She's 10 and May Be Sold to a Brothel

Nicholas Kristof has been writing articles for The New York Times regarding human trafficking for years. His most recent article highlights the personal side of the internationally lucrative business.

From The New York Times on 1 June 2011:

M. is an ebullient girl, age 10, who ranks near the top of her fourth-grade class and dreams of being a doctor. Yet she, like all of India, is at a turning point, and it looks as if her family may instead sell her to a brothel.

Her mother is a prostitute here in Kolkata, the city better known to the world as Calcutta. Ruchira Gupta, who runs an organization called Apne Aap that fights human trafficking, estimates that 90 percent of the daughters of Indian prostitutes end up in the sex trade as well. And M. has the extra burden that she belongs to a subcaste whose girls are often expected to become prostitutes.

M. seemed poised to escape this fate with the help of one of my heroes, Urmi Basu, a social worker who in 2000 started the New Light shelter program for prostitutes and their children.

M., with her winning personality and keen mind, began to bloom with the help of New Light. Both her parents are illiterate, but she learned English and earned excellent grades in an English-language school for middle-class children outside the red-light district. I’m concealing her identity to protect her from gibes from schoolmates.

Unfortunately, brains and personality aren’t always enough, and India is the center of the 21st-century slave trade. This country almost certainly has the largest number of human-trafficking victims in the world today.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Keep Human Trafficking Victims in the Brothels to SAVE them? Who would have thought?

What is the first step to take in saving a victim of sex trafficking? My initial reaction, and I venture to say that many others share my view, that removing the individual from the brothel would be the most sensible first step. However, my logic went to hell after reading about a group named of Freeset.

Freeset, located in the Kolkata red light district, has a mission identical to hundreds of other anti-trafficking groups around the world. As stated on their website, they “… would like to see the 10,000 sex workers in our neighborhood empowered with the choice of leaving a profession they never chose in the first place.” From 2001, Freeset has helped workers leave the sex trade by offering the alternative livelihood of manufacturing bags for export. Freeset offers girls an alternative lifestyle while still remaining inside the brothels.

Of course when I learned about Freeset’s model, my mind raced with a million questions. Can a girl live in a brothel and not be part of the sex trade? Can they help to effect change from the inside? Is this a model that other groups should emulate? As we fight to end modern slavery, it is important to learn what all of us are doing to combat the evil. We learn from each other, good or bad. An educated anti trafficking group is by definition a better trafficking group.

Freeset’s model may be unappealing at first blush but it has a proven track record. Its success should teach us to learn so that we avoid the pitfalls of applying our experiences in a foreign land. How many of us have even been to Kolkata? How many of us can even understand how desperate a worker might be. Doesn’t Freeset teach us that even an ex-sex trade worker needs a livelihood? Isn’t that obvious?

For myself, I admit the Freeset model wouldn’t have been my first suggestion, and perhaps not even in my top 100. That failure of imagination reflects poorly on me. Now that I know of Freeset, I want to learn more, do more, and I never want to forget that real people need real help starting with food, shelter, and dignity. I will accomplish success before I ever give in, no matter the price or the time.

To learn more about Freeset and the work they do, please click here.

Image from freesetglobal.com

Labor Trafficking News from November

Throughout the month, there are many cases or stories that break regarding forced labor. They are usually not on the front pages of our newspapers, rather they are buried deep and sometimes are only accessible through the internet. These are some of the stories, both headline articles and those that are not, from November.

Markus Löning, Germany's Human Rights Commissioner, criticized Uzbekistan for its use of child labor in the yearly cotton harvest. He demanded that the country allow monitors to enter the country and that it stop using children during the harvest. Each year, in September, schools are closed and students as young as seven are forced to pick cotton in the fields. The country has signed two Conventions against child labor and Löning asked them to honor their commitments. At least 65 retailers including Gap and Wal-mart, boycott Uzbek cotton.

Debates raged throughout November about whether or not carpets made in India would lose designation as being produced through child and or forced labor by the United States Government. The Deputy Undersecretary of Labor, Sandra Polaski, said that the US had not determined the status of the carpets, while India's Carpet Export Council claimed that the US would drop the designation. The Department of Labor clarified that it had not removed India's carpet industry from the list, but rather believed there was not enough suitable information to determine whether it should be kept on the list. They are awaiting the results of a study on child and forced labor in Asia to determine if India should remain on the list.

The Irish Human Rights Commission asked Ireland's Government to launch an investigation of the Magdalene laundries or asylums, where women of ill-repute were forced to undertake forms of hard labor including laundry work, even into the 20th century. The Commission said that appropriate redress should be provided to the survivors of the institutions. The findings included evidence that the State knew and was involved in the process of sending women and girls to the laundries. It is also possible that the Government violated obligations it undertook through the 1930 Forced Labor Convention by not outlawing or stopping the laundries and by trading with the convents that were running the laundries. The Government admitted as early as 2001 that the women were victims of abuse but no redress has been provided.

No agreement was reached on the future of Zimbabwe diamonds after a four day meeting of the Kimberly Process. While the Chairman, Boaz Hirsch, said he was hopeful that an agreement could be reached within a few days after the meeting, as of the end of November there still was no deal. Obert Mpofu, Zimbabwe Mine's Minister, said that despite the lack of an agreement, diamonds would still be for sale with no conditions to those who wished to purchase them. Sales of Zimbabwe's diamonds were barred last year due to human rights abuses, including the use of forced labor, in the Chiadzwa fields.

Three illegal immigrants were indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with a human trafficking scheme which forced its victims to sell CD's and DVD's. Charges included conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants and conspiracy to force labor. Victims were recruited from Mexico and forced to sell the pirated wares. The accused are believed to have intimidated victims into working until they paid off their debts.

