative. The primary objective of the network, the first of its kind in the country, is to spread awareness among the people both in the city and the rural areas so that they do not fall prey to this menace. The network comes with the assurance of economic independence and proper rehabilitation of victims. The state government has allotted Rs 1 crore for this purpose. The network was formed following a report on human trafficking prepared jointly by three Calcutta, North Bengal and Burdwan universities.

Draft plan to check human trafficking, August 5, South Asia

2007-08-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

Overview of Combating Violence Against Women in India:
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN020004.pdf

US Also focuses on protection and prosecution: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/fpht05.htm

http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/05/stories/2007080554761200.htm

Draft plan to check human trafficking

Special Correspondent

Focus on protection, prosecution

NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Women (NCW) will spell out a draft integrated plan of action to prevent and combat trafficking in women and children that will call for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries to come together to deal with the issue.

Briefing reporters at the end of a two-day national consultation on preventing and combating human trafficking with special focus on children and women here over the weekend, NCW chairperson Girija Vyas said the plan of action would focus on prevention, protection, prosecution and providing necessary help to the victims.

She said the participants felt that prevention strategies should be based on existent ground realities and every State should draw up an action plan after mapping the vulnerable areas ‘at risk.’ Involvement of the corporate sector in prevention and rehabilitation and sensitisation of the community are some other salient features of the action plan, the draft of which would be submitted to the Union Women and Child Development Ministry by the month end before the Union Cabinet’s approval is sought.

Ms. Vyas said the draft plan would suggest involving Ministries such as the Panchayati Raj, Health and Family Welfare, Labour, Tourism, Railways, Road Transport, Education, Defence and even the External Affairs to prevent trafficking and ensure rehabilitation of those rescued since the issue had international manifestations. She suggested the setting up of short-term stay home facilities on the international borders from where trafficking was carried out.

Protocols for repatriation

Stressing the need for identifying institutions that would provide safe custody to the victims, the plan of action would also suggest developing procedures, mechanisms and protocols for repatriation with the neighbouring countries, and sensitisation of the law enforcement agencies and the judiciary.

Gals told 'don't go' to work in Vegas, August 5, USA

2007-08-13T13:24:00.000-07:00

Working Group on Nevada Trafficking: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nv/home/pressrelease/september2004/trafficking092804.htm

Conference:
Event Detail

Human Trafficking Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada
Dates: October 08, 2007 to October 10, 2007

Venue Information

Orleans Hotel and Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada

Event Details

Some of the topics for this conference will be

Prosecuting Traffickers;
Trafficking Investigations;
Pimp/Prostitute Subculture;
working with Victims.

Break out sessions will be available.

Assistant US Attorneys Chris Wilton and Erica MacDonald
Dr Sharon Cooper
Dr. Lois Lee-Founder Children of the Night
Det. Keith Haight- Los Angeles Police Dept
Sgt Vic Vigna-Las Metro Police Dept
Lt. Mary Petri San Francisco Police Dept

Please visit our site at www.teachcops.com for more conference information and registration.

ARTICLE BEGIN:

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2007/08/05/4395398-sun.html

Gals told 'don't go' to work in Vegas

Alberta woman's disappearance now looks like case of human trafficking

By GLENN KAUTH, SUN MEDIA

Carol-Lynn Strachan shudders whenever she hears of Edmonton prostitutes going to work in Las Vegas.

"I tell them don't go, and find out who you're working for," said Strachan, a local sex-trade advocate.

Strachan's concern is the rise in human-trafficking cases in the Las Vegas sex trade.

Just recently, authorities there revealed they believe Jessie Foster, an Alberta woman missing since March 2006, is the victim of a possible trafficking ring.

"This sounds like a really bad detective movie that never ends," said her father, Dwight Foster, from Calgary yesterday.

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Dwight called his daughter's case a "textbook" example of trafficking in which a pimp lures young women to places like Las Vegas with the promise of bright lights and big money.

Once they get to Sin City, they essentially become slaves to pay off the pimp for bringing them there.

"The problem is the debt keeps rising. The debt never goes away," said Terri Miller, program director with the Las Vegas-based organization, the Anti Trafficking League Against Slavery.

In Foster's case, the 21-year-old went to Las Vegas in order to join her boyfriend, Peter Todd, who told her he had lots of money and who at first showered her with a life of luxury, Dwight said.

Since she went missing in March 2006, however, the family has since learned she had earlier been arrested for prostitution.

What makes a sex worker a victim of trafficking is the element of coercion and fraud, said Miller. Victims can't leave the trade because of the debt, and in many cases they're kept hidden and cut off from family and friends.

"Most of the time, there's some sort of threat against their safety, the safety of their family," said Miller.

The only way out of the trap, she added, is to pay off the debt or get help from an organization like hers.

Tragically, though, some victims end up dead either through suicide or murder, Miller noted.

Like Strachan, JoAnn McCartney, a former Edmonton vice cop who counsels prostitutes, warns local sex workers about the lure of Las Vegas. She's been involved in incidents where parents have had to sneak plane or bus tickets to their daughters trying to escape controlling pimps.

"They're subject to a whole lot of violence once they get there," she said.

"The only thing you can tell them is (that) whatever sounds too good to be true probably is," she added.

Foster's mother Glendene Grant, meanwhile, said the fact her daughter is now considered a suspected victim of a trafficking ring means police in Las Vegas are now taking her case more seriously.

"It's not just a person who went to Las Vegas who wandered off. It's a whole lot bigger than that," she said yesterday from Kamloops, B.C.

While both she and Dwight are prepared for the fact Foster may be dead, they hope her case will at least make people aware of the dangers of trafficking.

"It's a little late for my daughter, but if we can get to and educate one girl, then we've made inroads," said Dwight.

The Child Sex Scandal On The Streets Of Scotland, August 5

2007-08-13T13:19:00.000-07:00

Other Articles on Human Trafficking in Scotland:
http://wpherald.com/articles/1423/1/Human-trafficking-found-in-Scotland/New-trend-emerges-in-Glasgow.html
UK Action Plan: http://www.lawscot.org.uk/uploads/Consultations/2006/CRIM-Tackling%20Human%20Trafficking-Proposals%20for%20a%20UK%20Action%20Plan%20(Mar%2006).pdf

The Child Sex Scandal On The Streets Of Scotland

By Neil Mackay

Major police probe as immigrant Roma children exploited

A CHILD prostitution ring which is sexually exploiting immigrant Roma children as young as nine is operating in Glasgow, the Sunday Herald can reveal. Police have been running undercover surveillance operations in empty homes and unmarked cars in the Govanhill area in the southside of Glasgow for months in the hope of catching those behind the ring and the men paying to have sex with children.

Our investigation has also uncovered: l That high-grade intelligence about the ring led to the mounting of the covert operations; l An eyewitness who saw at first hand the sexual abuse of Roma children on the streets of Govanhill; l The name of the key suspect thought to be the leader of the child prostitution ring - a Roma man from eastern Slovakia now living in Govanhill.

Last night, Superintendent Mike Dean, who is leading the inquiry from Gorbals police station, confirmed that undercover detectives were hunting those behind the child prostitution ring and called on the public to help the investigation.

Jim Miller, from Govanhill, told the Sunday Herald how he stumbled upon a child being forced into prostitution on Allison Street, one of Govanhill's main thoroughfares. Miller has already given a statement to the police.

"Roughly two months ago," said Miller, "I was out walking my dog at about 10.15 in the morning. The dog ran into a close which was filled with rubbish, bin bags and old bedding.

"It was dark, and as I walked through the close I saw a man with his trousers around his ankles having full sex with a young Roma girl who was about nine or ten. The man had made the girl stand on a car battery in order to have sex with her.

"The guy just looked at me," said Miller. "I was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The wee lassie looked totally bewildered."

Miller says he hurriedly left the close in order to get the police and spotted a Roma man waiting outside. At the same time the man he had seen having sex walked out of the close, as did the young girl. The Roma man, waiting outside, took the little girl by the hand and got into a nearby car, with a third man at the steering wheel, and drove away. Miller said he noticed that the girl walked with a limp.

The Sunday Herald knows the identity of the Roma man believed to have been pimping the child. Police sources confirmed that he was known to the police and a possible suspect in the child prostitution ring.

Miller quickly located two police officers, informed them of the events and passed on the car registration number. Miller says that when he returned to the scene there was a used condom and tissues at the site. "I was almost hysterical by this point," said Miller. "I'd just seen a child being raped in broad daylight."

Police say they have received various reports of child prostitution in the Govanhill area. The ages of the children allegedly involved ranged from nine to 14.

Police are concerned that allegations could ramp up racial tensions in an area already under inter-ethnic strain. Many locals in Govanhill from the Pakistani and white communities are openly racist about Roma people.

Miller stressed he was speaking out because a crime had been committed against children, not because he was racist. "What I have a problem with is what I saw happening to that little girl in that close. It made me feel sick."

Another Govanhill resident, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed he saw an incident in which two boys aged between seven and nine - who appeared to be of Roma origin - were engaged in a sex act together in the backyard of his tenement building.

The man said: "I realise that this could be used as a recruiting sergeant by racists and the BNP, but I have to speak out as we are talking about child protection." The man feared that the children may have been abused.

A senior police source said: "We've had directed and targeted surveillance based on intelligence about the abuse of children involved in prostitution. This intelligence specified particular areas in Govanhill and related to the Roma community. At least six separate incidents involving the alleged abuse of children have been reported to us."

When asked if the allegations could have been exaggerated or made up by racist members of the community, the senior police source said: "In this case, I have to say that I think it's a matter of no smoke without fire. There have been many allegations by people in the area about child prostitution."

Undercover police officers involved in the Govanhill operations have been told that they must blow their own cover the moment it appears that a child is about to be abused. "We're there to save kids, not wait for a child to be abused up a close before making an arrest," the senior police source added.

There have so far been three separate periods of undercover surveillance in Govanhill - each lasting a week. The senior police source said: "Such action only takes place on the back of good intelligence, or if numerous sources of intelligence are saying the same thing."

Superintendent Dean said: "We are aware of allegations about child prostitution in the Govanhill area. Certain police operations have taken place but have so far failed to identify the perpetrators. I would appeal to the public to come forward if they have any information about this matter. The abuse of children cannot be tolerated.

"If we find any evidence of child prostitution we will come down with the full force of Strathclyde Police."

Dean said the allegations should not be seen as a reflection on the Roma community: "The Roma community would be up in arms itself if the people were aware of these allegations."

He added: "If anyone is offered a child for the purposes of child prostitution I want to hear from them immediately. If they do have information but do not want to come forward I would challenge them to look at their conscience."

Police sources say that the Roma man suspected of involvement in the ring was linked to agencies in Slovakia who brought Roma people to Scotland with the promise of jobs and housing.

The police say he makes some of his money in Glasgow as a gang boss by getting employment for Roma men in low-skilled labouring jobs or picking fruit and then taking a cut from everything they earn. He recently bought a new home in Slovakia. There is suspicion that he may also be involved in the drugs trade.

More details on95 women arrested for alleged human trafficking, August 4, Benin

2007-08-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

More details on trafficking in the Republic of Benin: http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Benin.htm

http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=08/04/2007&qrTitle=95%20women%20arrested%20for%20alleged%20human%20trafficking&qrColumn=NEWS

95 women arrested for alleged human trafficking
• Saturday, Aug 4, 2007

Ninety-five women suspected to be human traffickers were arrested by the Lagos State Police Command in the metropolis in the last one week.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Muhammed Abubakar, yesterday paraded 53 other persons allegedly involved in violent crimes within the period.

The teenagers, among them the women, he said, would be handed over to the appropriate authorities for rehabilitation, while the adults would be prosecuted.

“These teenage girls were brought into Lagos from the South-South for trafficking to neighbouring Benin Republic for child labour,” he said.

“Investigations revealed that the trafficked children have been sexually abused.

“They alleged that their masters used them for commercial sex business in brothels where they make returns of N1,000 to them per day,” Abubakar said.

He said 18 suspected armed robbers were arrested, with three killed in different parts of the state within the period, adding that nine arms and 34 ammunition were recovered.

Abubakar said 48 motorcycles were impounded for contravening traffic regulations, 10 bullion vehicles for illegal use of siren, and nine suspected stolen vehicles recovered.

He said 1,955 persons were arrested during raids of some black spots and that 1,241 of them had been prosecuted.

He added that three pipeline vandals were arrested with 33,000 litres of fuel in a tanker and fuel in 85 jerrycans.

Abubakar regretted the death of three policemen early yesterday during a robbery at one of the new generation banks in Lagos.

He said: “Though the policemen died, but the robbery did not succeed.”

He said the command honoured 11 policemen for their gallant performance.

Italian police disrupt Chinese human trafficking ring. August 3, Italy

2007-08-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=55325

Italian police disrupt Chinese human trafficking ring

Italian police have arrested five people of Chinese origin who are said to have been involved in an organisation that allegedly arranged to bring irregular migrants to Malta en route to Italy, Alice Notizie and Capri News reported yesterday.

According to the reports, the arrests were made in Rome, Palermo, Catania, Avellino and Rovigo. Another arrest warrant was issued in respect of a Spanish resident and seven more are expected to be issued in respect of other European residents.

Officers of Ragusa State Police learnt that about 200 migrants with a regular visa that had been granted for study purposes had been brought to Malta on different occasions and had then been taken to Italy by motorboat, the Italian media reported.

The reports said that the organisation also had a base in China and on one particular occasion – 29 November, 2004 – two Chinese irregular migrants had died at sea while they were being taken to Donnalucata, in the province of Ragusa.

India to strengthen human trafficking laws: Patil, August 3, India

2007-08-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.newkerala.com/july.php?action=fullnews&id=51387

India to strengthen human trafficking laws: Patil

New Delhi, Aug.3 : Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Friday said that the human trafficking problem in country is no bigger than it is in other nations, and added that the government is seriously thinking about tackling the problem by giving more teeth to existing laws.

Admitting that the issue did exist in India, Patil said the problem required thoughtful tackling.

'Yes, there is a problem of this kind in India. There is no denying (this fact). But to think that it is bigger than what it is in other countries is not correct. If you take into consideration the number of human beings in India and compare with the cases that are taking place, even if one case is taking place that should not be acceptable. And yet if you look at this problem from a correct perspective, we will be able to form a correct opinion,' Patil said in his address at a National Consultation on Preventing and Combating Human Trafficking in New Delhi.

According to the US State Department, South Asia accounts for second highest number of victims of trafficking. India was among 32 countries on US' Watch List, 2006 of countries involved in human trafficking.

'We come across many difficulties, many problems, and that is why it becomes necessary for us to examine the existing laws and find out how the amendments have to be made and introduced in the existing statutes. This process should continue and the Government of India will definitely be able to tackle this issue in this manner,' he said.

Travel rackets thrives in India, mainly in the states of Punjab, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, where human smuggling has been described as an organized crime.

The travel agents thrives on the clamour of desperate Indians to go abroad for lifestyles they know can never afford in the villages and small towns back home.

Hundreds of thousands of women and girls in India are kidnapped, sold, coerced or trafficked for sex in a highly organised, yet illicit trade which is the world's third most lucrative after arms and drugs.

Almost 6,000 cases of trafficking were registered in 2005, but activists say the real number is much higher and on the rise.

According to the International Labour Organisation, 2.45 million people worldwide are exploited and treated like slaves every year, and another 1.2 million people are trafficked.

--- ANI

Youth Democracy Group Spreads All Over the World with its Work Against Human-Trafficking, USA August 3

2007-08-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.prlog.org/10026087-youth-democracy-group-spreads-all-over-the-world-with-its-work-against-human-trafficking.html

Youth Democracy Group Spreads All Over the World with its Work Against Human-Trafficking

International Youth Democracy Group Highlights Year of Growth, Cites Anti-Trafficking Successes, Expansion of Leadership Development Initiatives in its 2006-2007 Annual Report

Source: Student World Assembly Aug 03, 2007

(PRLog.Org) – NEW YORK, New York (August 3, 2007) – The Student World Assembly (SWA) has announced the release of its 2006-2007 Annual Report. The report highlights the organization’s grassroots efforts across the globe to combat its yearlong campaign to eradicate human trafficking.

“Our members have made 2006-2007 SWA’s strongest year yet,” says Executive Director, Shahram Hashemi. “By partnering with anti-trafficking practitioners around the world, we’ve found students to be passionate advocates for victims of modern-day slavery.” A member of the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition, the New York-based group joined in celebrating the passage of the strongest anti-trafficking legislation in the U.S, in part from lobbying from SWA students in the tri-state area. Other success abroad included a five day convention on modern-day slavery in Accra, Ghana, and dozens of student-organized anti-trafficking events in cities like Montreal, Abuja, and Peshawar.

