Andra Ackerman
Director of Human Trafficking Prevention and Policy
Age: 37
Home: Cohoes
What she does: Since last year, Ackerman has worked at the Division of Criminal Justice Services training police agencies, prosecutors and state law enforcement officials on New York's new human trafficking law and how to use it. The law took effect in November 2007, boosting prison time for those convicted of trafficking, or "modern-day slavery" in which victims are forced into the sex trade or another form of labor.
How she got there: Headed the Schenectady County District Attorney's Office Special Victims Unit beginning in March 2005; before that, she worked as assistant district attorney in Albany County for four years; briefly worked at Troy-based Pechenik & Curro law firm; and served as assistant district attorney in Rensselaer County for a year and a half. Ackerman earned her law degree in 1999 from the State University at Buffalo's School of Law, her bachelor's degree in political science from Siena College in 1994, and her associates degree in criminal justice from Hudson Valley Community College in 1991.
Personal: Single. Grew up in foster care in the Capital Region. Graduated from Averill Park High School.
How does your new job combating human trafficking compare with prosecuting sex crimes?
"It's very different — to be so long in the trenches, so to speak, really working with the victims and the court system, to now being at a state agency where the beautiful part of it is being able to affect change; to not only affect one community, but all the communities in New York state."
What is the scope of human trafficking in New York?
"Society is changing, and along with that are the ways that (criminals) are pulling victims into human trafficking. There are many cases where women are pulled in from the bordering states and countries. But they're also pulled in from the Internet. And they take runaway kids, for example, from areas like MySpace and Craigslist, and they literally lure them into prostitution and use the same means as traffickers. Really, the (new) law applies to them as well."
Human trafficking is often associated with immigrants from foreign countries? Does that hold true?
"That is correct — but it's not just outside of this country. ... There are just as many victims who are domestic victims. It literally can be happening down the street. It's really insecure, troubled kids who are offered an opportunity to change their lives — and it's not the change they were looking for."
On the unique problem human trafficking presents:
"Human trafficking is different from every other crime that I've seen ... (The victims are) not running to police, they're running away from police. ... They think in their mind that they're committing a crime, and they're told that. So here you have a situation where somebody appears to be a prostitute. They're afraid of law enforcement and law enforcement, old-school, has looked at them as prostitutes. What we're doing here is to try to show and teach law enforcement to look outside the box. ... These perpetrators use that fear of law enforcement as a tool, and that's different from all other cases that I've handled, because the victims really feel like they're part of this crime, too. They're made to believe that."
On her experience in foster care and its impact on her career:
"A lot of the work I do now is because of that. It's really being a voice for kids. What I love about this job is I helps me affect kids' lives on a state level, not just in the community. The community is great, but this job allows me to do it in every community around New York. And if I didn't have that experience when I was younger, I may not be here. ... A lot of these kids abused are in foster care. If you haven't been there, it's so hard to understand. But being there, and you look at them and you tell them you been there, they're eyes get big. They really open up to you they talk to you."
What would you tell victims if they could see your words?
"I'd say, 'Take a moment, Trust us. Give us your time — we can provide you the services you need and we can help you. And really, New York state is there for you. It's true."
— Robert Gavin
First published: Monday, October 13, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
What Have We Learned ?
The number of women and children trafficked into sexual servitude (slavery) and debt bondage is impossible to quantify, but it is estimated that between 700,000 to 4 million people are trafficked around the world annually for sexual exploitation and many more are condemned to slave labour on cocoa plantations and other agriculture.
These 2 verses from a poem written almost 200 years ago show that people are just as uncaring and, in some cases, more inhumane than in the 19th Century.
I invite you to suggest your ideas on remedying the situation by adding your comments to this blog.
Patricia Church.
The Slave's Dream
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1807-1882)
Beside the ungathered rice he lay,
His sickle in his hand;
His breast was bare, his matted hair
Was buried in the sand.
Again, in the mist and shadow of sleep,
He saw his Native Land.
He did not feel the driver's whip,
Nor the burning heat of day;
For Death had illumined the Land of Sleep,
And his lifeless body lay
A worn-out fetter, that the soul
Had broken and thrown away!
These 2 verses from a poem written almost 200 years ago show that people are just as uncaring and, in some cases, more inhumane than in the 19th Century.
I invite you to suggest your ideas on remedying the situation by adding your comments to this blog.
Patricia Church.
The Slave's Dream
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1807-1882)
Beside the ungathered rice he lay,
His sickle in his hand;
His breast was bare, his matted hair
Was buried in the sand.
Again, in the mist and shadow of sleep,
He saw his Native Land.
He did not feel the driver's whip,
Nor the burning heat of day;
For Death had illumined the Land of Sleep,
And his lifeless body lay
A worn-out fetter, that the soul
Had broken and thrown away!
Friday, October 10, 2008
Unprotected Children
RIGHTS: EU Parliament Acts Against Child Trafficking
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Oct 9 (IPS) - The European Union needs to develop a programme against child trafficking, the bloc's only directly elected institution has declared.
Between two and four million people -- most of them children -- are estimated to fall victim to forced labour and other forms of trafficking each year.
Since the Amsterdam Treaty came into effect in 1999, trafficking in human beings has been named as an area of responsibility for the EU as a whole. Yet even though the Union's executive, the European Commission, drew up a strategy on the rights of the child in 2006, anti-exploitation campaigners feel that it does not grapple properly with the problems associated with trafficking.
More than half of the European Parliament's 785 members have now signed a declaration urging that the situation be remedied by setting up a specific EU-funded scheme to address this scourge. Under the assembly's rules of procedure, the declaration has enough support to be formally endorsed by the entire body.
The child rights advocacy group Terre des Hommes has complained that the issue of trafficking tends to be viewed through the prism of law enforcement and control of immigration. As a result, when authorities identify a child who has been trafficked, their main objective can frequently be to seek information about organised crime, rather than to give protection to the boy or girl in question. In many cases, EU governments go as far as making protection conditional on the child cooperating with the justice system.
Salvatore Parata, spokesman for Terres des Hommes, said that the EU has "confused child trafficking with migration and with the sexual exploitation of adults." Child trafficking should instead be viewed as a broader phenomenon which can also involve the drugs trade, begging and illegal adoptions, the group believes.
Last month the London police headquarters Scotland Yard agreed to liaise with Romanian authorities to address allegations that Romanian children are being forced to beg and steal in Britain. Although similar allegations have surfaced in Madrid and Valencia, Spanish authorities have not yet undertaken any concrete measures, according to Terre des Hommes.
It has also found that centres throughout the EU accommodating children who have migrated without the company of an adult have reported numerous cases of children leaving the centres under dubious circumstances. So far, though, there has been no coordinated EU response to these reports.
Diana Wallis, a British Liberal member of parliament (MEP), said that the Union is "not doing enough to get to grips with this problem.
"This horror is still being perpetuated 200 years after the abolition of slavery," she added, recommending that EU governments should share more information about what they are doing against child trafficking at the national level.
Child trafficking "can and does destroy lives," said Bulgarian Socialist Maryusya Lyubcheva. "Children are sold like commodities for sexual purposes and illegal adoption."
Simon Chorley, policy officer with the London-based group Stop the Traffik, argued that both the EU's internal and foreign policies should address the related issues. "Children need to be correctly identified as victims of trafficking, not as criminals."
He also drew a link between child trafficking and the exploitation of minors in poor countries, citing estimates that half of the chocolate consumed in Europe is made from cocoa that has been picked by young Africans who have been forced to work.
