Trafficking Monitor

Q&A -- Anti-slavery activist to speak in Acton - Acton, MA - The Beacon

2012-02-29T11:55:00.005-08:00

http://www.wickedlocal.com/acton/features/x1771583810/Q-A-Anti-slavery-activist-to-speak-in-Acton?zc_p=3#axzz1nnngvtYd

SOURCE: The Beacon

Courtesy photo

Anti-slavery activist Mei-Mei Ellerman will speak at a film presentation in Acton on March 1. The event is sponsored by the League of Women Voters-Acton Area.

By Margaret Smith/msmith@wickedlocal.com

Wicked Local

Feb 27, 2012

Acton, Mass. —
It all began with a newspaper article, about an alleged ring of prostitution in Providence.
Derek Ellerman, then a senior at Brown University, was horrified by reports that police had found young Asian women conscripted into sexual servitude.

With fellow student Katherine Chon, he co-founded The Polaris Project, inspired by the northern star escaped slaves in 19^th century U.S. used to guide their way to freedom.

Ellerman’s mother, Mei-Mei Ellerman, chairman and a founding member of The Polaris Project’s board of directors, is a guest speaker at a screening of the documentary, “Not My Life.”

The film explores the modern-way phenomenon of human trafficking and modern slavery.

She recently spoke about the organization’s efforts to combat these forms of abuse.

The screening and talk takes place at Acton Town Hall Thursday, March 1 and is sponsored by the League of Women Voters-Acton Area.

Please tell me about The Polaris Project and its mission, and how you got involved.
Polaris Project was co-founded in 2002 by Derek Ellerman -- my son-- and Katherine Chon, during their senior year at Brown University.

They came across a newspaper article that described the horrific conditions of a brothel, disguised as a massage parlor, close to their apartments in Providence. When the police raided the premises, they discovered six young Asian women with cigarette burns on their arms, forced to sleep on the bare concrete floor, and held in a situation of debt bondage, "like slaves" according to the investigating officer.
Shocked and outraged to learn that slavery existed in modern-day America, the two students took action….thus Polaris Project was born, named after the North Star which had once led escaping slaves to freedom.

Today, Polaris has a staff of 45, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., and offices in New Jersey and Tokyo. Polaris' original goal, "a world without slavery" continues to drive its comprehensive approach to combating one of the worst forms of human rights abuse and the second largest and most lucrative criminal industry in this century.

Polaris Project's flagship program is the National Human Trafficking Hotline and Resource Center, awarded by the Dept. of Health and Human Services in 2008. In 2011 the NHTRC took in and processed over 19,000 calls.

I became involved from the very first. One day my son Derek called me to announce that he was dropping his honors thesis in cognitive neuroscience to write up a business plan for an NGO start up to fight modern-day slavery.

Just hearing the bare bones of what he and Katherine had discovered and what they proposed to do, I was hooked. Working to raise awareness of modern-day slavery, fundraising for Polaris Project and helping them strategize for systemic social change, have been my top priority and unmitigated passion for the past 10 years.

You are presenting the film, "Not My Life," about human trafficking and modern day slavery and bondage. Please explain what topics the film covers.

Filmed on five continents over the period of four years, "Not My Life," a powerful and visually beautiful
documentary -- written and produced by Oscar nominee Robert Bilheimer, and narrated by Glenn Close -- covers the pandemic of human trafficking of children worldwide, in forced labor and in commercial sexual exploitation.

In the words of the narration, it "depicts the unspeakable practices of a multi-billion dollar global industry whose profits are built on the backs and in the beds of our planet's youth."

The face of child slavery in our times is told through stories of the fishing boys in Ghana on Lake Volta, enforced beggars in the streets of Senegal, children swarming over landfills in India, commercially and sexually exploited girls in Nepal, India, at truck stops in the U.S., child soldiers in Northern Uganda, just to mention a few. The film also highlights the indefatigable work and commitment of modern day abolitionists.

It is commonly said that there are more people in bondage nowadays than during the African-American slave trade. What does this comparison actually mean, and how can statistics be verified and tracked reliably?

The average figure quoted over and over, is that today 27 million people live in conditions of abject slavery across the globe. The source of this figure comes from Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves. In reality, the number is most probably far greater but there is no recent documented data.

Let it suffice to say that approximately 800,000 individuals are trafficked internationally across borders, 80 percent of which are women, and of these, 50 percent children.

Slavery exists in every single country in the world, including the United States where approximately 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the country, whereas the greatest numbers are domestic victims.

Taking into account just the children, between 100,000 and 200,000 US-born minors are at high risk of being forced into commercial sexual exploitation, every single year. Some of these figures are calculated on the basis of data from the National Runnaway Switchboard.

The truth is that activists are so stretched to simply identify, rescue and provide an opportunity for a new life for victims that there are only a few ongoing data collection efforts, some focused on the demand [especially of the so-called 'Johns" whom I consider predators] others on the victims.

What documented forms do trafficking and slavery take in the U.S.?

For starters, I think that it is essential to define human trafficking, which is synonymous with modern-day slavery. "Human trafficking is a market driven criminal industry that is based on the principals of supply and demand."

Trafficking occurs when force, fraud or coercion is used to keep an individual in a situation of exploitation or when a child under the age of 18 has been lured into commercial sex.

Contrary to the common assumption, no "movement" or transportation across borders is a necessary condition.

One can be trafficked in one's own home- for example, a child can be "rented" out by a parent to service men for pay.

Slavery is present in so many different facets of our society that is like a gigantic octopus with innumerable arms. Just to list the most common forms for sex trafficking: commercial sexual exploitation, including street prostitution, online escort services, residential brothels or massage parlors, nail salons, child and adult pornography.

Labor trafficking is found in small "mom and pop" operations, domestic servitude situations, as well as large farms, factories, construction industry and corporations. Other forms occur in fraudulent adoptions, bride trafficking, and organ trafficking.

What are some measures on the legislative front aimed at combating this problem; secondly, what can the average person to do help in response to the problem?

Polaris Project has been instrumental in drafting and passing both state and federal laws to better protect victims of human trafficking and to hold traffickers accountable.

Members of Polaris have testified in Congress and lobbied for stronger laws, for ensuring that U.S. victims are entitled to the same protection and services as foreign nationals. Polaris has played a significant role in the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2011.
It has also worked with individual states so that at present, only two lack some form of anti-trafficking legislation.

The first thing the average person can do to help in the fight against human trafficking is to learn the NHTR hotline number, 1-888-3737-888 and tell family, friends and colleagues about the hotline and the Polaris website.

Visiting the website, http://www.PolarisProject.org, is the fastest and easiest way to educate yourself on the complexities of human trafficking and by going to the TAKE ACTION link, learn in what ways you can make
a significant difference.

Certainly, step one is to make a contribution to help sustain Polaris' herculean efforts to create a world without slavery.

For Polaris' 10th anniversary, I have pledged to personally raise $300,000 for the National Human Trafficking Hotline by Dec. 31.
Here is my link: https://org2.democracyinaction.org.

The secret world of human trafficking in the Bluegrass

2012-02-28T08:54:00.002-08:00

CLICK ON LINK TO LISTEN:

http://www.wkyt.com/wymt/home/headlines/The_secret_world_of_human_trafficking_in_the_Bluegrass_140666273.html

Source: wymt tv

Mon 11:51 PM, Feb 27, 2012

Reporter: Melissa Etezadi melissa.etezadi@wkyt.com

According to UNICEF, an estimated one million children are forced to work in the global sex industry every year. A booming market that generates more than $39 billion in profit annually, and is described as the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world.

"The national average of a girl being trafficked in the U.S. is between 12-14 years old" explains Sandra Savage, a survivor of the sex industry. "I worked in the industry for 13 years, and in those years I saw things that I can't even describe." Savage, a native of Mount Sterling, who says she worked in the U.S. and internationally. "I never worked directly with anyone underage but the truth is, most of the people in this industry are. A lot of people want to think this kind of stuff only happens overseas but it's happening right here in Lexington."

Just last year, Berea Police arrested Anthony Wayne Hart and his wife Kathy for trafficking their two teenage daughters. They say the two attempted to sell the girls inside a Richmond movie theater, as well as at grocery stores and restaurants throughout Rockcastle County, Somerset, Danville and Fayette County.

According the DNA foundation, this underground industry is more profitable than drug trafficking and weapons.

"There is a demand in our communities for women and children's bodies for sex," explains Marissa Castellanos, Human Trafficking Program Manager for Kentucky Rescue and Restore. "It is the drive that funds this industry and makes it a growing problem. People think that sex trafficking looks like one thing, however the truth is it looks like a lot of different things." Castellanos explains that throughout the years, "human sex trafficking has evolved from people walking the streets to people posting ads on the web. Now a days, transactions can be made behind computer screens where no one can see you which makes it easier for predators."

According to Castellanos, many traffickers make fake ads on the internet for their victims as a way to sell them. She explains that many times, "they write the ads in such a way that it sounds appealing to the buyer. However, it's actually not written by the girl, it's written by the trafficker or the pimp who is selling her. For the traffickers and buyers this hasn't been a risky business for them. It's been very high profit and very low risk."

That is why Castellanos, Savage and others are presenting House Bill 350 before the state. The measure would strengthen punishment for human trafficking and help victims with recovery. It would also create a new Kentucky State Police unit to investigate human trafficking rings and promote better training for law enforcement and victims' advocates.

"From the initial onset of someone being trafficked their life expectancy is seven years. So, if you're 13-years-old when you get in, you're dead by 20," explains Savage.

According to Castellanos, there have been 67 cases of human trafficking and 12 indictments in Kentucky since 2007. There have yet to be any convictions on charges related to human trafficking. Just another reason why Castellanos says law enforcement needs more education, resources and tools to address human trafficking in our state.

Selected books and artices on Human Trafficking & Modern-Day Slavery-- Schuster Institute | Brandeis University

2012-02-28T08:31:00.003-08:00

http://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/slavery/books-articles.html

Source: Schuster Institute | Brandeis University

Check out the selected books and articles on human trafficking.