The report includes a financial summary, event information, and a message from the founder Paul Raynault to members, supporters, and donors regarding SWA’s progress in the year March 2006 to March 2007. Members of the group, from the deserts of Arizona to the mountains of Peshawar are quickly growing a network of young leaders, change-makers and social entrepreneurs, using the Internet to exchange ideas.

With its increasing growth and achievements, SWA needs the continued support of its members and donors. In order to continue to thrive and accomplish its goals, further participation and contributions is essential.

The Annual Report is available in English , French, and Spanish.

- - - - -

The Student World Assembly's representative democracy offers a powerful instrument for addressing vital social and political issues. The informed wishes of the people, conveyed through the collective of a democratic assembly, need to be heard in the decision-making processes. By giving students from the most remote to the more accessible institutions an equal voice, we are enabling all students to educate, participate, and take action, to become global citizens.

# # #

Healing the discriminatory legacy of the slave trade in Zanzibar, August 4

2007-08-13T12:50:00.001-07:00

Healing the discriminatory legacy of the slave trade in Zanzibar

2007-08-04 09:00:26
By Benson Muchuki

By Correspodent

ALTHOUGH the era of slavery in Zanzibar is now considered as history memories of the vice still linger in the minds of the descendants who are slave traders as well as victims of the vice.

Efforts are now being made to refocus on such historical events with the intention of healing and reconciliation.

The subject has featured very prominently during the just ended Zanzibar International Film Festival which has set aside various programs that are meant to enlighten the visiting public on historical facts of the matter as well as seek to reconcile the past.

Among the most notable to this effect was the screening of a live talk show, Hatua hosted and produced by Moforce Training for Film and television, a project of the Amin Mohammed Foundation based in Nairobi Kenya.

It is now over 110 years since the abolition of slave trade on the Island of Zanzibar but the talk show sought to explore the after effects of the vice and seek solutions from local Zanzibaris` who turned out in large numbers to express their divergent views on the matter.

The theme of the talk show was `Healing the Discriminatory legacies of slavery` and began with an introductory song by the Hatua band which emphasized the need for community to take positive action on various matters affecting their political and social well being.

The topic of the show dubbed `effects of slavery in Zanzibar` also included the showing of a documentary which sought to capture the views of various Zanzibar`s on the matter, there was a general feeling from respondents that the legacy of the vice was still lingering in present day society.

Other issues that were raised include the need for the present generation to remove feeling of bitterness against descendants of slave traders as well as the need to rectify an imminent identity crisis that some Zanzibaris` of mixed descent are currently facing.

Talk show hosts Kabinda Lemba and Salma Maulidi later afforded local Zanzibaris an opportunity to express their views on the matter leading the way to a lively debate, in which hair-raising matters were raised.

Mohammed Salim a locally based Zanzibari said he was surprised that historical matters of the vice were now the focus of attention ignoring the fact that the vice still exists in the modern day setting.

`It was only two weeks ago that it was discovered that modern day slavery still exists in countries such as China where `labourers` were sold for 60usd and were forced to work in brick making companies.

Besides that let us all remember that Zanzibar was simply a transit point entailing that the effects were not as harsh as those in other parts of the world,` he said.

Others such as Hasmia Pandia who has lived in Zanzibar since 1978 made rather lukewarm contributions emphasising the need for local Zanzibaris` to embrace the spirit of tolerance and togetherness.

`All human beings are equal thus the need to embrace each other,` he lamented.

As the debate became livelier critical issues were brought up which dug deeper into the underground world of modern day Zanzibar.

Mohammed Omari said discriminative tendencies still exist on the Island as inter marriages are still restricted by certain quarters of the community.

He however said that the present generation were not to blame as the trade has been inherited from their fore fathers.

The holocaust of slavery is still present in the mindset of certain individuals as was discovered during the talk show that lead to calls from other participants to refren from being emotional while addressing the legacy of the slave trade.

Rev Louis from Jamaica said the church had a critical role to play in the healing process.

`We recently conducted inter denominational church activities meant to bury various differences that the legacy has brought about. The church must be in the fore front in tackling the issue,` she said.

There was also a general feeling Zanzibaris` have no reason to be bitter as the Island was simply a transit route for the traders and that very few of their descendants were actually involved in the trade.

Arab traders could not take on the full blame, as people. Africans were also involved in the trade.

Mahfouha Hamid, a descendant of the famous Arab trader Tippu Tip said that there was overwhelming evidence to the effect that some Africans were also slave merchants.

`What is this talk about blaming Arab traders as having been the only ethnic group of people who practised the trade.

Have we forgotten that even the Mwinyi Mkuu were also deeply involved in the trade?

Slavery is the worst form of injustice in the history of mankind but let us not habour feelings of bitterness,` she said

Discussants said that the emergence of modern day slavery was more vicious than the pre historic slave trade as it borders on neo colonialist trends.

Vivid examples such as the existence of sex slaves and child soldiers in most parts of Africa were evidence enough to prove the existence of the vice.

Globalisation was also identified as among the leading causes pushing poor countries in Africa towards a tight corner.

The Participants suggested that the best way for the healing process in Zanzibar was to ensure that a spirit of reconciliation existed among people of different ethnic backgrounds.

Boniface Sangura, a resident of Dar es Salaam said there was an urgent need for Zanzibaris` of African descent to refrain from carrying an identity of an enslaved people.
The Hatua Talk Show

* This is an audience participation/host driven talk show, complete with a live band that promotes awareness on community issues and seeks responsible solutions and actions that individuals can undertake to make life better within the community.

It promotes positive discussion on social issues and starts useful public dialogue through participation in the show.

The talk show hosts help to bring out the concerns of individuals on these topics as well as helping the audience to find possible solutions.

The effect is then enlarged through Television broadcasts of the show to a much wider audience

SOURCE: Guardian

New Book Release, August 3, India

2007-08-13T12:45:00.000-07:00

New Delhi, Aug 3, IRNA

http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-239/0708038965110132.htm

India-Sex-Trafficking
In an initiative to end sex-trafficking a discussion was held and a book was released on 'Confronting the Demand for Sex-trafficking -- A Handbook for law-enforcement' edited by Ruchira Gupta, Founder Director of Apne Aap (Ourselves) Women Worldwide and Ruchi Sinha, Assistant Professor, Center of Criminology and Justice Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences of India here Wednesday.

The book inauguration and discussion was attended and addressed by: a) Dr Girija Vyas, Chairperson, National Commission for Women; b) Lt. Gen. Satish Nambiar, Director, United Service Institution of India; c) Mr. Gary Lewis, Representative, Regional office of South Asia, United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) d) Ms Ruchira Gupta and f) Dr P.M Nair.

The handbook by Ruchira Gupta who is presently working Tehran, reveals that victims of trafficking are put through the criminal justice system whereas the perpetrators go scot free and that more women are arrested than men.

The book calls for more gender sensitive-law enforcement and the criminalization of the perpetrator rather than the victim or survivor.

It calls on the police to fix legal responsibility on all those who buy trafficked people such as buyers of prostituted sex and those 'entrepreneurs' (traffickers, procurers, pimps, brothel owners and managers, owners of plantations and factories and money lenders) who make a profit off trading in women and girls, boys and men.

U.S. man convicted of going to Moldova to have sex, August 3

2007-08-13T12:40:00.000-07:00

U.S. man convicted of going to Moldova to have sex

AP WorldStream
Friday, August 03, 2007 1:59:00 PM
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A wealthy motel owner from New Jersey was
convicted Friday of traveling to eastern Europe to sexually assault
impoverished boys in exchange for money and gifts.

Anthony Mark Bianchi, 44, was found guilty of virtually all the
charges he faced in federal court.

Bianchi was convicted of having sex with or attempting to have
sex with four boys on foreign soil, including in the isolated
Moldovan village of Trebujeni, in exchange for money, food, liquor,
trips and gifts.

During the three-week trial, most of which was heard through
translators, several Moldovan boys testified that Bianchi assaulted
them in small boarding houses where he stayed during his trips.

Mark Geragos, the high-profile lawyer representing Bianchi, said
his client enjoyed traveling to offbeat destinations and had no
ulterior motives for giving the boys gifts.

He said prosecutors had insufficient evidence to support their
allegations. He also told jurors that young witnesses gave
conflicting statements or were "lying through their teeth" on the
stand.

Bianchi's case is among more than 50 that have been brought
under a largely untested 2003 U.S. law, known as the Protect Act,
designed to thwart "sex tourism" by trying suspected overseas
child predators in U.S. courts.

About 50 people, including Bianchi, have been charged to date
under the law. About 30 of the defendants have been convicted.

The logistics of bringing victims and witnesses to a U.S.
courthouse raises constitutional issues that legal scholars expect
will reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sidney Ford: Time is now for Baltimore to add a prostitution court, USA, August 2

2007-08-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

Sidney Ford: Time is now for Baltimore to add a prostitution court

Aug 2, 2007 3:00 AM (1 day ago)
by Sidney Ford, The Examiner

BALTIMORE ( Map, News) - A small group from the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, advocacy organizations and neighborhood associations recently visited a community court in Washington. We wanted to learn more about how Baltimore might develop a “prostitution court.” The courts are designed to break the cycle of prostitution-related incarceration and suffering through specifically designed services and partnership with the judicial system.

A young woman who had successfully completed substance abuse treatment and other requirements of her probation stood before one of the judges that day. She was to be released from further obligations to the court, but was clearly still traumatized by her chaotic behavior. Like our best judges, this one praised her worthy efforts, and encouraged her to continue to lead a productive life. When asked if she had anything to say, she whispered, “thank you, judge. Please, just don’t hurt me anymore.”

This notion of being hurt by the system, while also being helped by it, struck a chord with me. I’ve met so many women and girls who are forced into prostitution by circumstances larger than their own personal decisions and are kept there, often in enormous pain, by individuals and systems which in many ways prevent their escape.

Children who feel abandoned and abused frequently run away from home often into the arms of strangers who say they care, but then abuse them. One of our clients, “Casey,” was given to the landlord by her mother each month in lieu of rent when she was 9 years old. He raped her and then returned her to her mother. Casey’s attempts to tell others about this nightmare were unsuccessful. She ran away at 13 and was prostituted by a series of men and women “high class” pimps who ran a lucrative escort service in Las Vegas, and then by street-level pimps here in Baltimore. Eventually, however, Casey healed enough to leave “the life.”

The prostitution court, with specially trained judges, prosecutors and other court personnel, and the inclusion of experienced service providers, may represent the only hope that many of Casey’s sisters have to lead a life worth living.

Law-abiding citizens rightly want the scourge stopped; women living through the on-going trauma that is prostitution want to have real choices and change. However, without adequate housing, effective substance abuse treatment, trauma-focused mental health counseling, life skills training and appropriate health, education and employment resources, the women may continue to believe the lie that they must “service” the men who troll for illicit sex in some of Baltimore’s most desperate neighborhoods.

Prostituted children (and others caught up in human trafficking) must be rescued and correctly labeled “victims” in this deadly game; women involved in prostitution deserve the chance to prove they can rise above their circumstances.

From a practical standpoint, re-incarceration of such individuals is expensive, far more so than help for them would be. The total costs haven’t been calculated, but with an estimated $3,500 cost for each arrest and brief incarceration, three avoided arrests a year will save more than $10,000 per person for taxpayers. Success in diverting these nonviolent offenders to treatment and care would also lessen the burden on all city law enforcement systems.

We must rise to the occasion by supporting a prostitution court. It will help to ensure Baltimore’s most vulnerable citizens are given the best help our justice system has available and that communities can thrive without the presence of prostitution.

Sidney Ford is director and founder of You Are Never Alone, Maryland’s first organization for women and children exploited through prostitution and human trafficking. She may be reached at yanainc@earthlink.net.

USA - Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking - Video, Report, Fact Sheet +

2007-08-09T17:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.sharedhope.org/what/dmst.asp

USA - Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking - Video, Report, Fact Sheet +

For the last decade Shared Hope International has been combating sex trafficking around the world, advocating for enhanced legislation, and furthering victim identification and access to services. In April 2006, Shared Hope International partnered with ECPAT-USA and The Protection Project of Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies, to host the U.S. Mid-Term Review on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in America. During the two-day conference several key issues were discussed, including:

Victim misidentification as child prostitutes rather than victims of sex trafficking.

Lack of safe and secure shelter options and access to appropriate services by victims.

Need for training resources to increase education and understanding of victims’ plight and profile.

For a complete copy of the Report from the U.S. Mid-Term Review on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in America, click here.

In an ongoing effort to respond to the findings of the U.S. Mid-Term Review, SHI is pleased to provide the following educational materials. The goal of these materials is to provide a baseline understanding of domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) to task force members and first responders working in the field. The goal is to facilitate increased victim identification and access to services. Please click on the following materials to download your copy:
Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Educational Companion Power Point Presentation
Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking At-A-Glance Fact Sheet
SHI Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Response Sheet
Domestic Minor Sex Educational Video
CLICK WEBSITE LINK TO VIEW VIDEO
http://www.sharedhope.org/what/dmst.asp
Scroll to Video & Click Arrow.
To receive a complete educational packet, please e-mail Melissa Snow at Melissa@sharedhope.org.

Collecting loose change for a real change, USA, August 2

2007-08-09T17:39:00.000-07:00

Collecting loose change for a real change
Last Updated: 7:57 pm Thursday, August 2, 2007

Collecting loose change for a real change
ANN SHIM STUDENT CORRESPONDENT

I recently graduated from the eighth grade at Queen of Angels Montessori School. I am an abolitionist. The Queen of Angels Montessori School Middle School in Madison Place was challenged as their third trimester project to "be the change you wish to see in the world," inspired by the quote from Mahatma Gandhi. For this project, we had to pick one issue or system that we would like to see changed in the world.

While doing research for a topic, I found out something that most people don't know: slavery still exists today. As I looked into this topic more, I found out that approximately 27 million people are enslaved in places such as South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia today. Over half of them are children. I chose this issue for my change project.

To try to solve this issue and abolish modern-day slavery, I worked with the International Justice Mission (IJM) and The Amazing Change (TAC) to try to instill some of their abolitionist programs in my school community. Through IJM, I launched their Loose Change to Loosen Chains campaign. This campaign was developed by seventh-grader Virginian Zach Hunter two or three years ago when he found out the awful truth about slavery.

For this campaign, each family in my school was sent home with a Loose Change to Loosen Chains cup. I asked them to put their loose change in this cup every night. Our goal was to raise $500, which is how much it costs to free one slave. Three weeks later, I collected our school's loose change. Our small school of just 113 families raised $280! It was then sent to IJM who will use this money to free slaves.

It is important to know that the International Justice Mission does not buy slaves. Instead, they conduct a thorough study of the slave's workspace, wage, and treatment before confirming that the person is officially enslaved. They then get in touch with the law and travel to wherever in the world the slave lives and legally frees them. Although IJM does not buy slaves, this process is still very costly and needs the support of others. The Loose Change to Loosen Chains campaign is one way they raise funding for this cause.

During the time of my campaign, I also set out a petition in our school's office. This petition is distributed by the Amazing Change and is used to try to get our government more involved in the anti-slavery movement and to hopefully raise more funding for this issue. Fourty-seven people in my school community signed to show they care.

Slavery is a very real and dangerous issue in our world today and must be stopped. Here is how you can help:
1. Launch a Loose Change to Loose Chains campaign in your community. (Information available at www.ijm.org)
2. Download the TAC petition for the members of your community to sign and show they care about this issue. (www.theamzingchange.com)
3. Educate Yourself. The more you know about this issue, the more you can help. To find ways to get involved, visit www.ijm.org, www.theamazingchange.com, or www.freetheslaves.org.
Through many different organizations and the programs they are trying to instill, abolitionists around the globe are joining together to abolish

Slave work, slave family, Jamaica, August 2

2007-08-09T17:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070802/cleisure/cleisure2.html

Slave work, slave family
published: Thursday August 2, 2007
Martin Henry

As Emancipation Day approaches, my son and I labour in the hot sun of a July day in our own yard. We stop for ice-cold lemonade made by the wife and mother. Not seasoned for heavy manual work, we stop when we feel like and quit after a couple of hours. We are free and family. We own ourselves. And, unlike a large number of Jamaican children, this boy has a present father.

One of the devastating effects of slavery was its impact on family. The dry historical accounts fail to capture the personal human tragedy of the shattered slave family.

