Friday, March 29, 2013
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
VOA
Reporters gather outside the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong, March 25, 2013.
News / Asia
Hong Kong Denies Maids' Residency
TEXT SIZE
March 25, 2013
HONG KONG — After three years of legal
argument, the highest court in Hong Kong has upheld a government appeal
that denies overseas domestic workers the right to residency in the
semi-autonomous Chinese city. The case has implications for Hong Kong’s
judicial independence from Beijing, and the rights of poor migrant
workers across Asia.
The unanimous decision Monday by five judges in the Court of Final Appeal ended a constitutional challenge by domestic workers Evangeline Banao Vallejos and Daniel Domingo.
The Philippine appellants argued that, like white collar expats, foreign domestic workers should be entitled to permanent Hong Kong residency after working seven years in the city.
Eman Villanueva, of the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, labeled the verdict discriminatory.
“There are more than 300,000 foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong and the message is very unfair: the court’s ruling gives the judicial seal … to the social exclusion of foreign domestic workers," said Villanueva.
Government figures indicate that around 100,000 maids and their dependents, mainly from developing Asian nations, were eligible to apply for abode after Vallejos and Domingo won their initial case in 2011. Security Secretary Lai Tung-kwok noted that more than 1,000 residency applications already had been received.
“The government welcomes the verdict [and] will proceed to process new and pending applications submitted by foreign helpers according to the law as affirmed by the court," said Lai.
Migrant women in low paid domestic jobs across Asia and the Middle East - working to support families back home - saw the 2011 decision as a sign of hope, says Holly Allen of the NGO Helpers for Domestic Helpers. Now, she says, other states might not seek to improve migrant worker rights, spurred on by Hong Kong’s lead.
“They work long hours; some up to 20 hours a day with very little rest," said Allen. "Canada, maybe some other western countries allow foreign domestic workers to apply for residency, but no other countries in Asia.”
The Hong Kong public is divided on the decision, despite almost universal fears that schools, hospitals and public housing in the territory - with a population of 7 million - risks being overwhelmed by tens of thousands of migrant workers simultaneously claiming abode.
The case also has escalated concern about the erosion of judicial autonomy in Hong Kong. This occurs at a time the Communist Party in Beijing is increasingly aware of anti-China sentiment in the city, and the waning popularity of a local leadership it helped put into office.
While the court confirmed Hong Kong’s constitutional authority in immigration matters, Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen says that would not preclude asking Beijing to settle a years-old case relating to the rights of children born locally to mainland fathers.
“Our position has been very clear; that we are trying our very best to resolve all the legal issues concerning [these] babies by avenues available in the local legal system," said Yuen. "We will exhaust our means before we do anything [else].”
Any deferral to Beijing promises to cause further tension in Hong Kong, where a civil disobedience movement driven by an increasingly disenfranchised middle class is gathering momentum - its aim to strengthen democracy, not weaken it by relinquishing autonomy.
The unanimous decision Monday by five judges in the Court of Final Appeal ended a constitutional challenge by domestic workers Evangeline Banao Vallejos and Daniel Domingo.
The Philippine appellants argued that, like white collar expats, foreign domestic workers should be entitled to permanent Hong Kong residency after working seven years in the city.
Eman Villanueva, of the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, labeled the verdict discriminatory.
“There are more than 300,000 foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong and the message is very unfair: the court’s ruling gives the judicial seal … to the social exclusion of foreign domestic workers," said Villanueva.
Government figures indicate that around 100,000 maids and their dependents, mainly from developing Asian nations, were eligible to apply for abode after Vallejos and Domingo won their initial case in 2011. Security Secretary Lai Tung-kwok noted that more than 1,000 residency applications already had been received.
“The government welcomes the verdict [and] will proceed to process new and pending applications submitted by foreign helpers according to the law as affirmed by the court," said Lai.
Migrant women in low paid domestic jobs across Asia and the Middle East - working to support families back home - saw the 2011 decision as a sign of hope, says Holly Allen of the NGO Helpers for Domestic Helpers. Now, she says, other states might not seek to improve migrant worker rights, spurred on by Hong Kong’s lead.