EILEEN FISHER on Preventing Human Trafficking with SB657 and SA8000

2012-02-28T07:11:00.003-08:00

[TRAFFICKING MONITOR: SAI STANDS FOR SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY INTERNATIONAL]

http://3blmedia.com/theCSRfeed/EILEEN-FISHER-Preventing-Human-Trafficking-SB657-and-SA8000

Source: 3blMedia

Friday, February 24, 2012 - 5:30am

SUMMARY

On September 30, 2010, the State of California signed into law the California Transparency in Supply Chain Act (SB657) requiring all companies, retailers and manufacturers with annual sales of $100 million or more that do business in California to disclose their efforts to eliminate human trafficking and slavery from their supply chains.

BLOG

SAI Corporate Program member EILEEN FISHER is one of the many companies that must comply with the Act. Among the California requirements are actions to ensure disclosure of "to what extent if any" a company engages in the five following activities: verification; auditing; certification; internal accountability; and training. SAI Communications Manager Joleen Ong spoke with EILEEN FISHER's Human Rights Associate Luna Lee, to learn more about what actions it has taken to comply with the act.

According to the ILO, at least 12.3 million people are victims of forced labor worldwide, with an estimated 80% occurring in the private sector economy. Even for companies that do not employ forced labor directly, common practices such as subcontracting and supplier business practices can present a risk.

The Act, which came into effect on January 1, 2012, signifies a movement towards a more transparent supply chain. Similar efforts are in progress nationally. The provisions enhance the value of SA8000®: especially for companies that are committed, or certified, to the SA8000^® standard will find it supports compliance, as it is one of the few workplace certification standards that include a specific ban on human trafficking.

How has this Act impacted EILEEN FISHER's business practices? What are some challenges you are facing?

We did not actually make drastic changes to our business practices because of this Act. We were already well prepared by our participation in the SAI Corporate Program. However, it certainly made us more conscious of including human trafficking and slavery into our human rights and philanthropic programs and delving deeper into our supply chain. For example, we have been surveying our second tier suppliers on various materials such as cotton, down and merino wool over the last 2 years.

Recently, we decided to incorporate a 'social tech' sheet into our fabric and yarn approval process, in addition to the regular tech sheet and eco tech sheet. The purpose of this tech sheet is to gather information related to certain raw materials that might be associated with human rights or animal welfare issues before a bulk order is placed.

We also included questions on labor standards, worker population and recruitment processes. We hope to engage our second tier suppliers in our human rights dialogue going forward. We also started participating in design meetings to help inform our designers on issues related to certain raw materials. Since this design for decent work approach is a new process, it will be interesting to see what challenges we will face when we come to the intersection of business versus values.

On the philanthropic side, we have been donating to organizations working on this issue since 2005 because it disproportionately affects women and girls, a grant focus of EILEEN FISHER. This Spring, we will partner with the Not For Sale Campaign along with our wholesale partner Bloomingdale's to support Not For Sale's Amsterdam Red Light District project to help create new futures for survivors of sex slavery.

How has SA8000^® played a role in enabling compliance?
Interestingly, we found out that SA8000^® is one of the few labor standards that already included human trafficking, it's under the forced and compulsory labor section (2.4). As a company that uses SA8000^® and the ETI Base Code as our labor standards, we felt that we were already in compliance with the Act, without having to add a statement saying that this is a new issue on our radar.

Can you describe how EILEEN FISHER is taking action to comply with the five required activities?

We sent a letter to all of our first tier suppliers (31 total) to inform them about the law, along with some educational materials on the topic and the supplier's country law on the issue. We also asked them to fill out a survey to help us assess where we could be vulnerable to human trafficking and slavery in our supply chain.

As a company that works very closely with our mills to create new and innovative fabrics and yarns, we felt that as a brand should we be the one ensuring that materials incorporated into our products are not tainted with human trafficking and slavery. The social tech sheet would allow us to identify some red flags and engage our mills in social dialogues prior to placing a bulk order.

Instead of focusing on the auditing, we feel that training is the key to engaging our supply chain in tackling this global issue. We have had a supply chain training program in China for almost 10 years and decided to incorporate human trafficking and slavery into the training last year. We believe that by giving our workers and managers the knowledge and tools, they will then be change agents in their individual communities. We have also held 3 training programs for our employees and sourcing and production agent.

Though not required by the Act, we have also included a section on our disclosure to educate our consumers on how they could be part of the solution. Consumer activism is actually something that is relatively new to us. We also have started to engage our own employees through internal articles and Human Rights Day pop quiz.

How much of an impact do you think this Act will have on the broader efforts to eliminate human trafficking?

An interesting thing that we keep noticing is that people seem to be taken aback by the terms "human trafficking" and "slavery", as if there is a sense of denial that this issue still exists today. This Act has definitely brought the issue to the forefront for many companies. Because there is so much attention on the topic now, companies are spending more time and resources on it, which will help the nonprofits working on this issue with their efforts on the ground. It is encouraging to see similar legislation in progress nationally as well. One day, these terms progress from being taboo, just as did domestic violence and AIDS used to be.

This article originally appeared in SAI's February 2012 Newsletter >>>

SAI21424

RESOURCES

Learn more about how EILEEN FISHER is taking action on SB657

Contact

JoLeen Ong

+1-2126841414 ext. 243

JOng@sa-intl.org

Social Accountability International (SAI)

http://www.sa-intl.org

Luna Lee

LLee@eileenfisher.com

EILEEN FISHER

http://www.eileenfisher.com

21424

Human trafficking prevalent in South Africa | The New Age Online

2012-02-28T06:06:00.003-08:00

http://www.thenewage.co.za/44543-1007-53-Human_trafficking_prevalent_in_South_Africa

Source: The New Age Online

Feb 27 2012 8:32AM

Mel Frykberg

The recent kidnapping of a South African woman by her Pakistani husband’s family in Pakistan, and her subsequent rescue by Pakistani authorities and South African officials, has highlighted the problem of human trafficking.

While the issue of South African women marrying abusive foreigners and being cut off from the outside world is serious, there are other, more prevalent forms of human trafficking.

South Africa is used by human traffickers as a source, transit point and destination country for the trafficking of men, women and children.

While the trafficking of people into South Africa is a bigger problem than the trafficking of people outside of the country, there is also internal trafficking.

European, Asian, and African women are brought into the country for commercial sex exploitation, domestic servitude and service sector jobs, while South African women are moved around internally in the country for the same purposes.

Boys and young men from southern African countries including Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi are trafficked into South Africa to be used as a form of cheap labour on farms, sometimes working months without being paid by the farmers.

The farmers are able to exploit the boys as many of them are illegal immigrants and the boys are unlikely to complain to the authorities, as the farmers may have them arrested and deported if they do.

The Human Sciences Research Council conducted a research on the issue on behalf of the South African government’s National Prosecuting Authority and identified a number of factors and patterns defining human trafficking in the country.

These included:

• South Africa is a destination county for long-distance flows for people (mainly women) trafficked from Thailand, Philippines, India, China, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and the Ukraine. The main point of entry of this trafficking stream is OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg.

• People are trafficked from within Africa across the extensive land borders of South Africa, mostly from Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and to a lesser extent Malawi, Swaziland and Lesotho.

• Longer-distance trafficking involve victims trafficked from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Kenya, Cameroon, Nigeria and Somalia. All documented cases in this last category are women trafficked for both sexual and labour exploitation.

• The largest movement of trafficked people is from rural areas to cities.

• Trafficking of South Africans out of the country is less of a problem, but eight cases were identified between January 2004 and January 2008. Destination countries included Ireland, Zimbabwe, Israel, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Macau.

In all cases, the victims were women trafficked for either sexual exploitation, labour exploitation or forced marriages.

The perpetrators include large organised crime networks involving South African men with a former military background. Criminal drug, smuggling and weapons groups are mainly behind the trafficking.

Points of destination for victims of trafficking in South Africa are the major cities, where the greatest demand exists, and towns and cities close to national borders.

Some of the most disturbing factors are the collusion of border and immigration officials through bribery, and lax border controls, which enable illegal transportation.

melf@thenewage.co.za

Marcia G. Yerman: Girls Likes Us -- Rachel Lloyd's Memoir Illuminates the Sexual Exploitation of Children

2012-02-27T08:36:00.003-08:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcia-g-yerman/girls-likes-us-rachel-llo_b_1302618.html?ref=impact

Source: Huffington Post

Marcia G. Yerman

Writer on Women's Issues; Co-founder of cultureID

2/27/2012

The first time I heard Rachel Lloyd speak was in 2005, the year of the 70th Annual Academy Awards. "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" had won for the best song of the year. Whenever I complained about that song being showcased, people would tell me to "lighten up." Yet when Lloyd stepped up to address the issue of human trafficking, she brought up that song, and the disconnect between reality and what the Hollywood version of life on the street entails.

Since then, while covering the topic of human trafficking, I have seen Lloyd talk at numerous events and panels. I have called her up for quotes and insights, such as the time football starLawrence Taylor was arrested. I had needed to get a lucid response on why the media was portraying an under-age trafficked girl as a "hooker."

Lloyd always speaks the truth to power. It may be to a New York City police commissioner, or a Manhattan audience learning for the first time that 13-year-old African-American girls in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn are being bought and sold. Lloyd frequently notes that they are part of an estimated 200,000-300,000 adolescents who are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation in the United States annually.

Consequently, it was no surprise to me that the memoir Lloyd had penned, Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale, an Activist Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself, would be a tough, gritty and brutally honest account. Lloyd traces how a difficult childhood led to a hair-raising journey that encompassed risk, recruitment, and violent abuse--to breaking free from sexual exploitation...and ultimately healing. She now is a top activist in the anti-trafficking movement.

Finding her purpose in working with girls "in the life," Lloyd connects to those in crisis based on shared experiences, understanding without judgment, and respect. Founding Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS) in 1998, Lloyd went back to school to attain her GED, going on to receive a Bachelors degree in Psychology from Marymount Manhattan College and a Masters in Applied Urban Anthropology from the City College of New York. She has racked up numerous awards for her work, all while "owning her experience."

Girls Like Us presents a dual story thread. One is Lloyd's personal narrative; the other is a primer on what trafficked American girls are up against. Lloyd outlines the factors that make girls vulnerable, examines how they are sexually exploited, and discusses the role of pimps, johns, and cops in the equation. The inherent difficulties of overcoming the trauma of sexual servitude often mimic the symptoms of Stockholm syndrome and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Lloyd breaks down one fallacy after another, many unfortunately believed by social workers, law enforcement officials, and those making decision calls in the judicial system. If misconceptions could start to be addressed, perhaps a real awareness toward new solutions could be innovated.