After Cyclone Giri, which hit Myanmar at the end of October, the Government began forcing affected villagers to assist with renovations including helping rebuild military sites without pay. This was one of the hardest affected areas by the cyclone. The villagers are staying in makeshift huts, since many people have not been able at this point to rebuild their own homes and since they are forced to work from dawn to dusk on Government/Military projects.

Photo by Kay Chernush for the U.S. State Department

A Lack of Transparency

From the Harvard Crimson:

By Niharika S. Jain & Tara Suri

In a New Delhi village where a staggering 85 percent of women are victims of sex trafficking, the Najafgarh Community Centre is imprinted with the sign of Venus, the symbol for the female gender and for the anti-trafficking organization “Apne Aap Women Worldwide.” On its website, Apne Aap says it runs the Najafgarh Community Centre for the empowerment of women and children, a claim that it makes to donors worldwide. Unfortunately, the striking symbol and the large letters etched below it spelling out “Apne Aap” seem to be the organization’s only mark on the village.

We learned all this when we arrived in Najafgarh this summer with a bold idea to help the villagers transform their situation. After reading about Apne Aap and corresponding with its founder, Ruchira Gupta, we raised $20,000 to fund a vocational training program that would teach the women to sew and provide a sustainable job option as an alternative to prostitution. After an initial $12,000 donation, we received monthly reports from Apne Aap listing names of women and children involved in programs at the Community Centre. Yet we also received desperate e-mails from the community coordinator complaining that Apne Aap was not allocating money appropriately. But in light of the international accolades the organization had been receiving for its efforts to help female sex workers, we were loath to think our $12,000 contribution had been misused, much less that the reports Apne Aap was sending us were blatant misrepresentations. Instead, we hoped this project would allay our exasperation with the sexism and inefficiency we had witnessed on previous visits to the country of our heritage.

Our quixotism was shattered when we finally visited Najafgarh. The “Community Centre” that Apne Aap claims to run is a dank two-room building accompanied by a weathered eight-feet-wide by 10-feet-wide rug placed on the dirt where the children sit. More than half of the children do not attend school, and the informal education “class” for the children has no teacher or curriculum; instead, the kids sprawl themselves on the rug, drawing on slate boards and occasionally chucking pieces of chalk. The vocational training program is a daily sewing lesson taught by a 15-year-old village girl to five of her peers, instead of to the 19 girls and women Apne Aap claimed were attending. The women are completely disillusioned and continue to work in the sex trade. Indeed, after spending several weeks working in Najafgarh, we found that Apne Aap had nearly no presence there, apart from a few foreign interns it sporadically stationed there to “teach English.” Devastated by this farce of an initiative, we contacted the organization to ascertain the fate of our donation. After applying significant pressure upon the organization, we were granted a meeting with the founder, who offered to return $4,000, an offer that remains unfulfilled.

Read more

The Slave Next Door: EATING, WEARING, WALKING AND TALKING SLAVERY

Excerpt from The Slave Next Door. Reprinted with permission.

CHAPTER 6: EATING, WEARING, WALKING AND TALKING SLAVERY

Slavery probably crept into your life several times today, some before you even got to work. Rolling off your bed, standing on that pretty hand-woven rug, maybe you threw on a cotton t-shirt. In the kitchen did you make a cup of coffee, spoon in a little sugar, and then kick back with a chocolate croissant and your laptop to check the headlines? After a shower, maybe you drove to the station. Waiting for the train, perhaps you made a couple of calls on your cell phone.

All in all a normal day, but slavery was involved in almost every step. Hundreds of thousands of rugs are hand-woven by slaves in the “carpet belt” of India, Pakistan, and Nepal. Cotton is grown with slave labor in India, West Africa, and Uzbekistan, the world’s second largest producer. Coffee cultivation also encompasses slave labor, mainly in Africa. Enslaved Haitian workers harvest the sugar in the Dominican Republic, the largest exporter of sugar to the U.S. The chocolate in that croissant can also be the product of slavery, from the cocoa farms of the Ivory Coast. Even the steel and iron in your car can be polluted by slavery. From a quarter to a half of all U.S. imports of raw iron in different forms come from Brazil.[i] In that country slaves burn the forests to make charcoal, which in turn is used to smelt ore into pig iron and iron into steel. In America, the single largest consumer of Brazilian iron and steel is the automotive industry, though the construction industry also uses a large amount. Pressed against your ear, that cell phone keeps you connected to friends and family, but also to slavery. Cell phones (and laptops and other electronics) just don’t work very well without a mineral called tantalum. In the Democratic Republic of Congo poor farmers are rounded up by armed gangs and enslaved to dig tantalum out of the ground. Every one of us, every day, touches, wears, and eats products tainted with slavery. Slave-made goods and commodities are everywhere in our lives, but, paradoxically, in small proportions. The volume is unacceptable, but rarely critical to our national economy or quality of life. And slavery in our lives is not restricted to cotton, coffee, cocoa, steel, rugs, and cell phones. The list goes on and on, with new commodities and products turning up all the time. Some of them, such as shrimp, might surprise you.

Huckleberry Finn it ain’t

If there is an archetypical picture of rural youth, it is the barefoot lad with the fishing pole over his shoulder. The dusty riverbanks, the lazy heat, the straw dangling from his lip, it all says that halcyon days are possible in our youth. Today even this picture out of Mark Twain is shot through with bondage. Across Africa and Asia children are enslaved to catch, clean, package, and dry fish. They feed a global demand for everything from shrimp cocktail to cat food. One of the world’s largest consumers of seafood is Japan, but the U.S. isn’t too far behind. Americans imported 2.5 million tons of seafood in 2006, worth over $13 billion.[ii] And when it comes to shrimp, the US imports significantly more than the seafood-loving Japanese. Americans love shrimp, and the little crustacean that was once an expensive specialty food is now as ubiquitous as chicken. More than three million tons of frozen shrimp were imported to the U.S. in 2006.[iii] The huge demand for shrimp in the U.S. and other rich countries has generated a gold rush along the coastlines of the developing world. From India to Bangladesh, from Indonesia to Ecuador, Guatemala and Brazil, coastal forests, mangrove swamps, and natural beaches are ripped up to build hundreds of thousands of acres of shrimp farms. In all of these places adults and children are enslaved to cultivate and harvest the shrimp.[iv] In some cases whole families are caught in debt bondage slavery, in others children are kidnapped and hustled off to shrimp and fish farms on remote islands. Children are regularly enslaved in fishing and shrimping, since kids can do the work and they are easier to enslave and control.