Meanwhile, the Parliament urged Oct. 9 that the EU should formally set itself the objective of reducing child poverty by half within the next four years. Almost 19 million children are at risk of poverty in the EU, according to a parliamentary report, which demanded that the Union's governments should make adequate resources available to deal with this matter.
Swedish MEP Eva-Britt Svensson said that child trafficking is closely related to hardship. "Poverty is one of the main reasons for this ongoing slavery."
The Parliament's report has recommended, too, that all 27 EU governments should agree on a collective target for minimum wages for adult workers. This remuneration should be at least 60 percent of the average industrial wage.
The report found that although having a job is the best defence against poverty, it does not always provide a guarantee. It maintained that meeting the needs of both the employed and unemployed should be viewed as a question of human rights.
While most EU countries have introduced minimum income schemes, with the stated aim of helping people who cannot fend for themselves, the Parliament's report said that social assistance can often provide less money to recipients than they require to ward off the risk of poverty.
Gabriele Zimmer, the German left-wing MEP who drafted the report, noted that there are "tremendous differences" in the proportion of people at risk of poverty in different countries. These vary from less than 10 percent of the population in Sweden to more than 20 percent in Poland and Lithuania.
Back in 1992, the EU formally agreed that everyone had the right "to sufficient resources and social assistance to live in a manner compatible with human dignity." Sixteen years later there are still EU countries "without a sufficient national social safety net in place," Zimmer said. (END/2008)
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS, Oct 9 (IPS) - The European Union needs to develop a programme against child trafficking, the bloc's only directly elected institution has declared.
Between two and four million people -- most of them children -- are estimated to fall victim to forced labour and other forms of trafficking each year.
Since the Amsterdam Treaty came into effect in 1999, trafficking in human beings has been named as an area of responsibility for the EU as a whole. Yet even though the Union's executive, the European Commission, drew up a strategy on the rights of the child in 2006, anti-exploitation campaigners feel that it does not grapple properly with the problems associated with trafficking.
More than half of the European Parliament's 785 members have now signed a declaration urging that the situation be remedied by setting up a specific EU-funded scheme to address this scourge. Under the assembly's rules of procedure, the declaration has enough support to be formally endorsed by the entire body.
The child rights advocacy group Terre des Hommes has complained that the issue of trafficking tends to be viewed through the prism of law enforcement and control of immigration. As a result, when authorities identify a child who has been trafficked, their main objective can frequently be to seek information about organised crime, rather than to give protection to the boy or girl in question. In many cases, EU governments go as far as making protection conditional on the child cooperating with the justice system.
Salvatore Parata, spokesman for Terres des Hommes, said that the EU has "confused child trafficking with migration and with the sexual exploitation of adults." Child trafficking should instead be viewed as a broader phenomenon which can also involve the drugs trade, begging and illegal adoptions, the group believes.
Last month the London police headquarters Scotland Yard agreed to liaise with Romanian authorities to address allegations that Romanian children are being forced to beg and steal in Britain. Although similar allegations have surfaced in Madrid and Valencia, Spanish authorities have not yet undertaken any concrete measures, according to Terre des Hommes.
It has also found that centres throughout the EU accommodating children who have migrated without the company of an adult have reported numerous cases of children leaving the centres under dubious circumstances. So far, though, there has been no coordinated EU response to these reports.
Diana Wallis, a British Liberal member of parliament (MEP), said that the Union is "not doing enough to get to grips with this problem.
"This horror is still being perpetuated 200 years after the abolition of slavery," she added, recommending that EU governments should share more information about what they are doing against child trafficking at the national level.
Child trafficking "can and does destroy lives," said Bulgarian Socialist Maryusya Lyubcheva. "Children are sold like commodities for sexual purposes and illegal adoption."
Simon Chorley, policy officer with the London-based group Stop the Traffik, argued that both the EU's internal and foreign policies should address the related issues. "Children need to be correctly identified as victims of trafficking, not as criminals."
He also drew a link between child trafficking and the exploitation of minors in poor countries, citing estimates that half of the chocolate consumed in Europe is made from cocoa that has been picked by young Africans who have been forced to work.
Meanwhile, the Parliament urged Oct. 9 that the EU should formally set itself the objective of reducing child poverty by half within the next four years. Almost 19 million children are at risk of poverty in the EU, according to a parliamentary report, which demanded that the Union's governments should make adequate resources available to deal with this matter.
Swedish MEP Eva-Britt Svensson said that child trafficking is closely related to hardship. "Poverty is one of the main reasons for this ongoing slavery."
The Parliament's report has recommended, too, that all 27 EU governments should agree on a collective target for minimum wages for adult workers. This remuneration should be at least 60 percent of the average industrial wage.
The report found that although having a job is the best defence against poverty, it does not always provide a guarantee. It maintained that meeting the needs of both the employed and unemployed should be viewed as a question of human rights.
While most EU countries have introduced minimum income schemes, with the stated aim of helping people who cannot fend for themselves, the Parliament's report said that social assistance can often provide less money to recipients than they require to ward off the risk of poverty.
Gabriele Zimmer, the German left-wing MEP who drafted the report, noted that there are "tremendous differences" in the proportion of people at risk of poverty in different countries. These vary from less than 10 percent of the population in Sweden to more than 20 percent in Poland and Lithuania.
Back in 1992, the EU formally agreed that everyone had the right "to sufficient resources and social assistance to live in a manner compatible with human dignity." Sixteen years later there are still EU countries "without a sufficient national social safety net in place," Zimmer said. (END/2008)
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Trafficking Tribal Women
MALAYSIA: Emerging Trend in Trafficking Tribal Women
By Baradan KuppusamyKUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 (IPS) -
An emerging trend in the trafficking of tribal people, mostly young girls, is raising concern among government officials, rights organisations, migration experts and human rights lawyers.
Increasingly, tribal girls in the region are duped and trafficked from their villages to regional capitals like Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to work in brothels and massage parlours that attract well-heeled locals as well as tourists.
‘’The trafficking of tribal people is on the rise across the South-east Asian region,’’said Irene Fernandez, executive director of Tenaganita, a leading Malaysian NGO that tracks trafficking of women to Malaysia from across the Asia Pacific region.
‘’It is a most heinous crime because tribal girls are duped into believing they are getting high-paid office and home jobs, but are forced into prostitution,’’ she told IPS.
Not only are tribal people from the region trafficked to Malaysia, the country’s own Penan, from the interiors of Sarawak state, and the Orang Asli tribal groups in peninsular Malaysia are trafficked internally and exploited.
Outsiders, including workers, miners and others, also visit the villages to sexually exploit young tribal women, researchers told IPS.
‘’It is their poverty, dislocation and vulnerability that makes the tribal easily exploited,’’ said a Malaysian researcher with the Penan people who declined to be named. ‘’The government is totally unresponsive...it is total neglect of indigenous people.’’
‘’They give lip-service whenever the issue makes the headlines, but after that the indigenous people are left to the mercy of the traffickers,’’ Fernandez said.
The case of five young Naga tribal women from India’s north-east, who were trafficked from their village to Singapore and later moved to Malaysia and forced to work as sex slaves, has highlighted the plight of tribal women uprooted from their villages and trapped in Malaysia, a country generally hostile to migrants.
The five women are now housed in a half-way centre and the Indian High Commission here is making arrangements to send them home.
Commission counselor Sudhir Kumar Mehrotra told ‘The New Straits Times’ daily on Sep. 29 that the women from the Zeliangrong Naga tribe were promised lucrative jobs but were duped and forced to work as bar girls and prostitutes in nightclubs in Singapore and Malaysia.
