May 2012
3 posts
Olympic Games should not be a magnet for sex...
theproblemwithperception:
Prime Minister David Cameron must do more to stop next year’s Olympic Games becoming a magnet for criminal gangs to force women and girls into the sex trade, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said today.
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April 2012
11 posts
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Interview with Gloria Steinem [India]
Gloria Steinem, the 78-year-old feminist pioneer, was on a six-day Learning Tour in Delhi, Bengal and Bihar earlier this month, inspired by Apne Aap Women Worldwide, a grassroots movement to end sex trafficking. In a freewheeling chat during her stay, Steinem opened up to Ruchira Gupta, founder president of Apne Aap, on her latest tryst with trafficking victims in Calcutta, Obama’s re-election,...
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U.S. Congress puts global microscope on Google...
WASHINGTON, D.C., United States: In an effort to stop a rising tide with the use of online networks for human trafficking, two U.S. Representatives of Congress, Republican Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, along with Democrat Carolyn Maloney of New York, have sent a bipartisan letter to the largest online search engine in the world – Google, Inc. Questioning current practices and policies at Google,...
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Human Trafficking and the London Olympics
The United Nations (UN.GIFT) and STOP THE TRAFFIK have created a new joint project called ‘GIFT box’ which will take place during the 2012 Olympics to inspire visitors, both from the UK and abroad, to take action to stop the trade.
The GIFT box is a giant public art installation, which will demonstrate to people how victims of human trafficking can be deceived; beyond the promises of exciting...
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Human trafficking victim takes her message to the...
OLYMPIA, Wash. —An Olympia woman is sharing her harrowing story of human trafficking at the United Nations this week, and she’s using Washington state as an example of what government should be doing to end the scourge.
Rani Hong was just 7-years-old when she was taken from her mother in India and traded on the open child slave market.
She survived, and she’s now sharing her...
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#ENDSLAVERY – JOIN WORLD VISION, IJM, POLARIS...
Six months have passed since Congress allowed Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) to expire, jeopardizing the centerpiece of U.S. policy to combat human trafficking. To help move this critical legislation forward, World Vision, International Justice Mission (IJM), the Polaris Project, and Safe Horizons are joining together to urge Congress to renew the TVPRA and help end...
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Domestic workers: Now that there’s a law to...
An angry crowd, outraged by the abuses said to be perpetrated on a loving nanny by her employers, was expected to rally on Thursday to send them an unmistakable message: Never again.
Dozens of domestic workers and supporters, among them Occupy Wall Street activists, would gathe to protest the mistreatment that Patricia Francois, 53, an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago who lives in Flatbush, said...
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Lebanon: UN expert on slavery urges authorities to...
GENEVA (3 April 2012) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Gulnara Shahinian, urged the Government of Lebanon to carry out a full investigation into the death of Alem Dechasa, a 33-year-old Ethiopian migrant domestic worker who committed suicide on Wednesday 14 March 2012, a few days after she was seen been beaten by men and dragged into a car in the Lebanese...
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Domestic workers get repatriation aid
Labour chiefs from Bahrain and across the region have agreed to fast-track repatriation of migrant workers, particularly women, at times of security crisis at a major forum in Manila, the Philippines.
They also agreed to assign government teams to closely monitor the recruitment of labourers.
It comes as 19 Asian and Middle Eastern countries are taking part in the Abu Dhabi Dialogue-II (ADD-II),...
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8 accused of human trafficking in India
NEW DELHI, April 10 (UPI) — Police in India said they have arrested eight members of a gang accused of human trafficking who allegedly sold girls for $1,300 each or less.
Superintendent of Police Lalit Shakyawar said the six men and two women were arrested in Madhya Pradesh, a state in central India, and the girls — two of them age 11, the other two, also minors — were rescued,...
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Man 'tortured during work slavery' [London]
A destitute man was plucked from the north-west London streets by a traveller family, forced to work as a “slave” and “mentally tortured”, a court heard.
The man was living in a hotel early last year when he was stopped by two travellers outside a Greggs bakery in Wembley and offered an £80-a-day job, he said.
He agreed as it sounded like “good money” but was...
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Provisions for human trafficking victims lacking...
YOU may remember news broke out last month of 42 women from Vietnam who were stranded in a house in Pulau Tikus, Penang after their visas expired. The women who were brought to Malaysia by an agent for employment found themselves instead shut in the house without their passports, while reportedly surviving mostly on rice that they were given.
