Thursday, October 28, 2010

MP targets human trafficking

Winnipeg Tory Smith pressing for action

By: Mia Rabson

Posted: 28/10/2010 1:00 AM

OTTAWA -- Manitoba Conservative MP Joy Smith is applying pressure to get her government and the provinces to adopt a national strategy to combat human trafficking.
Smith said Canadians have ignored human trafficking for too long.
"Canadians have always thought this happens in another country," she said. "They are wrong. Our country needs a national action plan and we need it now."
She said it's time for governments to develop a common plan that includes more investigations and prosecutions, better victims' services, increased awareness campaigns and an attack on the demand for prostitution by criminalizing the purchase of sexual services.
Those are the elements of Connecting the Dots, a plan Smith unveiled last month. It was developed with the guidance of B.C. law professor Benjamin Perrin, a human trafficking expert who recently wrote a book on the issue in Canada.
On Wednesday, the plan received the backing of more than 20 national and local agencies, including the Canadian Police Association, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and Beyond Borders.
Perrin said human trafficking -- the recruitment and transportation of people for the purpose of exploitation -- is "all about the money."
He said a Canadian woman or girl is worth $280,000 on the "flesh market" to traffickers, who are often organized crime operators who can make big money.
"Traffickers have a plan, but Canada does not," Perrin said. "Canada is one of the best countries in the world to be a human trafficker."
Since human trafficking was added to the Criminal Code in 2006, only five people have been convicted, but the number of investigations and people charged is rising.
There are 40 human trafficking cases before the courts in Canada, according to RCMP statistics. Five of those cases arose in October, with arrests in Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener and Milton, Ont., and Burnaby, B.C.
The first charge of human trafficking ever laid in Manitoba came last month when a 38-year-old woman was arrested after allegedly forcing a 21-year-old into prostitution after befriending her.
The advocates said there's an urgent need for better co-ordination of victims' services.
Perrin said the two biggest provinces, Ontario and Quebec, don't have co-ordinated victims' services. He cited the example of an 11-year-old girl who was imprisoned in an immigration cell in Montreal for a month after escaping her traffickers.
Perrin planned to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to sell the plan Wednesday.
Smith said adopting the plan will be a decision of cabinet, but also needs the buy-in of provincial governments if it is going to work.
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 28, 2010 A6

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/mp-targets-human-trafficking-105988823.html

THE BALTIC TIMES

Latvian women freed in police raid

Oct 27, 2010
TBT Staff

The women were being held against their will in a flat in Dublin as part of a human trafficking scam. (photo: Crispin Purdye)

DUBLIN - Two Latvian women who were being held captive in the Irish capital of Dublin have been freed following a joint operation involving police from the two countries.
The two women, aged 19 and 25 years, had been locked in an apartment in Dublin's Palmerstown district. Using SMS messages from hidden mobile phones the women alerted friends in Latvia to their situation. Police in Latvia then contacted their Irish counterparts.
The chief suspect, a 23 year-old from India, was arrested at the flat as well as a 32-year-old Pakistani man.
The operation comes amid increased scrutiny over human trafficking. Hundreds of women have been brought from Latvia to the UK to participate in sham marriages to foreign men who are looking for easy acess to the EU.
The women were allegedly lured into the country with promises of work. When they found out about the sham marriage and refused to go along with the plan they were locked in a bedroom in the flat.
Ireland's Garda National Immigration Bureau will meet their Latvian counterparts early next month in an effort to step up cooperation on fighting the practice

Palestine News Network

More Than 10,000 Women Trafficked in Israel in Last Decade

28.10.10 - 13:47

PNN – Israeli women’s rights lawyer Ori Kadar said in the past ten years more than 10,000 women have been brought to Israel as part of “new slave trade.”