In Bangladesh, boys as young as eight are kidnapped and taken out to remote islands like Dublar Char off the southwest coast. Sold to the fishing crews for about $15, they are set to work processing fish on shore for 18 hours a day, seven days a week. If the boats return with a large catch they might work several days with no sleep at all. Like robots they clean, bone, and skin fish; shell mussels, shrimp and crab, and wash squid to remove the ink. Other children sort, weigh, check, and load the haul, processing and preparing the fish for freezing and shipment. The slaveholders sexually abuse the boys and beat them regularly. They get little food, no medical care, and sleep on the ground. If they sicken or are injured and die, they are thrown into the ocean.[v] Dublar Char was raided and the children freed in 2004 when researchers linked to the US anti-slavery group Free the Slaves discovered the situation. They worked with the State Department’s anti-trafficking office to bring diplomatic pressure on the Bangladeshi government, which led to a raid by military police. (The local police were on the take from the gangs running the island).

No one knows how many other remote islands conceal such slave camps. Much of the fish and shrimp from these islands enters the global markets and then comes to the U.S. Dublar Char is just one example of the slave operations that supply our hunger for seafood. Around the island of Sumatra in Indonesia the sea is dotted with what appear to be ramshackle rafts. They are actually fishing platforms, crudely lashed together and moored up to twenty miles off the coast. There are some 1,500 fishing platforms in this region, each holding three to ten children whose only avenue of escape is a twenty-mile swim. Promised a good job, they are left on the platform to cast nets, catch fish, and clean and dry the catch. In heavy weather the platforms can break up, children can be swept overboard, or they might simply fall through the holes in the rough bamboo deck. On irregular visits, the boss collects the fish and administers beatings to increase productivity. As in Dublar Char and so many other places, the children are sexually abused, and if they become ill, there is no relief. If they die of illness or injury, they are simply rolled into the water. The revenues from Indonesian fish exports reached $5 billion in 2006; America is one of the top destinations for frozen shrimp, canned tuna, tilapia and sea crab from that country.[vi]

________________________________

[i] See: Michael Smith and David Voreacos, “The Secret World of Modern Slavery,” Bloomberg Markets, December 2006.
[ii] See report of National Marine Fisheries Service, at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch/trade_and_aquaculture.htm. Accessed Aug. 2007.
[iii] Shrimp imports also reported at: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch/trade_and_aquaculture.htm.
[iv] See for example, “Dying for your dinner” Environmental Justice Foundation, accessed at http://www.csrwire.com/PressRelease.php?id=1932; and Report No. 32 on Forced Labor in Burma, International Labor Organization, accessed at http://burmalibrary.org/reg.burma/archives/199809/msg00281.html.
[v] Report on Indonesian Fishing Platforms, Anti-Slavery International, 1998.
[vi] See: http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-779909/Indonesia-hopes-to-increase-fish.html#abstract. Accessed Aug. 17, 2007.


Free the Slaves is very happy to announce the upcoming publication of the paperback edition The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today.

India's Garment Challenge

Indian apparel exporters jittery over US allegations of child labour26 Jul 2010, 0624 hrs IST,Shramana Ganguly Mehta,ET Bureau

The Economic Times

HMEDABAD: The worst fears of Indian apparel exporters have come true. Big Brother US, which accounts for 30% of India’s apparel exports worth $10 billion, has labelled India as a country that uses child labour in garment manufacturing.

The stand poses huge reputational risk to India that supplies garments to the likes of Wal-Mart, GAP, H&M, Diesel, M&S and Levi’s, all of which swear against child labour. With this, India’s status as an exporter is reduced to the likes of Argentina and Thailand, countries far lower in ranking. However, India still has some hopes as yet another list on countries employing forced child labour is up for review in September, and Indian authorities expect to convince the US counterparts by then.

Indian garment exporting industry shot into the limelight for all wrong reasons in 2007 when child labour was found working on GAP’s contracts in New Delhi. A year later, shutterbugs captured child labour at Tirupur, the knitwear apparel cluster in South India, working on UK retailer Primark’s orders.

The US Department of Labor on Monday put garments from Indian origin in the Executive Order 13126 list, thereby labelling them as “products, by country of origin, which the Department of Labor, State and Homeland Security believe might have been mined, produced or manufactured by forced or indentured child labour”. Even as India pulled up its socks to prove innocence to the US through diplomatic & legal channels, it was perhaps too little, too late to prevent the damage.

The recent move by the US has left the exporters unsettled, just two months before they go under yet another scanner, namely The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorisation Act. Both the lists have something in common — the use of child labour by the garment industry.

That India finds mention along with Argentina and Thailand in the list and with Nepal (in case of embroidered garments) has shocked the apex body of apparel exporters, Apparel Export Promotion Council. AEPC knows it too well now that it will have some serious persuasion to do with the US authorities who are due to review the TVPRA list in September.

While AEPC has already come up with a draft common compliance code (code of ethics) for the industry, it has also entrusted the Northern India Textiles Research Association to submit a report on forced labor in the industry shortly. AEPC has maintained that the information relied upon by the US Department of Labour is outdated and inaccurate and that the Indian garment industry should not be included in the lists.

