Closing Up Shop

Dear Readership,

The time has come to retire this blog and move on to other things in my life, personal and professional alike.

That said, I will no longer personally be updating this blog. And as you may have noticed, that has been the case for several years, but it's time I made the announcement official.

I am, however, still passionate about raising awareness of trafficking, and would love for someone to carry on the torch of the Human Trafficking Project and make it their own.

Preferred background is a student actively studying human rights or a practitioner in the field. Regardless, must love to write and be able to unpack and comment on a complex issue from different perspectives. And must have time to actively create and publish content.

Interested? Reach me at justin@traffickingproject.org. 

Thanks for following along and hopefully the existing content continues to serve as a helpful reference for those looking to learn more about human trafficking.

Take care,

Justin

MTV EXIT Live in Manila, Philippines

From Business World:

To raise awareness and increase prevention of human trafficking, MTV Networks has joined forces with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) to hold a concert in Manila this Saturday night at the SM Mall of Asia concert grounds in Pasay City.

The free outdoor concert will be headlined by Korean pop sensation Jay Park, previously known as the leader of Korean boy band 2PM.

Actor and TV host Dingdong Dantes will also appear as MTV’s newest celebrity ambassador to help spread the word about the MTV EXIT campaign.

“As a member of the local entertainment industry, I may become helpful in this campaign by enlightening those Filipinos who are not yet aware of what is happening,” Mr. Dantes said in his speech during the concert’s press conference last week.

Mr. Dantes will also host a TV special called Enslaved: An MTV EXIT Special. The 30-minute documentary is the third in a 12-part series that MTV produced in Asia.

It will give audiences a glimpse into human trafficking and exploitation in the Philippines, telling the experiences of abuse and exploitation of four human trafficking survivors, and highlighting what everyone can do to help end this crime. Enslaved: An MTV EXIT Special will be aired on Nov. 27, 9:55 p.m. on GMA News TV. 

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Are you going to this event?  If so get in touch to do a writeup!  Reach us at info@traffickingproject.org.

Food chain slaves

From Al Jazeera:

In the opening episode of Slavery: A 21st Century Evil, Al Jazeera's Rageh Omaar investigates food chain slavery, considered the easiest form of slavery to stamp out, in the US.

The US has been leading the global fight against modern slavery. But, according to conservative estimates, there are between 40,000 and 50,000 slaves in the US today.

So in this episode, Rageh questions why a nation built on the abolition of slavery - a country that had to go through a painful civil war to formally bring an end to slavery - is failing to address the problem inside its own borders.

The investigation begins in the poor villages of Thailand, where agents for the US slave masters trick desperate peasants with promises of well-paid jobs abroad.

But far from fulfilling their American dream, many end up in slave labour farms in Hawaii, California and Florida - unable to return home and working to pay off the debts they incurred in the pursuit of a better life for themselves and their families.

Beat Down Human Trafficking- Week #5

Here's another track from the album Beat Down Human Trafficking!

We will be releasing a new song off the album each Friday so be sure to check back next week for more.  And if you like what you hear share it with your friends and help us raise awareness.

Click to Download: J Nice- The Definition

Beat Down Human Trafficking is a hip-hop album about modern day slavery. 

During a 10-month Fulbright grant in the Philippines in 2007 to study the NGO response to human trafficking, Justin Hakuta decided he wanted to do something other than write a research paper. Hakuta was spending his days interviewing survivors of forced prostitution, domestic slavery and forced labor and learning about the economic, cultural and political factors that allow trafficking to flourish. Wanting to find a personal, accessible way to insert trafficking into the mainstream consciousness, Hakuta started recording Beat Down in the Spring of 2007.

Happy Friday! 

The HTP Team
 

Sailing to Yemen with human traffickers

From Aljazeera: 

By Glen Johnson

There were more than 30 people crammed on the back of the truck as the vehicle bumped through the desert in eastern Djibouti.

The passengers were men, women and children from Ethiopia and Somalia and myself. And all would be smuggled in boats from Djibouti to Yemen, as part of wider trafficking operations involving six countries - Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea - that apparently trafficks tens of thousands of people from the Horn of Africa to Arabian nations each year.

I had arrived in Djibouti on June 7 to research human trafficking. Having lived in Yemen for part of 2010, I was aware that the Africa-Arabia smuggling trade was one of the myriad challenges facing Yemen, yet one of the troubled nation's least discussed. In Djibouti, I quickly established links with smugglers, some of whom agreed to let me accompany migrants from Ethiopia and refugees from Somalia by boat to Yemen.

The truck drove slowly through the desert. No one talked. A distant beam from a lighthouse swept across the night sky. The silhouettes of coarse thorn scrubs, bent back from the wind, stood under a yellow moon that was ill-defined from the dust and sand that swept up into the night.

Occasionally the truck would grind to a halt and men would get out swinging sticks wildly, telling the passengers to keep still. A woman spoke to a child - his hair a mass of coarse, black curls; his spindly legs sticking out the bottom of his trousers.

The child was travelling with his brother from Mogadishu, the Somali capital. They hoped to reach Kharaz refugee camp, administered by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), in South Yemen. A place where his brother said: "There is food and a house. They [UNHCR] give money."

According to a 2010 Chatham House report, Yemen and Somalia: Terrorism, Shadow Networks and the Limitations of State-building, the Horn of Africa smuggling trade - based on the number of registered arrivals in Yemen 2009, 77,802, could be worth more than $20m each year.

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MTV Exit Live in Manila, Philippines Promo

The event teaser for MTV Exit's Concert Event in Manila Philippines to raise awareness and fight human trafficking in Asia-Pacific.

New UN fund awards $300,000 to help rehabilitate victims of human trafficking

From UN News Centre:

Organizations in 12 countries that help victims of human trafficking seek justice, return home and otherwise recover from their ordeal were collectively awarded some $300,000 today in the first grant of a new United Nations fund.

“A unique approach is being employed by the UN to channel severely needed funds to survivors of the horrific crime of human trafficking,” UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Yury Fedotov said, appealing for greater financial support for the Small Grants Facility, launched earlier this year as part of the UNODC-managed UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking.

“There is a critical need for increased donations so that we can step up this assistance. There is no place for human trafficking in the world and the Small Grants Facility has a role to play in eradicating this inhumane act,” he added of a $32-billion global industry, which is currently estimated to be exploiting over 2.4 million people, two-thirds of them women and children.

The 12 projects selected for the first year of the facility cover all major regions of the world and set to be rolled out in Albania, Cambodia, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, France, India, Israel, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Moldova and the United States.

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