What Happens to Thailand's Sex Tourism During the Riots?

By Jessica Olien for Slate Magazine.

Downtown Bangkok has finally stopped smoldering, but a curfew is still in effect after anti-government protesters looted and burned downtown for over two months. The shaky calm has both Thai officials and millions of men all over the world asking: Is it safe enough for sex tourism yet?

Thailand's sex trade, which pumps millions of dollars into the Thai economy, has taken a big hit since the protests began this spring. Thailand was once paradise for these men—among them fetishists and pedophiles—but the spell has since been broken. No one really wants their exotic intercourse interrupted by machine-gun fire or beer runs inconvenienced by police checkpoints, although some are, of course, willing to live with it if that's what it takes. Frustrated sex tourists are now being forced to cancel their vacations or wait it out in their cheap rented rooms until the party starts up again. . .

Thailand "sexpat" forums are full of speculation on what will become of the country and how it will affect their lives of debauchery. Many of them are living on pensions and retirement. They don't want to move, but the violence seen over the past weeks and the unpredictability of the situation have left them uneasy and looking for alternative locations. Finding another place in Southeast Asia where sex is so easy and the locale for it so accessible is a tricky task. Thailand is a perfect blend of cheap, nonthreatening, and permissive. Thai people are extremely accommodating. As the men like to tell me, they will make your food "not too spicy," and they will giggle at your jokes even if they have no idea what you are saying. By comparison with surrounding countries, Thailand is more developed and has until recently always been considered quite safe. . .

I met a man named Terry who has been retired in Thailand for two years but isn't sure that he wants to hang around much longer. It's become kind of a pain in the ass, he explains. "You never know when the situation may make a turn for the worse, and then what? Go to Laos?" He gestures at the direction of the Mekong River. At about midnight, an adorable little girl who looks like she might be about 6 years old comes into the bar selling flowers. "Where else in the world," says Terry, "could I give that girl 1,000 baht, take her outside and do whatever I wanted to her?"

Click here to read the full article.

I have written in the past about the relationship between human trafficking, the environment, and natural disasters. As the devastation in Haiti demonstrated earlier this year, human traffickers can easily exploit situations of unrest. While the situation in Thailand is human made, many of the same dynamics are at work. This article demonstrates the complex relationship between unrest and human trafficking. Whenever there is a natural or human made disaster, we should consider the ways it is impacting human trafficking.

Take Strong Action Now to Stop Gender-Based Violence in Haiti

“The way you saw the earth shake, that's how our bodies are shaking now” described one woman of a secondary humanitarian crisis facing the women and girls of Haiti.

As Haiti’s earthquake toppled buildings, it also toppled social structures that provided Haitian women some protection against sexual violence. Rape was widespread before January 12, but the hundreds of thousands of women now living on the streets or in camps, often without their family and neighborhood networks, are more vulnerable than ever.

Special thanks to Harriet Hirshorn for shaping and editing this video and to Sandy Berkowitz for shooting it.

Take a look at more of Harriet's work here: raboteau-trial.info/ and youtube.com/watch?v=SV0nTf78Vwc, and Sandy's work here: vimeo.com/user3252062.

Child Trafficking

Introduction: Trafficking in children takes many different forms worldwide, from child soldiers to child sex tourism to forced child labor in brick factories to child camel jockeys to child sex slaves to child pornography to child domestic slaves to forced child begging. Ending child slavery and child exploitation will take committed, strategic effort based on understandings of the myriad forms of child trafficking and their interconnections.

Elise: Before the TVPA was ever enacted in the U.S., a case out of Texas showed the complexity that is often overlooked when we talk about children and trafficking. Given Kachepa, along with other boys from Zambia were brought to the U.S. under false pretenses offered to them by a Baptist minister claiming the young boys would come to the U.S. to perform in a boys choir and earn money for themselves and for a new school in Zambia. The reality the boys faced included forced performances, the withholding food and medical care if the boys resisted and the constant threat of deportation among other coercive and traumatic tactics used by Keith Grimes to keep the boys in their trafficking situation. A more detailed account of the case is given in The Slave Next Door by Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter. Years after his trafficking situation ended, Given has taken to advocating on behalf of trafficking victims. He has appeared on national TV and print media delivering his message and his story, and has contributed to the development of state-level legislation.