“They work long hours; some up to 20 hours a day with very little rest," said Allen. "Canada, maybe some other western countries allow foreign domestic workers to apply for residency, but no other countries in Asia.”
The Hong Kong public is divided on the decision, despite almost universal fears that schools, hospitals and public housing in the territory - with a population of 7 million - risks being overwhelmed by tens of thousands of migrant workers simultaneously claiming abode.
The case also has escalated concern about the erosion of judicial autonomy in Hong Kong. This occurs at a time the Communist Party in Beijing is increasingly aware of anti-China sentiment in the city, and the waning popularity of a local leadership it helped put into office.
While the court confirmed Hong Kong’s constitutional authority in immigration matters, Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen says that would not preclude asking Beijing to settle a years-old case relating to the rights of children born locally to mainland fathers.
“Our position has been very clear; that we are trying our very best to resolve all the legal issues concerning [these] babies by avenues available in the local legal system," said Yuen. "We will exhaust our means before we do anything [else].”
Any deferral to Beijing promises to cause further tension in Hong Kong, where a civil disobedience movement driven by an increasingly disenfranchised middle class is gathering momentum - its aim to strengthen democracy, not weaken it by relinquishing autonomy.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Group to rescue girls in sex-trafficking trade
gastongazette.com
#myCaptureLink({'contentId' : VersionedContentId(1.116283.1364065599), '':''})
#myCaptureLink({'contentId' : VersionedContentId(1.116283.1364065599), '':''})
Emily
Fitchpatrick, founder of On Eagles Wings Ministries and the Hope House
talks about the project with supporter, Pastor Brian Matherlee form
McAdenville Wesleyan Church. (John Clark/The Gazette)
Published: Saturday, March 23, 2013 at 15:10 PM.
Photo Galleries
A group that helps girls who were once forced to sell their bodies will be coming to Gaston County.
On Eagles Wings Ministries plans to renovate a home to turn it into a haven for girls involved in the sex-trafficking trade.
The home on six acres sat empty for five years, said founder and president Emily Fitchpatrick. Several churches came together to raise enough money to buy the property.
The building will be transformed into Hope House, which will become home to four girls ages 12 to 17. Fitchpatrick hopes to build two more cottages on the site with room for four girls in each home.
Gaston County provides a location that’s close enough to Charlotte to help girls there, but far enough away to keep traffickers at bay, Fitchpatrick said.
North Carolina has become a hotspot for human trafficking, according to the N.C. Coalition Against Human Trafficking. The state’s major highways and interstates, transient populations and large rural areas make North Carolina an attractive place for traffickers.
On Eagles Wings Ministries doesn’t take government money. The faith-based nonprofit doesn’t charge for its services and relies on volunteers and donations.
Trafficking is here
People don’t think of human trafficking as something that happens in the U.S., let alone in North Carolina, Fitchpatrick said. Some picture prostitutes as older women feeding a drug habit, but the average age of a person entering prostitution is 13.
“You think of the 30-year-old meth addict,” Fitchpatrick said. “They don’t think of a 13-year-old kid.”
In the Charlotte area, Fitchpatrick’s group monitors websites for ads that sound like a pimp is trying to sell sex.
Many girls involved in sex trafficking are misidentified by authorities who don’t recognize the signs, Fitchpatrick said. Girls are often runaways who’ve had trouble at home. Many have been abused.
“The problem that we have is the identification piece,” Fitchpatrick said. “Many of these girls are being treated as delinquents, not victims.”
All of the girls who have been clients of On Eagles Wings Ministries have been sexually abused, Fitchpatrick said.
Some girls are also too naïve. One 16-year-old girl from Charlotte met a man in a mall who said he worked for a modeling agency.
“She ended up being locked in a house in Charlotte for three months before she was able to get out,” Fitchpatrick said.
Fitchpatrick was recently selected to serve a two-year term on the newly formed N.C. Human Trafficking Commission, a state group to focus more on how to provide more help for victims.
Seeking support
On Eagles Wings wants to have the Gaston County home open by summer. The other On Eagles Wings is near Asheville.
“Right now, we’re trying to raise money for operational costs,” Fitchpatrick said.
