Love for Life

The causes of human trafficking are many and varied. People may wish to escape poverty in their own country and perceive better economic opportunities elsewhere. Lack of employment prospects, political instability or armed conflict at home all serve as incentives to seek better prospects abroad. Whatever the reasons, it has to be remembered that the labour and services provided by trafficked victims are driven by demand from the overseas countries that receive them.

"Trafficking" Defined

The Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (the 'Palermo Convention') was adopted by the United Nations in 2000 and has been effective since 2003. The Convention was supplemented by two 'Palermo Protocols': the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/trafficking_human_beings.html

'Trafficking in persons' is defined by the first protocol as meaning the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for purpose of exploitation. Exploitation includes prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

The Scale

The sad reality is that human trafficking is big business and, after arms sales and drug dealing, the fastest growing criminal industry. Porous borders and advancing communication technologies make this transnational business highly lucrative. The huge profits to be gained far outweigh the small risk of being caught and prosecuted. Estimates vary but the UN and other experts put the total market value of illicit human trafficking at around $32 billion dollars, $10 billion of which is derived from the 'sale' of trafficked victims. The rest is profit from the goods and services produced by the victims. The US State Department estimates 600,000 - 820,000 people per annum are trafficked across national borders. 80% of victims are thought to be women and girls and 50% minors. http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46606.htm

The International Labour Organisation estimates that 12.3 million people around the world are in forced labour. www.ilo.org/global/Themes/Forced_Labour/lang--en/index.htm However, the nature of this clandestine and criminal trade is such that statistics are speculative and are therefore notoriously unreliable. To quote UNESCO:

"When it comes to statistics, trafficking of girls and women is one of several highly emotive issues which seem to overwhelm critical faculties. Numbers take on a life of their own, gaining acceptance through repetition, often with little enquiry into their derivations. Journalists, bowing to the pressures of editors, demand numbers, any number. Organisations feel compelled to supply them, lending false precisions and spurious authority to many reports." www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=1022&type=98

OneWorld.net, an American-based NGO agrees: "Trafficking in human beings is a global issue, but a lack of systematic research means that reliable data on the trafficking of human beings that would allow comparative analyses and the design of countermeasures is scarce". http://us.oneworld.net

Whatever the statistics, there are, alas, innumerable documented accounts of human trafficking from Latin America to the USA and from poor Asian to rich Asian countries. In Europe, the collapse of communism, gave rise to trafficking from poorer eastern European countries to the richer west. A recent report called 'Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns' by UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) identifies Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy as the most common European destinations. Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine are among the countries that are the greatest source of trafficked victims. ( http://www.unodc.org/pdf/Trafficking_toolkit_Oct06.pdf ). A brief survey of these poorer countries in Europe serves to illustrate the nature of the problem.

Albania is a country of origin for the trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation. According to the US State Department trafficking in Persons Report of June 2007 ( www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2007/ ), victims are trafficked to Greece and Italy and many are trafficked onward to the U.K., France, Belgium, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands. Albania is no longer considered a major country of transit nor is it a country of destination for traffickers. ( http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Albania.htm ).

Bulgaria is described by the report as a country of transit and destination for men and women. They are trafficked from Moldova, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and Armenia to Bulgaria. From there, they may be trafficked to Spain, Austria, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Macedonia for sexual exploitation purposes. Bulgarian women and men are trafficked to Cyprus, Greece and Turkey for sexual exploitation and forced labour. Roma children are also trafficked within Bulgaria and abroad to many west European countries for forced begging and petty theft purposes. Of the identified trafficking victims in Bulgaria, about 20% are children. ( http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Bulgaria.htm ).

Belarus is another major source and transit country in Europe for trafficking of women for forced labour and sexual exploitation. Men and women are trafficked from and through Bulgaria to countries in Western, Central and Eastern Europe and beyond to such countries as the USA, Turkey and Turkmenistan. A small number of Moldovans are trafficked to Belarus to be used as forced labour.
( http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Belarus.htm ).

Moldova, is a major source, and to a lesser extent a transit country for the trafficking of women and girls to the Middle East, the Balkans and Europe for sexual exploitation, according to the International Organisation for Migration, a leading intergovernmental organisation in the field of migration. ( http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Moldova.htm ). A report by the UN in December 2003 revealed that Moldovan children were being trafficked to Russia for begging and to Ukraine for working on farms.