Youngbee: Among the many different forms of child trafficking, a particularly terrible kind is child trafficking involving child pornography. In Japan, for instance, Jake Adelstein, a public relations representative in Polaris Project in Japan, describes child pornography as "evidence that a crime has been committed[;] that people can derive sexual pleasure from that or profit on that is horrifying." These children are not only sexually exploited but also their humiliation is likely to be publicized on the internet forever. What is worse is that the internet access makes this evil an average Joe's concern in the United States. In fact, a British internet watchdog says that over the past ten years, 51% of such illegal child pornography websites were hosted in the United States. Currently, in Japan, possession of child pornography is not illegal though distribution and production are criminalized. As Japanese government is sensitive to its reputation before the international world, perhaps, US citizens calling their state representatives would pressure the country to fix its legislative loophole further.

Meg: One child trafficking topic that seems to have received a lot of attention recently is trafficking and international adoptions. The issue came to the forefront after the Haiti disaster, when it became suspected that children disappearing from hospitals were being taken by traffickers and sold off as orphans. Learning about this form of trafficking was disheartening to me, because apparently even those trying to do something positive can inadvertently contribute to child exploitation and human trafficking. Although there does not appear to be much in the way of statistics on this issue yet, it is easy to see how traffickers could exploit situations such as the disaster in Haiti to make a profit off of vulnerable children, not only through international adoption, but for sex trafficking and other forms of trafficking as well. One interesting potential solution to the adoption problem is the idea of using DNA databases to reunify parents with missing children, which is something that has begun to be implemented in Haiti. If the Haiti situation prompts development of an international adoption DNA system that can be used to prevent future trafficking, this may be one positive result of a tragic disaster.

Jenn K.: According to the 2009 Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking report by Shared Hope International, over 100,000 US children are subjected to commercial sexual exploitation each year. The Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the United States Department of Justice reports that the average age for entering commercial sex in the US is 12-14. Despite progress in addressing this aspect of the United State's trafficking problem, such as programs targeting demand and increased attention to the issue, much remains to be done particularly in terms of services for victims and survivors. According to Gracehaven House, which will be opening a group home for child sex trafficking survivors in Ohio, there are only 39 shelter beds dedicated to minor sex trafficking victims in the US. Other organizations, such as Courtney's House in Washington DC, are also in the process of opening group homes for child victims. Both Gracehaven House and Courtney's House were founded by survivors of sex trafficking as minors, and plan to offer comprehensive services for survivors. Still, the shelter need greatly exceeds and is likely to continue to greatly exceed resources.

Screening of The Price of Sugar Tomorrow, April 22nd, in DC

FREE PUBLIC SCREENING OF THE PRICE OF SUGAR

Why watch the Price of Sugar?

"In the Dominican Republic, a tropical island-nation, tourists flock to pristine beaches unaware that a few miles away thousands of dispossessed Haitians have toiled under armed-guard on plantations harvesting sugarcane, much of which ends up in U.S. kitchens. They work grueling hours and frequently lack decent housing, clean water, electricity, education or healthcare. Narrated by Paul Newman, "The Price of Sugar" follows Father Christopher Hartley, a charismatic Spanish priest, as he organizes some of this hemisphere's poorest people to fight for their basic human rights. This film raises key questions about where the products we consume originate and at what human cost they are produced."

Taken from www.thepriceofsugar.com

Free Parking is available after 5:00 p.m. in a lot bordered by Nebraska, Massachusetts, and New Mexico Avenues. The entrance is on New Mexico.

PLUS Light refreshments will be served

Register for the event here.