When their plight was made known and they were...
March 2012
38 posts
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Who killed Baby Falak?
A child died and we collectively mourn. She was just two years old. And she fought bravely, but the tubes and wires connecting her to life support in the AIIMS Trauma Centre were no match for the systemic failures that carried this baby to her death. For the truth is that Falak never really stood a chance.
What we know of Falak’s life are odd fragments from media reports. A 15-year-old girl...
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Child sex trafficking case police arrest 13 in...
Thirteen men have been arrested in Oxford by police investigating child exploitation offences.
Police said the men, aged between 21 and 37, were arrested following an investigation into exploitation of 24 girls aged between 11 and 16.
They have been arrested on suspicion of prostitution of females under the age of 18, trafficking, grooming and rape.
Four of the men have been released on police...
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Estonia makes human trafficking illegal
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Estonia’s Parliament passed legislation on Wednesday banning human trafficking and making the Baltic nation the last EU country to enact such laws.
The lawmakers voted 91-0 in favor, with 10 members absent. President Toomas Hendrik Ilves is expected to make the bill law by approving it in the coming weeks.
Estonia had been under pressure from the United States to...
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Student busts human trafficking racket in...
Courage and presence of mind of Durga (name changed for security reasons) a class XI student from Darjeeling helped bust a human trafficking racket and also saved the victim from being trafficked. V V Thambi, DG (CID) has announced a cash award of Rs. 5000/- for the student. The NGO that Durga approached to help in this case has also decided to hand over a cash award to this brave girl. Three men...
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Sex Trafficking Rampant in Mexico, Lawmaker Says
At least 47 sex-trafficking rings are operating in Mexico and the number of victims is more than 800,000 a year, including 20,000 children, Congresswoman Rosi Orozco said.
She cited data from the National Shelter Network in comments following Congress’ receipt of a report on sex trafficking from the Attorney General’s Office.
The AG’s office produced the document in response to...
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More steps required to counter human trafficking:...
ISLAMABAD: Human trafficking is a very serious social issue and has brought Pakistan in the limelight, but there is not much focus in the media on this critical issue, media experts concurred during a consultation held on Thursday.
The consultation was a critical part of a project of International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and was arranged and conducted by PINFO, an info-knowledge and...
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The Fight Against Modern Slavery
President Obama, in convening the annual meeting of his cabinet-level task force on human trafficking last week, noted the work the administration has done in law enforcement, aid to victims and diplomatic pressure to help the millions around the world who toil “under the boot of modern slavery.”
But a crucial element is missing in this important campaign. Congress has yet to reauthorize the...
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Fighting sex trafficking in hotels, one room at a...
(CNN) — Kimberly Ritter could not believe what she was seeing. Girls wearing almost nothing at all, suggesting all sorts of sexual acts, listed on page after page of Backpage.com’s escorts section. When she looked closer at the photos, she noticed something eerie. She could recognize the rooms.
Ritter is a meeting planner at Nix Conference and Meeting Management of St. Louis. She...
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UK detention of torture victims 'inhumane'
UN refugee chief says fast-track deportation system can see rape and trafficking victims detained as soon as they claim asylum
The detention of victims of torture and trafficking by the UK Border Agency pending their “fast-track” deportation from Britain has been strongly criticised by the UN.
The United Nations high commissioner for refugees said inadequate screening processes...
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Malaysia Gets Maid Moratorium Ultimatum Over...
The Indonesian government has threatened to reinstate a moratorium on sending maids to Malaysia if the country does not honor the terms of an agreement on protecting migrant workers. Humphrey Djemat, a spokesman for the government task force on migrant worker protection, said on Tuesday that there could be no backsliding on the 11 points in the memorandum of understanding. “This time around...
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Joao Ribeiro, Brazil Senator, To Be Tried On Slave...
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s Supreme Court says it will try a senator on slave labor charges.
The Supreme Court says on its website that it will rule on the charges filed by the federal attorney general against Senator Joao Ribeiro, who allegedly kept more than 30 workers under slave-like conditions on his ranch in the Amazon jungle state of Para.
As a senator, Ribeiro can only be...
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Six arrested in Vietnam for sex trafficking ring
Hanoi, March 20, 2012 (AFP) - Police in Vietnam have arrested six people for allegedly running a human trafficking ring smuggling young women to China to work in brothels, state media said Tuesday.
The Vietnamese suspects, led by a 22-year-old former trafficking victim, smuggled some 21 young women to China to work in the sex industry over the past three years, the communist party mouthpiece Nhan...