‘’We have information that as many as 150 women from Manipur, Assam and Nagaland have been duped and forced to work immorally in this region,’’ he said. According to Mehrotra, the Indian government is concerned and investigating the people involved and the routes taken to curb the emerging trend in the trafficking of tribal people.
Poverty among the tribal people in places like Manipur state’s backward Tamenglong district, where parents place their hopes on agents to secure jobs for their daughters, is fueling the trade, human rights lawyers said.
According to migration experts, trafficking of tribal girls is widespread within India but because of the great demand in South East Asian capitals traffickers are beginning to traffic them outside India in the hope of making a fortune.
‘’Tribal people are rare in these capitals and there is a rising demand for them in many brothels and massage parlours in the region because of their rarity,’’ said a migration and HIV expert with a regional NGO.
‘’The flesh trade is always looking out for new victims,’’ he said, declining to be identified so as not to annoy regional governments. ‘’Trafficking of tribal people is common in India and blatantly carried out despite all the laws against it. But with the heightened push and pull factor the victims are surfacing outside India.’’
‘’We must take note and act speedily before the number of trafficked women rises dramatically,’’ said the HIV expert, adding that what was needed was for the Indian government to work closely with its counterparts in the region to stop the trend.
He said tribal people forced into sex work are especially vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and unwanted pregnancies, because of lack of quality information and language barriers.
The sex trade is also seen to be shifting from the main capitals of the region to towns and even villages because of the spread of wealth and transport facilities.
‘’You can find foreign women trafficked to even remote towns because of rising demand, expanding wealth and minimal supervision by police and other enforcement agencies,’’ said Fernandez.
‘’Here [remote areas] the scene is much more sinister, it is more hidden and curbing the exploitation is much more challenging,’’ she said. ‘’We are afraid the remoteness of the scene would make it that much more difficult to curb the problem.’’
Unlike drug trafficking where penalties are high, it is an easy walk for human traffickers with the authorities prepared to pocket part of the profits and ‘’close an eye’’ to trafficking crimes in their midst.
Although Malaysia has tough new laws to curb trafficking, few people are ever booked for the offence of trafficking.
Tribal people trafficked to Malaysia face insurmountable hurdles, said Fernandez. ‘’They stand little chance of returning home, let alone make the big money they have been promised when they were lured from their village and forced into prostitution,’’ she told IPS.
‘’We have to stop them from leaving their villages by addressing issues of poverty, human rights and legal protection against exploitation,’’ she added.
India’s National Commission for Women, the All-India Christian Council and the Northeast Support Centre have called on the Malaysian High Commission in New Delhi to seek help in checking the trend.
‘The New Straits Times’
By Baradan KuppusamyKUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 (IPS) -
An emerging trend in the trafficking of tribal people, mostly young girls, is raising concern among government officials, rights organisations, migration experts and human rights lawyers.
Increasingly, tribal girls in the region are duped and trafficked from their villages to regional capitals like Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to work in brothels and massage parlours that attract well-heeled locals as well as tourists.
‘’The trafficking of tribal people is on the rise across the South-east Asian region,’’said Irene Fernandez, executive director of Tenaganita, a leading Malaysian NGO that tracks trafficking of women to Malaysia from across the Asia Pacific region.
‘’It is a most heinous crime because tribal girls are duped into believing they are getting high-paid office and home jobs, but are forced into prostitution,’’ she told IPS.
Not only are tribal people from the region trafficked to Malaysia, the country’s own Penan, from the interiors of Sarawak state, and the Orang Asli tribal groups in peninsular Malaysia are trafficked internally and exploited.
Outsiders, including workers, miners and others, also visit the villages to sexually exploit young tribal women, researchers told IPS.
‘’It is their poverty, dislocation and vulnerability that makes the tribal easily exploited,’’ said a Malaysian researcher with the Penan people who declined to be named. ‘’The government is totally unresponsive...it is total neglect of indigenous people.’’
‘’They give lip-service whenever the issue makes the headlines, but after that the indigenous people are left to the mercy of the traffickers,’’ Fernandez said.
The case of five young Naga tribal women from India’s north-east, who were trafficked from their village to Singapore and later moved to Malaysia and forced to work as sex slaves, has highlighted the plight of tribal women uprooted from their villages and trapped in Malaysia, a country generally hostile to migrants.
The five women are now housed in a half-way centre and the Indian High Commission here is making arrangements to send them home.
Commission counselor Sudhir Kumar Mehrotra told ‘The New Straits Times’ daily on Sep. 29 that the women from the Zeliangrong Naga tribe were promised lucrative jobs but were duped and forced to work as bar girls and prostitutes in nightclubs in Singapore and Malaysia.
‘’We have information that as many as 150 women from Manipur, Assam and Nagaland have been duped and forced to work immorally in this region,’’ he said. According to Mehrotra, the Indian government is concerned and investigating the people involved and the routes taken to curb the emerging trend in the trafficking of tribal people.
Poverty among the tribal people in places like Manipur state’s backward Tamenglong district, where parents place their hopes on agents to secure jobs for their daughters, is fueling the trade, human rights lawyers said.
According to migration experts, trafficking of tribal girls is widespread within India but because of the great demand in South East Asian capitals traffickers are beginning to traffic them outside India in the hope of making a fortune.
‘’Tribal people are rare in these capitals and there is a rising demand for them in many brothels and massage parlours in the region because of their rarity,’’ said a migration and HIV expert with a regional NGO.
‘’The flesh trade is always looking out for new victims,’’ he said, declining to be identified so as not to annoy regional governments. ‘’Trafficking of tribal people is common in India and blatantly carried out despite all the laws against it. But with the heightened push and pull factor the victims are surfacing outside India.’’
‘’We must take note and act speedily before the number of trafficked women rises dramatically,’’ said the HIV expert, adding that what was needed was for the Indian government to work closely with its counterparts in the region to stop the trend.
He said tribal people forced into sex work are especially vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and unwanted pregnancies, because of lack of quality information and language barriers.
The sex trade is also seen to be shifting from the main capitals of the region to towns and even villages because of the spread of wealth and transport facilities.
‘’You can find foreign women trafficked to even remote towns because of rising demand, expanding wealth and minimal supervision by police and other enforcement agencies,’’ said Fernandez.
‘’Here [remote areas] the scene is much more sinister, it is more hidden and curbing the exploitation is much more challenging,’’ she said. ‘’We are afraid the remoteness of the scene would make it that much more difficult to curb the problem.’’
Unlike drug trafficking where penalties are high, it is an easy walk for human traffickers with the authorities prepared to pocket part of the profits and ‘’close an eye’’ to trafficking crimes in their midst.
Although Malaysia has tough new laws to curb trafficking, few people are ever booked for the offence of trafficking.
Tribal people trafficked to Malaysia face insurmountable hurdles, said Fernandez. ‘’They stand little chance of returning home, let alone make the big money they have been promised when they were lured from their village and forced into prostitution,’’ she told IPS.
‘’We have to stop them from leaving their villages by addressing issues of poverty, human rights and legal protection against exploitation,’’ she added.
India’s National Commission for Women, the All-India Christian Council and the Northeast Support Centre have called on the Malaysian High Commission in New Delhi to seek help in checking the trend.
‘The New Straits Times’
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Here, in Australia
Girls who are traded like goats
IT is time the myths of multiculturalism were abandoned. The majority Christian community in Australia must not be coerced into pretending all cultures are equally valid.
Late last year, in Pakistan, a village council decreed five young women be abducted, raped or killed for refusing to honour marriages it ordered to recompense enemies of their family after a murder.