About Prevent Human Trafficking:

Prevent Human Trafficking (PHT) is a Washington, D.C., based non-profit organization working to build a bridge between South East Asia and the United States to prevent human trafficking. PHT empowers individuals, organizations and governments to tackle the root causes of human trafficking through direct support and technical assistance. PHT uses its expertise and networks to promote best practice and inspire sustainable solutions in the movement to prevent human trafficking.

Join us!

NOTE: This event sponsored by the American University chapter of PHT.

On a quick personal note, I saw this film in Toronto last October and the material is quite provoking and thoughtful. When considering prevention efforts for human trafficking, we often get caught up in focusing on how to stop traffickers and how to keep victims from making risky decisions that end up becoming trafficking situations, but we forget that we have the power to prevent trafficking as well as consumers: by becoming more knowledgeable about the consumer choices we make, we can help curb demand for exploited labor. I definitely recommend that people go out and see this film.

"How to Buy a Child" Child Trafficking and Child Slavery in Haiti

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Everyone has the right to life and liberty. No one shall be held in slavery.

But at least 27 million people today are held in slavery. What would shock us into action? What if we find out that we can buy a child in Haiti in less than 12 hours? That the buyer could force the child to do anything he/she wanted. What if we learn that a child can be loaned, bought or sold on the 'market' for as little as $100, and if we pressed and bargained, we could bring the 'cost' down to $50?

That's $50 for a 10 year-old child who would act as a sex partner as well as a domestic servant. And what if we find out that in Haiti, slavery still exists today and that currently more than a quarter million Haitian children are loaned and traded, mostly for sex and labor?

An ABC News story, "How to Buy a Child in 10 Hours" and the book, A Crime So Monstrous by Benjamin Skinner, show how easy it is to buy a child in Haiti for around $50 to $150 and do whatever one wants with the child. And that was before the earthquake.

In 1926, the Slavery Convention, in article 1.1., established an international definition of slavery. "Slavery is the status or condition of a person over whom any or all the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised".

With independence, came the end of slavery in Haiti in 1804. Slavery is illegal in Haiti. In fact, slavery is illegal throughout the world. At least, officially anyway. However, according to many estimates, we have more slaves in the world today than at any other point in history. And Haiti is no different.

It is said that, technically, these children, known as restaveks, are not slaves. In Haiti, it is common to lend a child to other families, mainly relatives, to help with extra domestic work. Poor families lend their children to wealthier families and in exchange for the domestic help, those children would receive housing , food, clothing, and education. And some children do receive all this; however, the reality for majority of the children is very different. A restavek child is a servant who is forced to work seven days a week without any pay, is excluded from other children in the family, has no time for play or school, and is subjected to abuse.

Jean-Robert Cadet, who is a former restavek and the founder of Restavek Freedom, has said, "A restavek is a child placed in domestic slavery". A CNN article says, "According to the foundation, restavec children are usually responsible for preparing the household meals, fetching water from the local well, cleaning inside and outside the house, doing laundry and emptying bedpans. They usually sleep on the floor separate from members of the family they serve, and are up at dawn before anyone else to do household work. Sometimes they're physically and sexually abused".

We should not even be talking about slavery today. Throughout history, many agreements and laws have passed to abolish slavery, but still it turns out, there are more than 250,000 thousand children slaves in Haiti. Again, I wonder, what would shock us into action?

And this was the condition before the earthquake. Even before the earthquake, Haiti had a serious problem with child trafficking and slavery.

After the earthquake, the condition has only worsened for these children. These children were far away from their families and now have no where to go. In times of crisis, these children are the first to be thrown out on streets, ready to be picked up by traffickers and sold to exploiters.

Many reports warn of the dangers of child trafficking. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive has said that he has received reports of child trafficking, including organ trafficking. "Any child that is leaving the country has to be validated by the embassy under a list that they give me, with all the reports," he said.

Legally this may be true, but in reality acquiring papers does not seem very difficult. As pointed out in a shocking ABC News story, it is very easy for traffickers to get fake papers. "As further enticement, the trafficker says he can even get me fake papers that would allow me to take this child back to the U.S. with me. Both traffickers say they have experience providing children to Americans. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, officials have no idea how often this sort of transaction transpires".