There is so much that needs to change, and Lloyd points out the problems with crystal clarity. One of her frequent talking points is the statistic that the estimated median age of entry into the commercial sex industry occurs between the ages of 12 and 14. Defining the difference between an "exploited child and a prostitute" is a full time endeavor. She explains that "leaving the life takes practice," and that girls need to have the unfailing support of a person who will not "give up on them." Most important to note are the socioeconomic causes, that for some baffling reason appears more comprehensible when they occur in foreign countries, but which are insufficiently grasped on our own national turf.

Lloyd posits that too often the wrong questions are asked. Instead of taking a facile approach to a girl's situation with the query, "Why doesn't she just leave?"--Lloyd suggests an examination of the impact of poverty, homelessness, and neglect, along with "race and class factors."

With over 500,000 children in New York City living in poverty, the risk factor is high. A 2007 study showed that 75 percent of sexually exploited and trafficked children in New York City were in foster care at some point. Connect the dots to an ineffective support system, and you end up with a "policy that blames the victim."

For police who don't understand that captivity isn't an issue of being physically tied and bound, it can be frustrating to explain the depths of a "trauma bond" in an existence predicated on terror. Leaving the life and making the transition is difficult. As Lloyd says, "Healing is a messy, complicated process that's rarely linear." It doesn't help that society--even those tasked with supporting victims--often relay the message that the girl's "exploitation was their choice," leaving them with a burden of blame and shame.

One of the major challenges is the need to reframe not only attitudes, but also language. The United Nations and UNICEF have adopted the term commercially sexually exploited child/youth to reference those who are underage. New terminology will help grow novel thinking. Once assimilated into the collective mindset, a change can start to be reflected in the media and popular culture. As Lloyd emphasizes, most of America didn't have trouble understanding the trauma of Elizabeth Smart. But when you shift from her story to a 14-year-old girl of color in the Bronx, the reaction is totally different.

Girls Like Us puts it all out there -- no holds barred. In addition to the contribution that Lloyd has made with her book filled with detailed veracity and visceral punch, she has left the public with nothing to hide behind.

There can no longer be the question, "Who knew?"

Fight child exploitation and get involved with organizations such as GEMS.

Girls Like Us comes out in paperback on February 28, 2012

This article originally appeared on the website mgyerman.com

Follow Marcia G. Yerman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mgyerman

Theresa Erickson To Be Sentenced For Baby Trafficking Ring

2012-02-27T07:56:00.003-08:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/24/theresa-erickson-sentneced_n_1299434.html

Source: Huffington Post

02/24/2012

By: JULIE WATSON (The Associated Press)

SAN DIEGO — Theresa Erickson's reputation as a leading reproductive law specialist eased the concerns of surrogate mothers and intended parents.

But prosecutors say being a trusted source also allowed her to lure them into unwittingly helping her build a baby manufacturing business spanning two continents that netted millions.

The 44-year-old attorney is expected to be sentenced Friday at a hearing in federal court in San Diego. She faces up to five years in prison.

Erickson, who authored books and spoke on TV about fertility issues, used California's thriving surrogacy business to find clients that she could convince to pay up to $150,000 for each baby, federal prosecutors say. The parents believed they were adopting legally by entering into an arrangement with a surrogate mother before the pregnancy.

In fact, Erickson working with a surrogate, Carla Chambers, and another respected Maryland attorney, Hilary Neiman, lined up parents for babies they had already created by sending U.S. surrogates to Ukraine to be implanted with sperm and embryos from anonymous donors, prosecutors say.

"These were criminals that were creating human life for sale," said surrogacy attorney Andrew Vorzimer, who represented the surrogates that helped blow the whistle on the scam. "Many people consider this to be a surrogacy arrangement gone awry. But this was not surrogacy in any shape or form."

Vorzimer said no one knows how many babies in total were created, and important genetic information for the infants may have been lost forever. The surrogates were also unaware of the scam, federal prosecutors say.

"They attempted to create the most marketable baby available, which was blond hair, blue-eyed baby, while simultaneously pulling on the heart strings of intended parents," Vorzimer said. "It defies description the immorality that was involved in this ongoing operation that went on for years."

Erickson has pleaded guilty to fraud and admitted to filing false applications for the surrogates to California's state insurance program to subsidize the medical costs of the deliveries of the babies. Chambers pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in monetary transactions derived from unlawful activity and also will be sentenced Friday. She faces up to five years as well. Neither woman nor their attorneys could be reached for comment.

Neiman was sentenced in December to one year in custody that included five months in prison and the rest under home confinement.

The case has prompted greater scrutiny by judges in California, the industry's hub because of its progressive laws regulating the industry. Other states ban surrogacy outright.

Heather Albaugh, a surrogate from the Dallas area, said she was among those who were duped by the trio.

Albaugh said she was contacted by Chambers after posting an ad on a surrogacy website. She said she was new to the business and nervous about agreeing to be sent to Ukraine for an embryo transfer but then Chambers told her the agency was represented by Erickson and Neiman.

"These two attorneys were huge, they were on the up-and-up and considered to be household names in the surrogacy industry, so once she said that I let down my guard," Albaugh said.

Albaugh returned from Ukraine and was in her 18th week of pregnancy when she started calling other attorneys, alarmed that there still were no parents set up to adopt the child she was carrying. Chambers had told her twice that the clients they lined up had backed out at the last minute.

Albaugh discovered from one of the outside attorneys she called that Erickson and the others were under investigation by the FBI.

"My jaw hit the ground," she said. "But I immediately kicked into what do I needed to do. I immediately got angry."

Albaugh called the FBI agent and helped with the investigation. She will be asking the judge Friday to require Erickson and Chambers pay her compensation.

She was promised $38,000 for carrying the child but received nothing, and feels she can never work again as a surrogate because her name has been tied to the scandal, although she was one of the victims, Albaugh said.

She gave birth in 2010 and a couple she had befriended has since legally adopted her.

Albaugh remains close to the family, visiting them regularly. She said that is the bright spot in all this, but she fears the day the girl asks questions about her birth.

"If she ever asks me any questions, I'll answer," Albaugh said. "But I'm sure there will be a time when she'll feel angry."

CLICK TO LISTEN TO REPORT:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/lawyer-pleads-guilty-role-baby-selling-ring-14276582

5,000 Global Churches Declare Freedom for the Captives – Not For Sale: End Human Trafficking and Slavery

2012-02-26T11:11:00.002-08:00

http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/news/2012/02/25/5000-global-churches-declare-freedom-for-the-captives/

Source: Not For Sale: End Human Trafficking and Slavery

FEBRUARY 25, 2012

On February 26th, freedom will ring from Bangkok to Managua, Austin to Sydney as thousands of churches around the world mobilize their congregations to take action towards “setting the captives free.” Through a day of collective fasting and prayer Freedom Sunday will rally religious devotees to join the global fight to end slavery in our lifetimes.

“Worship is the catalyst for action,” claims Rev. Kevin Austin, Director of the Abolitionist Faith Community, “It empowers the worshiper to move out beyond awareness to action.”

Currently 5000 faith communities from 100 different countries have registered for this day of hope-infused, prayer-filled, smart activism worship.

Freedom Sunday is uniting the faithful across national and denominational lines as Christian communities from disparate regions of the world unite for the common cause of justice. Many will Fast for Freedom throughout the Lenten season using the money saved in order to support NFS’s social ventures creating new futures for vulnerable, powerless, and exploited in our world.

“These religious devotees disdain lip service to the cause of justice, but act, give, and live in radical obedience to a better way,” says President and Co-founder David Batstone, “All over the world these faith-driven activists are saying, ‘not in my backyard.’”

This declaration resonates throughout the Onnuri Church in Seoul, South Korea. Faced with the reality of 1 million South Korean women enslaved in brothels in South Korea, the 60,000-member congregation (making Onnuri one of the largest churches in the world) hosted a spectacular Freedom Sunday last year. The event attracted an abundance of media attention, with Korea’s largest religious broadcasting network – CGNTV – bringing the sermon to two million viewers inside Korea as well as an additional 150 worldwide cable channels.

“Last year’s Freedom Sunday was electric for our congregation,” says Onnuri’s Pastor of English Ministries Eddie Byun, “I believe it was a reflection of a growing desire to see the Church rise up as relevant leaders in this movement for freedom.”

The event, imbued with action-based prayer, songs, and a sermon given by Batstone, moved the worshipers outward with a shared determination to use the transformative power of God’s love to fight the evil of modern-day slavery. In the span of one year, the Congregation has raised $35,000 to buy land for Not For Sale’s social venture in Thailand and that is creating new futures for survivors of trafficking.

Their incredible efforts inspired many more churches in South Korea to register for Freedom Sunday this year as worship becomes a formidable tool in the fight to abolish human trafficking. Byun will join Batstone in the Philippines, preaching to over 600 people in 35 churches around the country that people of faith a crucial role to play leading the movement to end forced labor in Asia and around the world.

Churches wishing to officially register for the exciting worship event can access a strong network of thousands of churches – The Underground Church Network (UCN) – through the NFS website. Using a “church-locator” – an interactive Google map – worshippers from diverse Christian denominations may find a participating Freedom Sunday church in their region. Through this portal churches can also share sermon notes, songs, bible studies, as well as fact sheets and other worship resources in order to enhance their congregation’s celebration of freedom.

Tomorrow, Freedom Sunday will sow the seeds of justice in thousands of churches across the globe.

“We are one community,” claims Austin, “working together despite differences, to stand against this global injustice.”

Ending the scourge of prostitution - JPost - Opinion - Op-Eds

2012-02-25T08:51:00.003-08:00

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=257846

Source: JPost - Opinion - Op-Eds

Many are unaware that Israel is classified as a destination and source country for human trafficking, of women in particular.

By ORIT ZUARETZ02/14/2012 22:49

By John L. White / South Florida Sun-Sentinel / MCT

From the day I took up the chairmanship of the Knesset subcommittee on the trafficking in women I have been exposed to a dark, sinister world right here in Israel’s own back yard. Yet this is the same Jewish and democratic Israel that is committed to the values of equality and human rights.

Many of us are unaware that Israel is classified as a destination and source country for human trafficking in general and of women in particular.

Since the 1990s Israel has made considerable headway in its handling of human trafficking and the trade in women. 2006 saw the passage of a law forbidding trafficking in human beings for slavery or prostitution and the prohibition on the organ trade – an offense carrying a 16-year jail sentence.