However, its attorney in the US Brenda Jacobs representing the Sidley Austin LLP would have some serious persuasion to do with the US authorities. AEPC chairperson Premal Udani is learnt to be flying to Washington DC on August 19 to hold meetings with US officials concerned.

Udani told ET that the Common Compliance Code would be in place by August, by which time AEPC would hold a series of seminars pan-India to educate not just the exporters, but also their sub-contractors about the code of ethics. “We also intend to reach out to all apparel clusters in the country so that they get their basics right,” he said. Majority of AEPC’s 8,000 members comprises SMEs.

Although the EO list is valid for one year, India is banking its hopes in the next meeting when it would try to impress upon the US about its seriousness to deal with child labour to get off the TVPRA list. “If we are able to get India out of the TVPRA list, we should hope to get off the EO list in future,” Udani added.

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In September, the United States listed India’s garment industry on their Executive Order 13126 Prohibition of Acquisition of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor List, meaning that the garment industry in India is not free of child and forced labor. India is currently under a new round of examinations in which they hope to have their name cleared. Companies such as Wal-Mart, GAP and Levi’s have all made commitments against child labor, but these same companies also source from India. Many within the Indian garment industry are worried that continuing to have their name on the list of products with child labor will hurt the industry in the country and since the US is responsible for a third of the garment exports from India, there is reason for concern.

In 2007, child labor was discovered in Indian factories contracted to make garments for GAP. A year later, child labor was discovered at another factory with contracts from a UK company.

The Apparel Export Promotion Council of India (APEC) has written a code of ethics known as the Common Compliance Code by which the industry is to abide and expected to train exporters and their subcontractors on the code of ethics by August. The Northern India Textiles Research Association is expected to produce a report for APEC on child labor soon. India is convinced that the US’s decision to place them on the list is due to outdated information.

While APEC seems to have made steps towards ending child labor within the industry, particularly through the creation of industry standards, it is likely to be a difficult battle to have their name removed from the list so soon. Even if India were removed from the list, would the rest of the world be convinced that child labor in their garment industry is no longer a problem? Likely not.

Photo by Kay Chernush for the US Department of State

Yoga Stop Human Trafficking

On March 13th 2010 Yogis around the world rolled out their mats for a mass sun salutation, to take a stand against trafficking and show their support to its millions of victims.

The central event was held in the Southern Indian city of Mysore, the world-famous birthplace of Astanga Yoga, and home to Odanadi Seva Trust, who have been working with exploited women and children in and around Mysore for the past 20 years. There were some 60 events in 20 countries taking place around the world.

This video is of the event organized by Sophie Cleere in Reading (England).

Video by David Wall

Migrant Workers Melt Like Candles in the Gulf to Give Light to Their Families Back Home

Recent shocking statements made by Chairman K V Shamsudeen of the Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust (PBWT) divulged that only five percent of Indian expatriates living in Bahrain would lead a comfortable lifestyle from their earnings if they were forced to return home today. These findings reflect the extravagant lifestyles their families are creating with the hard-earned remittances received from their migrant worker relatives and a disregard for responsible saving habits. The Sharjah-based representative said that this problem occurred amongst other national groups as well, including Filipinos, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and Pakistanis.

Consequently, the TradeArabia News Source reported that this startling percentage of low and middle income migrant workers from India who have worked in the Gulf States for decades are returning home with little or no resources to further support their families.

The survey from which this information was derived was conducted by the PBWT and included 10,100 migrant workers from India living in the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) countries, including 1,500 from Bahrain who admitted that their sacrifices and self-deprivation in exchange for the well-being of their families back home yielded little long-term benefit.

Shamsudeen stated that only 2% of Indian families were responsibly saving portions of the remittances they receive, and encouraged migrant workers to discuss the harsh and often unforgiving conditions they face while living in the Gulf with their families, as a way to encourage more conservative spending habits, explore wiser investment opportunities, and inspire greater appreciation for the money they receive, especially given the precarious nature of their jobs vis a vis the recent global economic downturn. Shamsudeen eloquently explained that saving in small drops will eventually make an ocean.

80% of workers surveyed were married, but only 10% had their families living with them in the Gulf.

To add insult to injury, migrant workers are often ignored by their families if they do not receive remittances. Families in India were said to not appreciate the sacrifices that their spouses/relatives make while trying to support them; many often enjoy only one meal a day and live in deplorable conditions.

5 Million "Non-Resident Indians" as they are called live and work in the GCC countries, 60% of whom come from the Kerala region in southern India.

This article is particularly au courant given recent initiatives taken by regional governments to forcibly deport migrant workers living in the GCC countries illegally, including Bahrain. Knowing that the hard work invested by these workers will yield nothing once they return home is heart-wrenching.

Human trafficking in India Part II: Interview with Dr. Joseph D'souza

"India may appear to be simply another poor country. But it is a very complex culture with a root issue of caste discrimination behind some of our social ills. While we have numerous strengths, perhaps we have hidden our deepest problems due to shame or, because of colonial history, a fear of outsiders meddling in our culture." Dr. Joseph D'souza

If you have seen the movie "Slumdog Millionaire," you might have seen the glimpse of the truth behind the caste system and human trafficking in India. Though experts identify illiteracy, corruption, and bureaucracy are causes of human trafficking, the Dalits, people who belong to the lowest caste class in India, are the ones who are mainly vulnerable to the traffickers due to their lack of education. Therefore, according to the Dalit Freedom Network website, Dr. D'souza states that one cannot understand human trafficking in India without understanding the caste system in the society. He is one of the founders of the organization The Dalit Freedom Network and an expert in the field of the Dalits' human rights. I applaud his life-long commitment to the cause and his passion to serve the most vulnerable and marginalized people who cannot speak up for themselves in India.