Ukraine is a source, transit and destination country for trafficking men, women and children for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour. Ukrainian women are trafficked to all parts of Europe and to the Middle East. Women from Central Asian countries, such as Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan are trafficked through Ukraine to Europe. Ukraine is also a destination for people from the former Soviet republics for forced labour and prostitution. Ukrainian children are trafficked internally and transnationally for commercial sexual exploitation, forced begging and forced labour in the agriculture industry. ( http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Ukraine.htm ).

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Globalization and the Sex Trade: Trafficking and the Commodification of Women and Children

par Richard Poulin, sociologue: http://sisyphe.org/spip.php?auteur27

Prostitution and Trafficking

Over the last three decades, most of the countries of the Southern Hemisphere have experienced a phenomenal growth of prostitution. For a decade, this has also been the case for the countries of the ex-USSR and Eastern Europe. Millions of women, teenagers, and children thus live in the red-light districts of the urban metropolises of their own countries or in those of the nearby countries. Two million women prostitute themselves in Thailand (Barry 122), 400,000 to 500,000 in the Philippines (CATW), 650,000 in Indonesia (CATW), about ten million in India (of whom 200,000 are Nepalese) (CATW), 142,000 in Malaysia (CATW), between 60,000 and 70,000 in Vietnam (CATW), one million in the United States, between 50,000 and 70,000 in Italy (of whom half are foreigners, most notably from Nigeria), 30,000 in the Netherlands (CATW), 200,000 in Poland (Opperman), and between 60,000 (Guéricolas) and, more credibly, 200,000 (Opperman) in Germany. German prostitutes sell sexual services to 1.2 million "customers" per day (Opperman ; Ackermann and Filter).

The number of prostitutes from the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Russia installed in Japan is estimated at 150,000 (CATW). About 50,000 Dominicans prostitute themselves abroad, notably in the Netherlands, where they were found to make up 70 per cent of the occupants of 400 Amsterdam sex-shop "windows" (Guéricolas 31). About 500,000 women of Eastern Europe and between 150,000 and 200,000 women of the countries of the ex-USSR prostitute themselves in Western Europe. Of these, it is estimated that 150,00 are in the red-light districts of Germany-a country where 75 per cent of the prostitutes are foreign (Oppermann). About 40 per cent of Zurich's prostitutes are from a Third World country (Oppermann). About 50,000 foreigners arrive each year in the United States to supply the prostitution networks (O'Neill).

Every year, nearly a quarter million women and children of Southeast Asia (Burma, Yunnan province in China, Laos and Cambodia) are bought in Thailand, a transit country, for a price varying between 6,000 and 10,000 U.S. dollars (CATW). In Canada, the intermediaries pay 8,000 dollars for a young Asiatic from the Philippines, Thailand or Malaysia whom they resell for 15,000 dollars to a pimp (CATW). In Western Europe, the current price of a European woman from the former "socialist" countries is between 15,000 and 30,000 USD (CATW). On their arrival in Japan, Thai women have a debt of 25,000 USD (CATW). The bought women have to work for years to pay off "expenses" incurred by the pimps.

Sex tourists do not limit themselves to poor countries. Hamburg's Reeperbahn, Berlin's Kurfürstendamm and the red-light districts of Amsterdam and Rotterdam are well known destinations. In countries that have legalized prostitution or where it is tolerated, prostitution has become an important tourist draw. NGOs from these countries are actively lobbying at the European and international levels for the recognition of prostitution as simply "sex work," an occupation like any other.

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South East Europe - 13:05 Jul 22

In the severest ever human trafficking sentence in Kosovo, three Albanian citizens have been jailed for up to 12 years for luring young women to the United Nations-administered province with false promises of legitimate work, only to try to force them into prostitution.

Brazil is the favorite country for traffickers who form part of the prostitution networks that have mushroomed in Portugal, which is a springboard to wealthier European Union destinations, according to studies presented at a seminar Monday and Tuesday organized by the governmental Portuguese Youth Institute (IPJ).

75 suspected human traffickers detained in Europe 24/06/2008 00:00

Detectives in 10 European countries carried out a raid Monday morning and arrested a total of 75 people.

24 June 2008

BELGIUM – The European police have rounded up an international network of Iraqi Kurd traffickers in humans. Ten people were detained in Belgium, including some of the leaders.

HUMAN TRAFFICKERS FROM BULGARIA DETAINED
14:55 Thu 10 May 2007

Border police arrested two human traffickers who controlled a trafficking ring from Bulgaria to France.

Those arrested were a Bulgarian man and woman, aged respectively 24 and 25, an Interior Ministry media statement said.