After a decade of the state taking responsibility for the issue and dealing with it, we can see a decrease in the patterns of women trafficking compared with those of a decade ago.

However, the scourge continues, affecting women trafficked from Eastern Europe, migrant workers and African asylum seekers, the latter of whom undergo a saga of torture and sexual assault en route to Israel through the Sinai.

Another issue is the internal trade or, more simply put, Israeli prostitution – Israeli women pressed into prostitution. The attitude toward prostitution in Israel is for the most part forgiving and understanding, relying on tired clichés such as “prostitution is the world’s oldest profession” or “if we don’t give men a safety valve for letting off steam legally with a prostitute, the number of rape cases will increase.” These are lame, hackneyed excuses completely divorced from reality.

Another myth revolves around the question of choice – something I’ve been hearing a lot of lately – “they choose this way of life,” “they want it,” “they make a lot of money that way.”

To get a first-hand impression, to see and hear from the women themselves, we set out, together with the members of the committee, on tours of south Tel Aviv, Eilat and Saharonim (an illegal migrant detention center).

The reality we witnessed is far removed from the idyllic images of prostitution by choice.

The women we met were young and old, they came from central Israel and from the periphery, each with a life story that led them into prostitution – each story more harrowing than the next. Failures in the education system and the welfare system, which did not protect them from sexual abuse, led them into prostitution. Not a single one of them ever dreamed of becoming a prostitute or call girl.

The main thing characterizing them all was their complete loss of faith in the system, frustration and helplessness when facing the state and the very authorities that are supposed to be there for them.

A bill I initiated, that seeks to punish those who use prostitutes and provide for community counseling, will be presented to the Knesset plenum today for a preliminary reading.

The bill is intended to reduce the scale of prostitution and correct the moral and humanitarian injustice victimizing thousands of women, men and children.

Opponents of the bill cite a variety of reasons for their opposition, but the one undeniable fact is that prostitution is not a voluntary act. Most women get sucked into the world of prostitution while still minors (age 12-14 on average), and most of them (over 90 percent) have suffered sexual or other abuse as children. Research shows that 90% of all women engaging in prostitution are frequently physically assaulted, with 55% of the assaults being perpetrated by the clients.

Most women get robbed and are sexually or otherwise assaulted.

Women engaging in prostitution are 200 times more likely to be violently raped than ordinary women. Most rape is perpetrated by clients.

The clients are the economic fuel keeping the wheels of this scourge turning, enabling its existence. The sex industry in Israel turns over billions of shekels per year, all of which ends up in the coffers of those criminals who exploit women and men, girls and boys.

The worldwide model shows that the suggested legislation will dramatically reduce the scale of the problem.

Its enforcement will put us on a par with other advanced Western countries.

This kind of legislation, which prohibits the commoditization of the bodies of people whose lives have led them into the weakest niche in society, will certainly save many girls and boys from a brutal fate rife with exploitation and violence.

The eyes of many – social organizations, citizens and tens of thousands of women who have been, or are, subjected to sexual, physical and psychological abuse on a daily basis – are looking to the occupants of the Knesset to take this important moral stand. It is a stand consistent with the values of the State of Israel, as well as the values of all future victims – those we have the power to prevent.

This law is the linchpin of a whole chain of actions intended to bring about social change in all matters concerning prostitution and the trafficking of women in Israel. Government support for such a law is a moral and value statement of the highest kind.

The writer, a member of the Knesset, is the chairman of the sub-committee on the trafficking in women and the author of a bill that assigns criminal responsibility to clients of prostitutes.

Nigerian woman held captive and enslaved in Texas home for nine years - Crimesider - CBS News

2012-02-25T08:46:00.002-08:00

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57381979-504083/nigerian-woman-held-captive-and-enslaved-in-texas-home-for-nine-years/

Source: CBS News

February 21, 2012 4:02 PM

By Crimesider Staff

Cindy

(Credit: CBS DFW)

(CBS) ARLINGTON, Texas - A woman was held captive inside an Arlington house for nine years after she was tricked and forced into modern day slavery.

CBS DFW reports this woman, who requested to be called Cindy, said she thought she was coming to Texas from Nigeria to work as a nanny for Emmanuel and Ngozi Nnaji. Instead, she was enslaved in their home for nine years.

The couple reportedly forced her to take care of her three children, and do all the chores 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"I had no choice," she said of her enslavement in the home. The couple never gave her a break, day off, or any time for herself.

Cindy said she wasn't even allowed to leave the house. The only time she ventured outside was at 4 a.m. to water the yard. She says Ngozi, "didn't want anyone to know me."

Before arriving in Texas in 1997, Cindy didn't speak English. She is a widow and made the painful decision to leave her six young children behind so she could earn money to send them.

She soon realized she was in trouble. She didn't know anyone except the Nnaji's.

The family never paid her as they promised and they took her passport and told her to forget about going home.

When asked why she didn't try to leave the house and escape, Cindy said, "I didn't leave the house because I was scared," she said. "I didn't know where to go."

Her situation grew even worse when Emmanuel Nnaji sexually assaulted her. "He raped me in the house," she said. "Ngozi was not there." Cindy says the sexual abuse continued but no one knew.

After eight years of being held against her will, Cindy finally found the courage to tell someone back home what had happened. In 2005, Cindy said, "I went to hide in the closet, talked to my niece and told her everything Emmanuel did to me. She said don't worry, we'll find someone who will help."

Cindy's niece knew a priest from Texas who was visiting Nigeria and she gave Cindy his cell phone number. In 2006, when no one else was around, Cindy called the priest to plot her escape.

In the next few days, the priest drove to the Nnaji's house. She walked out of the house with just a trash bag filled with a few of her belongings.

Cindy has been free ever since.

The FBI and Justice Department investigated this case, and two years ago this month, a federal jury convicted the Nnajis.

Emmanuel is serving a 20-year sentence. His wife, Ngozi, is serving a nine year sentence. Afterwards, she will be deported to Nigeria.

The couple must pay Cindy more than $300,000 in restitution. The Justice Department says between January 2008 and June 2010, agents investigated more than 2,515 human trafficking cases.

Most involved sex trafficking, but there were about 350 forced labor cases. One of which was the Nnaji's case.

WTRF.com SPECIAL REPORT: Human Trafficking and the Ohio Valley - WTRF 7 - Wheeling Steubenville

2012-02-25T08:44:00.004-08:00

CLICK ON TO LISTEN TO REPORT:]

http://www.wtrf.com/story/16997836/wtrfcom-special-report-human-trafficking-and-the-ohio-valley

Source: WTRF 7

Feb 25, 2012 10:41 PM EST

By Nate Fluharty - email

When you hear the term "human trafficking" most of us would think of a foreign country or at most a big city, but like many crimes, its on the rise and showing up in the least likely of areas and the Ohio Valley could be next.

"Human trafficking" in short, is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery.

In cities across the country, law enforcement are beginning to see a boom in this once obsolete world.

What was once looked at as simple prostitution now involves girls as young as 12 years old.

"It targets those individuals that have been abused or neglected. A lot of the time that just so happens to be a young girl, " said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.

Attorney General Dewine is one of the leading men across the country in the fight against human trafficking.

Just recently Ohio and Pennsylvania adopted stricter laws and punishments and just this week West Virginia got on board and passed new legislation as well.

Attorney General DeWine told WTRF.com, "it's something every state should be looking into if they're not already. We're not just seeing this type of thing in the larger cities, but also as far reaching as the suburbs."

When asked if the Ohio Valley may be a target area for future human trafficking, Dewine said, "it's tough to say exactly where it will be seen, especially because this is still something new for law enforcement. What you have to understand is the recipe of what causes it. If you have a certain economy that is beginning to grow, an influx of out of town workers, and people willing to break the law, then of course."

Attorney General DeWine said he hopes to continue strengthening Ohio's laws against human trafficking and working with other state lawmakers to do the same.

allAfrica.com: Uganda: How Daughters Are Trapped in Human Trafficking

2012-02-25T08:43:00.003-08:00

http://allafrica.com/stories/201202230100.html

SOURCE: allAfrica.com

BY PHILIPPA CROOME, 23 FEBRUARY 2012

When 23-year-old Linda (not her real name) was approached by the grandfather of a friend and offered a job in Malaysia, she wanted to believe it so badly that she did.

For the sake of her young child and ill mother, she wanted to believe that there was an opportunity for her abroad where she could work in a shop, make Shs2.5m in a month, and send money home to her family.

Within 10 days from accepting the proposition, Linda had a visa in hand, a ticket purchased for her, and was on her way to China - what she was told would be a brief stopover on her way to Malaysia. She was met by a Ugandan woman she knew only as "Faith", who brought her to a hotel. There, she found a handful of others who fit the profile, just like her.

Her passport was taken from her, her questions went unanswered, and her movements were limited. And after two days, men started being sent into her room. They told Linda they had already paid her boss for her services.

Linda ended up spending one month at that hotel, where she was forced to sleep with multiple men in a day under threat of violence. "I was feeling so bad - so so bad. But I couldn't do anything," Linda says. "When you refused she (Faith) would slap us, and not give us food to eat."

One day, she tried to find a way to an embassy that might help her. Faith found out, and Linda and another woman were shipped off to Malaysia. Though under strict directions to say as little as possible to officials and wait to be picked up at the airport, the women were stopped at immigration and didn't make it through.

Malaysian immigration sent her back to China, which sent her straight back to Malaysia again. She was in immigration limbo, and with no one to pay for her ticket home, Linda was detained at the Malaysian airport for months. In that time she fell ill, was taken to hospital and told that she was pregnant. Linda later miscarried - and then found out that she had contracted HIV.

"I just wanted to get some good money so I can help my kid, I can help my mom. I never imagined..." Her voice breaks and as she looks down into her lap, tears fall onto her clasped hands.

Lost Ugandans

Linda is not alone. A steadily growing number of Ugandan women are being trafficked to Malaysia and forced into the sex trade there. Last week, Hajah Noraihan, the honorary Malaysian consul to Uganda said at least 600 Ugandan trafficking victims are currently in her country, with another 10 or more continuing to enter daily.

Uganda's Director of Interpol Asan Kasingye has confirmed the figure, as well as the International Organization of Migration (IOM) - which says it has returned 14 women so far.