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Ethiopia seeks full investigation into suicide of...
Housemaid Alem Dechasa killed herself after street attack that sparked outrage over treatment of migrant workers in Lebanon
Ethiopia is lobbying Lebanon to investigate fully the death of an Ethiopian housemaid who killed herself after being beaten on the street in Beirut.
Video footage of Alem Dechasa being attacked outside the Ethiopian consulate in Beirut was broadcast on Lebanese television...
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Ethiopia/Lebanon: Online Outrage Over Death of...
Alem Dechasa, the Ethiopian domestic worker in Lebanon whose abuse video sparked anger amongst Ethiopians, “preferred” to commit suicide by hanging herself using her bed sheets last Wednesday 14 March, 2012.
The graphic nature of the video together with the tragic end of the plot left Ethiopians netizens outraged. Ethiopians have been using Facebook and online petition sites to mourn her death...
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ManpowerGroup and Verité Release Ethical Framework...
ManpowerGroup and Verité’s Ethical Framework for Cross-Border Labor Recruitment offers a checklist of specific “Standards of Ethical Practice” for firms involved in cross-border recruitment of workers, which are designed to protect those workers against specific patterns of vulnerability and abuse. These standards are to be backed up by a verification system that certifies business compliance and...
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Myanmar Ethnic Groups Resist Forced Labour
BANGKOK, Mar 16, 2012 (IPS) - In a move expected to deepen political reform, the quasi-civilian government in Myanmar (also known as Burma) is permitting the distribution of leaflets that will help thousands of people in the country’s ethnic enclaves learn to resist forced labour. The leaflets offer residents in the ethnic minority areas a chance to raise the alarm with the International Labour...
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Obama: U.S. will work to end slavery worldwide
President Obama is asking his team to look for more ways to battle slavery and human trafficking across the world.
“Mothers and fathers are forced to work in fields and factories against their will or in service to debts that can never be repaid,” Obama said in a written statement. “Sons and daughters are sold for sex, abducted as child soldiers, or coerced into involuntary...
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MEPs call for end to child labour in cocoa trade
Europeans are among the world’s biggest consumers and producers of chocolates, but members of the European Parliament want to stronger measures to ensure that a key ingredient in candy and confections wasn’t harvested with child labour.
MEPs yesterday (14 March) approved a resolution calling on the European Commission to get tougher in negotiating trade agreements to protect young...
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Sex traffickers prove harder to catch as they move...
The sex industry has evolved in the past two decades, moving from the streets to computer screens, and authorities in Austin and across the state say their efforts to enforce the law and find and protect victims are hampered by the shift.
Detectives said they have made strides to fight what they describe as a modern-day form of slavery by enhancing their collaboration across jurisdictions and...
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Domestic helps seek welfare board
The Andhra Pradesh State Domestic Workers’ Union on Tuesday demanded constitution of an unorganised workers welfare board in the State under the Social Security Act-2008, for welfare of domestic workers and protection of their rights.
Wielding placards and household utensils symbolic of their profession, members of the union held a demonstration near the Indira Park and placed a few demands...
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Thailand Human Trafficking Problems Continue to...
Thai authorities are bracing themselves for a possible downgrade on the U.S. State Department’s watch list of countries with the worst records in combating human trafficking. Thailand was initially classified as a Tier Two country on the Trafficking in Persons list in 2010 for not complying with minimum standards required to address the trafficking of people. If a country shows no sign of...
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San Francisco Airport Human Trafficking...
A new program at San Francisco International Airport will be the first in the nation to train airport personnel to identify and stop human trafficking on commercial airlines.
Congresswoman Jackie Speier and David Palmatier of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched the landmark program with a training and introductory event at SFO on Monday.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that...
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Nepalese Minors In Indian Brothels – OpEd
Sex slavery is a sadistic and extreme form of human crime. Every year, thousands of Nepalese girls are trafficked into Indian brothels to feed the booming demand of the Indian sex industry. There are thousands more, who have already been covertly living in various brothels of India.
The majority of the trafficked girls are lured by pimps and traffickers. The reality is heart-rending, as the huge...
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Abuses ‘could accompany’ Burma reforms: UN
Serious human rights concerns in Burma remain to be addressed, including legislative and judicial weaknesses, further prisoner releases and security for minority communities, the UN’s leading human rights expert on the country has warned.