The women, all cousins, were married in absentia by a mullah to illiterate sons of their family's enemies, after the father of one of the girls shot dead a rival. The council also sentenced to death Jehan Nizzi, the father of three of the women, and the fathers of the other two, for refusing to hand over their daughters.
In 2004, a three-year-old girl was betrothed to a 60-year-old man in a similar settlement. These cases, pitting tribal cultures against a group of educated women, led to the Pakistan parliament passing a law banning honour killings and "vani", which is the custom of handing over women to resolve disputes.
The Pakistan Human Rights Commission condemned the barbaric custom of "vani" and called on the Government to enforce the laws, which are widely ignored.
Amna Nizzi, 22, the oldest of the five girls, is studying English literature and hopes to become an English lecturer. Her sister, Abida, 18, hopes to study medicine, and their youngest sister, Sajida, 15, is at school. The other girls, Assi, 20, and 16-year- old Fatima, are the daughters of Mr Nizzi's brothers.
Amna Nizzi said: "It is a great injustice that should be ended. Why should we pay for a crime committed by someone else?
"I am proud of my father. Despite having little money, he has educated us and shown us we must stand up in society and demand our rights."
Mr Nizzi was quite open about the feud: "My brother murdered one of our neighbours after being shot at. But they already insulted us by making indecent remarks to our girls. I have refused to give in to the council's request. I cannot hand over my girls like goats to marry these illiterate boys."
Well, that was in Pakistan. Here, in Australia, a 55-year-old Aboriginal man, over two days, bashed and raped a 14-year-old girl who had been promised to him in marriage under Aboriginal law.
He was sentenced to one month's jail because the judge took tribal customs into account. The sentence, since increased to three years by the Court of Appeal, is in my view totally inadequate.
BUT it is not just "coloured" tribes that have atrocious customs. Many "tribes" in the world are represented in Germany for the World Soccer Cup and thousands of young women will have been trafficked from Europe to work as prostitutes in government-sponsored brothels.
As many as 40,000 women were expected to be added to the 400,000 prostitutes in Germany's sex industry.
German authorities have facilitated the construction of mega- brothels and "sex huts". Cities hosting the games were to issue special permits for street prostitution, creating partnerships with brothel owners, pimps and traffickers.
In Washington DC, dozens of human rights groups and experts in human trafficking gathered to decry the German Government's involvement in the sex trade.
Chris Smith, vice-chairman of the US House of Representatives international relations committee, said: "The sad news is that the German Government is facilitating prostitution and what will be a very significant influx of trafficked women who will be exploited.
"They will be treated as commodities. They will be raped as a direct result of having been trafficked into Germany for the World Cup event."
Mr Smith noted that about 75 per cent of the prostitutes in Germany were foreigners from central European countries. "We know beyond reasonable doubt that so many of these women are coerced and they are there because of force, fraud or, like I say, coercion."
What "tribes" need are enlightened men like Mr Nizzi, who will protect their daughters.
babette@endeavourforum.org.au
IT is time the myths of multiculturalism were abandoned. The majority Christian community in Australia must not be coerced into pretending all cultures are equally valid.
Late last year, in Pakistan, a village council decreed five young women be abducted, raped or killed for refusing to honour marriages it ordered to recompense enemies of their family after a murder.
The women, all cousins, were married in absentia by a mullah to illiterate sons of their family's enemies, after the father of one of the girls shot dead a rival. The council also sentenced to death Jehan Nizzi, the father of three of the women, and the fathers of the other two, for refusing to hand over their daughters.
In 2004, a three-year-old girl was betrothed to a 60-year-old man in a similar settlement. These cases, pitting tribal cultures against a group of educated women, led to the Pakistan parliament passing a law banning honour killings and "vani", which is the custom of handing over women to resolve disputes.
The Pakistan Human Rights Commission condemned the barbaric custom of "vani" and called on the Government to enforce the laws, which are widely ignored.
Amna Nizzi, 22, the oldest of the five girls, is studying English literature and hopes to become an English lecturer. Her sister, Abida, 18, hopes to study medicine, and their youngest sister, Sajida, 15, is at school. The other girls, Assi, 20, and 16-year- old Fatima, are the daughters of Mr Nizzi's brothers.
Amna Nizzi said: "It is a great injustice that should be ended. Why should we pay for a crime committed by someone else?
"I am proud of my father. Despite having little money, he has educated us and shown us we must stand up in society and demand our rights."
Mr Nizzi was quite open about the feud: "My brother murdered one of our neighbours after being shot at. But they already insulted us by making indecent remarks to our girls. I have refused to give in to the council's request. I cannot hand over my girls like goats to marry these illiterate boys."
Well, that was in Pakistan. Here, in Australia, a 55-year-old Aboriginal man, over two days, bashed and raped a 14-year-old girl who had been promised to him in marriage under Aboriginal law.
He was sentenced to one month's jail because the judge took tribal customs into account. The sentence, since increased to three years by the Court of Appeal, is in my view totally inadequate.
BUT it is not just "coloured" tribes that have atrocious customs. Many "tribes" in the world are represented in Germany for the World Soccer Cup and thousands of young women will have been trafficked from Europe to work as prostitutes in government-sponsored brothels.
As many as 40,000 women were expected to be added to the 400,000 prostitutes in Germany's sex industry.
German authorities have facilitated the construction of mega- brothels and "sex huts". Cities hosting the games were to issue special permits for street prostitution, creating partnerships with brothel owners, pimps and traffickers.
In Washington DC, dozens of human rights groups and experts in human trafficking gathered to decry the German Government's involvement in the sex trade.
Chris Smith, vice-chairman of the US House of Representatives international relations committee, said: "The sad news is that the German Government is facilitating prostitution and what will be a very significant influx of trafficked women who will be exploited.
"They will be treated as commodities. They will be raped as a direct result of having been trafficked into Germany for the World Cup event."
Mr Smith noted that about 75 per cent of the prostitutes in Germany were foreigners from central European countries. "We know beyond reasonable doubt that so many of these women are coerced and they are there because of force, fraud or, like I say, coercion."
What "tribes" need are enlightened men like Mr Nizzi, who will protect their daughters.
babette@endeavourforum.org.au
Monday, October 6, 2008
Some Traffickers get Caught
Dominic Woo
A businessman who ran a brothel from a sauna in Glasgow’s west end has been jailed for nine months.Dominic Woo was arrested after police raided the Venus Sauna in 2004 after several weeks of surveillance.
Officers secured a prosecution after questioning prostituted women whom Woo had coerced into the sex industry.
Woo admitted running a brothel and living off immoral earnings when he appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
As he was sentenced, he described the charges as a “stitch-up.”
Police acted after keeping the sauna in the city’s Sandyford Place Lane under surveillance for several days in July 2004. A number of men were seen visiting the premises and were later traced and interviewed. Most admitted knowing sex was for sale there.
Police raided the sauna and seized pornographic magazines, videos and DVDs as well lubricant, sex aids,condoms and underwear. A member of staff admitted she had been engaged in prostitution.
Adele MacDonald, prosecuting, told the court: “She said for each customer, irrespective of the sexual service,she would give £15 to reception. She was able to say that Dominic Woo would attend and check the takings. As far as she was aware, he would take the money as it would not be there afterwards.”
Luan Plakici
In December 2003, Albanian immigrant Plakici received a prison sentence of 23 years for trafficking Eastern European women into the UK and forcing them into prostitution. Plakici was convicted of several offences including kidnap, incitement to rape and living off the earnings of prostitution. He admitted smuggling up to
60 people into the UK, including seven counts of human trafficking.