Most slave babies did not survive infancy and most of those who reached adulthood were dead from overwork, under-nutrition and disease, including sexually transmitted diseases, before they were 50. The slave population never became self-sustaining up to the abolition of the slave trade when it became more economically rational to encourage slave reproduction.
The children who survived, who may have been the unfortunate ones, were put to work by age six in the small gang, or pickney gang, one of three or four gangs that the slaves on a plantationwere divided into. Some were pressed into work as early as four, "at which time," as one planter explained, "the fruits of their labour are sufficient to defray the expenses of their support".

It was important to keep the slaves at 'work' from sunrise to nightfall almost every day of the year, except for the few allowed holidays. Slaves who were hard at work under the whip would have little time to hatchrebellion.

As girls reached puberty they were initiated into sexual activity by massa or fellow slave. Orlando Patterson writes in The Sociology of Slavery: "Slavery in Jamaica led to the breakdown of all forms of social sanctions relating to sexual behaviour, and with this, to the disintegration of the institution of marriage both in its African and European forms. As one missionary described the situation, 'Every estate on the island - every Negro hut - was a common brothel; every female a prostitute; every man a libertine.' A male partner dared not complain if his 'wife' was taken by massa as he would be flogged 'couched under the name of some other misdemeanour'."
Thomas Thistlewood, an overseer in Jamaica between 1750 and 1786, whose diary has been unearthed by historian Douglas Hall, kept a meticulous record of which slave women he had had: name, tribe, time and place. And he also recorded whippings for refusal.
Forming stable unions

But even in this mess, attempts were made to form stable unions, only to be frustrated by the caprice of massa. Apart for taking whomever he wished, slaves were sold without any regard for family ties, and, indeed, often deliberately to break up 'families' as punishment. Most slave children who escaped being aborted died in early infancy and the survivors could readily be ripped from their mothers' arms and sold away.
It is hard for us in freedom to truly grasp how final the separation of sale was. With no freedom of movement, a child or partner sold just a few miles away could well be in another country with a thousand miles of water in between, or dead. And it is not likely that the parent or partner would even know where they were sold. Our famous Lovers' Leap legend captures the grim determination of two slave lovers to die together by jumping over a cliff, rather than be separated.

Debates now run about the surviving impact of the disintegrated slave family life on the modern Jamaican family and on the marginalisation of the Jamaican male. Patterson writes rather preachily: "Incapable of asserting his authority as husband or father, the object of whatever affection he may possess, beaten, abused and often raped before his very eyes, and with his female partner often in closer link with the source of all power in the society, it is no wonder that the male slave eventually came to lose all pretensions to masculine pride and to develop the irresponsible parental and sexual attitudes that are to be found even today."

Disabusing the abusers, USA, August 1

2007-08-09T17:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=7483&TM=32547.21
8/1/2007 8:59:00 PM

Disabusing the abusersDomestic violence seminar focuses on the office
by Richard Greenberg, Associate Editor

Domestic abuse is not confined to the home. Its tentacles can reach almost anywhere, including the workplace.

Which is why a dozen listeners gathered last Thursday in a decidedly upscale workplace-the sprawling, 11th-floor offices of Bingham McCutchen, a K Street law firm that employs more than 300 people.

The attendees, all employees of the firm, assembled in a sleek, Scandinavian-style conference room to hear how they can combat domestic abuse a phenomenon that is chronic, pervasive and crosses all socioeconomic lines, according to Lora Griff, a licensed social worker with the Rockville-based Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse.

Thursday's session, conducted by Griff, was the kickoff of JCADA's Corporate Wellness Program, under which local businesses are invited to sponsor JCADA-organized seminars. The new initiative is an opportunity not only to spread the word about domestic violence, but for JCADA to expand its fund-raising base, according to organization representatives.

Bingham McCutchen paid $2,500 to host Thursday's session, which was arranged with the help of David Butler, a partner at the law firm and whose wife, Sharon, is a JCADA board member.
Until now, most JCADA workshops have been conducted at synagogues, day schools and other Jewish institutions. They often donate money to JCADA in response to the organization's requests but the contribution usually is considerably less than $2,500 per session. The Corporate Wellness Program is JCADA's first concerted programatic foray outside the Jewish community.

JCADA's treasurer, Ellen Haber, said that although the Corporate Wellness Program was created primarily to help raise awareness about domestic abuse, "money is a factor for every nonprofit in the United States, so, yes, that's part of our approach, too."

The caseload of JCADA, whose current budget is about $225,000, has mushroomed in the past few years, and in the process, the notion that Jews are immune from domestic abuse has been exploded, Griff told the listeners Thursday. No segment of society is untouched by this scourge, she added, explaining that domestic abuse can take many forms.

It can involve everything from physical violence to economic intimidation to psychological assaults to forced isolation. The male spouse is almost always the perpetrator, and he often begins his abusive behavior years earlier as a teenage dater.

The resultant toll, said Griff, is enormous in terms of injury, death and other types of trauma, as well as lost workplace productivity. The Centers for Disease Control has estimated that domestic violence accounts for $727 million annually in reduced worker output the result of absenteeism and tardiness, among other factors. Worksite murders by abusive spouses-turned-stalkers are not uncommon.

Several audience members nodded when Griff asked if any of them had encountered domestic abuse firsthand. "These are not stereotypes or fakes or fantasies; they are very, very real," said attendee Sonja Minor, a 48-year-old legal secretary who lives in Forestville, Md. "I can talk for hours on this."

Minor said a co-worker at her former place of employment in Washington was married for seven years to an abusive, "psychotically insane" man who eventually threatened his spouse with a knife at a colleague's going-away party. The husband was taken into custody. The woman and her four small children then relocated to Georgia, where she got a new job "and did very well for herself," said Minor. "There is a need for programs like this one; they really work."
Griff told the audience members that when they see a friend or acquaintance who exhibits signs of physical or emotional abuse, they should gently and confidentially approach that person, comfort her, provide support and ultimately encourage her to seek help.

Victims who are planning on leaving an abusive relationship, she said, should develop a "safety plan" that includes preparation of a "flight kit" that includes money, documents, extra car keys and clothes. It should be hidden in a safe place.

Employers can do many things to guard against domestic abuse and to help accommodate its victims. They include:

• Making sure that the workplace has a detailed domestic-abuse response program.
• Referring abused employees to appropriate resources.
• Enabling victims to take time off from work to attend to abuse-related needs.

EPP leader urges crackdown on human traffickin, EU, August 2

2007-08-09T17:30:00.000-07:00

http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News/200708/4d83ea08-bd31-488d-8b00-b540ec04c10a.htm

EPP leader urges crackdown on human trafficking

The leader of parliament’s biggest group has called on the European commission to 'immediately' resume a scheme aimed at combating human trafficking into Europe.

The commission’s Nautilus II mission, as it is commonly called, is a continuation of a successful patrolling exercise carried out last year.

Launched in early July, it came to an end last week.
"It appears that the mission has been effective in reducing the number of illegal immigrants heading to Malta," said EPP leader Joseph Daul.

"Certainly, when one compares the latest figures to those in the same period in June, the number of arrivals in Malta are 50 per cent down."

"But if reductions in numbers are indeed due to the effectiveness of the mission, then it is clear that it does not make any sense at all to stop them in peak season, during the crucial summer months of August and September," the French MEP said.

Daul wrote a letter to EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini urging the Italian - who is also commission vice-president - to resume the mission without any delay.

"I am sure," declares Daul in his letter, "that your intervention will have a determining impact on the resumption of the mission in the Mediterranean area."

Over recent years, the Mediterranean has been experiencing an increasing number of crossings from the northern shores of Africa, with Malta being directly on the route.
Uncounted numbers die every year.

In a bid to tackle the problem, the Maltese government launched a joint operation with Greece, patrolling the southern borders of Europe.

It is possible that Malta will be able to access EU funding for the operation, and Frattini has asked all member states to help out with the cost of the mission.

Study to examine extent of people trafficking in Ireland, August 2

2007-08-09T17:29:00.001-07:00

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/ireland/article2826440.ece

Study to examine extent of people trafficking in Ireland

Thursday, August 02, 2007

A new research project is set to examine the true situation surrounding the trafficking of women and children into Ireland's sex industry.
The Immigrant Council of Ireland has commissioned the year-long study, which will assess the extent, causes and ways of responding to the problem.
The council says it believes that the number of women and children being trafficked into Ireland is far bigger than the authorities are aware of.
Support groups also say the trafficking of people to work in the sex industry is a significant problem.

New Delhi An inside story of trafficking in women, August 2

2007-08-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

Date:02/08/2007 URL:

http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/02/stories/2007080250520200.htm

New Delhi An inside story of trafficking in women

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

Unmasking reality: National Commission for Women chairperson Girija Vyas (second from right) releasing the book titled ‘Confronting the Demand for Sex-trafficking: A Handbook for law enforcement’ in New Delhi on Wednesday

NEW DELHI: Exploitation of women is not limited to their trafficking for commercial sex market. The criminal justice system, which arrests more women than men, is an equally harrowing experience, claims a book on sex trafficking released in the Capital on Wednesday.
Authors Ruchira Gupta and Ruchi Sinha, in a handbook titled ‘Confronting the Demand for Sex Trafficking: A Handbook for Law Enforcement’ point out that while victims of sex trafficking are put though the criminal justice system, the perpetrators are allowed to go scot-free.
Making a case for more gender-sensitive law enforcement, the authors point out how the existing laws can be used to fix legal responsibility on those who buy trafficked people.
The book also cites examples of countries like Sweden, the Philippines and South Korea, which have addressed the demand for sex trafficking as an effective anti-trafficking measure.
“Demand for trafficked people -- from end-users to those who make profit from the trade -- has become the most immediate cause for expansion of the trafficking industry,” said Ms. Gupta, who is also founder-director of Apne Aap Women Worldwide.

Ms. Gupta, who has co-authored the book with Ms. Sinha, an assistant professor at the Centre of Criminology and Justice Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, explained: “Providing services and instituting preventive mechanisms has provided protection to vulnerable people but not detracted the traffickers.”

Calling for increased vigilance and new laws to prevent traffickers from sourcing women and children from Nepal to Mumbai and Kolkata, she said: “They simply shifted areas of operation to Bihar, West Bengal, the hill States of the Northeast and Jharkhand in India because a demand for trafficked women and children continued to exist.”

The handbook claims that the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956, which penalises women for soliciting in public places is used more frequently than the Section 5which penalises traffickers, highlighting that trafficking is not a victimless crime.

The book, which has contributions from several people and a foreword from UN Special Rapporteur for Human Trafficking Sigma Huda, claims that human trafficking is an organised and well-structured crime which is operated through a supply chain.

A panel discussion on the subject moderated by P. M. Nair(IPS)which included Girija Vyas, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, and Gary Lewis, Representative Regional Office of South Asia United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, and the author Ms. Gupta
followed the book release.

Rape and Post-Conflict Justice, August 2, 2007

2007-08-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/242217

Rape and Post-Conflict Justice

Aug 02, 2007 Noeleen Heyzer

The lengthy prison terms for war crimes and crimes against humanity handed down by the Special Court for Sierra Leone last month have been greeted with widespread praise. Two senior members of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council were sentenced to 50 years' imprisonment and another to 45 years for atrocities, including rape, committed during the country's civil war.
Indeed, calling senior military leaders to account for sexual crimes against women is a historic achievement. The July 19 sentencing reaffirms that rape is among the gravest violations of international law, on par with acts of mass murder and terrorism.

The precedent set by the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, as well as the investigations into Central African Republic and Darfur being conducted by the International Criminal Court, suggests that post-conflict justice for sexual violence may at last be becoming the rule rather than the exception.

Yet during the 11 years of brutal civil war in Sierra Leone, more than 50 per cent of the country's women and girls suffered sexual violence. Five years later, only 11 suspects have been indicted.

This means that thousands of women will never see their rapists brought to justice. They will, instead, continue to see them in the streets, parks and marketplaces of their communities. For these women, there is no closure to the trauma of wartime rape. Peace brings no peace of mind. And there is no equality before the law.

The women of Sierra Leone look to the Special Court as an emblem of hope for ending impunity. But beyond the high-profile cases that the Court is mandated to take on, it is also hoped that it will help bolster the capacity of local courts to convict the thousands of lower-ranking rapists who walk free. This is indeed the best hope for resurrecting the rule of law in a war-ravaged nation.

Regrettably, international support for the rehabilitation of justice systems and the rule of law has not prioritized women's access to justice. This has generally been sidelined in favour of market-oriented reform, such as revising corporate laws to improve the investment climate.
Such an approach overlooks the fact that age-old social and economic inequalities – including those between women and men – are often the root causes of conflict, instability or economic stagnation.

So while provisions for prosecuting rape are firmly established in international law, a lack of political will and financial support leads to foot-dragging. For women living in the midst of their tormentors, justice delayed is more than justice denied – it is terror continued.
We must urgently ensure that laws on paper are matched by action. Appalled by reports from clinics in war-torn countries of genital injuries caused by rape, and aware of the need for global action, 12 UN organizations, including UNIFEM, have come together in the UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Alongside women's groups and NGOs worldwide we are working to break the silence surrounding sexual abuse, build communities that say no to violence against women and enhance women's access to justice.

For centuries, women have borne the guilt and taint of rape in the absence of any formal attribution of liability. Now, the prospect of consistent, expedient justice according to law places this burden squarely where it belongs – with the perpetrators.

The sentences in Sierra Leone remind us that by calling for the effective prosecution of every perpetrator regardless of rank, we can all contribute to making rape a rule of law priority in national and international courts, in times of war and peace.

Noeleen Heyzer is executive director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

Couple accused of human trafficking, Hungary, August 1

2007-08-09T17:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.1586628.0.couple_accused_of_human_trafficking.php

Couple accused of human trafficking
By Edward Chadwick
A HUNGARIAN man and his girlfriend have appeared in court charged with human trafficking and forcing a teenager to work as a prostitute.

Imre Orsos, aged 48, of Chorley Old Road, Bolton, and Monika Pandur, aged 19, of Raphael Street, Halliwell, appeared at Bolton Magistrates' Court yesterday.

The charges relate to a woman, aged 19, who is alleged to have been brought into the country last month by the two.

They are also charged with causing prostitution for financial gain. They were remanded in to custody and will return to the court on August 7.

Police told to see prostitutes as victims, New Delhi, August 1

2007-08-09T17:10:00.000-07:00

http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-28771420070801?sp=true

Police told to see prostitutes as victims

By Nita Bhalla

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Police must treat prostitutes as victims rather than criminals and crack down instead on clients and human traffickers who force women and children to sell their bodies, activists said on Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of women and girls in India are kidnapped, sold, coerced or trafficked for sex in a highly organised, yet illicit trade which is the world's third most lucrative after arms and drugs.

But activists say that while the children and young women are often trapped in slave-like situations, unable to free themselves from their pimps and brothel owners, police treat them as criminals while the real perpetrators get away.

"Hundreds of thousands of victims are invisible and are kept in captivity and have no access to any justice system whatsoever," said Ruchira Gupta, director of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, a local charity working against human trafficking.

"On the other hand, the perpetrators of this crime -- the profiteers and buyers that constitute the demand for human trafficking -- are visible and work with impunity."
In India, trafficking and profiting by selling a person for sex is illegal, but paying for sex with a prostitute is not unless she is under 18-years-old.

Almost 6,000 cases of trafficking were registered in 2005, but activists say the real number is much higher and on the rise.

Activists say that women are easy targets for police to arrest and round up in brothel raids and on street corners and police rarely investigate or arrest brothel owners or pimps.
Experts, speaking at the launch of a handbook to help police better enforce human trafficking laws, said police needed to understand the issue better.

"The real problem is not the absence of a legal infrastructure, but the importance of those that are empowered to impose the law to know what to do," said Gary Lewis, South Asia representative of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
According to the International Labour Organisation, 2.45 million people worldwide are exploited and treated like slaves every year, and another 1.2 million people are trafficked.
Lewis said that, according to some estimates, the global trade in human trafficking generated around $32 billion a year.

URGENT ACTION - GABnet 3 "held" in the Philippines

2007-08-09T17:01:00.000-07:00

Dear GABNet members, allies and friends:

On August 5, 2007, GABRIELA Network USA National Chairperson Dr. Annalisa Enrile was barred from leaving the Philippines. She was not allowed to board her return flight home to the US. She was told that she is on a "watchlist." Two other GABNet women--Judith Mirkinson and Ninotchka Rosca--are reportedly on the same "watchlist."

Dr. Enrile, Ms. Mirkinson and Ms. Rosca were in the Philippines, along with other GABNet members and officers, for the 10th bi-annual Women's Solidarity Affair in the Philippines. The GABNet 3 also led the GABNet-co-sponsored human rights mission to the Philippines with US women lawyers in May-June 2006.