Linda was one of the few to return - getting out was the one bit of luck in her tragic tale. She returned in December with Ms Noraihan, who along with IOM has been the driving force in seeing any of the girls return. "Because of my concern about what happened to the Ugandan girls in Malaysia, a lot of things happened," Ms Noraihan says matter-of-factly. "Because they themselves cannot move."

At least three Ugandan women have been killed trying to escape from forced prostitution in Malaysia, Ms Noraihan says, and she has the photos to prove it. This newspaper has seen gruesome pictures of the dead women, and Ms Noraihan has provided them to police.

For the few girls who have gotten out, getting travel documents in place and a ticket to come home is not easy. With no Ugandan embassy or consulate in Malaysia, papers have to be sent from the High Commission in New Delhi, which Ms Noraihan says she has been paying for out of pocket.

And while the IOM has been paying to bring women home, the agency is often bound by how much the victims will say. Having been intimidated or threatened by the traffickers, with some women even reporting rape and torture, their fear can override the need for a statement and clear expressed desire to return home - which the IOM needs to be able to act.

What's more, some girls actually choose to become traffickers themselves after seeing the potential income it can bring them, says Interpol's Kasingye. Malaysian immigration controls have been more stringent since last October, when police raided an apartment in Kuala Lumpur in which 21 Ugandan women were freed from forced prostitution.

Proactive visa raids have been going on since, and has landed 60 Ugandan women in Malaysian prisons, Ms Noraihan said. These kinds of raids are the only way to get an idea of the numbers involved, says IOM, as the rest can only be estimated by random border detentions.

Interpol says 300 Ugandan victims of trafficking are also in India, where the trafficking of body parts is rife. Mr Kasingye said no other numbers could be verified, but that Ugandan victims have been confirmed in Thailand, China, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Fighting the scourge

Across the board, officials agree that preventing Ugandans from leaving in the first place is the only way to stop the scourge. "IOM has been working with the government to help victims of trafficking to rebuild their lives, but once the damage is done, it is hard to reverse," said IOM Uganda's Chief of Mission Gerard Waite in a statement.

But prevention is no easy feat. Hundreds of genuine migrants cross borders every day for employment purposes, and even irregular ones cannot be categorized as trafficked under they become bonded, have their passports withheld, or start being exploited.

Linda is still struggling to pick up the pieces. She knows she needs counseling to deal with what happened to her, but can't afford it on her own. And rehabilitating returned girls like Linda is key to prosecution, says Mr Kasingye. "Someone who has gone through counseling and psychosocial support can go through that, can testify," he says. "They need to overcome fear, they need to overcome the trauma."

Failed by the system

Uganda enacted its anti-trafficking law in 2009, under which traffickers can face from 15 years to life in prison. But it is yet to convict anyone under the legislation, despite at least 16 outstanding investigations.

According to the US State Department, in November 2010, two pastors and an alleged accomplice were charged under the law for transporting a 17-year-old girl from Soroti District to Kampala, obtaining her a fraudulent passport, and attempting to take her to the UAE. The suspects were granted bail pending prosecution, the report said.

In February 2011, another two suspects were charged in court for allegedly forcing two Ugandan women into prostitution in Malaysia, but remain in prison awaiting a verdict, the report said.

Ms Noraihan says she warned the government in 2008 when just 30 Ugandans had been trafficked to her country, but that nothing was done. But since human trafficking headlines made waves in parliament last week, a flurry of action has followed. A parliamentary committee will travel to Malaysia this month to better understand the issue at hand, while a taskforce of relevant Ugandan officials have begun meeting. It may be three years later, but Ms Noraihan says at least now there are signs that a coordinated approach might come to pass.

Interpol's Mr Kasingye says police too need a comprehensive overhaul of how it has been operating. While the recently created Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is now in charge of investigations at home, he says the information provided to them should have borne more fruit by now.

"The intelligence is there but there is something missing," he said. Mr Kasingye calls for a model much like one that already exists in West Africa to tackle the systemic drug trafficking problem there.

The West Africa Coast Initiative (WACI) allows for a dedicated unit in each affected country to share information - crucial in cracking down on traffickers known for moving between neighbouring countries to bypass immigration controls and fly victims out.

With Uganda, many victims are first taken to Rwanda, Burundi or Kenya and then flown to Asia or the Middle East for sexual slavery, Mr Kasingye said. The WACI-based Transnational Crime Units (TCU) would ideally work closely with prosecutors as well.

Last December, the American Bar Association under its Rule of Law Initiative relaunched its human trafficking program in Uganda. It oversaw the anti-trafficking law being enacted in 2009, but saw a need to return and oversee the implementation, its website says.

For Linda, testifying against the people who put her through the darkest time in her life will doubtless be a daunting task - she has even heard that her traffickers have been asking around about her. "I still fear, but I don't want this to happen to another girl," she said quietly. "Now, I am just looking for a job."

Ontario truckers asked to watch for human trafficking - Ottawa - CBC News

2012-02-25T08:16:00.002-08:00

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/02/24/ottawa-truck-drivers-human-trafficking.html

Source: Ottawa - CBC News

Feb 24, 2012

A new campaign targeting human trafficking is hitting Ontario highways, with the hopes that truckers and truck stop workers can help report suspicious activity.

The TruckSTOP campaign is an initiative from the Ottawa volunteer group Persons Against the Crime of Trafficking in humans, or PACT-Ottawa.

The program, funded in part by Public Safety Canada, is reaching out to transport truck drivers and people working at roadside stops to help them learn what to look for in cases of human trafficking and to report these instances.

"We think they can be a tremendous help in raising the observability and detection of the crime," said Duncan Baird, the director of the campaign. "There's first of all so many of them. And they're so well positioned to observe it. We really want to recruit them to the fight against human trafficking."

The pilot program, slated to launch in April, will include providing point-of-sale displays at stops from Windsor to Ottawa with tips for truckers on spotting human trafficking.

Truck-stop owner haunted by incident

Gail Cameron, the owner of Antrim Truck Stop in Arnprior, Ont., said she believes human trafficking is happening in the area and said she is haunted by an incident where she failed to act.

"I had an experience about 15 years ago where I had two young girls come into the truck stop," said Cameron.

"They were with a man and there was something wrong. And I never did anything about it. They looked really afraid. There was something wrong. It just wasn't right."

Truck driver Ron Thompson has been driving the highways for 30 years. He said he already calls in drunk drivers and traffic accidents.

Truckers welcome more information

"We're the eyes and the ears. We're out there too, along with the police officers. There's a lot more of us," he said.

"Law enforcement is trying to do the best they can. So if we can help...our industry can help. I'm all for it."

Joe Degier, a truck driver for 34 years, said the information would be welcome.

"I wouldn't know what to look for if I was driving down the road," said Degier.

The TruckSTOP information says truckers should watch for people who look like they are being controlled or watched, who are fearing for their safety, tired, hungry or showing signs of physical or emotional abuse and not in possession of identification or travel documents.

Christina Harrison-Baird, the chair of PACT-Ottawa and an International Human Rights Lawyer, said the idea is modelled after an American campaign, where one tip from a trucker helped break up a multi-state trafficking ring based in Ohio.

"There is both sexual exploitation and labour trafficking going on," said Harrison-Baird.

Human Trafficking a Growing Global Scourge - New America Media

2012-02-24T14:34:00.001-08:00

http://newamericamedia.org/2012/02/human-trafficking-a-growing-global-scourge.php

Source: New America Media

New America Media / SF Public Press, News Feature, Andrew Lam, Posted: Feb 24, 2012

On the 900-mile trek of mostly desert that stretches between Eritrea and Egypt, hunting for humans has become routine.

Eritrean refugees who have fled their homeland fall prey to Bedouin or Egyptian traffickers. The refugees are held for ransom. Those with relatives abroad who can pay for their release might survive. Those who do not are often killed. The United Nations confirms that some are harvested for their organs — their livers and kidneys sold on the black market — while others, the young and able, are sold off. One survivor told the U.N., “People catch us, sell us like goats.”

Slavery is alive and well in the 21st century. There are more people enslaved today than at any other time in history. The U.S. State Department says that estimates of those enslaved through human trafficking ranges from 4 million to 27 million.

Human trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal business in the world, according to the State Department. It ranks only second to drug trafficking in profitability, bringing in an estimated $32 billion annually. The majority of those trafficked are young adults between ages 18 and 24 — but children also make up a large part of it. Almost all have experienced either sexual exploitation or violence, often both, during their time being enslaved.

But the statistics can be disputed. The United Nations notes that “the lack of accurate statistics is due only in part to the hidden nature of the crime, and that the lack of systematic reporting is the real problem.” In other words, the number of those trafficked worldwide might be far greater than what is estimated.

What we do know is that traffickers practice the trade with relative impunity. In 2006 there were 5,808 trafficking prosecutions and 3,160 convictions worldwide, which would mean that one person is convicted for every 800 people trafficked.

Though most of those trafficked are exploited for their labor or are thrown into sexual servitude, the area that’s particularly grotesque is the organ trade. One human rights lawyer who did not want to give his name said cases involving the removal of human organs for transplantation are more miserable than those involving genocide.

“At one end someone is killed for their organs, which in some perhaps overly theoretical way is worse than murder,” he said. “In the latter, the victim’s death is at least a motive — the murderer seeks to kill a human being. In the former, the victim is merely a box containing an object, and the murder is merely the process of throwing out the box and wrapping.”

The international commodification of humans is becoming the new norm of our age. In Bangkok, Thailand, a “baby factory” was discovered last year in which more than a dozen Vietnamese women were impregnated (some were raped), and their babies were sold for adoption. Whether or not the babies — unregistered, non-existent in the eyes of the law — were truly adopted, raised to be slaves or farmed out for body parts is not known.

What is certain is that Vietnam, like many other impoverished countries with a growing population of young people, has become a major supply country, where vulnerable young women and girls are in high demand on the international market. In certain bars in Ho Chi Minh City, rural girls are routinely trucked in to parade at auction blocks. The girls are often naked except for a tag with a number on it, and in the audience are foreigners — South Koreans, Taiwanese and mainland Chinese are the main consumers — who call them down for inspection. They leave together under the pretense of marriage after the paperwork is done, but many end up in brothels or sweatshops instead.

Diep Vuong, executive director of Pacific Links Foundation, an organization that works to combat human trafficking by providing education to the poor in Vietnam, is pessimistic. Overpopulated and dwindling in resources, Vietnam is full of young, uneducated people.