Seven of his victims gave evidence in the trial, describing how they were tricked into leaving their loved ones behind for a brighter future. Instead the women were imprisoned, bought, sold and raped during their journey to the UK.
All the victims were beaten, raped and forced to have sex with up to 20 men a day in UK brothels. Plakici married one teenage victim for her earning potential, who then spent her wedding night being prostituted.
She was forced to undergo two abortions, returning to prostitution just hours later.
It was the biggest UK case of human traffi cking for prostitution, with a turnover of £1 million, supplying brothels in London, Reading, Luton and Bedford. Before leading his Albanian traffi cking ring, Plakici worked as a legal interpreter specialising in immigration. He attempted to deny his crimes by saying he had merely flouted immigration laws.
Ron and Angela Miller
A brothel owner was jailed for three and a half years after police raids on her Northampton massage parlours.
The raids ended with the discovery of then Labour MP Joe Ashton in one of the properties with a 21-year-old Thai woman. Along with three family members including ex-husband Ron and their son Don, Miller used false passports to bring up to 18 women from Thailand into her two brothels. She fled the country on September
15, 2000, the day she was given bail after admitting involvement in the £1 million prostitution racket.
Northamptonshire Police, working with Interpol, tracked Miller, who had duel citizenship, to Thailand where she was hiding in the beachside resort of Pattaya.
Miller’s prostitution gang was masterminded by her husband Ron Miller, who used agents in Thailand to find “suitable peasant girls.” He would make regular trips to the Far East to buy the women for £5,000 each at sales in Bangkok hotels.
WWW.CATWINTERNATIONAL.ORG
WWW.WOMENLOBBY.ORG
A businessman who ran a brothel from a sauna in Glasgow’s west end has been jailed for nine months.Dominic Woo was arrested after police raided the Venus Sauna in 2004 after several weeks of surveillance.
Officers secured a prosecution after questioning prostituted women whom Woo had coerced into the sex industry.
Woo admitted running a brothel and living off immoral earnings when he appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
As he was sentenced, he described the charges as a “stitch-up.”
Police acted after keeping the sauna in the city’s Sandyford Place Lane under surveillance for several days in July 2004. A number of men were seen visiting the premises and were later traced and interviewed. Most admitted knowing sex was for sale there.
Police raided the sauna and seized pornographic magazines, videos and DVDs as well lubricant, sex aids,condoms and underwear. A member of staff admitted she had been engaged in prostitution.
Adele MacDonald, prosecuting, told the court: “She said for each customer, irrespective of the sexual service,she would give £15 to reception. She was able to say that Dominic Woo would attend and check the takings. As far as she was aware, he would take the money as it would not be there afterwards.”
Luan Plakici
In December 2003, Albanian immigrant Plakici received a prison sentence of 23 years for trafficking Eastern European women into the UK and forcing them into prostitution. Plakici was convicted of several offences including kidnap, incitement to rape and living off the earnings of prostitution. He admitted smuggling up to
60 people into the UK, including seven counts of human trafficking.
Seven of his victims gave evidence in the trial, describing how they were tricked into leaving their loved ones behind for a brighter future. Instead the women were imprisoned, bought, sold and raped during their journey to the UK.
All the victims were beaten, raped and forced to have sex with up to 20 men a day in UK brothels. Plakici married one teenage victim for her earning potential, who then spent her wedding night being prostituted.
She was forced to undergo two abortions, returning to prostitution just hours later.
It was the biggest UK case of human traffi cking for prostitution, with a turnover of £1 million, supplying brothels in London, Reading, Luton and Bedford. Before leading his Albanian traffi cking ring, Plakici worked as a legal interpreter specialising in immigration. He attempted to deny his crimes by saying he had merely flouted immigration laws.
Ron and Angela Miller
A brothel owner was jailed for three and a half years after police raids on her Northampton massage parlours.
The raids ended with the discovery of then Labour MP Joe Ashton in one of the properties with a 21-year-old Thai woman. Along with three family members including ex-husband Ron and their son Don, Miller used false passports to bring up to 18 women from Thailand into her two brothels. She fled the country on September
15, 2000, the day she was given bail after admitting involvement in the £1 million prostitution racket.
Northamptonshire Police, working with Interpol, tracked Miller, who had duel citizenship, to Thailand where she was hiding in the beachside resort of Pattaya.
Miller’s prostitution gang was masterminded by her husband Ron Miller, who used agents in Thailand to find “suitable peasant girls.” He would make regular trips to the Far East to buy the women for £5,000 each at sales in Bangkok hotels.
WWW.CATWINTERNATIONAL.ORG
WWW.WOMENLOBBY.ORG
Saturday, October 4, 2008
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Prosecutes
Human Traffickers in Kansas City Plead Guilty to Coercing Prostitution, Money Laundering, and Identity Theft
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (ICE) -- The three owners and operators of Asian massage parlors in Johnson County, Kan., pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to engaging in human trafficking by coercing their employees, whom they recruited from China, to engage in prostitution. This plea was announced by John F. Wood, U.S. Attorney, Western District of Missouri. The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the FBI, and other law enforcement agencies.
"Human trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery that reaches from the other side of the globe to the suburban Midwest," Wood said. "Chinese women were recruited to travel to Kansas City, then coerced to work as prostitutes at massage parlors. These businesses have been shut down and the owners brought to justice. We have also provided social services to assist their victims."
"Victims of human trafficking are deceived, coerced or threatened by their captors," said Gary Hartwig, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Chicago. "ICE will work closely with our law enforcement partners to identify and protect the victims, and prosecute their captors." Hartwig oversees a six-state area, which includes: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky and Wisconsin.
Ling Xu, also known as "Cherry," 46, Zhong Yan Liu, also known as "Lucky," 36, and Cheng Tang, also known as "Tom," 22, all citizens of China residing in Overland Park, pleaded guilty in separate appearances this morning before U.S. District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan. Each of the defendants pleaded guilty to coercing persons to travel across state lines and national borders to engage in prostitution and illegal sexual services. They also pleaded guilty to money laundering by wiring more than $500,000 from the proceeds of that unlawful activity to China. Xu also pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft for using the passports and identification of her female workers to make most of those wire transfers. All three defendants remain in federal custody.
Xu and Liu are married to other persons, with whom they have limited contact, and were living together with Xu's son, Tang. Xu, Liu and Tang were involved in operating massage parlors, including: "China Rose Massage" and "China Villa Massage/Lin Dynasty" in Overland Park; and, at the times charges were filed, they were preparing to open "Victoria Square" in Overland Park. They also operated a nearby residence that was used for prostitution.
Co-defendant Hongmei Madole, also known as Hongmei Zhou, 32, of Olathe, Kan., pleaded guilty April 24 to coercing persons to travel across state lines and national borders to engage in prostitution and illegal sexual services. Madole owned "Asian Touch Massage" in Olathe.
Xu, Liu and Tang recruited female Asians to travel to the Kansas City area to work as masseuses. They facilitated the women's travel, including, but not limited to, booking and purchasing the flights for the women. They would fly the women into the Kansas City, Mo., International Airport and then transport or have them transported to the businesses. Xu and Tang signed massage therapy license applications, as the manager of the businesses, for the females to obtain massage therapy licenses with the city of Overland Park.