During March, every donation up to $25,000 will be doubled with a match.
McAdenville Wesleyan Church Rev. Brian Matherlee met Fitchpatrick at a church conference a few years ago and began supporting On Eagles Wings Ministries in 2010.
Helping the enslaved is part of the foundation of the Wesleyan Church, Matherlee said. Wesleyans were among the first religious denominations to oppose slavery of blacks in America.
On Eagles Wings has helped 24 girls since it started in 2008. It has made 2,000 phone calls to girls advertising services online, made 200 referrals to helping agencies and conducted 10 rescues.
Being in the program requires a long-term commitment. The group likes to see girls stay at least one year so they can learn about setting goals, life skills and learning to heal.
“It’s amazing to me how they’ve gone through so much but they’re so strong,” Fitchpatrick said.
You can reach reporter Amanda Memrick at 704-869-1839 or follow @AmandaMemrick on Twitter.
Want to help?
What: “Here’s Hope” event and concert, a partnership between On Eagles Wings Ministries and Bethlehem Church in Gastonia to promote awareness about domestic sex trafficking.
When: 6 p.m. Sunday
Where: Bethlehem Church, 3100 Bethlehem Church St.
Cost: The concert and event are free, and donations will be accepted for the Hope House in Gaston County.
On Eagles Wings Ministries plans to renovate a home to turn it into a haven for girls involved in the sex-trafficking trade.
The home on six acres sat empty for five years, said founder and president Emily Fitchpatrick. Several churches came together to raise enough money to buy the property.
The building will be transformed into Hope House, which will become home to four girls ages 12 to 17. Fitchpatrick hopes to build two more cottages on the site with room for four girls in each home.
Gaston County provides a location that’s close enough to Charlotte to help girls there, but far enough away to keep traffickers at bay, Fitchpatrick said.
North Carolina has become a hotspot for human trafficking, according to the N.C. Coalition Against Human Trafficking. The state’s major highways and interstates, transient populations and large rural areas make North Carolina an attractive place for traffickers.
On Eagles Wings Ministries doesn’t take government money. The faith-based nonprofit doesn’t charge for its services and relies on volunteers and donations.
Trafficking is here
People don’t think of human trafficking as something that happens in the U.S., let alone in North Carolina, Fitchpatrick said. Some picture prostitutes as older women feeding a drug habit, but the average age of a person entering prostitution is 13.
“You think of the 30-year-old meth addict,” Fitchpatrick said. “They don’t think of a 13-year-old kid.”
In the Charlotte area, Fitchpatrick’s group monitors websites for ads that sound like a pimp is trying to sell sex.
Many girls involved in sex trafficking are misidentified by authorities who don’t recognize the signs, Fitchpatrick said. Girls are often runaways who’ve had trouble at home. Many have been abused.
“The problem that we have is the identification piece,” Fitchpatrick said. “Many of these girls are being treated as delinquents, not victims.”
All of the girls who have been clients of On Eagles Wings Ministries have been sexually abused, Fitchpatrick said.
Some girls are also too naïve. One 16-year-old girl from Charlotte met a man in a mall who said he worked for a modeling agency.
“She ended up being locked in a house in Charlotte for three months before she was able to get out,” Fitchpatrick said.
Fitchpatrick was recently selected to serve a two-year term on the newly formed N.C. Human Trafficking Commission, a state group to focus more on how to provide more help for victims.
Seeking support
On Eagles Wings wants to have the Gaston County home open by summer. The other On Eagles Wings is near Asheville.
“Right now, we’re trying to raise money for operational costs,” Fitchpatrick said.
During March, every donation up to $25,000 will be doubled with a match.
McAdenville Wesleyan Church Rev. Brian Matherlee met Fitchpatrick at a church conference a few years ago and began supporting On Eagles Wings Ministries in 2010.
Helping the enslaved is part of the foundation of the Wesleyan Church, Matherlee said. Wesleyans were among the first religious denominations to oppose slavery of blacks in America.
On Eagles Wings has helped 24 girls since it started in 2008. It has made 2,000 phone calls to girls advertising services online, made 200 referrals to helping agencies and conducted 10 rescues.