Q: I know you are the head of the organization the Dalit Freedom Network as well as others. Can you tell us more about your organization?

The Dalit Freedom Network started in 2002 as a result of the cry of Dalits, formerly called untouchables, in India who asked myself and others to give them a voice outside the country. During our travels, we met some Americans who were sympathetic to the plight of Dalits and wanted to do more than complain about injustice. After consulting with Indian leaders, we decided to focus on several proactive projects. We accepted an invitation to start primary schools in at least 100 Dalit communities.

The key is that teaching is in English, the language which empowers Dalits to participate in India’s rapidly growing economy. Second is a medical initiative which ensures students – and their community -- are physically healthy. Third is an economic project to help Dalits provide for their families. This includes micro-loans, economic education, vocational training, and Self-Help Groups. Lastly, we continue to present the issue of Dalit slavery to government bodies and human rights groups through our activities in Washington, D.C. and other places. [Emphasis added]

There are many non-profit groups which are part of the Dalit Freedom Movement including Operation Mobilization. Each has different projects and initiatives, for example, OM USA is helping with a subsidized lunch program at the schools and much more.

Q: Many people are unaware of the issues of human trafficking in relations to the caste system. According to your article published on Sojournors, Slumdog Millionaire’s India: My Sobering reality, the 80% of the Indian population’s lives are subject to somewhat similar to what is described in the movie, “Slumdog Millionaire.” Why do you think that people are unaware of such fact?

Trafficking is a huge issue, both in terms of its negative impact on communities but also in terms of the massive size of slavery today. With all the general information coming from the UN, US State Department, and various non-profit organizations, I know it is easy to miss a particular issue like the nexus of caste and slavery. India may appear to be simply another poor country. But it is a very complex culture with a root issue of caste discrimination behind some of our social ills. While we have numerous strengths, perhaps we have hidden our deepest problems due to shame or, because of colonial history, a fear of outsiders meddling in our culture.[Emphasis added]

But I’m encouraged because the awareness has increased dramatically in the last few years. For example, the UN International Labor Office said in the Report of the Director-General in 2005 that “…the overwhelming majority of bonded labor victims in agriculture, brick making, mining and other sectors are from the Scheduled Castes.” Scheduled castes is the official government term for Dalits. The US State Department has started consistently noting that Dalits are largest community victimized by trafficking in India. For example, the 2006 annual report for Trafficking In Persons said “traffickers usually targeted minors and Dalit women” for the sex trade.[Emphasis added]

Q: What has Indian government done to end human trafficking among the population of low caste system? Did you think that effort was effective? Why or why not?

The Indian government should be applauded for many laws they’ve passed to protect lower caste citizens. The laws heighten penalties for people who attack Dalits. There are good programs which provide economic assistance to poor Dalits who tempted by traffickers’ offers of a few hundred dollars for their sons or daughters. The problem is the implement of justice. The government is trying and must do more to educate police on helping Dalit victims, stop intimidation of witnesses, make sure resources get to the Dalits instead of corrupt officials, and that good judges make decisions in line with the rule of law. [Emphasis added]

Q: President Obama just proclaimed the month of January 2010 as a month to raise the awareness for human trafficking victims. Does an Incident like this affect the policies of Indian government at all in terms of rectifying current issues of human trafficking of Dalit people?

On the one hand, India’s government doesn’t like outside pressure and, for example, has publicly resisted efforts United Nations committees which try to enforce accountability in the area of human rights and the caste issue. On the other hand, there are good people in government who appreciate the truth being spoken by friendly countries like the United States. Comments by Obama or others could encourage them or even create enough momentum to change a policy. In the end, we believe that some international involvement will help especially when we look at the example of how apartheid ended in South Africa. [Emphasis added]

Q: How can international community respond or help the situation of human trafficking and the rights of Dalit people in India?

The U. S. Government could take the lead to address the size and scope of the slave trade in India. They can support efforts by non-governmental groups to combat slavery in India, including special training programs to sensitize and equip Indian authorities to prevent and prosecute human trafficking in India. Americans can encourage their politicians to work on these issues. The average citizen can also help by supporting pro-active efforts to stop trafficking such as sponsoring a child’s elementary education through the Dalit Freedom Network or the lunch program for students through OM USA.

For More Information:
The Dalits Freedom Network
Dr. Joseph D'souza blog
Operation Mobilization

Posted on behalf of Youngbee Kim

Human trafficking in India Part I: Caste and Human Trafficking

Highly developed IT industry, nuclear weapons, and a fast developing economy with rich culture and resources are what one thinks of when he or she thinks of India in the 21st century. Also, when reading articles on Bollywood stars traveling to Africa to fight against human trafficking, readers are led to think that the victims are never Indian themselves, but instead are those who are trafficked from its neighboring countries. Furthermore, the democracy in India is well established enough that Indians, including the Bollywood stars, have a great understanding of a person’s fundamental human rights.

Scholars have pointed out to corruption, bureaucracy, and high illiteracy rates as three main factors causing human trafficking in India. However, unless one is familiar with the Indian culture and the society, one would have a hard time recognizing the connection between human trafficking and the three causes behind such atrocities in India. In fact, the causal relationship between human trafficking and the three factors is possible soley because the Caste System in the country allows Indians to accept such issues - which human trafficking - as part of the tradition or custom. Further, the Caste System allows many Indians to believe that human trafficking of low Caste class members is a fact of life, rather than a flawed tradition.

According to The Dalit Freedom Network, Dalit people are the lowest class in the Indian Castes system. The population of Dalit contains nearly 67% of the entire Indian population, which amounts to 250 million Indian citizens. [2] Though the Indian constitution outlawed the mistreatment of Dalits solely based on their social status, it has not officially abolished the Caste System from the society as a whole. Therefore, in practice, Dalit people's status in the lowest Caste's class continues to control their lives with a rare chance of climbing up the social ladder.