We are demanding that the Philippine government "release" the GABNet 3 and allow them to return home.

We need your HELP in pressuring the US Embassy and the US Ambassador to the Philippines to act on behalf of these 3 US citizens/permanent resident and demand that the Philippines "release" them at once.

ACTION - WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY, AUGUST 9TH: FAX the US Embassy, American Citizen Service, 011 63 2 522-3242 and/or Ambassador Kenney, 011 63 2 522-4361. Below is a sample letter.

Please re-word. And please distribute this call to action far and wide.

Stay tuned formore action/s.---------
Thank you.
Onward,Doris Mendoza
Secretary General
GABRIELA Network USA
PO Box 403, Times Square Station
New York, NY 10036

SAMPLE LETTER
-----------------------------
US Ambassador to the Philippines
Manila, Philippines

I wish to voice my concern about the status of US citizens Dr. AnnalisaEnrile and human and women's rights activists Judith Mirkinson, and of US permanent resident Ninotchka Rosca, awriter and novelist. Dr. Enrile was prevented fromboarding her return flight from Manila to Los Angeles on August 5th andwas informed that she was on a "hold" orderfrom the Philippine Department of Justice. It has been subsequently reported that both Ms. Mirkinson and Ms. Rosca areon the same "hold" list. Considering that 90 women organizers,activists and leaders have been assassinated in thePhilippines since 2001, and considering that the Philippines is second only to Iraq in the number of writers and mediapeople murdered, we are urging the US embassy and your office to demandthat the Philippine government stop holding these three women hostage and let them return to their lives and work in the US.

Signed:
Name
Address---------

Rights-Mozambique: Law to Stop Human Trafficking, Maputo, July 30

2007-08-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

RIGHTS-MOZAMBIQUE: Law to Stop Human Trafficking
By Ruth Ansah Ayisi

MAPUTO, July 30 (IPS) - Over 1,000 Mozambicans, including children, are trafficked to South Africa every year where they are forced into prostitution or to provide free or cheap labour. In response, Mozambique’s government last week approved a new law which will make human trafficking a crime punishable with long prison sentences.It will probably be cold comfort to Sonia to know that Mozambique’s council of ministers approved a law against human trafficking last week. She was rescued just over a year ago after having been trafficked to South Africa to provide domestic work free of charge. After her return, she did not want to talk to her family about her experience. She only wanted to move away to another part of town, to be alone with her twin babies. The 34-year-old Sonia, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, related her story to IPS last year. She had been tricked by traffickers with a promise of a paid job as a domestic worker in South Africa. She was told she would earn the equivalent of 166 dollars a month, an offer she felt she could not refuse. Having only completed 5th grade in primary school, she was unemployed in Mozambique. Even if she had succeeded in getting a job, she would probably have received only the minimum salary of about 50 dollars. Sonia was smuggled across the border without documents. ‘‘They told me they would look after everything,’’ she said during the interview a year ago. She described how near the South African border at around seven in the evening, ‘‘a man led us through the bush and up the hills. I was scared, but what could I do? I got frightened when dogs started barking at us and then the South African police arrested us all. But then the man paid money to the police and they let us go.’’ Once in South Africa, Sonia worked as a domestic worker but without ever receiving any payment. Being illegally in the country, Sonia resorted to the sex trade to survive. She was gang-raped, became pregnant and was infected with HIV. Human trafficking in southern African, especially of women and children to work mostly in brothels or sometimes as unpaid labour, as in Sonia’s case, or as cheap labour in agriculture, is believed to be on the increase. The International Organisation of Migration (IOM) found in a study that over 1,000 Mozambican women and children are trafficked into South Africa each year. ‘‘The number is going up,’’ says Nelly Chimedza, the assistant programme officer of the Southern Africa Counter-Trafficking Assistance Programme in the Maputo IOM office. The Mozambican bill will be adopted during the next sitting of parliament in September this year. Chimedza comments that ‘‘this is a major achievement, especially as up until now there has not been one conviction for these kinds of activities in Mozambique.’’ However, Chimedza warns that even if the parliamentarians pass the bill, there is still more work to be done before there is a guarantee that traffickers will be bought to justice. ‘‘The challenge will be to disseminate information on the law so that people are aware that trafficking is a crime.’’ But even with knowledge, ‘‘fear and shame’’ persist, she adds. Many of the victims of traffickers do not want to talk about their experience, not even to close family members. ‘‘They want to keep the stories to themselves. They self-stigmatise themselves, especially as sexual abuse is often involved. They want to go through the healing process alone, like Sonia is doing,’’ Chimedza explains. The United Nations’ Children Fund (UNICEF) supports awareness campaigns among law enforcement agents, community leaders, parents, young women and children. ‘‘People are not fully aware of the trafficking issue and the risks involved,’’ says Mioh Nemoto, child protection specialist for UNICEF. ‘‘It is especially difficult as poverty is one of the underlying causes for the existence of trafficking. People are probably told that if they give their children to work in South Africa, they will have the chance to go to school too.’’ Nemoto adds that it is not easy to put the record straight in the community because trafficking is shrouded in secrecy. ‘‘We don’t know exactly what is going on and, without evidence, it is difficult to develop the right messages for communities.’’ Indeed, little is also known about the fate of most victims. Chimedza says, ‘‘Sonia is a ‘success story’ because she is back home. She has a house of her own and makes a living out of petty trading.’’ The house was built by IOM and Chimedza visits her regularly to find out how she is coping. Yet Chimedza is worried that Sonia is not out of danger. Because Sonia’s small business of selling ice pops and fish collapsed due to lack of electricity, she talked about trading across the border to buy goods in South Africa to sell in Mozambique. ‘‘She was very excited about the plan when she told me four months ago but I told her that she runs the risk of coming across traffickers again. I think she understood my point.’’ (END/2007)

Fourth sex assault suspect turns himself in, Nova Scotia, July 31

2007-08-09T16:51:00.000-07:00

http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/850408.html

Fourth sex assault suspect turns himself in
Man part of N.S. gang believed to be involved in human trafficking
By LAURA FRASER 5:33 AM
ADVERTISEMENT

The fourth man wanted by Ontario police for human trafficking and the sexual assault of a Nova Scotia woman turned himself in early Monday morning, joining three other suspects believed to be members of a North Preston street gang.

Anthony Roberts, 22, walked into a Brampton police station with his lawyer and surrendered, Det. John Weisman of the Peel Regional Police special victims unit said Monday.
Mr. Roberts was denied bail in a court hearing later in the day. He and the three other suspects in the alleged human trafficking ring will return to a Brampton courthouse on Thursday for a special bail hearing.

All four men are charged with gang sexual assault, human trafficking, kidnapping, forcible confinement, assault and withholding documents. The charges stem from the alleged sexual assault of a 19-year-old Nova Scotia woman in Mississauga, Ont., on June 28.
Ernest Downey, 22, and Spencer Sinclair Thompson, 22, surrendered to Peel Regional Police last Thursday and remain in custody. Thomas Junior Downey was arrested in Ontario on July 10.
Police suspect Mr. Roberts has ties to the North Preston area, Det. Weisman said. Halifax Regional Police have said Mr. Roberts is known to them.

Det. Weisman said the four men are believed to be members of a Nova Scotia gang called North Preston’s Finest.

According to a Mississauga newspaper, Peel Regional Police believe the men may have been trying to coerce the alleged sexual assault victim to work in the sex trade and other women may have already been forced into the business.

( lfraser@herald.ca)
With Paul Everest

Sex-trafficked girls and women from south Asia have high prevalence of HIV infection, South Asia, July 31

2007-08-09T16:41:00.000-07:00

Public release date: 31-Jul-

Sex-trafficked girls and women from south Asia have high prevalence of HIV infection
Nearly 40 percent of repatriated Nepalese sex-trafficked girls and women tested were positive for HIV infection, with girls trafficked before age 15 having higher rates of infection, according to a study in the August 1 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on violence and human rights.

“Trafficking across or within national borders for purposes of sexual exploitation including forced prostitution, i.e., sex trafficking, is recognized as a major gender-based human rights violation with significant individual and public health consequences and is increasingly discussed as a potentially critical mechanism in the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) across developing nations,” the authors write.

There are an estimated 150,000 girls and women trafficked each year within and across the countries of South Asia, with approximately 5,000 to 7,000 Nepalese girls and women trafficked to India’s commercial sex industry each year, according to background information in the article. Data on HIV prevalence among survivors of sex trafficking and roles of trafficking-related exposures in HIV infection have been limited.

Jay G. Silverman, Ph.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues examined the prevalence and risk factors for HIV infection among 287 repatriated Nepalese girls and women sex trafficked to brothels in India. Medical and case records were reviewed of the girls and women, who received rehabilitative services between January 1997 and December 2005.

The researchers found that among the 287 girls and women, 38.0 percent tested positive for HIV. Among those with complete documentation of trafficking experiences (n = 225), median (midpoint) age at time of trafficking was 17.0 years, with 33 girls (14.7 percent) trafficked prior to age 15 years. Compared with those trafficked at 18 years or older, girls trafficked prior to age 15 years had an increased risk for HIV, with 20 of 33 (60.6 percent) infected among this youngest age group.

Additional factors associated with being HIV positive included being trafficked to Mumbai (India’s second largest city) and longer duration of forced prostitution (indicating increased risk per additional month in a brothel). Additional analyses indicated that girls trafficked prior to age 15 years had five times the increased odds of having been detained in multiple brothels and more likely to be in brothels for a duration of 1 year or more vs. those trafficked at age 18 years or older.

The authors write, “Findings of the present study emphasize the critical need to strengthen efforts to prevent sex trafficking and to intervene to protect trafficking survivors so as to shield young girls and women, both from this form of sexual violence and from the high risk of HIV infection. Currently, relatively few such efforts exist, and organizations that do engage in this work often lack adequate political or financial support. Furthermore, the high rates of HIV documented herein support concerns that sex trafficking may be a significant factor in the expansion of the South Asian HIV epidemic, both within higher-prevalence nations such as India and also from such nations to their lower-prevalence neighbors (e.g., Nepal). Moreover, the current demonstration of the very young age of many of those trafficked and sexually exploited, and the further harm to these young lives through high rates of HIV infection, requires attention from public health researchers and strategists to better understand and reduce the demand for sexual services from prostituted girls and women.”

###
(JAMA. 20017;298(5):536-542. Available pre-embargo to the media at www.jamamedia.org)
Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
For More Information: Contact the JAMA/Archives Media Relations Department at 312-464-JAMA or email: mediarelations@jama-archives.org.

UK: Museum shows up past and present, July 25

2007-07-30T01:17:00.000-07:00

Mary O'Hara
Wednesday July 25, 2007
The Guardian

As the descendant of black Africans sold as slaves and the son of a Guyanese father and English mother, Richard Benjamin's passion for his job as head of the new International Slavery Museum in Liverpool comes, he says, "from a very personal place". His role at the museum, which opens next month, is the culmination of years of studying race relations and, recently, gaining a PhD in archeology, inspired by an interest in how black communities engage with their past.

"Black history was important to me," he says. "I grew up in a small village in Yorkshire. It was a traditional white, working-class place. My childhood was very good, but I did often encounter blatant racism."

For Benjamin, 36, who has been in post six months, being made director of the museum gives him the opportunity to "tell the story" of transatlantic slavery in a way that appeals to a cross-section of people. He hopes his knowledge and understanding of the issues will make a real difference to its future.

The aim is to build on the museum's origins as the much smaller-scale Transatlantic Slavery Gallery, Benjamin says, by exploring "a bigger picture", encompassing a longer historical period. There are also plans to develop more audio-visual elements and large research and learning centres. "This is definitely for people who have no understanding of what a slave is or was," he says. "But it will also cater to academics and tourists. It will work on many levels."

Benjamin says that what particularly excites him is that the museum will not remain limited to an examination of the past, or indeed to how the international slave trade impacted on black people and communities. The broader legacy of the slave trade is something he hopes to examine in more detail. "The next phase is to look at the issues around contemporary slavery. We will look at sex-trafficking. I'd like the museum to confront and challenge modern slavery."

Benjamin attributes the vision for the museum to David Fleming, director of National Museums, Liverpool, to which the new museum belongs. But he has his own ambitions for it and they are rooted in his personal and academic background. "This is important to me. I would like to think that black people in the rest of the world will know there is somewhere they can visit that covers the issue of slavery historically and in a contemporary context."

· The International Slavery Museum opens on August 23, which is Slavery Remembrance Day. More information at liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

· Email your comments to society@guardian.co.uk. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication"

UK: Sex slave escapes from brothel, July 24

2007-07-30T01:13:00.000-07:00

A TEENAGE sex slave escaped from a brothel and sought help from residents.

The Vietnamese girl, who cannot speak English, appeared at the home of Christine Bonner in Milton Road, Gravesend, at around 8pm on July 18.

She later told a translator she had been sold as a sex slave and had escaped from a house.

Shop worker Mrs Bonner, 65, said: "She was sitting on my wall and then started looking through my window. I rang my daughter who came over with her friend."

Her daughter, 38-year-old mum-of-two Kerri Bonner, said: "We gave her a cup of tea and biscuits.

"She was holding the cup like it was a baby. We just cuddled her and tried to comfort her."

The housewife added: "It's the last thing you expect.

"I will never forget this girl until the day I die."

Miss Bonner said the girl's eyes were "souless".

She added: "You could see she had been to hell and back. When the police came she was cowering and became frightened again.

"As she left she bowed to each of us. I wish I could have done more to help her."

Miss Bonner's friend Samantha Bunn, a mum-of-two who lives in Stanley Crescent, Gravesend, said: "She was a child. She only looked about 16 or 17 years old. She was scared and crying. She said her name was E."

The 33-year-old added: "I feel disgusted. You know it goes on and see it on TV but you don't expect it to happen in Gravesend.

"She had lots of white bags stuffed inside her bag. They looked like nappy sacks."

Mrs Bunn said officers told her they would try to get the teenager to point out the house she escaped from. The women do not know where the house is.

A police spokesman said: "Patrols attended immediately and the woman was taken into custody at Gravesend police station before being put into the hands of the immigration services."

And a Home Office spokesman said it does not comment on individual cases.

He added the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, which aims to combat child sex abuse, published a report on the extent of child trafficking on June 11.

The writers of the report believe 330 children were trafficked into the UK between March 2005 and December last year.

Later this year a police-led operation, Pentameter Two, will aim to rescue trafficked women and girls from commercial sexual exploitation.

12:31pm Tuesday 24th July 2007

By Vicki Foster

30 Bags of Baby Body Parts Found in Eastern India May be Products of Illegal "Female Foeticide"

2007-07-30T01:09:00.000-07:00

July 24

Original Post: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jul/07072409.html

By Hilary White

NAYAGARH, India, July 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The BBC reports that police have found 30 bags full of baby body parts outside an abortion facility in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. Local forensic experts suggest the remains are the product of illegal sex-selective abortions.

The owners of the abortion facility have been taken into custody. Police have said there is no way of knowing how many bodies were found in the bags recovered from a waste dump near the town of Nayagarh.

Abortion, sonograms and the traditional cultural preference for boys have combined to cause a lopsided sex demographic in India that has left the country facing a massive demographic crisis.

With the population shifting towards the abortion-generated gender imbalance of 927 females born for every 1,000 males, the country is beginning to experience the social ills associated with sex-selective abortion.

Trafficking of women in India has become common in the Northern region of Haryana, where there are about 861 women for every 1,000 men due to sex-selection. Trafficking in women is a problem also experienced in China where a similar gender imbalance was created by the communist one-child policy.

While sex-selective abortions and the use of sonograms to detect the sex of a child are technically illegal, enforcement has proved difficult. A case last year in which an abortionist and his assistant were sentenced to two years in prison and fined Rs 5000 by the court in Palwal, Haryana, was the first time an abortionist was sentenced under the law since it was passed in 1994.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Indian "Genocide" of Girls by Abortion Exposed in New Book "Disappearing Daughters"
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jul/07072309.html

Abortion Doctor in India Jailed Under Female Foeticide Law
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/mar/06032906.html

Trafficking of Women Rampant In Northern India: 8 Women for Every 10 Men
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/apr/06040602.html

Ohio Man Arrested, Charged with Attempting to Purchase Two Children for

2007-07-26T01:21:00.000-07:00

Ohio Man Arrested, Charged with Attempting to Purchase Two Children for
Sexual Torture

July 25, 2007

~ Man asked undercover investigator if he
could drown her daughters for sexual gratification ~

TALLAHASSEE, FL An Ohio man was arrested on feelony charges that he approached an undercover investigator online and offered to pay to act out his sexual perversions with children, Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced. Jeff Doland was arrested by authorities with the Attorney General’s Child Predator CyberCrime Unit after he flew to Miami, believing he was going to meet a mother of two girls, ages nine and 12 years old, and would pay the woman $550 to forcibly submerge the children under water until they became unconsciousness. During multiple internet conversations, Doland told the woman, an undercover agent with the United States Secret Service, that “dunking” was his particular form of sexual gratification.