“The only resource we have left in abundance are the humans themselves,” she noted wryly. “We’re moving toward the Jonathan Swift version of reality.”

While children of the poor are not being eaten as Swift sarcastically suggested, they are being abducted and enslaved. They work in the fields as slave laborers as in the Ivory Coast’s cocoa plantation where half a million children work and provide 40 percent of the world’s chocolate — something most of them have never tasted. Or they are abducted at ages as young as 5 in Uganda and forced to become soldiers. Or they work in the carpet and brick factories of South Asia, many shackled and branded by their masters. Those too weak to work are killed off and thrown into rivers.

Closer to home, border drug cartels have incorporated the lucrative human trade into their business, and in some parts of Mexico they have the tacit support of the local authorities. Mass graves were discovered last year full of migrants’ corpses. Their crime: They weren’t worth much alive.

The forces of globalization have only intensified the trade in humans. After the Cold War ended, borders became more porous. New forms of information technology have helped integrate the world market. Increasing economic disparity and demand for cheap labor have spurred unprecedented mass human migration. The poor and desperate fall prey to the lure of a better life.

Nongovernmental organization workers who battle trafficking often describe victims as being “tricked.”

In March 2004, eBay shut down sales when it discovered that three young Vietnamese women were being auctioned off, with a starting bid of $5,400. Their photos were displayed. The “items” were from Vietnam and would be “shipped to Taiwan only.”

“I was browsing on the Internet and this guy kept trying to chat with me,” one Vietnamese teenager rescued from a brothel in Phnom Penh recounted. “There’s a coffee shop in Cambodia. He said I could make money over there.”

They crossed the border from Vietnam to Cambodia, and she soon became enslaved. She was saved in a police raid, just as the traffickers were planning to move her again. The madam “was waiting for more girls to show up to ship us to Malaysia,” she said. Her fake passport had already been made.

The trafficking network is sophisticated and well organized, and if the lure of money and a better life elsewhere becomes the entrapment of the poor and vulnerable, the abundance of cheap labor coupled with an atmosphere of impunity becomes the seduction for others to become traffickers.

“A slave purchased for $10,000 could end up making her owner $160,000 in profits before she dies or runs away,” Siddharth Kara noted in a talk on sex trafficking at the Roberta Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern University. In fact, a child in Vietnam can be bought for as little as $400.

Slavery is not going away because the agony of human enslavement remains largely invisible in the public discourse. It is just as shocking that Eritrean refugees are hunted nightly by traffickers as it is that their story remains hidden in darkness.

NAM editor Andrew Lam is author of "East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres," and "Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora." His next book, "Birds of Paradise," is due out in 2013.

Domestic Workers Who Accused Diplomats of Human Trafficking Settle With Kuwaiti Government | American Civil Liberties Union

2012-02-24T14:24:00.003-08:00

http://www.aclu.org/womens-rights/domestic-workers-who-accused-diplomats-human-trafficking-settle-kuwaiti-government

Source: American Civil Liberties Union

February 15, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

WASHINGTON – The Kuwaiti government agreed to settle a case brought by three women who claimed that they were trafficked to the United States by a Kuwaiti diplomat and his wife and forced to work as domestic employees at the diplomat’s home in Virginia against their will and under slavery-like conditions.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in 2007 on the women’s behalf against Kuwait, the diplomat Major Waleed Al Saleh and his wife Maysaa Al Omar. The lawsuit claimed that the Kuwaiti government was responsible for the conduct of the women’s employers because several human rights reports have noted that trafficking and forced labor were commonplace among its diplomats. The government had an obligation as the diplomat’s employer to take measures to protect the three women. The women were also represented by the law firm Jenner & Block, and the terms of the settlement are confidential.

“This settlement affirms the principle that no form of immunity should allow diplomats to treat their employees like slaves,” said Galen Sherwin, staff attorney with the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. “Domestic employees brought to the U.S. from other countries should expect the same level of protection from violence and exploitation as anyone else.”

The three women – Kumari Sabbithi, Joaquina Quadros and Tina Fernandes – all originally from India, were employed as domestic workers by Al Saleh and his wife at their home in McLean, Virginia. The complaint alleged that they were brought to the U.S. in the summer of 2005 and that they were forced to work every day from 6:30 a.m. until sometimes as late as 1:30 a.m. for approximately $250 to $350 a month. The complaint further alleged that they were subjected to threats and verbal and physical abuse, including one incident in which Al Saleh threw one of the women, Sabbithi, against a kitchen table, knocking her unconscious.

The women alleged that they were often not allowed time to eat or to use the bathroom and frequently were deprived of food, that two of them were allowed only one hour off a month to attend church, and that they had their passports taken away and were isolated from contact with the external world. The complaint alleged that, fearing for their lives, the three women fled the household toward the end of 2005.

As a diplomat, Al Saleh was legally required by the State Department to sign a contract with each of the women guaranteeing them a fair wage, specific working conditions and safe passage home. Instead, the complaint alleged, he and his wife brought the women to the U.S. under false pretenses, intending to exploit them all along.

“This settlement sends a message to others that the U.S. will not tolerate the trafficking and abuse of human beings under any circumstances, and that those who do suffer such abuse can obtain some form of justice” said Steven Watt, staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program. “These women should be commended for having the courage to stand up and demand that they and others like them be treated with dignity and respect after enduring such shocking and cruel conditions.”

Fishing as Slaves on the High Seas - Businessweek

2012-02-24T09:50:00.000-08:00

http://www.businessweek.com/global/fishing-as-slaves-on-the-high-seas-02202012_page_6.html

Source: businessweek.com

By E. Benjamin Skinner

For some Indonesian workers, commercial fishing in the seas off New Zealand became a nightmare of abuse aboard foreign-chartered vessels

28 year old Yusril seen fishing with his friends on a small boat on the Java Sea Photograph by Sanjit Das for Bloomberg Businessweek

By E. Benjamin Skinner

Yusril's IMS contract Photograph by Sanjit Das for Bloomberg Businessweek

The Melilla 201 fishing boat in dry dock at the Port of Lyttleton Photograph by Jocelyn Carlin

(Corrects Yusril's age in photograph caption.)

On March 25, 2011, an Indonesian fisherman named Yusril became a slave. Yusril (which is not his real name, to protect his identity) is 28, with brooding looks and a swagger that compensates for his slight frame. That afternoon he went to the East Jakarta offices of PT Indah Megah Sari (IMS), an agency that hires crews to work on foreign fishing vessels. He was offered a job on the Melilla 203, a South Korea-flagged ship that trawled in the waters off New Zealand. “Hurry up,” said the agent, holding a pen over a thick stack of contracts in the windowless conference room with water-stained walls. Waving at a pile of green Indonesian passports of other prospective fisherman, he added: “You really can’t waste time reading this. There are a lot of others waiting and the plane leaves tomorrow.”

Yusril was desperate for the promised monthly salary of $260, plus bonuses, for unloading the fish. His young wife was eight months pregnant, and he had put his name on a waiting list for this opportunity nine months earlier. After taking a bus eight hours to Jakarta, he had given the agent a $225 fee which he had borrowed from his brother-in-law. Other fishermen had taken debts from loan sharks to cover the fee, and a few had sold their possessions, such as livestock, or land. The agent rushed him through signing the contracts, at least one of which was in English, which Yusril could not understand.

The terms of the first contract, the “real” one, would later haunt him. In it, IMS spelled out terms with no rights. In addition to the agent’s commission, Yusril would surrender 30 percent of his salary, which IMS would hold unless the work was completed. He would be paid nothing for the first three months, and if the job was not completed to the fishing company’s satisfaction, Yusril would be sent home and charged over $1000 for the airfare. “Satisfactory” completion was left vague. The contract only stated that Yusril would have to work whatever hours the boat operators demanded.

The last line of the contract, in bold, warned that Yusril’s family would owe nearly $3,500 if he were to run away from the ship. The amount was greater than his net worth, and he had earlier submitted title to his land as collateral for that bond. Additionally, he had provided IMS with names and addresses of his family members. He was locked in.

What followed, according to Yusril and several shipmates who corroborated his story, was an eight-month ordeal aboard the Melilla 203, during which Indonesian fisherman were subjected to physical and sexual abuse at the hands of the ship’s operators. Their overlords told them not to complain or fight back, or they would be sent home, where the agents would take their due. Finally, Yusril and 23 others walked off in protest when the trawler docked in Lyttleton, New Zealand. The men have seen little if any of the money they say is owed them for their work. Such coerced labor is modern-day slavery, as the United Nations defines the crime.

The owners of the Melilla ships did not respond to requests for comment.

The experiences of the fishermen on the Melilla 203 were not unique. In a six-month investigation spanning three continents, Bloomberg Businessweek found cases of debt bondage on the Melilla 203 and at least nine other ships that have operated in New Zealand’s waters. As recently as November 2011, fish from the Melilla 203 and other suspect vessels was bought and processed by United Fisheries, New Zealand’s eighth-largest seafood company, which has sold the same species in the same period to distributors operating in the United States. (The U.S. imports 86 percent of its seafood.) Those distributors have sold those species to major U.S. companies. Those companies — which include some of the country’s biggest retailers and restaurants — have sold the seafood to American consumers.

Yusril’s story, and that of nearly two-dozen other survivors of abuse, reveals how the $85 billion global fishing industry profits from the labor of people forced to work for little or no pay, often under the threat of violence. Though many seafood companies and retailers in the U.S. claim not to do business with suppliers who exploit their workers, the truth is more opaque. Beyond the reach of international regulators, human-rights violations are committed on a daily basis on the high seas, in the name of satisfying the world’s appetite for seafood. This is the story of how that ill-gotten catch may wind up on your plate.

Hours after Yusril arrived in Dunedin, New Zealand, the Melilla 203officers put him to work on the 193-foot, 26-year-old trawler unloading squid. The rusty ship was in bad shape, and the quarters were musty, as the ship had no functioning dryer for crew linens or work clothes. At first, conditions on board the Melilla seemed comparatively decent to Yusril. Two years earlier, he had worked on the Dong Won 519, operating under the auspices of Sanford, the 130-year old, $383 million New Zealand company and the country’s second-largest seafood enterprise. On that boat, the Korean officers had hit Yusril in the face with fish, and the boatswain had repeatedly kicked him in the back for using gloves when he was sewing the trawl nets in cold weather. Most unnervingly, the second officer would crawl into the bunk of Yusril’s friend at night, and attempt to rape him. Sanford CEO Eric Barratt said that his company’s New Zealand observers, which they placed on all of their foreign-chartered vessels (FCVs), reported that those ships “don’t have any issues with labor abuse.”