Clearly, Haiti needs better laws to protect these children from abuse and slavery, but all this brings up a much deeper question. Slavery is possible only because of the existence of inequality between any two people. In today's world, slavery is not about race or skin color, it is about profit and exploitation of vulnerable members of the society. Many times we've read human trafficking is caused by poverty.

Human trafficking is not caused by poverty; it is caused human traffickers and exploiters, it is a crime committed by criminals and silent observation fuels this problem. We have to attack the root of the problem; we have to attack the root of inequality. Slavery, exploitation, and abuse have existed throughout history, much before population and poverty were a problem, like in our world today. Slavery and exploitation are not new phenomena and human trafficking is just a new name for slavery and exploitation. An increase in population and poverty does not and cannot explain how one human can treat another human this way.

I cannot imagine a more horrifying crime than human trafficking - commodification of human beings so they can be bought and sold on the market, again and again, only to be used and abused by others.

So again I wonder, what is needed for every single person to act and fight against this horrifying crime? What would shock us into action?

Haiti Frees Ninth Accused Missionary Kidnapper: Organizer Still Held

From the Huffington Post:

By Todd Dvorak

BOISE, Idaho — One of two Baptist missionaries still held on kidnapping charges in Haiti has arrived in the U.S. after being released after more than a month in custody.

The father of 24-year-old Charisa Coulter says she went straight to a hotel after flying into Miami late Monday, hours after she was taken from her jail cell to the Haiti airport by U.S. Embassy staff.

Mel Coulter told The Associated Press he did not know when his daughter would return to Idaho.

Charisa Coulter and nine other Americans were arrested for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti after the earthquake. Only the leader of the Idaho-based missionary group, Laura Silsby, remains in custody. Mel Coulter says Silsby's situation makes his daughter's release bittersweet.

Read the full article

Ending Child Trafficking through Prevention

From the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by Jonathan Todres:

As Haiti grapples with numerous tragedies following its recent earthquake, another horror story has emerged: Many children left homeless there now risk being trafficked. Only this is not a natural disaster, but one created entirely by humans.

Child trafficking is not new to Haiti, or to any other part of the world. It is a global phenomenon that victimizes millions of children, including many here in the United States. . .

Over the past decade, the United States and many other governments have taken significant actions to combat human trafficking, but their approach is flawed. Little attention is paid to the ultimate goal — prevention. In all my research over the past decade, I haven’t found any evidence suggesting that child trafficking has declined. . . In fact, it might be increasing.

Although the international community has agreed upon a sensible, comprehensive three-pronged approach to combating trafficking, often referred to as the three P’s — 1. punishment of perpetrators; 2. protection of victims; and 3. prevention — in reality governments have focused primarily on the first step and, to some extent, on the second. . .

Prevention, however, has been largely ignored, even though without it we will be caught in an endless cycle of chasing perpetrators and providing victims services after the harm to children has already occurred.

Read the full article here.

Like Todres, I think that we need to increase the discussion about prevention, both because it is often ignored or dealt with lost and because it is vitally important to completely eradicating slavery. As Todres notes, this conversation must include efforts to address the ways we contribute to slavery, particularly in our choices as consumers. Todres' points about engaging many different sectors, from health-care workers to law enforcement to corporations to the education sector, are also well taken. I would argue, though, that we must also make sure that survivors themselves and people at risk for trafficking take a leading role in this discussion. Prevention may not be the most glamorous of the "three Ps," but it's one that we must more seriously and actively address if we want to end slavery.

Photo taken by Kay Chernush for the State Department.

CNN: Child Trafficking & Organ Trafficking in Haiti

On CNN last night Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive talked to the network's Christiane Amanpour about child trafficking and organ trafficking from victims of the earthquake that struck a few weeks ago.