Xu, Liu, and Tang placed ads in the Kansas City magazine, The Pitch, which stated the massage parlors offered, for example, "The most elegant environment and the most comfortable atmosphere in town. With free table shower and free Sauna!" The ads stated that the massage parlors were open seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tang also posted and maintained ads for the business at ASPD.net, a website where male customers posted reviews of the sexual services offered by China Rose and China Villa Massage/Lin Dynasty.
The female Asians who worked for Xu, Liu, and Tang worked from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week and lived inside the massage parlors. Xu, Liu and Tang operated surveillance cameras inside the massage parlors to monitor the female Asian workers. Inside the massage parlors, the female Asian workers were forced to perform sexual services on male patrons in exchange for money. Xu, Liu, and Tang also used a nearby apartment, within walking distance of one of the massage parlors, to have the female Asian workers provide extended sexual services to some male patrons.
Xu and Liu purchased supplies to be used in the prostitution activities, including bulk orders of condoms that were provided to the females for use while engaging in the prostitution activities.
Xu, Liu, and Tang used businesses, such as 888 Market and Ho's Oriental Market, to wire at least $452,500 in proceeds from the prostitution businesses, via Western Union, to several locations in China. Xu wired at least $343,600 in this manner from 2005 to 2006. Of this amount, Xu wired $318,600 by illegally taking and using her female worker's passports and identification. Liu wired at least $74,500 and Tang wired at least $34,400.
Xu was the head of these businesses, as the lead owner and operator. Xu also employed and paid Liu and Tang for their work and assistance in committing the offenses.
By pleading guilty today, Xu, Liu, and Tang also agreed to forfeit to the government $452,500, which represented the proceeds of the unlawful activity, as well as $60,497 that was seized by the FBI during the execution of federal search warrants at the defendants' residences and businesses.
Xu is a native and citizen of China. She has resided legally in the United States pending adjudication of immigration benefits. Liu entered the United States on a visitor's visa which expired in 2001. He remained in the United States illegally thereafter. Madole is a native of China who is a conditional resident alien in the United States based upon marriage to a U.S. citizen.
Under federal statutes, Xu, Liu, and Tang are each subject to a sentence of up to 40 years in federal prison without parole. Xu is also subject to an additional mandatory term of two years in federal prison without parole for aggravated identity theft, which must be served consecutively to her sentence on the other offenses. Madole could be subject to a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison without parole. Sentencing hearings will be scheduled after the U.S. Probation Office completes its presentence investigations.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia L. Cordes, Western District of Missouri, is prosecuting this case. It was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, the police departments of Overland Park, Kan., Olathe, Kan., Mission, Kan., Lenexa, Kan., and Independence, Mo., and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Chocolate leaves a bitter taste
Salvokat Seductive Sweet
September 18, 2008
It is enjoyed by millions of connoisseurs around the world, but in recent years chocolate has started to leave an unpleasant aftertaste.
Canadian author Carol Off, whose book alerted readers to the ethical quagmire of chocolate consumption when it was released two years ago, is currently in Australia to talk up the topic.
Her book, Bitter Chocolate, lifted the lid on the use of child slavery in the cocoa plantations of West Africa.
The link between slavery and chocolate is as old as history, Off said.
“There has always been a case where cocoa has been produced by people who didn’t have a lot for people who do,” she said.
“The Aztecs and the Mayans produced cocoa for the King of Montezuma and in Europe they produced slaves to harvest cocoa beans for the chocolate fanatics of Europe.”
Things haven’t changed, she says.
“We have chocolate bars today that seem to be cheap and affordable even to a child … but the truth of the matter is we can only afford this chocolate because people who are picking the beans and cultivating it are children in West Africa,” she said.
“A lot of children voluntarily go (to the plantations) because there’s nothing for them in countries like Mali.
“Their crops are failing and nothing is growing in that part of the world, So a lot of the kids are sent off by their parents to get some money.
“But child traffickers see the vulnerability of these kids, there’s nobody watching over them and they round them up and take them over the border into the Ivory Coast and make money from them.”
It is difficult to help these children, Off says, because much of the Ivory Coast, which produces most of the world’s cocoa supply, is torn by civil war.
The government uses profits from the cocoa trade to fund the war, Off says.
“The complicity here is with them and the big chocolate companies.”
“There are only a handful of multinationals that control the industry and basically they are able to operate with impunity in Africa and Ivory Coast because everybody that has power over the situation is getting what they want.”
Fair trade systems were having a small impact, Off said, but would never provide a full solution.
“They pay a premium to the farmer, the chocolates are more expensive and the profits go back to the farmers.
“Where I went in those situations, the kids are going to school, there was health care, clean water and all these things were paid for by fair trade premiums - but there’s so few of them.
“It represents not even one per cent of all the cocoa being produced, so the vast majority is under this other system.”
The CEO of The Confectionery Manufacturers of Australasia (CMA), Trish Hyde, said the CMA was a part of a global initiative to eliminate child slavery and forced labour in the industry.
She said the CMA and other chocolate companies from around the world were working with the governments of the Ivory Coast and Ghana to help eliminate child slavery and forced labour.
“The important thing is from our perspective is the collaboration with government and NGOs (Non-Government Organisations) on the ground, with industry programs … that are actually making changes in the communities.”
The CMA says that in July this year it also helped implement a reporting system that would certify all labour on West African cocoa farms.
AAP
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/09/17/1221330918327.html
September 18, 2008
It is enjoyed by millions of connoisseurs around the world, but in recent years chocolate has started to leave an unpleasant aftertaste.
Canadian author Carol Off, whose book alerted readers to the ethical quagmire of chocolate consumption when it was released two years ago, is currently in Australia to talk up the topic.
Her book, Bitter Chocolate, lifted the lid on the use of child slavery in the cocoa plantations of West Africa.
The link between slavery and chocolate is as old as history, Off said.
“There has always been a case where cocoa has been produced by people who didn’t have a lot for people who do,” she said.
“The Aztecs and the Mayans produced cocoa for the King of Montezuma and in Europe they produced slaves to harvest cocoa beans for the chocolate fanatics of Europe.”
Things haven’t changed, she says.
“We have chocolate bars today that seem to be cheap and affordable even to a child … but the truth of the matter is we can only afford this chocolate because people who are picking the beans and cultivating it are children in West Africa,” she said.
“A lot of children voluntarily go (to the plantations) because there’s nothing for them in countries like Mali.
“Their crops are failing and nothing is growing in that part of the world, So a lot of the kids are sent off by their parents to get some money.
“But child traffickers see the vulnerability of these kids, there’s nobody watching over them and they round them up and take them over the border into the Ivory Coast and make money from them.”
It is difficult to help these children, Off says, because much of the Ivory Coast, which produces most of the world’s cocoa supply, is torn by civil war.
The government uses profits from the cocoa trade to fund the war, Off says.
“The complicity here is with them and the big chocolate companies.”
“There are only a handful of multinationals that control the industry and basically they are able to operate with impunity in Africa and Ivory Coast because everybody that has power over the situation is getting what they want.”
Fair trade systems were having a small impact, Off said, but would never provide a full solution.
“They pay a premium to the farmer, the chocolates are more expensive and the profits go back to the farmers.
“Where I went in those situations, the kids are going to school, there was health care, clean water and all these things were paid for by fair trade premiums - but there’s so few of them.
“It represents not even one per cent of all the cocoa being produced, so the vast majority is under this other system.”
The CEO of The Confectionery Manufacturers of Australasia (CMA), Trish Hyde, said the CMA was a part of a global initiative to eliminate child slavery and forced labour in the industry.
She said the CMA and other chocolate companies from around the world were working with the governments of the Ivory Coast and Ghana to help eliminate child slavery and forced labour.