Being in the program requires a long-term commitment. The group likes to see girls stay at least one year so they can learn about setting goals, life skills and learning to heal.
“It’s amazing to me how they’ve gone through so much but they’re so strong,” Fitchpatrick said.
You can reach reporter Amanda Memrick at 704-869-1839 or follow @AmandaMemrick on Twitter.
Want to help?
What: “Here’s Hope” event and concert, a partnership between On Eagles Wings Ministries and Bethlehem Church in Gastonia to promote awareness about domestic sex trafficking.
When: 6 p.m. Sunday
Where: Bethlehem Church, 3100 Bethlehem Church St.
Cost: The concert and event are free, and donations will be accepted for the Hope House in Gaston County.
Massage parlor arrest highlights trafficking problem
Advocates say sex workers often are shuttled from one brothel to another
|
Di Zhang
(Courtesy Baltimore County Police / March 19, 2013)
|
"You have to ask: If they constantly have new girls, where are the other girls going?" Melissa Snow asked.
It was a rhetorical question, because as someone who works to stop sex trafficking, Snow has a pretty good idea where they go — to yet another massage parlor that similarly is offering more than rub-downs.
As The Baltimore Sun's Jessica Anderson reported last week, Di Zhang was arrested on prostitution and human-trafficking charges after police raided the massage parlor she was operating, Jade Heart Health, in a house on East Joppa Road in Towson.
Advocates like Snow, who directs anti-trafficking programs at the Towson-based women's assistance group TurnAround, were heartened by the arrest. But, they said, getting one massage parlor operator is often like a game of Whac-A-Mole— there can be entire networks that sex workers, at times under coercion, are shuttled through.
"When they do shut down one place, the girls are transferred to another person," Snow said. "These people often aren't just running one brothel."
Snow said sex workers can be transported to different locations, both to give the customers the advertised "new girls" as well as to keep tighter control over the women.
"It reduces the ability of the girls to make connections, and to get help," Snow said. "That's what the traffickers use to control the women: the isolation."
And when the workers are foreign nationals, she said, they are even more helpless because of possible language barriers and fears of deportation.
Snow couldn't speak about Zhang's case specifically because the investigation is continuing. But charging documents note that police, who had Zhang under surveillance, said she was seen "transporting Asian females … to bus stations," and that "Chinese bus services are a common way of transporting Asian females from states such as New York and Pennsylvania to Maryland so the females can work at various illegal massage parlors."
Zhang is not unknown to police — as far back as 2003, she had been arrested on prostitution charges, and she had been repeatedly investigated since then. She was arrested again in 2008, on charges of prostitution and human trafficking. And just last fall, a county detective and Homeland Security agents warned her that she could face federal and immigration charges over the prostitution and illegal massages alleged to be going on at the business. (Zhang lost her massage therapy license for failing to disclose her arrest.)
This time around, though, after a complaint from a neighbor, police put together the case that led to Zhang's arrest on March 8. According to charging documents, they interviewed a customer after he left the house on Joppa Road, who told them he received a massage and oral sex from a woman who called herself "Sylvia."
Then an undercover detective responded to an online ad offering "new young girls just arrive in town." The woman who arrived at the hotel room he used agreed to his request for sex, prompting her arrest, according to the documents. She said she worked for Jade Heart Health, and was sent to the hotel by Zhang, police said.
In some ways, the prostitution and trafficking problem is hiding in plain sight: It's pretty clear there are "spas" out there that aren't exactly offering facials and waxing, and the Internet is filled with sites and reviews of places to go for what police say Zhang was offering.
But police and advocates say these cases can be hard to nail down at times, especially if the workers have been coerced into the job.
"These criminal networks can be quite extensive," Snow said. "They could threaten these women, and their families."
Anti-trafficking activists say that Zhang's case highlights the need for tougher penalties — even though she had been arrested a couple of times previously, she was still in business.
"We have weak laws," said Lisa Carrasco, a member of the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force. The group, started in 2007, brings together state and federal law enforcement agencies and works to stop the crime and help its victims.
Carrasco said members have been trying for five years to enact a new law that would allow the state to seize certain property used in connection with human trafficking. (It is working its way through the General Assembly this session.)