“The allegations made during the course of this investigation are so heinous they are almost outside the realm of comprehension. Without law enforcement intervention, real children could have been in grave danger,” said Attorney General McCollum.

The undercover investigation began in April when the Secret Service agent was working undercover in an internet chat room, posing as the mother of two young daughters. Doland, of Uniontown, Ohio, approached the “woman” online and told her that he would pay her to allow him to dunk the girls, describing dunking as forcibly submerging someone under water until he or she is generally unconsciousness, then raising the person out of the water. He claimed he “liked watching the bubbles” and went on to send the undercover agent explicit images of child torture as examples of what he proposed to do to the two young children.

The Secret Service agent alerted authorities with the Attorney General’s CyberCrime Unit, who assisted with the continued investigation until Doland announced his intention to meet the “mother” in Miami. Doland was arrested when his plane arrived in Miami after again describing to another undercover investigator exactly what he wanted to do to the children, including a detailed explanation of how he planned to bind the young girls to the bottom of the pool of water. The arrest was made with the assistance of the Miami-Dade Police Department.

Doland will initially be charged with selling or buying of minors, a first-degree felony, and promoting the sexual performance of a child, a second-degree felony. The first charge is described in Florida statute as offering to purchase a minor with the intent to promote acts requiring the rendering of assistance by the minor to any other person to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of the conduct. The additional charge is described as producing, directing, manufacturing or promoting the sadomasochistic abuse or harm of a child through torture and/or physical restraint for the purpose of sexual gratification. Doland faces up to 45 years in prison for the charges against him. The case will be prosecuted by the State Attorney’s Office for the 11th Judicial Circuit.

Under the new CyberCrimes Against Children Act of 2007, which was successfully championed by Attorney General McCollum and will become effective October 1st, child predators facing allegations similar to those against Doland can be criminally charged for soliciting the parent or guardian of a child who would then provide that child to the predator for the purpose of further sexual abuse. Sexual abuse of a child includes any sadomasochistic abuse of a child for the purposes of sexual gratification. The new law will provide for more effective prosecution and stronger penalties for this type of crime.

Sex Trafficking, Not Pimping

2007-07-26T01:20:00.001-07:00

http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/International/nyhetssidor/artikel.asp?ProgramID=2054&Nyheter=&artikel=1500240

Thomas Bodström, he head of the Swedish parliament’s judicial committee, wants to abolish the crime of pimping, in order to force courts to impose harsher sentences.

Bodström wants pimps to be punished for sex trafficking, for smuggling foreign women into Sweden for the sex trade.

Some courts have recently imposed lighter sentences for pimping only – claiming there was no solid proof that the women were tricked into prostitution and were not necessarily held against their will by the traffickers.

Bodström, who was Minister of Justice in the former Social Democratic government, says the present law against pimping is outdated – from the past when a pimp and the prostitute worked together – and does not reflect the present system of sex slavery.

MySpace Finds 29,000 Sex Offenders With Profiles on Its Site, State Officials Say

2007-07-26T01:19:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,290660,00.html

RALEIGH, N.C.
MySpace.com has found more than 29,000 registered sex offenders with profiles on the popular social networking Web site more than four times the number cited by the company two months ago, officials in two states Tuesday.

North Carolina's Roy Cooper is one of several attorneys general who recently demanded the News Corp.-owned Web site provide data on how many registered sex offenders were using the popular social networking site, along with information about where they live.

After initially withholding the information, citing federal privacy laws, MySpace began sharing the information in May after the states filed formal legal requests.

At the time, MySpace said it had already used a database it helped create to remove about 7,000 profiles of sex offenders, out of a total of about 180 million profiles on the site.

Cooper's office said Tuesday, however, that now the figure has risen past 29,000.

"I'm absolutely astonished and appalled because the number has grown so exponentially over so short of time with no explanation," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who also had pressed the company earlier for sex offender data.

MySpace declined to comment on the figure, focusing instead on its efforts to clean up its profile rolls.

"We're pleased that we've successfully identified and removed registered sex offenders from our site and hope that other social networking sites follow our lead," MySpace chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam said in a prepared statement.

Cooper is pushing for a state law that would require children to receive parental permission before creating social networking profiles, and require the Web sites to verify the parents' identity and age. For example, social networking sites would have to compare information provided by a parent with commercial databases. Sites could also force parents to submit credit cards or printed forms.

Cooper is working with law enforcement officials in other states in pressuring MySpace to use age and identity verification methods voluntarily. Based on media reports, Cooper's office found more than 100 criminal incidents this year of adults using MySpace to prey or attempt to prey on children.

Most recently, a Virginia man pleaded guilty Monday to kidnapping and soliciting a 14-year old girl he met on MySpace.

"All we're doing is giving parents the right to make a choice whether their children can go online," Cooper told a state House committee considering the bill on parental involvement and verification. He said the measure would lead to "fewer children at risk, because there will be fewer children on those Web sites."

Advocates for Internet companies and privacy issues testified against the proposed restrictions, saying the broad parental verification standards would be found unconstitutional because they prohibit free speech or impede interstate commerce. The experts who testified also said Cooper's idea isn't foolproof, because children could fabricate their parents' information and purported consent.

The parental verification requirement "makes promises to consumers that cannot be kept. It is dangerous language," said Emily Hackett, executive director of the Washington-based Internet Alliance, whose clients include Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news)/span>. and VeriSign Inc. "There is no way to eyeball a user."

The bill has already passed the North Carolina Senate. Now it goes to a House subcommittee for more consideration.

State Sen. Walter Dalton, a Democrat who is a primary sponsor of the bill, acknowledged that it won't stop all sexual predators from getting on social networking sites. But he said it addresses a problem that shouldn't be ignored, Dalton said.

"There is obviously a compelling state interest to protect our children from sexual predators," he said.

MySpace is owned by News Corp., which is the parent company of FOXNews.com

New program to fight human trafficking

2007-07-26T01:17:00.000-07:00

By Barb Barrett, Staff Writer

Published: Jul 23, 2007 03:37 PM
Modified: Jul 23, 2007 03:36 PM
The News and Observer

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families will announce a program Tuesday that hopes to educate agencies and individuals about human trafficking in North Carolina and across the country.

The federal department estimates that 14,500-17,500 people are trafficked into the United States every year.

Several high-profile cases have come up in North Carolina in recent years, including a sex ring in the Triangle and a legal suit filed by 22 Thai farm workers fromJohnston County earlier this year.

The federal program comes alongside an ongoing statewide coalition that has been working several years to train social services and law enforcement agencies about how to identify and help trafficking victims.

"It's so hidden right now, and people are afraid to come forward and, often, don't have the capacity to come forward," said Kaci Bishop, an immigration attorney with the N.C. Justice Center who will be at Tuesday's news conference in Raleigh.

Human trafficking often follows drug trafficking corridors, Bishop said. "We're right on the I-95 corridor."

She said coalition members suspect a lot of trafficking among farm workers, and that advocates suspect women are forced into the commercial sex trade to service both migrant workers and men on the Interstate 95 corridor.

The General Assembly is considering legislation sponsored by Sen. Ellie Kinnaird of Carrboro to make human trafficking a state offense as well as a federal offense.

The federal government's program, called Rescue & Restore, involves a network of 21 cities and states fighting human trafficking

Israeli police arrest nine citizens suspected of trafficking in organs

2007-07-26T01:15:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press
Monday, July 23, 2007

JERUSALEM: Israeli police have broken up an organ transplanting ring that persuaded dozens of Israelis to have their kidneys removed in Ukraine for $30,000 (€21,700) each, a spokesman said Monday.

Nine Israelis suspected of trafficking in organs and humans have been arrested and remain in custody, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The case was opened when an Israeli woman filed a police complaint charging that she was not paid after her kidney was removed in Ukraine, Rosenfeld said. She had answered an ad in the local press, he said.

Police uncovered the ring by sending an undercover officer to pose as a potential donor, he said.

Army Radio quoted police as saying dozens of people may have been duped into donating organs. Ads seeking donors were published in the Russian and Arabic press, the radio said.

"We are talking about several incidents in which we located the people," a senior police commander, Lior Boker, told Army Radio. "I estimate that ... over a long period of time we are talking about a lot more people."

Israeli police have informed the Ukrainian police of the arrests, Rosenfeld said.

Israel allows transplants from relatives or anonymous donors, but the law forbids any sale of organs. Still, local and foreign laws are not sufficient to stop the sale of organs if people travel abroad, said Eitan Mor, executive director of the Israeli Transplantation Society.

"It's a jungle out there," Mor said. "As soon as Israelis go abroad to give organs this opens the door to trafficking in organs."

About 200 Israelis go abroad every year to receive transplants, most of them to receive kidneys, Mor said.

Police may have to release the suspects since Israeli law does not explicitly forbid trafficking in organs, said Meir Broder, a legal adviser to the Health Ministry. Draft legislation before Israel's parliament would make it illegal to transport or deal in organs, Broder said.

Israel has began cracking down on transplants abroad when organ trafficking is suspected, Broder said.

Since last year, Israeli health maintenance organizations have been required to question the source of organs transplanted into their members abroad. This has prevented Israelis from receiving state-funded transplants in China, he said, where human rights groups believe organs have been taken from executed prisoners.

Man sentenced for sex with girl forced into prostitution

2007-07-26T01:14:00.000-07:00

Associated Press - July 21, 2007 4:05 PM ET

JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) - A man who had sex with a 13-year-old girl who had been forced into prostitution has been sentenced to serve up to 15 years in prison.

District Judge Nancy Guthrie in Jackson yesterday (Friday) sentenced 37-year-old Juan Luna to serve between nine to 15 years in prison.

Luna admitted this spring to having sex with the girl five times in March 2004.

A federal judge last month sentenced three other men who admitted forcing the girl to work as a prostitute to serve prison sentences ranging up to eight years.

Prosecutor Brian Hultman asked Judge Guthrie to hand Luna a lengthy prison sentence. He argued that Luna's crimes were at least as bad as the crimes of the men who pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of a child in the case.

The girl has testified that the men who brought her into the country from Mexico told her that she needed to repay a debt for her transportation. She said she never received money for the sex acts she performed in March and April 2004.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

Cyber sex den 'operators' fall POLICE URGING PUBLIC TO

2007-07-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

IN DUMAGUETE

BY JUANCHO GALLARDE
http://www.visayandailystar.com/2007/July/21/negor1.htm

The police appealed for public support in fighting the growing problem of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, after the arrest Wednesday of a couple who allegedly operated a cyber sex den in a village in the outskirts of Dumaguete City.

Armed with a search warrant issued by the Regional Trial Court Branch 34, the operatives headed by Dumaguete deputy chief of police Chief Inspector Julius Muñez, swooped down on a residential house in the area, about six kilometers from the city proper. Muñez said at least four minors were made to perform nude in front of the computer camera for a fee from foreigners.

Police confiscated the computer and its accessories, telephone set and other paraphernalia, and assorted clothing of the minors.

Muñez said women and children are the most vulnerable victims of human trafficking, because of depressive conditions in their homes that force them to do anything to earn income.

The raid at the house of the suspects on Wednesday was a result of close surveillance and reports from minor victims who claimed they were made to undress and dance in front of the web camera for "clients" who connect to them via the Internet. Muñez, meanwhile, declined to identify the couple arrested and charged in court, citing a confidentiality clause in Republic Act 9208, or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.

Section 6 of the Act states that the right to privacy of the trafficked person and the accused must be respected, and that at any stage of the investigation, prosecution and trial of an offense under it, the identities and personal circumstances of both the accused and the victim shall not be disclosed to the public, Muñez added.

The media shall also be held liable for publishing or airing information and causing publicity of any case of trafficking in persons. Because of these provisions, Muñez said the police could not freely discuss with the media the alleged cyber sex operations of the couple.

He, however, appealed to the public to help the police by monitoring and reporting unusual activities in their neighborhood, such as the constant presence of young girls, especially if scantily dressed and wearing make-up, at a particular house.

Muñez added that he believes cyber sex operations are syndicated and that those involved in the illegal trade usually move from one place to another, making it difficult for the police to arrest them.

Meanwhile, Commission on Human Rights special investigator Jess Cañete who witnessed the raid, said the four minors are now in the custody of the G-WAVE, but their names are being withheld. Cañete said the girls were told to remove their clothes and show their private parts in front of the camera.*JG

Mother gets 15 years for forcing teen daughters into prostitution

2007-07-26T01:12:00.001-07:00

Posted on Thu, Jul. 19, 2007

The Associated Press
LEXINGTON, S.C. --

A mother was sentenced to 15 years in prison Thursday after she admitted she sold her teenage daughters as prostitutes.

The woman's lawyer told the judge her family needed money for food, but prosecutors said she used the money to feed her addiction to crack cocaine.

The name of the mother is being withheld because it could identify her daughters and The Associated Press does not generally identify alleged victims of sex crimes.

The girls, who were 15 and 17 when their mother was arrested in January, are in the custody of the Department of Social Services and receiving intense counseling, authorities said.

The father of the teens faces charges because authorities said he knew what the mother was doing. Three men also are awaiting trial for buying sex from the teens, prosecutors said.

Before being sentenced, the mother apologized to her daughters, who were not in the courtroom. "I'd like to tell my girls I'm sorry and I love them," she said.

But Circuit Judge Kenneth Goode said he wasn't swayed by her remorse.

"I've known many families who've gone through huge financial straits," Goode said. "And they didn't resort to what you did."

Human Trafficking Worse In Northern Marianas Than U.S., Official Says

2007-07-26T01:11:00.001-07:00

Friday: July 20, 2007
Pacific Magazine

(Marianas Variety)

Human trafficking problems are worse in the Northern Mariana Islands on a per capita basis than in the entire United States, a Bush Administration official told a U.S. Senate hearing, the Marianas Variety reports.

David Cohen, deputy assistant secretary of the interior and the administration's lead official for insular affairs, said yesterday in testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that "human trafficking is between 8.8 and 10.6 times more prevalent in the CNMI than it is in the U.S. as a whole. This is a conservative calculation that most likely makes the CNMI look better than it actually is.”

Cohen was testifying in support of a Senate measure that would impose U.S. federal control of Northern Marianas immigration.

In his testimony, Cohen noted that 36 female victims of human trafficking in the Northern Marianas were identified by Guma Esperansa, a women’s shelter operated by a Catholic non-profit organization, during the 12-month period through the end of April. The women were brought to Saipan to participate in the sex trade, he said.

Cohen noted that compared with the U.S. State Department estimates that between 14,500 and 17,500 victims are trafficked into the U.S. each year for all purposes, including labor. The Northern Marianas population is 70,000 compared with a U.S. population of 300 million.

http://www.mvariety.com/localpage/lnews22.htm

Placement agencies in trafficking case

2007-07-26T01:09:00.001-07:00

20 Jul 2007, 0339 hrs IST , Abhinav Garg , TNN

NEW DELHI: Almost half a dozen placement agencies of south Delhi, responsible for supplying everything from a domestic help to a guard, are under the scanner of Delhi High Court for allegedly indulging in human trafficking.

The court was alerted to such a possibility through a petition which says these placement agencies lured 298 women and children to the Capital from West Bengal on the pretext of providing them job as domestic servants but instead forced them into ‘‘slavery and sex’’.

On Friday the Delhi Police and the placement agencies are likely to place before a division Bench of justice R S Sodhi and justice P K Bhasin, their response to the allegations levelled against them. The police has been blamed of complete inaction by the petitioners.

According to the petition filed by an NGO called Shramjivi Mahila Samiti, these 298 women and children from indigent families in rural West Bengal were shipped to Delhi by local agents at the prodding of various placement agencies in Saket, Malviya Nagar and Lado Sarai areas of the Capital.

The NGO through its counsel Colin Gonsalves claimed before HC that distraught relatives of these 298 missing persons were forced to approach the court for relief because they were unable to contact their kin, who had come to Delhi for household jobs as the placement agencies fobbed them off, even threatening them with dire consequences if they persisted with inquiries about these 298 people.