UN Peacekeepers punished for sex scandal: a literal slap on the wrist

By Youngbee Kim

December 2nd was the International abolition day of slavery. Remembering all the victims of modern day slavery around the world and sexual abuse, I am searching for the reports on whether the authorities have brought the remedies for the victims of child molestation and sexual assault by the UN peacekeepers in Haiti, Congo, and many other countries. So far, they are nowhere to be found.

How the victims were abused

In Haiti, a Jordanian UN peacekeeper raped and sodomized a Haitian mother of five children in 2005.[1] In 2007, 13 years and older girls are having sex with UN peacekeeping soldiers for $1 dollar. In Congo, the UN reported in 2004 that the peacekeepers and bureaucrats have been exploited women and children for quite a few years. [2]

The remedies executed so far

In November 6th, 2009, Associate Press released a report on the disciplinary actions against the UN peacekeepers for molesting children on the missions. According to the report, at least 50 UN peacekeepers punished and prosecuted by the state authorities of their origins. The punishment varied from "reduction in military rank to eight months' imprisonment for committing sexual abuses on missions since 2007." [3] The report also stated that the UN can only investigate allegations of misconduct, but is not able to prosecute the individual offenders. Rather, the each state has the power to prosecute the peacekeepers of their won nationals.

A slap on the wrist

In many places around the world, child molesters serve much longer jail term than what some of the UN peacekeepers had to face, which is only 8 months in jail. In New Jersey, a 61 years old pedophile was sentenced nearly 20 years in jail for molesting children in Thailand.[4] In Florida, a man was sentenced life in prison for molesting his step daughters as well as nieces. [5] In Australia, a 61 years old man was sentenced for 12 years in jail for molesting 12 children. [6] What is worse is that some of the soldiers were never prosecuted by their own state authorities upon their dismissal from the mission by the UN. [7]

The victims: stuck with a life long trauma

The children who are molested in their young age have to face various symptoms caused by the sexual abuse. Socially, they experience the fear of losing control in a relationship and have hard time trusting other people. They also face challenges in their sexual relationship with the partners as some of the remarks or touch by the partners would likely bring them back to the memories of the abuse. Physically, the victims suffer all kinds of chronic pain including abdominal pain, menstrual pain, intestinal complaints, stomach ache, nausea, back pain, etc. [8]

So the case is closed?

A human rights lawyer in Haiti reports as follows: [9]

In 2009, the UN sent 112 requests for action taken concerning all forms of misconduct, including but not limited to sexual exploitation and abuse, and received 14 responses as of 3 November. By comparison, she noted, the UN sent 192 such requests in 2008 and received six responses on action taken, while 146 requests were made and nine responses received in 2007.

It is not only disturbing to hear that these victims are left with no remedies for their trauma but also that only a few out of many UN peacekeepers faced a lighter punishment than what they actually deserve in committing such a horrendous crime like mentioned above. Currently, the UN still has not obtained the full right to discipline their soldiers and aid workers when they commit a crime during the mission. Some people say that such scandal only proves its inability to retain its own soldiers. Others argue that the UN must be granted more binding power to retain its system. But again, in either case, the victims are left with a life long trauma with no assistance for rehabilitation so far.

Human Trafficking Book Awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize

The 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize winners were announced on September 23, and this year's winner in the nonfiction category is A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery, by Benjamin Skinner (published by Simon & Schuster).

The book is based on the author's experiences reporting in Haiti, Sudan, India, Eastern Europe, The Netherlands, and suburban America, and according to the Dayton Literary Peace Prize press release, "is both a shocking expose of the horrors of contemporary slavery and an inspiring call to make ending this crime a global priority."

Stated Skinner: "By highlighting modern-day slavery and the fight for its abolition, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize committee pushed forward the 'unfinished work' that President Lincoln spoke about that Thursday afternoon in Gettysburg....There are more slaves today than at any point in human history, and I'm deeply honored, and humbled, to be recognized by the committee as being among those working for their freedom." Skinner will be donating the $10,000 award to Free the Slaves.

The book was published in March 2008, and has received high praise from The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bill Clinton, and John McCain, among others.