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Human Trafficking Statistics
By Doug Nichols/ds
January 24, 2008

http://dougnichols.blogspot.com/2008/01/human-trafficking-statistics.htm...

The following are statistics from Make Way Partners for your information:

-There are at least 30 million victims of modern day slavery in the world today (US Trafficking in Persons Report).

-Each year it is estimated that there are 1 million new victims of human trafficking (The US Department of State).

-Estimates as high as 80% of trafficking victims are women and over - 50% in slavery are children (US Government).

-Human Trafficking generates approximately $9.5 billion each year. It is second only to drug trafficking in international crime (US Trafficking in Persons Report).

-"…Experts say that at any given time, some 2.5 million people are being trafficked …" ( http://www.makewaypartners.org/effects.html )

-The USA is the number one country of destination for trafficked victims. The land of the free and the brave has become the receiving country for sex-slaves and forced manual workers. Run-away or kidnapped children are also sold and exploited within our borders and Internet child pornography or solicitation is thriving. (http://www.makewaypartners.org/effects.html)

-A child goes missing every 40 seconds in the USA.

That is more than 2,000 a day and more than 800,000 every year.

Another estimated 500,000 disappear without being reported.

For most, these bodies are never found.

What happens to them? (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)

-Rising tide of human trafficking by Americans against other Americans - between 1.3 and 2.8 million runaways and homeless youths living on America's streets are one of the most at risk populations for exploitation. (PR Newswire)

-1 in 7 teenagers in the USA run away from home. Living on the streets, one out of every three teens will be lured into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home. And the longer they are gone, the more likely they are to engage in "survival sex." After three months away from home, 90 percent of children will turn to sex. (National Incidence Studies of Missing, Runaway and Throwaway Children)

All of these statistics are from May Way Partners, January 16, 2008

Make Way Partners
PO Box 26367
Birmingham, AL 35260

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Last update - 10:54 31/05/2007
U.S Orthodox rabbis urge Israel to crack down on human trafficking
By Haaretz Service

A prominent organization of U.S. Orthodox rabbis has called on Israeli authorities to step up their fight against trafficking in women, urging "action to put an end to this shameful practice by whatever legal means necessary."

The statement of the Rabbinical Council of America, the rabbinic authority of the Orthodox Union and a partner organization of Israel's Chief Rabbinate, cited Knesset statistics reporting that "some 3,000-5,000 women in Israel are currently enslaved, in violation of Israeli law, as prostitutes as a result of human trafficking."

The RCA stated that it was taking the position, in part, because "Judaism affirms the right of each individual to a life of personal freedom, dignity and a duty of national holiness, particularly regarding sexual conduct" and because "our Torah stresses no less than 36 times the overarching importance of treating the stranger with compassion and kindness."

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The man convicted and executed for the Lindberg boy's kidnapping/death was innocent.

THE LINDBERGH KIDNAPPING HOAX Bruno Richard Hauptmann: Wrongly: http://www.lindberghkidnappinghoax.com (includes photos)

Bruno Richard Hauptmann was murdered by "justice" 72 years ago on April 3, ..... Jewish Holocaust but for all the things he never said after it was over.

Doesn't look Jewish to me, either. He's German.

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kidnap
1673, compound of kid (n.) "child" and nap "snatch away," variant of nab; originally "stealing children to provide servants and laborers in the American colonies."

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Podgorica, Belgrade – The Association of the families of Serbs abducted and killed in Kosvo shall sue the former chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal Carla Del Ponte for hiding of crimes committed against Kosovo Serbs by Kosovo Albanians that abducted and killed them, the president of that association Simo Spasic said.

'In 2004 Del Ponte told us in The Hague that she had information that all abducted Kosovo Serbs were killed later on. She, however, has not told us that before they were killed, their body organs were taken out and sold', Spasic told 'Dan' daily of Podgorica.

In her book 'Hunt' that is to appear in the bookshops in Italy at the beginning of April, Del Ponte wrote that the Hague prosecution came to knowledge while investigating crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) against non-Albanian population that the people that disappeared were forcefully submitted to surgery in which their organs were taken out and then smuggled and sold to the clinics in Europe under patronage of the KLA.

'Del Ponte hid the truth and kept silent on the horrible crimes against the abducted Serbs. She thus helped the crime although the list with the names of abducted Serbs was given to her as early as in 2001. She knew that and failed to raise a single indictment for that crime. That makes her responsible', Spasic said.

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