Relying on the testimony of one who managed to escape back to Bengal, the petition says this man apprised other villagers about the appalling conditions in which the untraceable children and women were kept with some doing unpaid labour, others being forced into sex and slavery.

He said the promised wages were never paid by the agencies which frequently rotated the servants from one household to another to avoid their being traced. The elation of those who managed to get paid through cheque was shortlived as these bounced soon after.

Even the police, the petition complains, was in collusion with the placement agencies which got wind of the fact that relatives from Bengal were coming to question them about the missing persons. ‘‘Police tipped off these agencies,’’ the counsel had informed HC on the last date of hearing.

In Plain Sight but Invisible

2007-07-26T01:06:00.000-07:00

Shelley Seale

July 19, 2007
http://www.worldpress.org/Asia/2868.cfm

Indian street children play beside a parked hand rickshaw on a street in Kolkata. (Photo: Deshakalyan Chowdhury / AFP-Getty Images)

Sitting on my backpack in the Rourkela railway station at 10 p.m., I am waiting with a group of four other volunteers for our train. We hover around our amassed baggage, far more than the five of us need because many of the bags contain art supplies, games and treats for the children at the Miracle Foundation orphanage in Choudwar, India that we are on our way to spend a week with.

From nowhere it seems, two boys suddenly appear beside us. They look about seven or eight years old and are alone. Silently they hold out their hands, then bring them to their mouths, then hold them out again in the universal language of begging. I am acutely aware of the mountain of belongings surrounding the five of us the suitcases containing toys and treats for other children, the plastic bags of food and drinks for the overnight train journey at my feet.

When brought face to face with such children an all-too-common occurrence virtually everywhere in India it becomes almost impossible to ignore them; to say no. A struggle invariably begins inside my soul and no matter how many times the situation occurs, that struggle never lessens and is never resolved. The truth of the matter is that giving money to these children will not have any significant impact on their lives beyond a few moments. It might even worsen their circumstances; many of these children turn the money directly over to parents or other adults who are either exploiting them or simply trying to stay a step above starvation.

Reinforcing the tactic of children begging as a successful strategy merely continues the cycle. Activists and non-governmental organization (NGO) workers will tell you over and over that if you really want to make a difference for children like this, or in fact anyone in desperate need, then supporting legitimate holistic programs that address the root issues and long-term solutions is the only way to make a lasting impact.

I agree with this. In my head, I know it is true. I donate thousands of dollars and volunteer hundreds of hours every year to NGOs that work with vulnerable children. It's the reason I'm in India in the first place, volunteering in an orphanage. But in my heart it is another story every time I'm approached, every time children like these boys look up at me with their haunted or, even worse, vacant eyes. It's so hard to look away, to wave them off, to pretend not to see them.

A few minutes later, the station alert sounds as our train approaches the platform. I grab my backpack and a team suitcase. But I can't help it. Just before we start down the platform to where our car will board, I pull several candy bars and two bottles of soda from a plastic bag and set them on the ground. We begin to walk away and I look toward the boys. Amazingly, they do not grab the snacks and run. They just stand there, not taking their eyes off us. I look at the candy, then at the boys, and nod my head. Hesitantly the older one questions me with his eyes and looks at the pile on the floor for the first time. I nod again and like a shot, the boys quickly snatch it up and dart off at a blazing run.

After we board the train and find our seats, I stow my backpack under a side bench and sit down. Within moments, there is a knock on the window. I look out and the two boys are standing on the platform, now with several other boys. They're all grinning from ear to ear. "One more, auntie!" they shout. I smile and wave at them, but the train is already pulling out of the station. As little as it seems, I'm glad we left the candy and I hope it makes them happy even if it is only for a moment. They stay with me long after I'm gone and I wonder how they ended up there, what their life is like, where they will go next.

There are millions of such children in India; waves of people step over and around them every day without ever really seeing them. Of all the vulnerable children they are the least hidden, in plain sight right out on the pavement or the train stations yet they are perhaps the most invisible of all.

The figures quoted by various agencies are so varied they are almost meaningless. One 1994 report by UNICEF estimated 11 million street children; the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights quotes 18 million. Some NGOs put the figure as high as 100 million. Such statistics are hard to pin down because their lives are never constant and their mobility is as much as 70 percent. Many of them right on the sidewalks or in slums of extreme deprivation. Although I don't know the specific circumstances of the boys in the Rourkela station that night, uncounted numbers of children live in railway stations all over the country scratching out whatever meager existence they can, living on the constant edge of disaster. Current estimates suggest that as many as 125,000 street children live in each of Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.

With the second largest rail network in the world carrying 11 million passengers each day, India's train stations play a major role in street children's lives. Many of those who run away take a train, often without even knowing where it is headed, and usually remain in the stations where they arrive because of access to toilet facilities and the ability to eke out a meager existence from industry that springs up around rail travel: luggage porters, shoe shiners, food or tea servers, rag pickers, or beggars if they must.

They sleep on the platforms, sometimes mere feet from where the trains race by, or on the footpaths or under bridges. They are at high risk for malnutrition, health problems, substance abuse, and violence. Glue sniffing is the most common drug problem for many of these children without a childhood, who often yearn for an escape from the brutality of their lives.

With no supervision of any kind and largely unprotected by adults, they are extremely vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, especially within the first days and weeks of leaving home. A child arriving alone at a railway station will only be approached by a predator, maybe a factory representative seeking cheap child labor or a brothel owner, within 20 minutes. Employers of kids who perform jobs such as rag and bottle collecting keep the children indebted to them. These victimizers know where to find the children who won't be missed.

I met some of these kids myself one sunny morning shortly after arriving in Mumbai. An estimated 30 unaccompanied children arrive at the city's 125 train stations every day. As thousands of people disembark from the trains commuters, businessmen, families, university students, mothers and babies, young trendy urbanites with their iPods they leave the platforms and swarm to the exits. But some remain behind the small and permanent residents, the ones for whom the railway station is their only home.

Gyan, a social worker with the NGO Oasis India, escorted me to their Ashadeep project at the Kurla train station. After winding through a maze I would never find my way back out of alone, Gyan knocked at a locked door and another Ashadeep worker let us in. The tiny room was filled with nine boys, ranging in age from about eight to fourteen, playing games on the floor with two other male workers while they took turns washing in the one bathroom. The boys all live in the Kurla station by night.

Ashadeep social workers spend much of each workday doing outreach in the train stations, searching for new children and befriending them in a non-threatening manner. They offer the kids food, a bath, clothing and the chance to regularly participate in Ashadeep activities such as games, movies and sports. The caseworkers try to protect them as much as possible from the dangers of the station.

"These boys lose their right to a childhood, education, and family. They even lose their humanity," Gyan said. "Then the cycle continues into the next generation."

The program also provides medical care and learning activities. Half an hour into my visit the games were put away and a math lesson began. The boys grew serious as they carefully wrote out the numbers and did their sums. The interesting foreigner in their midst was quickly forgotten as they concentrated on their assignment, each of them soaking up the learning like a sponge and eager to show off their skills. I watched these eight, ten, twelve year olds who should be in school every day and thought about most children who take it for granted. This was the only schooling these boys had, and it made me very fearful for their futures.

Once a boy has been coming to Ashadeep regularly and wants to leave the railway life, the caseworkers will contact any family he has to try and work with them for reunification and to get the child into school. But because many of them fled abusive homes or were forced to leave, this is not always an option. Some have been so abused and are so frightened of their parents that they do not want to return home, even with an Ashadeep representative at their side.

"We tell the boys that as long as we are with them, no one can raise hands against them any longer," Gyan said. "But still, they are sometimes very afraid."

The workers try to place such children, if they are younger, into boarding schools or residential homes. For the older boys, Oasis will rent a house for several of them together and help with job training and life skills.

Before I left the Ashadeep railway center I asked Gyan why it was only boys in the program. He replied that the majority of kids living in the train stations are in fact boys, and this seems to be attributed to two reasons. First, boys are more likely than girls to actually run away from home and leave their villages. Second, for the females who do arrive, Gyan said they are the first to disappear. The sex trade swallows up the girls immediately.

When Ashadeep workers do occasionally find girls in the stations, they refer them to other NGOs such as Salaam Baalak Trust that have programs for girls. Oasis communications manager Divya Kottadiel echoed how difficult the challenge is for girls.

"Once they've been in the sex trade very long, no matter how abusive, it becomes more difficult to get them out of it. Many children on the streets continue to live on the streets, despite safer options," she said. "The thought of being confined to four walls frightens them and they prefer to live in 'freedom' out on the streets."

But for these children, the price of freedom is very high. They pay with their childhood, their innocence, their health, and sometimes their very lives.

View the Worldpress Desk’s profile for Shelley Seale.

Shared Hope International Launches Public Awareness Effort

2007-07-26T01:04:00.002-07:00

Shared Hope International Launches Public Awareness Effort to Combat Sex Trafficking of Minors in America: Ground-Breaking New Video and Educational Materials Available

WASHINGTON, July 19 /Standard Newswire/-- Shared Hope International, a leader in the worldwide effort to prevent and eradicate sex trafficking, is distributing a ground-breaking new video featuring never before seen footage of child sex trafficking in the United States.

Through extensive undercover research and on-camera interviews with pimps, sex trafficking survivors, members of law enforcement and social service providers, the video "Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: How to Identify America’s Trafficked Youth" provides an in-depth look at the buying and selling of America's children.

In 2005, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was reauthorized with amendments identifying all minors under the age of 18 as sex trafficking victims when engaged in a commercial sex act such as prostitution and pornography.

"The best data suggests that at least 100,000 American kids a year are victimized through the practice of child prostitution," said Ernie Allen, President and CEO of The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "These kids literally become 21st century slaves."

Other research has shown up to 300,000 American children are at-risk of being exploited through the commercial sex industry in the U.S. every year. The average age of coercion and recruitment into prostitution is 12 and some victims report being forced to service 10 to 15 buyers each night.

"To a trafficker, a child is low-risk, high-profit and easy to move about," said Linda Smith, founder and President of Shared Hope International.

To combat this crisis, Shared Hope International (SHI) is distributing their ground-breaking new video and other educational materials to first responders across the nation including Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) task forces, social service providers, and juvenile detention facilities. The goal of these materials is to provide a baseline understanding of domestic minor sex trafficking, redefine "child prostitutes" as trafficking victims, improve prosecution of traffickers, and increase victim identification and access to protective and restorative services. SHI is pleased to provide:

"Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: How to Identify America's Trafficked Youth" (25-minute video, DVD format)
Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Educational Power Point Presentation

These materials are available for download at www.sharedhope.org

Norway to ban buying sex services

2007-07-26T01:04:00.001-07:00

CONCERNS: Support groups for prostitutes fear the law may lead to violence toward sex workers and greater reliance on pimps, but backers say it will hurt traffickers

AFP, OSLO
Thursday, Jul 19, 2007, Page 6

Prostitues from Eastern Europe work on a street in central Oslo on March 30. Norway is preparing to criminalize the purchase of sex.
PHOTO: AFP
Norway is preparing to criminalize the purchase of sex -- though not the sale of it -- a move that is proving highly controversial among prostitute support groups, who argue that the policy will make sex workers more vulnerable.

Men who buy sex could face up to six months in jail, pay a fine or face both, under proposed legislation currently under consultation with relevant interest groups.

The law will ban paying for sexual services, but not selling them. Procuring, or pimping, and human trafficking are already illegal.

The bill, expected to be sent to parliament before the middle of next year, is certain to be adopted as all three parties in the governing coalition have said they will back it.

"We want to send a clear message to men that buying sex is unacceptable. Men who do it are taking part in an international crime involving human beings who are trafficked for sex," Norwegian Justice Minister Knut Storberget said.

"Criminalizing buying sex will make it more difficult for traffickers to organize themselves," he said, because they won't be able to find clients on the street, since the latter will be afraid of getting caught.

Prostitutes' support groups say the law will be ineffective.

"The law will end street prostitution but it won't stop women from working indoors or from going abroad" to work as prostitutes, said Liv Jessen, director of the Pro Center, an Oslo-based support group for prostitutes.

It is estimated that about 40 percent of deals between prostitutes and customers in Norway are made on the street, with the rest occurring indoors, for instance in hotels or at massage parlors.

Among prostitutes working on the street, about 80 percent come from countries such as Romania, Bulgaria and Nigeria, via trafficking. The rest are Norwegians who tend to be drug abusers.

In recent years, street prostitution in central Oslo has become more visible, prompting calls for a ban. But critics say the law will make sex workers more vulnerable.

"The girls will have to rely more on pimps than before to get clients," said Janni Wintherbauer, the leader of the Organization for the Interests of Prostitutes and a sex worker herself. "The pimps will organize everything: the flat where they live, the choice of clients and how much money they get."

"In the street, the girls can choose who they go with. If they don't like the look of a client, they can say no. In an apartment, they can't," Wintherbauer said.

She fears there will be more rapes and attacks on prostitutes.

"The client will think: `I've already broken the law, I've got nothing to lose.' And in an apartment, a girl will be alone" where no one will be able to help her, she said.

The planned law is modeled on legislation passed in 1999 in Sweden. There, men who buy sex face six months in jail or a fine, set in proportion to their income.

No one has yet gone to prison for the offense, but one person was fined, police said.

Child marriages, trafficking on the rise in West Bengal

2007-07-26T01:03:00.001-07:00

Antara Das
The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2007/07/19/stories/2007071956291300.htm

A rising awareness against dowry is fuelling the incidence

KOLKATA: A survey conducted across several districts in West Bengal has indicated that a rising awareness against dowry is fuelling the incidence of child marriage and trafficking.

The survey was conducted by Women’s Studies Research Centre (WSRC); the Department of Sociology, Burdwan University; and Centre for Women’s Studies, University of North Bengal, supported by the West Bengal Government’s Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“We found that the traffickers approach the villagers in the guise of grooms without any dowry demand and lure them into marrying off even minor girls,” said Ishita Mukhopadhyay, Director, WSRC, Calcutta University. “The girls are then sold and sent to other places like Mumbai, Dubai or Kashmir,” she added.

“The problem is compounded by the fact that West Bengal lies on the vulnerable international trafficking route, a fact acknowledged by the United Nations, with Kolkata itself becoming a significant source and destination for traffickers,” Dr. Mukhopadyay said.

“The elderly women in the villages acknowledge that child marriages were not so prevalent earlier.” She said that once married, even minor girls were treated as women and they did not enjoy child rights any more.The data quoted in the report (sourced from the 2001Census and the National Family Health Survey) shows a high incidence of child marriage in the State 39.16 per cent compared to the national average of 32.10 per cent. “Though the Social Welfare Department has been organising awareness campaigns at the block and anganwadi levels, it is hard to eradicate the problem,” the department’s Principal Secretary S.N. Haque said.

While the Government’s focus is on economic empowerment of women through vocational training, and providing financial incentives to prevent girls from dropping out of high school, Dr. Mukhopadhyay felt that police action was needed to reign in traffickers. “There are, after all, hardly any trafficking cases that are registered with the police,” she said.

Nigeria probes mass human trafficking case

2007-07-26T01:01:00.000-07:00

Wed 18 Jul 2007, 11:28 GMT

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian police intercepted a freight truck carrying 62 people, including babies and children, in a suspected case of mass human trafficking, the agency in charge of fighting such crimes said on Wednesday.

The 62, who include men, women, boys and girls, are all from the same community in southeastern Cross River state and they say they were on their way to various locations in southwestern Ogun and Ondo states to join relatives or find work.

"We are investigating because we think it is possible that human traffickers recruited these people to give them out as farm hands, house helps or for brothels," said Funke Abiodun, head of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) in Edo state, where the truck was stopped.

Human trafficking is a major problem in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation where the majority live on less than $1 (49 pence) per day, and victims are often made to swear oaths at traditional shrines, discouraging them from denouncing the traffickers.

Abiodun said police intercepted the truck on Sunday and detained the 62 people for two days in cells where they complained of ill treatment and refused food or water in protest.

She said NAPTIP had taken over the case on Tuesday and the 62 had initially been hostile to the agency's staff, but the women and girls were now in a NAPTIP shelter while the men and boys were in a holding centre and all were eating and drinking.

Some Nigerian victims of human trafficking are transferred within the country, but many are taken abroad where they work as domestic staff or prostitutes. Victims are often saddled with huge "debts" towards their traffickers and are unable to retain any earnings for several years.

Man on Trial in 'Sex Tourism' Case, July 17, 2007

2007-07-26T01:00:00.000-07:00

AP Online
Tuesday, July 17, 2007 8:00:00 PM
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A wealthy motel owner accused of sexually
abusing boys from a poor Eastern European village tossed money
around to ingratiate himself with people he met, a federal
prosecutor said in his opening statement at the man's trial.