Kadar began campaigning to call attention to the phenomenon after he was shocked to see a stall inside a crowded market in Tel Aviv filled not with expensive clothes or movies, but with women for sale. He couldn’t believe the sight of young women standing like any other product, each carrying information about their age, height, weight, and “country of origin.”
Kadar said he was investigating the trade and pressuring the Israeli Ministry of Justice to implement criminal sanctions against the men who obtain the services in question.
“This legislation is an important step in the fight against women trafficking,” he said. “Legislation against customers will reduce the demand for prostitution and thus reduce profits for the criminal organization. This will limit the trafficking.”
He noted that the legislation was being drafted along the lines of the Swedish model, which accomplished the same ends of reducing demand. Kadar said that trafficked women faced assault, rape, forced starvation, and between 15 and 30 sex acts a day, every day of the year.
According to a human-trafficking report issued by the U.S. State Department, Israel is still a major smuggling destination in the sex and forced labor trades. Some criminal organizations still smuggle women from countries of the former Soviet Union and China to Israel through its Egyptian border.
A report prepared by the Parliamentary Investigative Committee chief and Knesset Minister Zahafa Ja’alun said that the size of the trafficking in Israel exceeded nearly a billion shekels (about $235 million) in one year. In past years, between 3000 and 5000 women have been smuggled into Israel for sex work, each sold for between $1000 and $10,000.
The report found there were more than 10,000 female sex workers working in about 400 brothels in all corners of Israel. Most were sold for between $8,000 and $10,000, worked seven days a week and 14 to 18 hours a day, and were paid 120 shekels ($35) for an hour with each customer—of which $7 went to the “trader.”
The trade flourished in Israel for many years, especially after the break-up of the Soviet Union and the emigration of many former Soviet subjects to Israel. Leaving hardship, many Russian women believed they could find solutions in Israeli society. The trade turned global with different partners and divided profits, and Israel became a “second-class” state to the U.S. State Department. The UN called it a “major point in the [sex] trade.”
The global slave trade makes about $9 billion a year, with wealthy nations seeing a rise in “imported” women. But the phenomenon is not limited to women. Male migrant workers, often from China, Romania, Turkey, Thailand, the Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and India, come legally to Israel for work in construction, agriculture, or health services. But they are often forced into work after their passports are stolen—they are kept in one place, denied payment, threatened, and beaten. These workers can be sold as slaves for between $1000 and $10,000.
In related news, the Israeli women’s group Midot held a press conference in which it was revealed that more than 200,000 Israeli women had been sexually assaulted, with only a quarter of them reported the assaults to the police. The group explained that 9,000 of these assaults happened in the past year, with only a fifth of the survivors going to the police.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Examiner.com'National

Youngbee Kim

Human Rights Examiner

View all of Youngbee's articles

Global human trafficking roundup (October 13, 2010)

October 13th, 2010 10:38 am ET

NORTH AMERICA
Oregon: A retired army colonel speaks about his experience with his daughter trafficked to Singapore. His daughter was trafficked as a sex slave and murdered by the traffickers. But, he says that many young girls are rescued because of the recent legislative efforts.
California: Fresno police set up a tip line for human trafficking cases. It was created by the police department's Coalition against Human Trafficking. Information regarding human trafficking can be reported at (559) 621-5955.
EUROPE
UK: Police rescued 28 Roma children after conducting joint raid with Romanian government in London. Police said that the children were abused by the gangs and sometimes by their own parents who paid the criminals to bring their children to London to make money. Police also stated that 26 individuals were arrested in Romania in relation to the same case.
ASIA
Malaysia: Police arrested seven immigration officers and two foreigners for allegedly running a human trafficking ring. According to the report, arrest was made after Malaysia launched anti-corruption campaign against public servants. But, the report does not state any details on the case.
Cambodia: Three individuals from the U.S., France, and Japan were convicted of child sex crime in three separate cases. Each individual was sentenced to three years, 17 years, and 7 years in jail for molesting children. The Cambodian authorities believe that the convictions will send strong messages to child molester and sex tourists traveling to Cambodia.
AFRICA
Kenya: IOM representative says that many women children and men are trafficked in East Africa. According to the representative, many women and children are trafficked to Kenya for prostitution while others are trafficked for domestic work. Also, the recent case shows that some children are trafficked from Tanzania to Kenya for forced begging. she also added that despite of rampant trafficking in the region, currently, Rwanda is the only country with shelters and hotlines operating for human trafficking victims.