When the Melilla 203 set sail to the deep waters of the Southern Ocean, the conditions worsened. The ship trawled for up to two months at a time, between 12 and 200 miles offshore, in what fishing company lawyers and New Zealand officials considered murky legal territory. The officers, who were from South Korea, became coarser with their language, and would taunt the Muslim crew with bacon. The boatswain would grab crew members’ genitals as they worked or slept. When the captain of the ship drank, he molested some of the crew, kicking those who resisted. As the trawl nets hauled in the catch—squid, ling, hoki, hake, grouper, southern blue whiting, jack mackerel and barracuda, along with occasional high-priced bycatch like orange roughy—the officers shouted orders from the bridge. They often compelled the Indonesians to work without proper safety equipment for up to 30 hours straight, swearing at them if they so much as requested coffee or a bathroom break. Even when not hauling catches, 16-hour workdays were standard.

The resulting fatigue meant accidents, which could bring dismemberment in the cramped below-deck factory, where the fish were headed and gutted by hand, then passed along conveyer belts to be frozen. Over the past decade, at least two crew members of the Melilla ships have died, according to local newspaper accounts and reports by Maritime New Zealand, a government regulatory body. Dozens of Melilla crew members suffered injuries, some crippling.

When Ruslan, 36, a friend of Yusril’s on the 203, snapped two bones in his left hand in a winch, it took three weeks before the officers took him to a hospital. The next morning, he was ordered back to work, but, maimed, he could not carry out his duties. So the fishing company removed him before any follow-up medical appointments. “I was a slave, but then I became useless to the Koreans, so they sent me home with nothing,” he said. Today, back in his home village in Central Java, Ruslan’s hand is deformed. While IMS, the recruiting agency, finally paid him $335 for three months of work, the agency has blacklisted him, according to Ruslan, because he spoke to investigators, and it has refused to help with medical bills.

During the last decade, New Zealand authorities repeatedly fined or seized the Melilla ships for ecological infractions, which the country monitored through satellite imagery and inspections by Ministry of Fisheries observers. But crimes against humanity took a back seat to those against the environment. Scott Gallacher, a spokesman for New Zealand’s Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry (which merged with the Ministry of Fisheries last July), explained that “observers are not formally tasked” with assisting abused crew, but at their discretion they could report abuses to the Department of Labour. And yet Yusril said that when he once whispered a plea for help, an observer expressed sympathy but said that it was “not my job.”

New Zealand authorities had plenty of prior evidence of deplorable working conditions on foreign vessels like the Melilla. On August 18, 2010, in calm seas, a Korean-flagged trawler called the Oyang 70 sank, killing six. Survivors told the Kiwi crew of the rescuing vessel their stories of being trafficked. A report co-authored by Christina Stringer and Glenn Simmons, two researchers at the University of Auckland Business School, and Daren Coulston, a mariner, uncovered numerous cases of abuse and coercion among the 2,000 fishermen on New Zealand’s 27 foreign charter vessels (FCVs). The report prompted New Zealand’s government to launch a joint inquiry, the findings of which will be released on February 23. The researchers gathered testimony from New Zealand observers who saw abuses being committed even after they had boarded ships to monitor fishing practices. “Korean officers are vicious bastards,” one observer said, as quoted in the report. “Factory manager just rapped this 12kg (26 lbs) stainless steel pan over [the crewmember's] head, split the top of his head, blood pissing out everywhere.” The observer said he gave the Indonesian fisherman 26 stitches.

After eight months aboard the Melilla 203, Yusril and two dozen other crew members protested their treatment and pay to the captain. Their move came after a Department of Labour investigator, acting independently, visited the ship in early November, when it was docked in Lyttelton. The official gave Yusril a government factsheet stipulating that the crew members were entitled to certain minimum standards of treatment under New Zealand law. It stated that the crew should have been paid at least $12 per hour. Instead, when total hours were factored in, and deductions, agency fees, and a manipulated exchange rate differential were subtracted, the crew members were averaging around $1 per hour.

The captain dismissed the document and rejected their pleas. He threatened to send them home, to face retribution from the recruiting agency with whom they had signed their contracts. Believing that the New Zealand government would protect them from such a fate, Yusril and all but four of the Indonesian crew walked off the boat en masse, and sought refuge in Lyttelton Union Parish Church. Aided by two local pro bono lawyers, they decried months of flagrant human rights abuses, and demanded their unpaid wages under New Zealand’s Admiralty Act.

Ten miles from Lyttelton, in neighboring Christchurch, stands the headquarters of United Fisheries, the company that exclusively purchased the fish that Yusril and his crewmates caught. The building features gleaming Doric columns topped with friezes of chariot races. It was designed to resemble the temples to Aphrodite in Cyprus, the homeland of United founder Kypros Kotzikas.

The patriarch started in New Zealand with a small fish and chip restaurant. Some 40 years later, his son, Andre, 41, runs a company that had some $66 million in revenues last year. Although three Melilla crew members, citing abuse, had run away nine days before I spoke with Kotzikas, he told me he had heard of no complaints from crew on board the ships, and he had personally boarded the vessels to ensure that the conditions “are of very high standard.”

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“I don’t think that claims of slavery or mistreatment can be attached to foreign charter vessels that are operating here in New Zealand,” he said. “Not for responsible operators.”

In an email, Peter Elms, a Fraud and Compliance manager with Immigration New Zealand, cited a police assessment that complaints from crews amounted to nothing more than disputes over “work conditions, alleged (minor) assaults/intimidation/workplace bullying, and non payment of wages.” Elms said that his department had two auditors who aimed to visit each vessel every two or three years, and those auditors had found nothing rising to the level of human trafficking, a crime punishable in New Zealand by up to 20 years in prison.

Kotzikas said that while the national labor laws are “a thousand pages of, you know, beautiful stuff,” he believed that they did not necessarily apply beyond New Zealand’s 12-mile territorial radius. Half of United Fisheries’ annual revenues are generated outside New Zealand, spread across five continents. In the U.S., which imports an estimated $14.7 billion worth of fish annually, regulators are beginning to pay attention to the conditions under which that food is caught. As of Jan. 1, the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act requires that all retailers with over $100 million in global sales publicly disclose their efforts to monitor and combat slavery in their supply chains. The law covers some 3,200 corporations that do business in the state, including several that trade in seafood.

In our interview, Kotzikas said that his company sold ling, a species of fish caught by the Melilla crews, to Costco Wholesale Corp., America’s largest wholesaler, and the worlds’ seventh-largest retailer. As is true with many seafood exports out of New Zealand, the exact quantity of United’s sales to Costco (COST) was untraceable through public shipping records. Costco representatives did not respond to requests for comment about the sales and the abuse allegations.

Dean Stavreff, managing director at Quality Ocean — the Christchurch-based company that exported the fish and of which Kotzikas is the largest shareholder — confirmed that Costco purchases ling that is processed through the facility at United Fisheries headquarters. While he did not oversee that process, Stavreff insisted that all of the ling that Quality Ocean sold to Costco had been caught on “long-line” vessels operated by Talley’s and Okains Bay, companies that “stay well away from the alleged slave labor that is associated with the Melilla [ships].” Costco, which annually audits United’s processing facility, but not its vessels, had issued the company a six-page Supplier Code of Conduct, which lays out minimum labor conditions, and specifically prohibits “slave labor, human trafficking…and physical abuse of employees.”

In New Zealand, there is no independent auditing of catch method once a fish has been landed and processed. Since ling caught by long lines can fetch double the price of those hauled by trawlers, the incentive for fraud and mislabeling is high. As recently as 2008, the Melilla ships were fined over $300,000 for “trucking,” which means misreporting catches from one fishing area to another. New Zealand officials have not, however, accused them or any other vessel of trying to mislabel trawler-caught fish as long-line caught. Costco offers only chilled, long line-caught ling to U.S. consumers, and Stavreff said that thawing frozen ling would degrade it so as to make fraud implausible.

Other large U.S. retailers also do business with United Fisheries. (Thirteen employees at nine seafood companies contacted for this article agreed to speak only on background.) P.F.Chang’s China Bistro (PFCB), the Scottsdale, (Ariz.)-based chain with over 200 restaurants worldwide and more than $1.2 billion in annual revenue, exclusively purchased squid through Turner, a California-based importer which, according to Import Genius and Urner Barry shipping records, bought at least 568,554 pounds of squid from United since November 2010. Squid was one of the most common species caught by fishermen held on the Melilla boats, according to Yusril and other crew members.

Honolulu-based importer P&E Foods has also bought at least 48,940 pounds of squid from United since November 2010. According to P&E’s president, Stephen Lee, his company sells squid to Sam’s Club, the 47 million-member warehouse chain. Lee said that he was unaware of allegations of abuse on the ships of United, a company with which he has done business for “20, 30 years.” He added that he did not know whether any of P&E’s buyers required him or his suppliers to sign a code of conduct for labor practices. Carrie Foster, senior manager for corporate communications at Sam’s Club, said that her company does require such signed agreements from their suppliers.

Another New Zealand company with ties to U.S. retailers is Sanford, the country’s second-largest seafood enterprise. On Nov. 3, I interviewed crew members of the Dong Won and Pacinui vessels, charters catching fish for Sanford, near the docks at Lyttelton. Those crew members risked punishment by speaking: less than a week earlier three Pacinui crew members who had complained were sent back to Indonesia to face the recruiters.

“We feel like we are slaves,” a Dong Won deckhand said, as he simulated a Korean officer kicking him on the ground. Their contracts, issued by IMS and two other Indonesian agents, were nearly identical to those signed by the Melilla crew members. They reported the same pay rates, false contracts, doctored timesheets, and similar work hours and intimidation.

After several desertions over the past decade, New Zealand labor audits of the Dong Won ships turned up some of the same complaints. In 2010 the company assured the government that it would improve oversight of the foreign-chartered vessels and address allegations of abuse and wage exploitation. Sanford CEO Eric Barratt said that observers of his company’s foreign vessels did not find instances of abuse and that three deported Pacinui crew had returned voluntarily.