The runner-ups included Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan (Little, Brown, & Company), a collection of short stories which focus on hardships facing children in Africa, including child trafficking. Say You're One of Them was recently announced as Oprah Winfrey's latest book club pick.

Poverty and the Risk of Labor Exploitation

Excerpts from an article from the Voice of America:

Poverty in Haiti Places Children at Risk for Labor Exploitation

U.N. officials are working with Haiti's government to prevent scores of children from falling prey to forced labor. VOA's Brian Wagner reports that chronic poverty places many children at risk of exploitation.

Low-income students in a health classMany Haitians take pride that their nation was the first in the Americas to abolish slavery during a revolt in 1791. Yet even today, scores of children labor as unpaid domestic servants in homes across the impoverished Caribbean nation.

The U.N. Childrens Fund estimates that more than 170,000 children, mostly girls, do not attend school and engage in forced labor in a practice known as restavek. Many come to the capital from rural areas, where parents say they have no resources to provide food and schooling for some of their children...

Sintyl Wilson (above) runs a school in the Martissant neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, where he says he is working to keep the numbers of restavek children down. He says, if not for free meals and low tuition at his school, some of his 125 students would likely be working as domestic servants.

Wilson says the neighborhood is full of restavek children. He says the students most at risk of being pressed into work are those with siblings who already are restaveks.

U.N. estimates show about half of Haitian children attend primary school, and about 20 percent continue on to secondary school.

This school in Martissant offers afternoon classes for restavek children who must work during the day.

Now, Wilson says he is trying to draw more restavek children into the school, by offering vocational training for students to become auto mechanics, electricians or develop other trades. Wilson shows off brand-new wrenches and other hand tools he has bought for students to begin apprenticing in a nearby auto repair shop...

The school's assistant director, Jean Baptiste Marie Marline, says children pressed into domestic service often face a difficult future.

Marline says children in abusive and demeaning situations often have low self-esteem and, even if they flee restavek homes they can be drawn into forced labor by others.

Haiti's government has laws on the books forbidding forced labor and child abuse. But experts say many children can fall through the cracks in a nation where scores of babies never receive a birth certificate.

Massimo Toschi, a child welfare expert with the U.N. Mission in Haiti, says a child without a birth certificate has very few legal protections. "So basically they do not exist, and it is very easy to have them forced into trafficking, exploitation, child labor, and no one would know about it," he said.

Earlier this year, the U.N. mission began targeting restavek with a media campaign featuring Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean.

Toschi says the goal is to raise awareness about the plight of thousands of children and challenge cultural acceptance of restavek...

Smuggled Haitians Get Measly Wages for Work in Jamaica

By Kimone Thompson

From the Jamaica Observer:

HAITIANS smuggled into Jamaica as part of a human smuggling ring have been receiving measly wages for work done on construction sites, among other jobs offered. "Recently we heard that in Portland people were paying them (Haitians) $250 per day to do work, which is pathetic. They give them food then pay them $250 a day to do construction work and all those things," according to Inspector Steve Brown, spokesman for Operation Kingfish.

"We know that when Jamaicans go up to Haiti to smuggle drugs, they bring back Haitians with them and use them to do odd jobs but as far as a number, we don't have that," Inspector Brown added.

He did say however that since the middle of 2007, 11 persons (mostly Jamaicans) have been arrested on charges including human trafficking and that there are now seven such cases before the court.

"Not every Haitian who comes here does so of his own will," a Haitian source with intimate knowledge of the situation told the Observer. "I know of Jamaicans living in Haiti, particularly in the south in places like Cité de Soleil, they are the ones taking people here. They smuggle arms and promise people, especially young girls, that they will get them jobs in Jamaica and when they get them here they hand them over to other people," the source said.

Another source, who does work with Haitians detained here, reported that victims paid up to US$600 for trips after being told they would have taken them to Miami, but taken to Jamaica instead.
"These are people who sell their goats, their house, any and everything they have to get that US$600 and when they come here there is nothing. And it's not like they can return because there is nothing to return to," said the source.

Read the full article