Tomas Ojea Quintana yesterday raised concerns about inequitable development priorities and ongoing ethnic strife in Kachin state, as well as systemic political...
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Cops crack whip on child trafficking
ALLAHABAD: Twelve-year-old Rajat (name changed) worked round the clock at a dhaba. The child neither got proper sleep nor was given enough food. Rajat, however, was lucky as his plight came in the notice of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU). The unit rescued the minor and took legal action against his captors.
With the setting up of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU), the police have...
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Police rescue 24,000 women, children from Chinese...
A year after the Chinese government started targeting human trafficking, the country’s security ministry reported that in the last year police had rescued 24,000 women and children who had been abducted, the Irish Times reported.
Some women had been sent as far as Angola, in Africa, to be prostituted, the BBC reported. One third of those rescued were children; the rest were women. Most were found...
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Protecting domestic workers
Four years ago this month, I visited the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh while investigating mistreatment of migrant domestic workers in Saudi Arabia. It was a sobering way to spend March 8, International Women’s Day. I remember the embassy officials’ frustration both at the abuses these workers suffered and their struggles to get redress.
My interviews in the preceding months produced a grim...
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Vietnam jails 29 for sex trafficking ring
HANOI - A Vietnamese court has jailed 29 people linked to a human trafficking ring that sent teenage sex slaves to China, a court official said Thursday after a week-long trial in Hanoi.
Gang ringleader Vu Van Cong, 28, was sentenced to 26 years in prison by the Hanoi People’s Court in a verdict delivered on Wednesday, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The 28 others were...
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Exploitation continues at garment hub
In the garment export town of Tirupur, bonded and forced labour exists on an extensive scale; girl children younger than 14 continue to work and women workers still face physical and sexual abuse, says a sneak preview of a report to be released next month by international NGOs on exploited Dalit girls in the garment industry.
After publishing a report in May 2011 ‘Captured by cotton – exploited...
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Human Trafficking Lawsuit: Was Bride a Slave or...
One fact is undisputed in a modern-day story that included arranged marriage and charges of human trafficking: Diptiben Mistry and Himansu Udwadia were wed on Feb. 3, 2007, in Gandevi, India, and then moved to the United States the same year. In a lawsuit filed Jan. 10 filed Jan. 10 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, Mistry alleges her marriage was fraudulent and that her...
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Numsa: labour broking is slavery
Labour broking amounts to human trafficking, National Union of Metal Workers of SA (Numsa) general secretary Irvin Jim said on Tuesday. “Numsa is firm that labour broking, like all forms of slavery, cannot be regulated. It must be banned,” Jim told reporters in Johannesburg. Numsa would join Cosatu’s protest on Wednesday against labour brokers and e-tolling.
“If we are to defeat labour...
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Sex 'trade', not 'traffic'
Thailand’s sex workers are off the streets, in safe workplaces. They don’t want to be ‘rescued’
Being a sex worker these days isn’t what it used to be, at least for those whose rights are backed up by the Empower Foundation. Much has improved - no more pimps or mamasans, and fewer punches thrown their way. Being “rescued”, though, causes them all sorts of...
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School dropouts ensnared into bonded labour
Adolescents from poor families of villages in and around Usilampatti and other parts of rural Madurai, are caught in a new form of ‘slavery,’ and a good number of them have unknowingly become bonded labourers in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, Odisha, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh working in ‘murukku’-making units.
This is a new phenomenon that has emerged in the last two decades when...
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Maids to get weekly rest days [Singapore]
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) introduced today a mandatory rest day for foreign domestic workers.
Under this new requirement - which will apply to foreign domestic workers whose work permits are issued or renewed from Jan 1, 2013 - employers and their worker can mutually agree on which day of the week the rest day falls.
If the employer would like the worker to work on her rest day, he should...
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Make Burma end forced labour before dropping...
(Commentary) – The International Trade Union Confederation (TUC) is calling on the UK government to ensure that no significant EU sanctions against Burma are lifted until forced labour and other serious human rights abuses have been addressed.
While there have been many positive changes recently in Burma, significant human rights abuses remain, including widespread forced labour. The TUC, along...
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Helping Women a Bag at a Time
About a year ago, Gretchen Beidl’s niece Julie took a trip to Cambodia to volunteer with victims of human trafficking. It was then Ms. Beidl and her husband Michael Willner decided to help the Nomi Network, a New York nonprofit that aims to end human trafficking through enterprise and education. “We were horrified to learn how widespread human trafficking really is,” says Mr....