As Castes affect every aspects of a person’s life in India, Dalits have faced all sorts of discrimination against them. In the past, the society expected them to “use separate water taps, temples and graveyards in the cities." [3] Their Caste class status also affected their chances of getting a job or finding a place to live. Moreover, Dalit students were told to arrive earlier to clean the classroom for other students.

They were also expected to sit in the back of the classroom. [4] Some people say that such extreme forms of discrimination mentioned above no longer exist. However, Caste discrimination is severe enough for Indians to justify modern-day slavery. Even if they try to work hard to rise above the poverty line, their social status perpetuates the maintenance of their life styles under the poverty lines.

Sunitha Krishnan: Anti-trafficking crusader

Sunitha Krishnan has dedicated her life to rescuing women and children from sex slavery, a multimilion-dollar global market. In this courageous talk, she tells three powerful stories, as well as her own, and calls for a more humane approach to helping these young victims rebuild their lives.

Sunitha Krishnan is galvanizing India’s battle against sexual slavery by uniting government, corporations and NGOs to end human trafficking.

"The sense that thousands and millions of children and young people are being sexually violated and that there’s this huge silence about it around me angers me."

- Sunitha Krishnan

Learn more about Sunitha's work

Namaste-My Five Weeks in Kolkata, India

I got to spend five weeks in India this past summer. I was working in shelters for trafficking survivors and children of sex workers.

I'm really excited about all the opportunities that are going to come from this adventure and to share it with you.

While in Kolkata, I wrote a few excerpts for this blog. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a comment or email me! I cannot wait to start a dialogue!

"For the next few weeks I will be working at the Destiny Reflection Center in Kolkata, India. The Destiny is a center where girls rescued from the sex trafficking industry come to work and earn a sustainable living.

I've only been to the center once, being that I've only been in the city for a couple of days. I met a few of the girls and saw what they are working on. Monday is my first official day of volunteer work.

During my first few days of visiting here, I am just in awe and wonder of how magical a place like India, and more specifically Kolkata can be. There have been many obstacles to overcome while here. Not knowing how to communciate, going the past six days without my luggage, being taken advantage of by cab drivers and shop owners because I am an American. However, that does not stop the immense joy that I feel while I am here.

There is so much to learn and know about Kolkata, India. This pulsing metropolis is in the eastern part of the country. It is overwhelmingly diverse in people and in ways of life. I'm staying in an apartment right now in a modest neighborhood along the main road of Kolkata. Just a few blocks down the road is a mall that trumps any mall I've ever been to, and you can feel the air conditioning from the street. Yet, 50 feet in front of this mall is a slum full of houses made of sticks, mud, and grocery/rice bags.

Indian people take such pride in their culture, people, and country, yet do not lend a hand to their brothers and sisters in the slums. Walking past a slum yesteray, I heard a car horn beep behind me, and it was a Mereceds Benz. Really? Behind the mall I spoke of, there are three highrise apartment complexes being built. They are complete with tennis courts, swimming pools and state-of-the art fitness centers.

Maybe it's my strong Western sense of community, but I just can't seem to rationalize why a booming economy doesn't help build up its people. No wonder terrible phenomena like Human Trafficking still exists.

I was riding in a cab the other day (quite the adventure) and while stop a young girl reached her hand in the open window and smacked my arm. She was a gorgeous child, maybe seven or eight eyears old. One of the most stunningly beautiful children I have ever laid eyes on; the sad thing was I couldn't look at her. I had to ignore her because she is working for someone, trying to get money she'll never see. I wanted to pull her into the cab with my firend and me, and just take care of her. I don't know how people can walk the streets of this city and ignore what's going on all around them. How a child can walk the streets and beg for moeny instead of playing and pretending; or how a young girl can sleep with numerous men who will never remember her name or love her the ways she is supposed to be loved. My heart cannot help but be open and broken to the situation my eyes are laying witness to. This just has to stop."

"Wandering through the streets of Kolkata give me a whole new udnerstanding of teh world in which Indians live. Slums lay next to luxury tower apartments. People beg for moeny outside of shopping malls. There are thousands of girls that get lured from their homes and taken into the sex industry. Living in filthy and infectious stalls and forced to service man after man.

Working at the Destiny Center has given me a chance to put faces with the name "Trafficking." These girls are barely 16, 17 years of age and have already seen more of a life than their parents. Most of the time they are offered a better life in a bity city. There are promises of good jbos and higher salaries, but these promises never go through.

My heart breaks to know that something like this happens right under the noses of people who live in this country. Everyone knows about it. Does anybody care? Have they become so callused to this way of making money and exploiting people, that it becomes almost justified?

In the USA, trafficking occurs, too. We make up about 10% of the sex trafficking; most of the people trafficked into our country are for labor. They become landscapers, house slaves, domestic caregivers, farmhands and the like. Most Americans don't know that this happens. We say they are "illegal aliens" and that they are "stealing our jobs." Keep in mind that not every foreigner in our country is there by free will.

I'm most outraged at my own country for not noticing trafficking and going something about it. We have so much power and authority, so many means to make trafficking stop, and we all it to continue. Maybe that's why people like me, Faceless International, The Empancipation Network, Free the Slaves, Stop The Traffik, Made By Survivors, and others exist. We are teh ones called to educate and seen an end to such a horrible and unjustifiable way of treating people. Help rescue the ones who are in it and help restore the quality of life they all deserve.

Human beings have the ability to dream, exlore, create, and change the world in which they live in. We are given a complex mind and imagination that no one can compare to; why discourage people to not use that to its fullest power and authority?"