“The important thing is from our perspective is the collaboration with government and NGOs (Non-Government Organisations) on the ground, with industry programs … that are actually making changes in the communities.”
The CMA says that in July this year it also helped implement a reporting system that would certify all labour on West African cocoa farms.
AAP
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/09/17/1221330918327.html
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Bonded Slavery
IJM casework, pseudonyms have been used though the accounts are real. Actual names and casework documentation are on file with IJM.
All text and Images © 2005 International Justice Mission
Bonded slavery is the continual labor of an individual forced to work by mental or physical threat. Bonded slaves are owned by an employer to whom the slave or slave’s family is indebted. Bonded slaves are forced to work long hours, often seven days
a week, for meager wages, if any, attempting to pay back a debt that increases at exorbitant interest rates. In reality, there is no way to repay the debt and the laborer becomes essentially a slave for life. Many bonded slaves are children who are beaten and abused if they do not fulfill the extreme expectations of the owner.
What are the facts?
• According to the United Nations Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, an estimated 20 million people were held in bonded slavery as of 1999.
• In 2004 there are more slaves than were seized from Africa during four centuries of trans-Atlantic slave trade. (Kevin Bales, Disposable People)
• In 1850 a slave in the Southern United States cost the equivalent of $40,000 today. According to Free the Slaves, a slave today costs an average of $90.
• Approximately two-thirds of today’s slaves are in South Asia. Human Rights Watch estimates that in India alone there are as many as 15 million children in bonded slavery.
How does bonded slavery happen?
When a personal or family emergency requires immediate funds the individual or family is forced to work for very little or no pay in exchange for a small loan. Because the debt increases faster than they’re paid a slave is trapped without hope of ever paying off the original debt. While IJM does not often find victims in physical chains, the intimidation of powerful oppressors is every bit as effective a means of restraint.
What does IJM do about bonded slavery?
IJM investigates and documents cases of bonded slavery, then works with local law enforcement within the country’s legal system to emancipate slaves and bring slaveholders to justice. IJM also works to secure quality after care for the victims.
How does IJM help real people held as bonded slaves?
Narakalappa is a 70-year-old man who was born into a family of bonded slaves (each generation assumes the debt of the previous). He and his children and grandchildren worked as slaves on an agricultural plantation. In June 2003, IJM led a raid on the property to identify and rescue as many bonded slaves as possible. IJM secured the release of 16 slaves, including Narakalappa.
For the first time in his life, Narakalappa is now a free man.
Bonded Slavery
All text and Images © 2005 International Justice Mission
Bonded slavery is the continual labor of an individual forced to work by mental or physical threat. Bonded slaves are owned by an employer to whom the slave or slave’s family is indebted. Bonded slaves are forced to work long hours, often seven days
a week, for meager wages, if any, attempting to pay back a debt that increases at exorbitant interest rates. In reality, there is no way to repay the debt and the laborer becomes essentially a slave for life. Many bonded slaves are children who are beaten and abused if they do not fulfill the extreme expectations of the owner.
What are the facts?
• According to the United Nations Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, an estimated 20 million people were held in bonded slavery as of 1999.
• In 2004 there are more slaves than were seized from Africa during four centuries of trans-Atlantic slave trade. (Kevin Bales, Disposable People)
• In 1850 a slave in the Southern United States cost the equivalent of $40,000 today. According to Free the Slaves, a slave today costs an average of $90.
• Approximately two-thirds of today’s slaves are in South Asia. Human Rights Watch estimates that in India alone there are as many as 15 million children in bonded slavery.
How does bonded slavery happen?
When a personal or family emergency requires immediate funds the individual or family is forced to work for very little or no pay in exchange for a small loan. Because the debt increases faster than they’re paid a slave is trapped without hope of ever paying off the original debt. While IJM does not often find victims in physical chains, the intimidation of powerful oppressors is every bit as effective a means of restraint.
What does IJM do about bonded slavery?
IJM investigates and documents cases of bonded slavery, then works with local law enforcement within the country’s legal system to emancipate slaves and bring slaveholders to justice. IJM also works to secure quality after care for the victims.
How does IJM help real people held as bonded slaves?
Narakalappa is a 70-year-old man who was born into a family of bonded slaves (each generation assumes the debt of the previous). He and his children and grandchildren worked as slaves on an agricultural plantation. In June 2003, IJM led a raid on the property to identify and rescue as many bonded slaves as possible. IJM secured the release of 16 slaves, including Narakalappa.
For the first time in his life, Narakalappa is now a free man.
Bonded Slavery
Israel's Strange Reluctance
Israel's fight against sex trafficking
By Raffi Berg
BBC News, Jerusalem
Marina rarely leaves her two-room home in northern Israel these days.
She is in hiding - wanted by the Israeli authorities for being an illegal immigrant, and by the criminal gangs who brought her here to sell her into prostitution.
Marina - not her real name - was lured to Israel by human traffickers.
During the height of the phenomenon, from the beginning of the 1990s to the early years of 2000, an estimated 3,000 women a year were brought to Israel on the false promise of jobs and a better way of life.
"When I was in the Ukraine, I had a difficult life," said Marina, who came to Israel in 1999 at the age of 33 after answering a newspaper advertisement offering the opportunity to study abroad.
"I was taken to an apartment in Ashkelon, and other women there told me I was now in prostitution. I became hysterical, but a guy starting hitting me and then others there raped me.
"I was then taken to a place where they sold me - just sold me!" she said, recalling how she was locked in a windowless basement for a month, drank water from a toilet and was deprived of food.
MAIN ORIGINS OF WOMEN TRAFFICKED TO ISRAEL
Russia
Moldova
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Belarus
That part of her ordeal only ended when she managed to escape, but the physical and mental scars remain.
Last year, the United Nations named Israel as one of the main destinations in the world for trafficked women; it has also consistently appeared as an offender in the annual US State Department's Trafficking in Persons (Tip) report.
While this year's report said Israel was making "significant efforts" to eliminate trafficking, it said it still does not "fully comply with the minimum standards" to do so.
Like Marina, some trafficked women are brought into the country legally, while others are smuggled by Bedouins across the border from Egypt.
In all cases, the traffickers - as many as 20 in the chain from recruitment to sale - take away the women's passports before selling them on to pimps.
Sometimes the women are subjected to degrading human auctions, where they are stripped, examined and sold for $8,000-$10,000.
Prostitution in Israel is legal, but pimping and maintaining a brothel are not.
The law however is not widely enforced and few brothels are closed down.
In Tel Aviv's Neve Shaanan district for instance, just a short walk from the city's five-star tourist hotels, brothels masquerading as massage parlours, saunas and even internet cafes, fill the side streets.
One such place even operates opposite the local police station.
There are bars on windows and heavily-built men guard the doors, which are only opened to let customers in and out.
Inside, groups of sullen-looking women sit in dimly-lit rooms, waiting for their next client.
Foreign women fetch the highest prices, with trafficked women forced to work up to 18 hours a day.
For years, the absence of anti-trafficking laws in Israel meant such activity - less risky and often more profitable than trafficking drugs or arms - went unchecked.
"During the first 10 years of trafficking, Israel did absolutely nothing," said Nomi Levenkron, of the Migrant Workers' Hotline, an NGO which helps trafficked women and puts pressure on the state to act.
In 2003 we used to find women who were being raped, jailed and under a great amount of violence. In 2007, the situation is completely different.
Raanan Caspi
Israeli anti-trafficking police chief
"Women were trafficked into Israel - the first case we uncovered was in 1992 - and not much really happened," she said.