According to Barratt, his company exports to the United States through at least 16 seafood distributors, the majority through Mazzetta Co., the $425-million, suburban Chicago-based corporation, which is the largest American importer of New Zealand fish. Mazzetta sells the same species caught on the Dong Won and Pacinui ships to outlets across the country. Barratt also said he supplies seafood to the $10-billion supermarket chain Whole Foods Market (WFM). When asked about the specific origins of the Whole Catch New Zealand hoki products, a Whole Foods spokesperson, Ashley Hawkins, said: “For proprietary reasons, we cannot reveal who we source from for our exclusive brand products.” “We are in compliance with the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act,” Hawkins said, in response to the slave labor allegations. “According to the U.S. Department of Labor, New Zealand is not considered high risk.”

Other buyers of Sanford’s fish include Nova Scotia-based High Liner, which sells products containing the same types of seafood as those caught by the indentured fishermen on the Dong Won and Pacinui ships to restaurants across the United States. High Liner’s customers include U.S. retailers such as Safeway (SWY), America’s second largest grocery store chain, and Wal-Mart Stores (WMT). When alerted by Bloomberg Businessweek, spokespeople for both retailers pledged swift investigations. “As with all of our suppliers, we have a process underway to obtain documentation that [High Liner is] complying with the laws regarding human trafficking and slavery, and that [they are] reviewing their supply chain to insure compliance,” said Brian Dowling, Safeway’s vice president of public affairs, on Feb. 17. “We have not yet received certification from High Liner. However, we are following up with them immediately and asking that they provide us with certification.”

Henry Demone, High Liner’s CEO, said that he “abhorred” slavery and labor abuse, and that his company “tries very hard to do the right thing.” “In the case you’re talking about, we bought from a company whose labor practices in the [processing] plant were fine. We audited that. We didn’t audit the fishing vessels. But we relied upon a well-known New Zealand-based company and their assurance of 100% observer coverage.

It is unclear exactly how much seafood caught by indentured fishermen ends up on the plates of American consumers. Public shipping records—which do not report seafood imported on planes, and only detail some seafood imported to the United States by boat—are sparse, and seafood distributors rarely disclose their specific suppliers. Alastair Macfarlane, a representative of New Zealand’s Seafood Industry Council, declined to comment on which American companies might be buying fish from troubled vessels, such as theMelilla 203.

However, an analysis of several sources of data — including New Zealand fishery species quota, and foreign-vessel catch totals made available by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry — suggests roughly 40 percent of squid exported from New Zealand is caught on one of the vessels using coerced labor. Perhaps 15 percent of all New Zealand hoki exports may be slave-caught, and 8 percent of the country’s Southern Blue Whiting catch may be tainted.

Despite the prevalence of the foreign-chartered vessels, which in 2010 earned $274.6 million in export revenue and hauled in 62.3 percent of New Zealand’s deepwater catch, some New Zealand companies have determined that they are not worth the risk. “The reputational damage is immeasurable,” said Andrew Talley, director of Talley’s, New Zealand’s third largest fishing company, which submits to third-party social responsibility audits on its labor standards, a condition of its contract to supply McDonald’s (MCD) with hoki for its Filet-O-Fish sandwiches. “New Zealand seafood enjoys a hard earned and world leading reputation as a responsible fisheries manager, with a product range and quality to match. There is nothing responsible at all about using apparently exploitative and abusive FCVs.”

The main thoroughfare that bisects Yusril’s Central Java village from the sea feeds into a chain of divided toll ways that run all the way to Jakarta. Travelers along the road quickly leave the briny air of the fishing kampungs and pass through green rice paddies, punctuated with water buffaloes and trees bearing swollen, spiky jackfruit. Sixty years ago, Yusril’s grandfather worked that land. Today, like the fishermen, thousands travel along that highway to seek new lives. Some women and girls only make it as far as the roadside karaoke bars, where they enter prostitution. Others make it further, only to become coerced domestic servants in the Middle East. For them, that divided highway is a boulevard of broken dreams.

When I found him last December, Yusril was back in his in-laws’ modest home, tucked well off of a side road. He was out of work, and brainstorming ways to scratch out a living by returning to his father’s trade, farming. IMS, the recruiting agency in Jakarta, had blacklisted him, and was refusing to return his birth certificate, his basic safety training credentials or his family papers. Additionally, the agents were withholding pay, totaling around $1100. In total, Yusril had been paid an average of 50 cents per hour he worked on the Melilla 203. An IMS attorney did not respond to repeated emails requesting comment. When I showed up at the agency’s offices, a security guard escorted me out.

Two of the 24 men who walked off the Melilla 203 returned to work on the ship, rather than face deportation. The ship’s representatives flew the remaining 22 resisters back to Indonesia. When they returned to Central Java, they say that IMS coerced them into signing documents waiving their claims to redress for human rights violations, in exchange for their originally stipulated payments of between $500 to $1,000.

Yusril was one of two who held out. On January 21, when I last spoke to him, I asked him why he had refused to sign the document. “Dignity,” Yusril said, pointing to his heart.

Skinner is a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University. Additional reporting provided by Sophie Elsner.

Judges issue guidelines for consideration of human trafficking offences - Crime - UK - The Independent

2012-02-23T11:34:00.000-08:00

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/judges-issue-guidelines-for-consideration-of-human-trafficking-offences-7232025.html

Source: The Independent

MONDAY 20 FEBRUARY 2012

The "evil" crime of trafficking in human beings was highlighted by leading judges today.

In a strongly worded judgment, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, sitting at the Court of Appeal in London, announced: "In essence, for a human being to be treated as property is an affront to human dignity."

He and two other judges said that those who trafficked others were committing "very serious" and "abhorrent" crimes.

Lord Judge declared: "The evil of trafficking in human beings is an international problem which is condemned throughout the civilised world."

The comments came as Lord Judge, sitting with Mr Justice Royce and Mr Justice Globe, handed down guidelines following the first consideration by the Court of Appeal of the "problem of child trafficking for labour exploitation".

Lord Judge said the problem had not previously been "subject to any close analysis" following the coming into force of the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings 2005 - ratified by the UK in December 2008.

He said: "We emphasise that the protective ambit of the Convention is not limited to those who have, by whatever means, crossed international boundaries.

"Sometimes those born and brought up in this country fall within the ambit of the trafficking in human beings prohibited by the Convention, and sometimes those who have not been trafficked into the country become victims of trafficking after their arrival here.

"The Convention applies to them equally as it does to those who have been trafficked into this country for the purposes of exploitation."

At the centre of today's ruling were conviction appeals in separate cases by two Vietnamese teenagers who, it was contended, were the victims of "trafficking and consequent exploitation".

Both had pleaded guilty to offences involving the production of cannabis. One was given an 18-month detention and training order and the other was sentenced to 20 months detention.

It was argued on their behalf at a hearing last November that they should not have been prosecuted and their convictions were "unsafe".

Lord Judge said today: "The issue in these appeals is whether the process of the court was abused by the decision of the prosecuting authority to prosecute."

The alleged abuse of process related to an Article 26 Convention requirement on the UK to provide for the possibility of not imposing penalties on victims of trafficking for their involvement in unlawful activities "to the extent that they have been compelled to do so".

Although the appeals at the heart of today's judgment were brought well outside the legal time limit - the convictions were in 2009 - the judges allowed them to be heard to enable issues relating to child trafficking and labour exploitation to be argued.

Lord Judge said: "Summarising the essential principles, the implementation of the United Kingdom's Convention obligation is normally achieved by the proper exercise of the long established prosecutorial discretion which enables the Crown Prosecution Service, however strong the evidence may be, to decide that it would be inappropriate to proceed or to continue with the prosecution of a defendant who is unable to advance duress as a defence but who falls within the protective ambit of Article 26.

"This requires a judgment to be made by the CPS in the individual case in the light of all the available evidence."

The judges dismissed both appeals, ruling in the first case that the evidence did not lead to the conclusion that the conviction was unsafe "on the basis that the prosecution constituted an abuse of process and violated the United Kingdom's Convention obligations".

In the second case they ruled that "on the facts, the decision to prosecute was amply justified".

Lord Judge said: "We have no reason to doubt that the CPS, as the responsible prosecuting authority, will continue to examine individual cases in the light of developing knowledge and understanding of the issues of trafficking."

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Human trafficking is a heinous form of organised crime where people are treated as commodities. Our Human Trafficking strategy reiterated the UK’s determination to combat trafficking. It also included measures to ensure that victims of trafficking are supported as victims and not unnecessarily criminalised.”

"The National Crime Agency on establishment in 2013 will have a key role in building on the existing arrangements for tackling human trafficking. The new agency will target the organised criminal gangs involved in human trafficking, wherever they are.”

Truckers asked to help stop sex trafficking - www.ktnv.com

2012-02-23T09:28:00.000-08:00

http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/140067763.html

VIDEO:
http://bcove.me/ntbx5elv

Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- Authorities in Southern Nevada are asking truck drivers to be the eyes and ears to help fight human sex trafficking in Sin City and the surrounding areas.

The Morton Travel Plaza truck stop at I-15 and Cheyenne was the backdrop for a press conference on Wednesday to call attention to the problem of human trafficking.

Lt. Karen Hughes of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's vice section said, "There are so many different types of places where these pimps will exploit the women, and this is one of them."

Nevada Assemblyman John Hambrick has introduced legislation to strengthen Nevada's human trafficking laws. He says the men and women who drive big rigs through truck stops and across the country, as key to saving girls, boys and adults from being sold for sex. Hambrick said, "These are the eyes and ears."

Hambrick was flanked by a coalition of law enforcement and trucking industry agencies who are asking truckers for help identifying warning signs of sexual exploitation. They include minors, even adults, who seem nervous, afraid and even unaware of their surroundings.

Kendis Paris, the national director for Truckers Against Trafficking said, "The Department of Justice estimates that anywhere between 100 thousand to 300 thousand of America's children are at risk for entering the sex for sale industry every year."

Lt. Hughes says it's a particular problem in Las Vegas, where prostitution is illegal but the perception is, anything goes in Sin City.

Lt. Hughes says, the number of victims of human trafficking locally is significant. "Just since our agency's been tracking them since 1994, we have close to 21-hundred kids that we've identified involved in prostitution, or being trafficked."

Truckers and anyone who suspects a person is a victim of human trafficking is asked to a call a national hot line. That number is 1-888-373-7888.

http://truckersagainsttrafficking.com/

Trafficking Monitor

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