"I, again, got to go through the Red Light District of Kolkata a few days ago. For those of you new to the blog, I'm an Art Therapist, and I went to Khidderpore to work with the children of sex workers.

The first time going through the RLD, I wasn't approached at all. This time I was bombarded. One sex worker spotted me and came running towards the taxi I was in. She was offering me her baby girl, who was maybe seven months old. A beautiful baby girl, don't think it didn't cross my mind to take her home with me.

Being around the children of Khidderpore shelter was like being around any other group of children. They are very joyous, want to be loved and talked to. They drew pictures for me and laughed when I treid to understand Bengali. Watching them walk back to the brothels for the night broke my heart.

If you could look into their eyes, like I got the chance to, you'd feel like you had to do something too. We're doing a great injustice to humanity when we know the facts and don't do anything to stop this."

CNN's Amanpour's Feature on Sex Trafficking Aired Sunday

On Sunday, Christiane Amanpour conducted a show on sex trafficking in India on CNN. Amanpour interviewed Taina Bien-Aime, Executive Director of Equality Now and Ruchira Gupta, filmmaker and activist.

At one point in the show, Amanpour featured a scene from Gupta's movie "Selling of Innocents." After the clip, Amanpour asked Gupta about the scene:

AMANPOUR: That was a scene filmed in Nepal in the startling documentary, "Selling of Innocents." It shows that the problem of human trafficking extends across borders... Let me ask you, Ruchira, you were posing as a trafficker in that scene.

RUCHIRA GUPTA: That's right. I wanted to show how easy it was and how anyone could go into a village in Nepal or India and look around to buy a girl, and somebody would show up to sell the girl, and the girl had no idea about her rights, and for as little as $50 could buy her and do whatever they wanted with her.

AMANPOUR: And it was making that film that turned you into an activist for these -- against this -- this situation? GUPTA: It was a life-changing experience for me, because as a journalist I'd covered war, famine, conflict, hunger, but I had never seen the deliberate exploitation of one human being by another as I saw in a brothel in Bombay, when I walked into a little room which was four-by-four and saw the 10-year-old and the 12-year-olds sitting on the bed.

AMANPOUR: Ten and twelve?

GUPTA: Yes, and 10 or 15 customers a night...

AMANPOUR: Ten or fifteen customers for 10-year-old girls?

GUPTA: Raped repeatedly every night.

AMANPOUR: How many girls and women does this affect?

GUPTA: According to the government of India, just recently in May, they said 1.3 million children are sold into prostitution in India right now. And there are 1.3 million prostituted children in our country right this second.

Although the video of the full show is not yet available, you can find the transcript of the show here.

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.

"Be the Change" on Gandhi's Birthday

Here's a great chance to "be the change you wish to see in the world": the Kids with Cameras Foundation is looking for volunteers to host "House Parties for Hope" on October 2 - Gandhi's 140th birthday. Kids with Cameras is the foundation that grew out of the award-winning documentary Born into Brothels, which follows the lives of several children of prostitutes in Calcutta's red-light district who are given video cameras and taught how to use them. Through a partnership with the Buntain Foundation, Kids with Cameras is now working to build "Hope House," which is a "landmark endeavor to house up to 100 girls who are daughters of prostitutes from the same red-light district featured in the film. Hope House will give them access to on-site physical and psychological care, as well as formal mentorship from nursing students from an adjacent College of Nursing, all on a quiet, rustic campus on the city's outskirts. Each girl will have a full scholarship for private school education through high school, as well as access to computer labs, English language instruction and art, film and photography classes."

To complete the project, Hope House needs to raise the remaining $690,000 of its $1.2 million goal--and that's where you can help, by joining others from all over the world in hosting or attending a screening of Born into Brothels at a House Party for Hope. All proceeds from the house parties will go directly to Hope House's Capital Campaign.

Says Ross Kauffman, co-director and producer of Born into Brothels: "I hope all of the film's fans and our past supporters will join us in this unprecedented effort to raise the completion funds to build Hope House. It was a dream of ours as we made the film to have a place for these children to learn and grow. The dream is close to becoming a reality. There is no better way for anyone that watches the film and falls in love with these kids, just as we did, to make a difference in their future."

To learn more about hosting or attending a House Party for Hope, please visit http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/. For more information on Hope House, visit http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/school.

Interview: Climb for Captives

Mountain climbing and fighting human trafficking. The combination was so unexpected, that I had to ask Jeremy Vallerand of the Climb for Captives team about the connection. He readily agreed that the two have nothing in common, but for him that's part of the point. People are curious and intrigued when they learn about the project, he says, and it helps show them that anyone and everyone, no matter what their passions are, can take part in ending slavery. According to Vallerand, he and his team are "trying to send a message that everyone can make a difference. Whether you like climbing mountains, playing music, baking cookies or painting pictures, you can use your talents and your community to impact people around the world."

Vallerand and the rest of the Climb for Captives team will use their passion for mountain climbing to raise awareness and raise money for the International Justice Mission. This year will mark their second climb; last year in the summer of 2008, they climbed Mount Rainier and raised nearly $20,000 for the Home Foundation. Both of these organizations are dedicated to ending trafficking, helping victims, and empowering survivors.

The project truly began, though, in February of 2008 when Vallerand traveled to Mumbai, India, and saw first-hand the realities of human trafficking. At the conclusion of his trip, he visited a home for young children rescued from sex trafficking. The experience was a catalyst for Vallerand, who states, "After a few minutes of playing games, giving piggy back rides, and letting the kids climb all over me like I was a jungle gym, I promised myself that I would never forget their faces." Far from forgetting them, he decided to take action. When planning a climb up Mount Rainier, Vallerand and the rest of his team decided to dedicate the climb to fighting trafficking.