Anthony Mark Bianchi, 44, of North Wildwood, N.J., is being
tried under a little-tested 2003 law designed to thwart "sex
tourism" by trying suspected overseas child predators in U.S.
courts. Bianchi has been accused of assaulting nearly a dozen
minors on foreign soil.

Bianchi's attorney, high-profile defense lawyer Mark Geragos,
said his client is being falsely accused by Moldovan boys who are
getting what amounts to a swank prosecution-funded trip to the U.S.
in exchange for their testimony.

Four of eight accusers who testified at a closed-door court
hearing in the former Soviet republic recanted, while the others
changed their stories drastically, Geragos said. Prosecutors have
said some of the accusers were too embarrassed to say in their home
country what happened.

Bianchi is accused of assaulting boys from Trebujeni, Moldova, a
remote village of 600 to 700 people, between 2003 and 2005. Federal
prosecutor Michael Levy told jurors the defendant spread his money
around there for sinister reasons.

Bianchi allegedly gave a television and $25 to one family that
innocently let their son stay with him one night, prosecutors said.

"Everything he did was designed to make friends with these
boys," Levy said. "And then, when their guards were down, he
began his advances."

Prosecutors charge that Bianchi, through a local translator who
helped procure the boys, assaulted teenagers in exchange for money,
liquor, gifts and trips, including trips to Cuba and Romania.

Prosecutors suggested that only someone with ulterior motives
would vacation in the isolated village of Trebujeni, where most of
the accusers live, but Geragos said the town draws tourists with
its scenic beauty and hilltop monastery.

"There are no four or five-star amenities, but it's hardly some
impoverished place that no one would ever go," Geragos said.

He described Bianchi -- who with his parents owned a New Jersey
beach motel -- as a veteran traveler who sought out offbeat
destinations. Bianchi liked to stay in small boarding houses to get
to know the locals, Geragos said.

Bianchi was convicted of Russian charges connected to children
from the same village in 2000; he was sentenced to three years in
prison but immediately expelled from the country.

About 50 people, including Bianchi, have been charged to date
under what's known as the Protect Act. About 30 of them have been
convicted.

Rescued human trafficking victims go on hunger strike

2007-07-26T00:59:00.000-07:00

Uchechukwu Olisah, Benin City - 18.07.2007

THE 62 suspected victims of human trafficking that were rescued by the police in Edo State on Sunday have embarked on a hunger strike.

The victims, who were handed over to officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) at the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Tuesday, said they would not eat the food and drinks offered them by NAPTIP.

The victims said they were protesting against the “inhuman treatment” by the police since they were brought to the police command headquarters on Sunday.

One of the victims, Mr. Godfrey Ayima, said since they were brought in by the police, they had not been fed or allowed to take their bath, saying they were detained with hardened criminals and the girls made to pass the night in the same cells with boys.

Swedish embassy e-mail link to combat Asian child sex tourism

2007-07-26T00:58:00.001-07:00

Posted on : 2007-07-17 | Author : DPA
News Category : Internet

Stockholm - The Swedish embassy to Thailand has set up a special e-mail link on its web site as part of efforts to combat child sex tourism in South East Asia, reports said Wednesday. The e-mail links to the Nordic police liason office located at the embassy where two police officers from Denmark and Sweden liaise with authorities in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines.

The Swedish branch of the ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography & Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) network welcomed the move that if successful could be introduced at other embassies.

"This is not a day too early," ECPAT Secretary General Helena Karlen told daily Svenska Dagbladet, saying the group had suggested something similar for several years.

ECPAT Sweden, founded 10 years ago, set up its own web-based hotline in 2005 and also cooperates with travel companies in an effort to counter child sex tourism.

The group has estimated that nine in 10 Swedish tourists that have seen indications of child sex tourism outside Europe never file any reports.

The Swedish embassy website urges tourists who believed they have witnessed child sex tourism to write down their observations, mentioning the place (town, location, hotel), when the sighting was made, as well as a description of the suspect and child.

Tips could also be filed anonymously.

To date, two Swedish nationals have been sentenced in Sweden for child sex tourism, including one case in Thailand.

Print Source :
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/83639.html

Death sentence over China slave scandal, July 17, 2007

2007-07-26T00:57:00.001-07:00

Jul 17 07:54 AM US/Eastern

One man in China was sentenced to death and 28 people were handed jail terms in the first convictions over a huge slavery scandal that shocked the nation, a judge said Tuesday.

Zhao Yanbing, a brickyard employee who confessed last month in footage broadcast on national television to killing a mentally handicapped slave, was given the death penalty, High Court judge Liu Jimin said.

The other defendants got prison terms ranging from two years to life.

"These cases have had a vile effect both domestically and overseas and can only be handled... in the most severe fashion," Liu said as he delivered his ruling, which was broadcast live on state television.

"Only with a fast verdict can we deter these crimes and safeguard citizens' lives."

However, human rights groups and some ordinary Chinese citizens on the Internet said those convicted could just be scapegoats, and accused the ruling Communist Party of trying to ensure that corrupt officials were not implicated.

The scandal surfaced last month after about 400 distraught parents posted a plea on the Internet about their children who had been sold into slavery in China's northern Shanxi province and neighbouring Henan.

They made their case public after police and local authorities refused to help find their children.

After the Internet postings prompted action from police and attention from the state-run press, disturbing images were broadcast of abused and emaciated workers being freed from brick kilns, with some young men too weak to stand.

Officials say 576 enslaved workers have since been rescued, but the true number of victims is widely believed to be far higher.

Parents initially said up to 1,000 youths had been working as slaves, but only 41 of those people officially rescued are children.

Zhao and the others who received the harshest penalties were involved in running what the state-run media has turned into the most infamous of the Shanxi brickyards.

The foreman, Heng Tinghan, was condemned to life in jail, while owner Wang Bingbing was given a nine-year sentence.

The kiln was located in a courtyard belonging to Wang's father, a local Communist Party village chief, but there has been no word on any punishment for the official.

After his arrest, Heng shocked the nation with his lack of remorse when he said: "I thought it was a fairly small thing to do."

Zhao, the man sentenced to death, was similarly placed in front of news cameras on June 15 and described in a matter-of-fact manner how he beat to death a mentally handicapped man, aged "57 or 58", for not working hard enough.

"His performance was bad, so I thought that I would frighten him a bit, " Zhao said.

"When I raised the shovel over him I never thought that he would get up and confront me, so I slammed the shovel down on his head."

Zhao was found guilty of illegal detention and intentionally causing harm.

Reaction on the Internet to Tuesday's ruling was swift, with many Chinese netizens calling for stiffer penalties.

"The verdicts are too light. At least the owner of the illegal brick factory and his father, who was also the party chief, should be sentenced to death too," said one post on popular portal Sohu.com.

China also announced on Monday that 95 Communist Party officials in Shanxi had been punished, but most just escaped with warnings.

Only six of them were senior officials in local governments. There has been no report on any punishments being doled out in Henan province.

"It's outrageous," Robin Munro, research director of the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, said of this week's punishments.

"Clearly there is one law for ordinary citizens and another for entrepreneurs and party officials."

Arrests in Vietnam for child trafficking to China, July 17, 2007

2007-07-26T00:54:00.001-07:00

ABC Radio Australia
Last Updated 17/07/2007, 21:42:00

Police in Vietnam say they've arrested three people for allegedly trafficking children to China, some of whom were forced to work as prostitutes.

The police say two young men from Hanoi were detained on Friday, while a 36-year-old woman from the northern province of Lang Son which borders China was arrested on Saturday.

Local media reports say police started investigating the case after getting a letter asking for help from a 15-year-old girl who had escaped from a brothel in China.

The girl is said to have told police she met the traffickers online, and had been raped before being sold in China as a sex worker.

The reports say the alleged traffickers admitted they had taken five children across the border, receiving hundreds of dollars for each.

Truckers Haul Sex Slaves on Midwest Highways

2007-07-26T00:53:00.000-07:00

from staff reports

http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000005061.cfm

Trafficking is not limited to other countries.

Trucks in Kansas and Missouri are carrying more than corn and wheat. Human-trafficking victim support groups say truckers that voyage north and south on Interstate 35 are hauling women and children trapped in the sex trade.

“Not only the Midwest but I think the country as a whole has an unrecognized problem concerning the trafficking of U.S. citizens into the commercial sex industry,” Lisa Thompson, liaison for the abolition of sexual trafficking for Salvation Army, told Family News in Focus.

The State Department estimates that 100,000 children in the U.S. are at risk of becoming trafficking victims.

“They are in every city,” said Linda Smith, founder of Shared Hope International and a former member of Congress. “They are being sold at truck stops, strip joints, massage parlors and often out of homes, marketed online or on the streets. But they are our little girls.”

Daniel Weiss, senior analyst of media and sexuality for Focus on the Family Action, said America needs to wake up to the pervasive problem.

“I think most people do not realize this is going on, they pay no attention to it, therefore many of them are probably missing the signs of people being trafficked right around them – right in their neighborhoods.”

Drive To Decriminalise Prostitution, July 11, 2007

2007-07-26T00:52:00.001-07:00

By Emma Birchley

Sky News Reporter
Updated: 09:11, Wednesday July 11, 2007

A new drive has been launched to decriminalise the sex trade by the English Collective Of Prostitutes.

A working girl in Ipswich

But would such a move be supported by the working girls of a town shaken by the murders of five prostitutes?

After seven months, the shadows of last winter's killings have still not lifted from Ipswich.

Fewer women are prepared to work the streets of the red light district, fearing for their safety.

Paige has no choice. She's an alcoholic, uses crack cocaine and has debts to repay.

"I owe quite a lot of money, so that's why I do what I'm doing now," she says.

But she says business has been tough since the zero-tolerance policy to kerb-crawling was introduced in the town in March.

At least 64 men have been arrested already.

The English Collective Of Prostitutes, which is calling for the sex trade to be decriminalised, says the move would help provide safe places for the women to see clients.

Maxine agrees. She worked alongside the murdered women, scored drugs with them and even shared squats.

Prostitution is dangerous work

"I think it would probably be better if they did legalise it. A lot of problems would be sorted. Girls would be safer and also the clients wouldn't have to worry," she explained.

Drug rehabilitation projects like ICENI have been helping ther women kick their habit and get off the streets.

But the scheme's director is concerned that decriminalising prostitution is too simplistic an approach.

"I do not believe you can eradicate it, " said Brian Tobin. "I think you need to manage it more efficiently."

ICENI is attempting to help Lou to come off heroin and crack.

Since her friends were killed she's reduced the time she spends working the streets.

It used to be every night, now she comes out three or four times a week.

But she believes that while legalisation might keep some girls safer, those who want to avoid the system would be at even greater risk.

"It could be more dangerous, it's going to send some girls further underground," she said.

The murders have made Maxine rethink her life. She rarely works as a prostitute these days, but many others remain trapped in a world of selling sex to fund a habit.

Phoenix police break up child prostitution operation, July 12

2007-07-26T00:49:00.001-07:00

http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=6780423
July 12, 2007

PHOENIX -- Phoenix police made two arrests in a monthslong investigation of a suspected child prostitution operation that involved at least three teenage girls, one of whom the main suspect branded, authorities said Thursday.

Vice detectives served a search warrant late Wednesday, Sgt. Joel Tranter said, a day after they arrested Shawn Lamar Bailey, 40, and Charmaine Lee, 22.

Bailey was booked on two counts of child prostitution, six other prostitution-related charges and a charge of conducting a criminal enterprise. He also faces one count of aggravated assault for allegedly branding one of the three teens he was actively prostituting, Tranter said.

Lee was booked on one count each of child prostitution, pandering and conducting a criminal enterprise.

The girls involved in the case range in age from 14 to 17, Tranter said. Two adult women were also being prostituted by Bailey, Tranter said.

19-Year-Old Charged With Using Craigslist to Recruit Teens for Prostitution, July 12, 2007

2007-07-26T00:48:00.001-07:00

Fox News

MINNEAPOLIS
A 19-year-old woman faces federal charges of recruiting minors for prostitution, after some teenage girls told investigators she was actively recruiting clients for a sex ring she allegedly operated out of a Burnsville motel where she worked.

Investigators believe Justine Alex Reisdorf of Eagan advertised in the "erotic services" section of the Web site Craigslist.org, and more recently on the "Live Links" telephone chat line, according to a statement by FBI agent Lisa Nielsen.

Eagan Police Detective Kurt Bratulich started the investigation in December after a girl who allegedly worked for Reisdorf confided in him.

Click here to watch the video report on myfoxtwincities.com.

"I work at one of the schools, so the victim felt pretty comfortable in talking to me about what was going on," Bratulich said Wednesday. "It kind of snowballed on the state level, and it turned into a federal investigation once we found that the Internet was used and that the victims were underage."

Bratulich said the FBI is still investigating and investigators and prosecutors met with the defense attorney Wednesday to discuss the case. He declined to say more.

Reisdorf's attorney, assistant federal defender Katherine Menendez, declined to comment.

Reisdorf, the mother of a 14-month-old girl, was charged June 14 in federal court with recruiting minors for a prostitution ring from November 2006 until June.

According to court documents and statements from Nielsen, Bratulich learned Reisdorf was recruiting high school girls to work for her as prostitutes at a town house she rented in Burnsville. He found advertisements on Craigslist that read: "Hi Fellas. it's the party girls ... 200 roses for 2 hours for one of us ... 375 roses for 2 hours for 3 of us ... Kandy, Deja and Carmen." He learned "Deja" was Reisdorf's alias and "roses" was code for dollars.

Authorities searched the Burnsville residence in December, but Reisdorf was in the process of moving and few items were left, records show.

Nielsen and Bratulich interviewed an underage girl in February who said Reisdorf had run a brothel in the Burnsville town house and advertised the services of adult and minor prostitutes on Craigslist.

Another underage female admitted working for Reisdorf, Nielsen said. The girl also said Reisdorf put ads on Craigslist that contained pictures showing parts of her body.

In April, investigators traced some erotic postings on Craigslist to "Deja A. McDone." They connected phone numbers in the ads to Reisdorf.

Last month, another juvenile told Bratulich that Reisdorf was "actively recruiting minor children to engage in acts of prostitution," Nielsen said. The investigation indicated Reisdorf used her job at a Burnsville motel "to obtain hotel rooms for purposes of prostitution," she said.

Nielsen also said Reisdorf no longer exclusively advertises on Craigslist but solicits prostitution on a telephone chat line known as "Live Links."

Midwest becomes a pipeline for human trafficking

2007-07-26T00:46:00.001-07:00

By Marty Denzer
Catholic Key Reporter
The Catholic Key

This poster, which appeared in Great Britain, is one of several efforts around the world aimed at raising awareness of sex trafficking. Many efforts, like this one, are aimed at the ultimate cause of trafficking - the consumer.

KANSAS CITY - It can't happen here. New York or Los Angeles, sure, but not here in Kansas City. It only happens someplace else, right?

"Human trafficking is more prevalent in this region than most people know," said Janel D'Agata Lynch, program manager for community services at Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

"Local people were shocked when the news broke about the massage parlor raids in Overland Park, Kan., and earlier this year, the central Missouri boy who was found, along with a second boy, in the St. Louis area.

"Human trafficking is not always 'some place else,'" D'Agata Lynch said.

A report released in June by the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, labeled the U.S. as "a source and destination" country for thousands of men, women and children trafficked annually for purposes of sexual, and to a lesser extent, labor exploitation.

Procurement and sales of human organs, illegal adoption of children under the age of 18, and mail-order brides constitute other forms of human trafficking.

Melissa Snow of Shared Hope International, a non-profit organization founded in 1998 serving sexually exploited women and children, told The Catholic Key that the Midwest has become a kind of pipeline for human trafficking. "The truck traffic on Interstate 35 may be carrying more than meets the eye," she said. "I-35 bisects the country from Laredo, Texas, to Duluth, Minn., with access to highways leading east and west. Truckers can load women and children into their cabs and transfer them to other trucks at truck stops along the way. They can park so close together that children can be moved without their feet even touching the ground - invisibly."

An unknown number of American citizens and legal residents are trafficked within the country, mostly for the commercial sex industry, including prostitution, sex entertainment and pornography. The State Department estimates that between 100,000 and 300,000 American children under the age of 18 are at risk of being trafficked within the U.S. for commercial sexual exploitation.

Kristy Childs, director of Veronica's Voice, a local organization she founded in 2001 to help prostituted women reclaim their lives, said she had been contacted by or worked with more than 5,000 women.