"Occasionally traffickers were brought to trial, but the victims were arrested as well, they were forced to testify, and then they were deported."
In 2000, trafficking for sexual exploitation was made a crime but the punishments were light and its implementation was poor, NGOs say.
It was only after repeated criticism of Israel by the United States - and the threat of sanctions - that authorities began to act.
Investigations into suspected traffickers increased, stiff jail terms were handed down and Israel's borders were tightened against people smuggling.
Changing tactics
Campaigners say things began to change for the better in 2004, when the government opened a shelter in north Tel Aviv for women who had been trafficked for sex.
It marked a change in the way the state perceived them - as victims of a crime rather than accomplices.
There are some 30 women at the Maggan shelter - most from former Soviet states, but also five from China.
"When they come here they are in a bad condition," said Rinat Davidovich, the shelter's director.
"Most have sexual diseases and some have hepatitis and even tuberculosis. They also have problems going to sleep because they remember what used to happen to them at night," she said.
"It's very hard and it's a long procedure to start to help and treat them."
Police say their actions have led to a significant drop in the number of women now being trafficked into Israel for sex - hundreds, rather than thousands, a year - and they say the women's working environment has improved too.
"There is a significant change in the conditions that the women are being held in," said anti-trafficking police chief Raanan Caspi.
"In 2003 we used to find women who were being raped, incarcerated and suffering violence. In 2007, the situation is completely different - they get paid in most cases and the conditions that they're in are much more humane."
Now most trafficking occurs through what people like to call discreet apartments and escort agencies
Yedida Wolfe
Task Force on Human Trafficking
But the true picture might not be so clear-cut.
Campaigners say increased police activity has also had an adverse effect. Instead of operating openly in brothels, traffickers have become more discreet, plying their trade in private apartments and escort agencies, making the practice more difficult to detect.
"We've been keeping tabs on trends, in terms of, for instance, prices of exploitative services," said Yedida Wolfe, of the Task Force on Human Trafficking.
"Those prices have not gone up, which leads us to believe that the supply of victims has not gone down.
"While government officials are saying that their efforts have drastically cut the number of victims in the country, the NGOs on the scene really don't feel that's true."
Israel might well have turned a corner in its fight against the traffickers, but the battle is far from won.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7070929.stm
Published: 2007/11/06 07:51:50 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
By Raffi Berg
BBC News, Jerusalem
Marina rarely leaves her two-room home in northern Israel these days.
She is in hiding - wanted by the Israeli authorities for being an illegal immigrant, and by the criminal gangs who brought her here to sell her into prostitution.
Marina - not her real name - was lured to Israel by human traffickers.
During the height of the phenomenon, from the beginning of the 1990s to the early years of 2000, an estimated 3,000 women a year were brought to Israel on the false promise of jobs and a better way of life.
"When I was in the Ukraine, I had a difficult life," said Marina, who came to Israel in 1999 at the age of 33 after answering a newspaper advertisement offering the opportunity to study abroad.
"I was taken to an apartment in Ashkelon, and other women there told me I was now in prostitution. I became hysterical, but a guy starting hitting me and then others there raped me.
"I was then taken to a place where they sold me - just sold me!" she said, recalling how she was locked in a windowless basement for a month, drank water from a toilet and was deprived of food.
MAIN ORIGINS OF WOMEN TRAFFICKED TO ISRAEL
Russia
Moldova
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Belarus
That part of her ordeal only ended when she managed to escape, but the physical and mental scars remain.
Last year, the United Nations named Israel as one of the main destinations in the world for trafficked women; it has also consistently appeared as an offender in the annual US State Department's Trafficking in Persons (Tip) report.
While this year's report said Israel was making "significant efforts" to eliminate trafficking, it said it still does not "fully comply with the minimum standards" to do so.
Like Marina, some trafficked women are brought into the country legally, while others are smuggled by Bedouins across the border from Egypt.
In all cases, the traffickers - as many as 20 in the chain from recruitment to sale - take away the women's passports before selling them on to pimps.
Sometimes the women are subjected to degrading human auctions, where they are stripped, examined and sold for $8,000-$10,000.
Prostitution in Israel is legal, but pimping and maintaining a brothel are not.
The law however is not widely enforced and few brothels are closed down.
In Tel Aviv's Neve Shaanan district for instance, just a short walk from the city's five-star tourist hotels, brothels masquerading as massage parlours, saunas and even internet cafes, fill the side streets.
One such place even operates opposite the local police station.
There are bars on windows and heavily-built men guard the doors, which are only opened to let customers in and out.
Inside, groups of sullen-looking women sit in dimly-lit rooms, waiting for their next client.
Foreign women fetch the highest prices, with trafficked women forced to work up to 18 hours a day.
For years, the absence of anti-trafficking laws in Israel meant such activity - less risky and often more profitable than trafficking drugs or arms - went unchecked.
"During the first 10 years of trafficking, Israel did absolutely nothing," said Nomi Levenkron, of the Migrant Workers' Hotline, an NGO which helps trafficked women and puts pressure on the state to act.
In 2003 we used to find women who were being raped, jailed and under a great amount of violence. In 2007, the situation is completely different.
Raanan Caspi
Israeli anti-trafficking police chief
"Women were trafficked into Israel - the first case we uncovered was in 1992 - and not much really happened," she said.
"Occasionally traffickers were brought to trial, but the victims were arrested as well, they were forced to testify, and then they were deported."
In 2000, trafficking for sexual exploitation was made a crime but the punishments were light and its implementation was poor, NGOs say.
It was only after repeated criticism of Israel by the United States - and the threat of sanctions - that authorities began to act.
Investigations into suspected traffickers increased, stiff jail terms were handed down and Israel's borders were tightened against people smuggling.
Changing tactics
Campaigners say things began to change for the better in 2004, when the government opened a shelter in north Tel Aviv for women who had been trafficked for sex.
It marked a change in the way the state perceived them - as victims of a crime rather than accomplices.
There are some 30 women at the Maggan shelter - most from former Soviet states, but also five from China.
"When they come here they are in a bad condition," said Rinat Davidovich, the shelter's director.
"Most have sexual diseases and some have hepatitis and even tuberculosis. They also have problems going to sleep because they remember what used to happen to them at night," she said.
"It's very hard and it's a long procedure to start to help and treat them."
Police say their actions have led to a significant drop in the number of women now being trafficked into Israel for sex - hundreds, rather than thousands, a year - and they say the women's working environment has improved too.
"There is a significant change in the conditions that the women are being held in," said anti-trafficking police chief Raanan Caspi.
"In 2003 we used to find women who were being raped, incarcerated and suffering violence. In 2007, the situation is completely different - they get paid in most cases and the conditions that they're in are much more humane."
Now most trafficking occurs through what people like to call discreet apartments and escort agencies
Yedida Wolfe
Task Force on Human Trafficking
But the true picture might not be so clear-cut.
Campaigners say increased police activity has also had an adverse effect. Instead of operating openly in brothels, traffickers have become more discreet, plying their trade in private apartments and escort agencies, making the practice more difficult to detect.
"We've been keeping tabs on trends, in terms of, for instance, prices of exploitative services," said Yedida Wolfe, of the Task Force on Human Trafficking.
"Those prices have not gone up, which leads us to believe that the supply of victims has not gone down.
"While government officials are saying that their efforts have drastically cut the number of victims in the country, the NGOs on the scene really don't feel that's true."
Israel might well have turned a corner in its fight against the traffickers, but the battle is far from won.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7070929.stm
Published: 2007/11/06 07:51:50 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
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