"We have drug forfeiture laws," Carrasco said, "but if you're selling people, you get to keep your assets."
jean.marbella@baltsun.com
twitter.com/jean_marbella
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-marbella-sex-trafficking-20130323,0,3873642.story
Human trafficking suspect on bail
Dawn GibsonSaturday, March 23, 2013
ONE of the two men facing charges of trafficking in
children, living on earnings of prostitution and prostitution was
granted bail yesterday.
Inoke Raikadroka appeared before judge Justice Paul Madigan in Suva.He is charged with Mohammed Sagaitu who is also on bail.
Justice Madigan granted Raikadroka bail with a $1000 surety and strict conditions.
Raikadroka, who is temporarily living with his aunt, was warned not to change his address without notifying the court.
Raikadroka is not allowed to interfere with any of the witnesses or go beyond the Nausori-Lami corridor until the trial is over.
Justice Madigan told the accused to report to the Nabua Police Station every Monday and Thursday between 6am and 6pm.
He also informed the accused that he was not allowed to apply for a passport.
Human trafficking involves more than prostitution
Awareness campaign
Although addressing sexual exploitation is important, many people, often immigrants, are trafficked for construction, agriculture, domestic and other jobs, said Yvonne Zimmerman, an assistant professor of Christian ethics at the Delaware seminary. “There’s a failure to see the problem in its full scope,” Zimmerman said. “It’s easy to garner public support for a campaign focused on sexually exploited women, but less for ... undocumented immigrants.”
People trafficked for labor often are enslaved because they fear violence if they resist, and they are paid nothing or very little. They might be immigrants whose passports have been taken by their captors, rendering them undocumented. They might be told they will be freed once they work off a debt, but the debt is impossible to repay.
The International Labour Organization estimates that 20.9 million people were in forced labor last year, including 14.2 million exploited for labor and 4.5 million for sex. The remaining 2.2 million were cases of state-imposed forced labor.
Since 2008, the Salvation Army in central Ohio has helped 260 trafficking victims: 21 percent for labor, 76 percent for sex and 3 percent for both. Seventy-seven percent were American-born; 23 percent were foreign nationals.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, who reconvened a Human Trafficking Commission in 2011, said he agrees that labor exploitation is overshadowed by sex exploitation. He said he struggles with people who “think human trafficking doesn’t exist in this country.”
To make his point, he often refers to nail salons where workers don’t speak English or make eye contact — and where there might be sleeping bags in a corner.
“I use that as an example of how human trafficking can exist among us, and we don’t really recognize it,” DeWine said. “I think there has been a lot of discussion about the sex aspect of this, but ... human trafficking is such a diverse thing and can take so many forms and so many shapes.”
Border states and communities with large immigrant populations tend to identify a greater number of labor-trafficking cases, said Michelle Hannan, the director of professional and community services at the Salvation Army in Central Ohio.
“In Ohio, while we have a strong and thriving immigrant community, I think we are probably slower to identify human trafficking in some of the industries in our state,” she said.
Among the keys, she said, is raising public awareness.
“Once people understand more about trafficking, they’re looking for it and reporting it, and it kind of snowballs,” she said.
Some employers engaged in forced labor would not see themselves as traffickers but as shrewd businesspeople finding the cheapest workers, Zimmerman said. “Part of what makes it so hard to identify is that it can be so integrated into the fabric of society. It doesn’t look any different than business as usual until you look below the surface.”
Zimmerman, who last year published the book Other Dreams of Freedom: Religion, Sex and Human Trafficking, has focused her research on how American Protestantism has shaped the way the federal government responds to the trafficking problem.
She recommends that policymakers listen to a wider range of voices, from evangelical Protestants to people who aren’t religious. She also suggests that advocates listen to survivors of trafficking to empower them to live the lives they want to live — and steer away from telling them how to live.
“I think trafficked people are so much more than victims,” she said. “When people are exploited, they have more than simply the right to be rescued. … Some of those rights are to have their own dreams and goals for themselves.”
jviviano@dispatch.com
@JoAnneViviano
Monday, March 18, 2013
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Cannibal cop' found guilty in plot to kidnap, eat women
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)