In his February 2007 pastoral letter on pornography, Kansas City St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn wrote that, ". pornography is a serious sin against chastity and the dignity of the human person. It robs us of sanctifying grace, separates us from the vision of God and from the goodness of others, and leaves us spiritually empty. Attraction to pornography and its gratifications is a false 'love' that leads to increasing emotional isolation loneliness and subsequent sexual acting-out with self and others. It depends on the exploitation of other persons: frequently the desperate or poor, or the innocent young. Use of pornography has cost persons their jobs, their marriages and families. Traffickers in child pornography may end up in prison. It has often been associated with and has contributed to, acts of sexual violence and abuse."

Snow said victims come from all ages (the average age of entry into the commercial sex or sex entertainment industries is 13), racial and socio-economic backgrounds. "People try to compartmentalize: 'Oh, they asked for it,' or 'That girl has always been a slut.' We have to re-educate people and change the language to place the blame where it belongs: on pimps and traffickers, not on the victims, especially the children," she said.

Kristy Childs said much the same thing.

"These women and girls are not prostitutes, they are prostituted," she said. A trafficking and prostitution survivor, Childs is familiar with many situations young girls and women unwittingly find themselves in.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Web site on human trafficking cites research done by Richard Estes and Neil Alan Weiner of the University of Pennsylvania, which indicates that 75 percent of sex trafficked children come from middle class backgrounds. Rural children are often more naive than inner city children, making them easier targets.

Traffickers include criminal networks, strangers, other youth, pedophiles and a transient male population, even family members and acquaintances.

Children are lured from inside their own homes through the Internet (one in five children have been approached online), in school, at movie theaters and arcades, bus and train stations, at the homes of friends or at dance clubs. Runaways are particularly vulnerable, often being approached or coerced within 48 hours of hitting the streets, Snow said.

According to Catholic Charities USA, vulnerable children can be exploited through their need for love and affection, their need to belong or fit in, low self-esteem, physical or psychological needs, or problems at home. Traffickers may promise affection, money or designer clothes. The child is often isolated and alienated from friends and family. Once a trafficker moves a child to a strange place, forcing her into prostitution is simple.

Catholic Charities USA described domestic minor trafficking victims, whether middle class or not, as usually coming from dysfunctional and unstable families, often with serious drug or alcohol problems. There may be a history of physical or sexual assault. Runaways may participate in "survival sex" to obtain money for subsistence, and when compounded by immaturity and poor sexual decision-making, a child's vulnerability to traffickers increases.

The Campus Coalition against Trafficking said that pimps can earn up to $632,000 per year by selling four young women or children.

There are many ways a trafficker can control and enslave a victim. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, control is achieved by confinement or physical restraint (both threatened and actual) and frequent moves from city to city, often across state lines. Victims may be isolated from other people, made to feel fear, shame or self-blame. Traffickers may use or threaten reprisals to the victim or her family. They may make false promises or give misinformation. Frequent beatings, slapping or rape create traumatic bondage. Victims may even form an emotional attachment to their captors due to repeated stress or a need to survive.

When trafficked children or adolescents are brought to the police, Catholic Charities USA said courts often discharge them right back to the pimp, to the family they ran away from, or to foster homes, from which they bolt as they are usually too damaged to adjust. It can be a vicious circle.

Childs offered several other reasons sex trafficking victims don't leave their pimps: they lack money and identification, they may distrust law enforcement or service agencies, and 95 percent or more are dealing with drug addiction issues. Most often control is gained through drug dependency.

Childs said, "These women and girls have been used over and over, trick after trick, day after day, year after year, arrest after arrest, high after high - until they become a bigger liability than an asset. . They become discarded cargo, dumped like trash in the streets, to survive the only way they know how. We need to let them know we are here to help before that happens."

"Each situation is vastly different," D'Agata Lynch said. "It's a complex issue. When someone is rescued, the justice department has to determine if the person is a victim, if coercion or physical threats have had a role in the situation. We are trying to educate and raise public awareness, and help the victims of trafficking. Once a victim is safe, if they request it, Catholic Charities can provide services within the scope of what we already offer: emergency assistance, counseling and case management. We have to learn more about identifying victims."

Ilene Shehan, chief operating officer of Hope House Battered Women's Shelter in Independence said, "People need to look under the surface, there may be something else going on."

D'Agata Lynch said, "Mail carriers have good instincts about what's happening on their routes. Perhaps a lot of coming and going at a particular house; that might be a big clue."

Shehan said people in northwest Missouri come face-to-face with victims every day, at dry cleaners or laundromats, fast food restaurants, factories and farms. "You never know, unless you look beneath the surface, if the young man or woman or the child you just saw is a forced labor or sex trafficking victim. We likewise don't want to think that a trafficker could be an acquaintance or a member of our community."

First and foremost, trafficking victims need safety and security. Catholic service organizations provide support services to both adults and children, including health and mental health services, employment services, English language training, housing assistance and other material assistance programs.

The federal government has continued to work toward eradicating human trafficking worldwide. This effort includes several federal agencies, including the Department of Justice and Health and Human Services. In 2006 approximately $28 million were appropriated for domestic programs to boost anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts, identify and protect victims, and raise awareness of trafficking.

The FBI and the Department of Justice Criminal Division work to combat child sexual exploitation through the "Innocence Lost" initiative which resulted this past year in 43 convictions.

Two presidents have signed into law Trafficking Victims Protection acts in 2000, 2003 and again in 2006. Twenty seven states have passed criminal anti-trafficking legislation. The departments of Justice and Health and Human Services have increased the number of anti-trafficking task forces, which partners state, local and federal law enforcement agencies with non-governmental organizations, to 42. In metropolitan Kansas City, the Coalition Against Human Trafficking, Catholic Charities, Veronica's Voice, Hope House, Rose Brooks and Synergy House in Missouri and Joyce Williams/Safe Home in Wyandotte County, in Kansas, plan through a federal grant to train doctors and nurses to identify domestic abuse and trafficking victims.

Under a Department of Justice grant, Shared Hope International is aligning with 10 newly funded Human Trafficking task forces across the country, including Independence, to better identify domestic victims of trafficking and provide them with needed resources. In October, a nine-week assessment of the Kansas City-Independence area will be launched, with a loaned employee of Veronica's Voice serving as an evaluator.

In May, the U.S. Justice Department announced that the Independence police department and Hope House were awarded 3-year grants of $450,000 each as part of the national Human Trafficking Rescue Project initiative to combat human trafficking. Hope House plans to use the grant to provide rescue and investigative services to victims, as well as certification of trafficking, Shehan said. Certification allows survivors to access all available services, programs and benefits, including medical treatment, food and rest, funds and resources.

"The grant and the rescue initiative together underscore the fact that domestic violence and human trafficking are not just legal issues or battered women's shelter issues, they are community and country issues," she said.

Jerry Young of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocesan Human Rights Office said his staff has collaborated with city and state offices to raise awareness of human trafficking both here and elsewhere in the world. "We are helping to educate people and looking to make the burden of proof of trafficking less difficult for both victims and law enforcement. People have a right to freedom," Young said. "Freedom from exploitation and freedom of human dignity."

More information on Veronica's Voice can be found on their Web site: www.veronicasvoice.org

Russia, Lawmaker targets human trafficking, July 7, 2007

2007-07-26T00:44:00.000-07:00

BY DEBRA FRIEDMAN
TIMES OF TRENTON

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith has gone to Moscow to address his concerns over human trafficking in Russia.

Smith (R-4th Dist.) is the author of America's first anti-trafficking law, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protect Act.

"Russia has made progress toward stopping the flow of trafficked persons -- mostly women and children -- in and out of their country by criminalizing human trafficking," Smith said in a statement is sued by his office. "But more work remains to be done and the greatest gap in their approach remains their ability to protect traffic victims."

Smith is in Moscow to encourage the Russian legislature to bolster their existing laws. Smith has visited the Angel Coalition Trafficking Victim Assistance Center in addition to offering guidance to Russian lawmakers on how to more effectively enhance their anti-trafficking legislation.

The assistance center coordinates Russian and international rescue and repatriation efforts for trafficking victims, according to Smith's office.

"Victims assistance programs and shelters provide essential support, rehabilitation and recovery services for victims of trafficking," Smith said in the release. "They are a vital part of any comprehensive plan to end human trafficking and it is imperative that the U.S. and other nations continue to support their efforts."

According to Smith, Russia is a source, conduit and destination for men, women and children trafficked for various purposes. In the case of women and children, they are almost always used for sexual exploitation in nations in the Middle East, Western Europe, Canada, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, he said.

Uzbek Mamasans Accused of Running Sex Trafficking Ring In Pattaya, July 11, 2007

2007-07-26T00:42:00.002-07:00

Uzbek
Updated: [July 11, 2007 ] :: 16:34:59 [view 121]

Pattaya Daily News
http://www.pattayadailynews.com/shownews.php?IDNEWS=0000003384

The worldwide sex trafficking trade has inevitably come to Thailand and is being practiced by some of the foreign sex workers who ply their trade on the streets of Pattaya. The Thai Authorities are keen to suppress this abhorrent trade and when the Child, Youth and Female Crime Suppression Authority learnt of a Uzbeki sex trafficking ring operating in Pattaya, they obtained the necessary arrest warrants and swooped on the offenders on July 10th.

The ringleaders, identified as Miss Lola Mamadova (26) and Mrs. Mayram Yakubova, were operating as mamasans from Niran Condominium and were caught red-handed at 11.30 am by a police team led by Pol.Lt.Col. Kittiphob Anuwongworawet of the Child, Youth and Female Crime Suppression Authority, supported by Pol.Capt. Rojsak Naiphongsri. Both women were charged with providing illegal sexual services and abusing fellow female compatriots by forcing them to sell sex, mostly against their wills.

When the police conducted a more extensive search of two adjacent rooms in the condominium, they also discovered four other Uzbek women, the Misses Nigora Hasanova (19), Zuhra Yusupova (28), Mukadam Olimova (36) and Zarina Melieva (30), who they suspected of being sexual co-workers. The police also found incriminating books full of records and lists of sex customers. The police impounded them as evidence and arrested the whole gang, who will undergo further investigation.

The police first learnt of the presence of the Uzbek sex trafficking ring from two informants, a Samaritan and a Uzbek girl, Miss Mohichehra Shodiyarova (20), on July 5th. These two reported to Pol.Maj.Gen. Wimol Pao-In, a superintendent of the Child, Youth and Female Crime Suppression Authority, that two Uzbek mamasans, Miss Lola and Mrs. Mayram, were running the sex-ring from Niran Grand Condo, and that they abused the women in their control and forced them to sell sex to foreigners in Pattaya. Miss Mohichehra also asked the police to help the other Uzbek girls who are in the same boat as herself.

Miss Mohichehra declared that she had been persuaded by the procurers, Miss Lola and Mrs. Mayram, to come to Pattaya to sell sexual services and that she, and others in similar circumstances, had been advanced the travelling fare of 200,000 Baht. When she arrived, Miss Mohichehra was taken to stay at Niran Grand Condo, Central Pattaya, and her passport was kept by the mamasans to prevent her from escaping. She was forced to sell sexual services in the vicinity of the V.C. Hotel, South Pattaya, charging 1,500 Baht per customer, of which she only received 500 Baht, the remaining 1,000 Baht being kept by the mamasans as part repayment of the airfare advance. In the event that she was unable to get any customers, she would be severely beaten and abused. It all became more than she could bear, so she endeavored to escape the mamasans’ clutches and did so, also enlisting the aid of a Samaritan to report the matter to the police.

Pol.Lt.Col. Kittiphob said that there were many Uzbek women who were caught in the trap of poverty; many of whom were being exploited by the likes of the two mamasans or agencies.

In such cases, the unfortunate victims were usually fed stories to the effect that they could escape the poverty trap at home by working in such venues as Pattaya, Dubai and Bahrain, where the pickings are high. Many of them enter these venues on tourist visas, being passed off as holidaymakers. However, when they arrive, these poor unfortunates learn to their cost that they have often been brought to such places under false pretences and they are effectively imprisoned until they have repaid their airfare loans, usually by enforced prostitution, despite often having been told they would be employed in the hospitality trade.

Polaris Project Job Openings

2007-07-26T00:42:00.001-07:00

Hi Grassroots Members!

Polaris Project is growing rapidly and is looking to hire many new staff. We are currently searching for:

- Director of Case Management (NEW POSITION)
- Outreach and Services Coordinator
- Operations and Human Resources Coordinator
- Outreach Worker
- Shelter Aide
- Administrative Assistant

Please help us in this search by forwarding the information to interested friends or by applying yourself!

For more information on each of these positions, please visit our website at www.PolarisProject.org.

Thank you for your help,

Sandra Kim

Thailand's child trafficking industry, July 7, 2007

2007-07-26T00:40:00.000-07:00

By Thembi Mutch
BBC News, Thailand

A report from the US state department has criticised Thailand for not doing enough to combat the illegal trafficking of women and children from Burma, Cambodia, Laos and China. Thembi Mutch meets women and children who have been caught up in Thailand's trafficking business.

Many bar girls are sending money to their families back home

"I came with my aunt from the countryside to work in the seaside resort of Pattaya," Keng says. She pauses.

"I worked as a waiter in a bar near here. At first I didn't realise it was even possible for men to have sex with men, or boys, and at that time I still looked like a boy. I was only 16 and my family had various problems, so I was just working everything out."

Keng is 22, very slim, and now an incredibly beautiful woman.

The operation to change from a man to a woman took place last year. It cost her several thousand dollars, which she earned as a prostitute on the streets.

There is nothing about her that suggests she was ever male - her voice is soft and she is dainty and feminine. I find myself really liking her quiet dignity and gentle manner.

"I do other work," she says. "I go to Bangkok, to the Grand Plaza or to the station, and collect boys between the ages of 11 and 13. I bring them back here to the bar. I usually try and get 10 boys or so, but if there have been police raids in Bangkok it can be harder to find boys.

"When I approach them I have to be very careful. For the first few days they obey me - some of them haven't eaten properly for weeks - but we still lock them in the attic at the bar, partly so they won't escape, partly so that the police or rescue agencies can't find them."

Child trafficking

Keng is a trafficker - a trafficker of children, into prostitution, mostly for Western men.

She tells me how she hires a van and goes to the countryside if she cannot find children in the city.

Keng herself was trafficked, says my researcher, and she is just as much of a victim, he argues, as the children she traffics. She has no other job options open to her, and she is shunned publicly in shops, restaurants and bars outside the red light district where she works.

Keng points to a child sitting on the road across from us: "That one," she says, "is from Cambodia. He was living on the street in Bangkok."

Later we interview this boy, Suni, who is jittery and incredibly nervous, and constantly smokes. He says he is 10.

He describes having sex with various men in a detached and disturbing way. He is more animated talking about the money he earns to play computer games or buy speed to get him through the night.

"You know," Keng says, "he has got a much better life with me than he ever had at home or on the street."

Groomed for sex

Prey Vang Province is one of the poorest regions in Cambodia. It is easy to cross from there into Thailand so each year thousands of children are trafficked across the border, often by parents.

In Buddhist cultures the debt owed to parents by children is deeply imbued into families, especially in the countryside where the idea of destiny is wholeheartedly embraced

One mother there told me how, two years ago, she had travelled to Pnomh Penh with three of her children to beg on the streets. She is illiterate, owns no land and this was a last, desperate bid to survive.

On the second day in the city, her nine-year-old girl disappeared. She is convinced her daughter was kidnapped for sex work.

Three other mothers she knows in the village tell a similar story.

In another village, a group of girls aged between seven and 13 tell me their experiences. They are articulate and open.

Four of them had been kidnapped and groomed for sex work for a month. They had travelled to the city with their families to beg, but once there, had been coaxed by the offer of a meal into a house in a suburb. Then they were locked away and made to watch pornography. Two girls escaped, and the other two were rescued.

Buddhist culture

In Buddhist cultures the debt owed to parents by children is deeply imbued into families, especially in the countryside where the idea of destiny is wholeheartedly embraced.

But poverty and a desire not to confront difficult issues - especially those around sexuality, rape and prostitution - means that many issues just get swept under the carpet.

Sometimes it is just greed that makes parents turn a blind eye to what they are letting their own children in for. But mostly, say the experts, it is ignorance and a lack of opportunities.

Those who have already been trafficked know the dangers. I asked the girls in the village what their advice to other children might be to avoid being preyed on by traffickers.

The youngest replies: "It's really difficult if your mum asks you to get money to feed the family, you want to help. But it's best to go to school, and not to beg."

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday 7 July 2007 at 1130 BST on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.