The climb itself is challenging, and only about 50% of the people who attempt the summit actually make it to the top. This summer the climbing predictions are unpredictable, since record temperatures have led to melting snow, falling rock and ice, and huge crevasses. The climbers, who finance the trip themselves, also face the pressures of fulltime jobs aside from the climb, families, busy lives, and like everyone, the difficult economic times.

Vallerand credits the importance of his team in meeting these challenges, stating, "There is no way I could do this alone. . . each guy brings a passion that keeps us moving forward." As they approach the climb, Vallerand says "Our team is in high spirits and we are excited about the opportunity to make a difference around the world. We enjoy training together, climbing together, and laboring together in the fight against human trafficking."

In addition to the support of each other, Vallerand says that the team finds motivation in raising awareness about trafficking. He notes that they "come across people all the time who have never heard about human trafficking and have no idea that children around the world and within our own borders are being sold for sex and for labor. Those conversations remind us that we are making a difference and that we can't give up."

More than simply not giving up, Climb for Captives plans to continue to step up their anti-trafficking work. This year they hope to raise twice as much money as last year, and Vallerand suggested that there might be "bigger mountains and bigger financial goals" in store for them. He emphasized, though, that Climb for Captives is committed to ensuring that everything they raise goes directly to the cause, not for paying for the logistics of the climbs themselves. At the same time, he notes that Climb for Captives has supporters all around the world, and he thinks they are ready for a global endeavor.

When I asked what motivates him, Vallerand's answer was as poignant as it was powerful: "the memory I have of the children in India. I remember one little girl in particular. She was no more than 8 years old, living in a home for children with HIV. She had been rescued from a brothel. She didn't speak, she just smiled, and she wanted to hold my hand wherever I went. She followed me around in her pretty pink dress, and I remember trying to think of some way to communicate to her that she was beautiful, that she was a princess. I would climb the mountain just for her."

While everyone might not be able to climb a mountain to fight slavery, Vallerand stresses the fact that everyone can be involved with this fight. Vallerand recounted the story of family in British Columbia who raised $850 for the Climb for Captives by holding a garage sale a couple of weeks ago. His favorite part: "the little neighbor girl who was so saddened by the idea of kids living in slavery that she went home and sold her gold fish to her brother for $8.15" so that she could donate for the climb.

Informed and effective action has to begin with awareness and education, as Vallerand points out. The Climb for Captives website has a number of resources for people who want to learn more and get involved. People can also donate via the site, and Vallerand states that "ALL of the money given goes to the International Justice Mission (and is tax deductible) and goes towards a specific project in India that we are partnering on." People can also contact Climb for Captives at isupport@climbforcaptives.com with questions.

MPs blame traffickers for Rohingya

From the Bangkok Post:

The House committee on security said it has evidence showing transnational human traffickers are behind the influx of Rohingya boat people.

The House committee chairman, Jehraming Tohtayong, said his committee has discovered that networks of transnational human traffickers have been involved in scams to bring Rohingya people into Thai soil before taking them to the third country.

Some of those transnational human traffickers also operated from Thailand, said Mr Jehraming.
Mr Jehraming said the House committee visited on Saturday 78 Rohingya people recently rounded up in Phangnga and detained in Ranong. Police found those Rohingya migrants brought with them telephone numbers of presumably their fellow Rohingya people that have already settled in Thailand, particularly Ranong and Nakhon Ratchasima province.

The committee is assessing the situation of Rohingya's migration in Thailand and will soon report the situation to Suthep Thuagsuban, the deputy prime minister for security, said Mr Jehraming...

According to Mr Jehraming, the Thai government would consult Asean member countries in the coming Asean summit late this month on the Rohingya problems.

The committee viewed the problems must be addressed at the rooted causes by affecting countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

The Thai government should encourage the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to take action by looking after the Rohingyas' living conditions as well as making sure their human rights are well protected at their homeland in Burma, said Mr Jehraming.

The committee also wanted the government to come up with a national strategy for Rohingya issues with a clear operation plan on the issue for state authorities. More importantly, law enforcement officers should take action against human trafficking networks in Thailand.

For those that did not see the headlines, the NY Times reported on Tuesday that about 200 Rohingya refugees from Burma had been rescued at sea after the Thai government forced them to leave Thailand by rounding them up and sending them out to sea on a boat.

From the article:

About 850 Rohingya have been rescued in the last month. Three boats were discovered by Indian authorities and another was found near Thailand. The other three boats are still missing.

The United Nations calculates that about 723,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar. Rohingya are officially considered foreigners in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar and are not entitled to own land or hold passports.

Jonathan Head reporting for the BBC News in Bangkok wrote about the unrelenting discrimination faced by Rohingya minorities all over the region.

So what is it that is driving so many Rohingya, a Muslim minority from the western-most part of Burma, to flee in rickety boats in the hope of finding refuge elsewhere?

The term Rohingya refers to a distinct, Muslim ethnic group living in northern Rakhine state, along the border with Bangladesh.

They are thought to be descended from Arab and other Muslim traders who travelled and settled there more than 1,000 years ago.

They speak a dialect of Bengali similar to that spoken in the Cox's Bazaar region of Bangladesh.
There are perhaps one million living there, but may be as many more living overseas, mainly in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.

Harassed and beaten

Northern Rakhine state is one of the poorest and most isolated in Burma.
But the burdens imposed on the Rohingya by Burma's military rulers make their situation a whole lot worse than other people living in the area.

"Economic hardship and chronic poverty prevents many thousands of people in north Rakhine state from gaining food security," says Chris Kaye, the country director for the UN's World Food Programme who visited there two months ago.

"Many do not have land rights or access to farmland to grow food, and the restrictions and limitations on the movement of people, goods and commodities places additional stress on people's livelihood opportunities."

For a start, the Rohingya are denied citizenship under Burma's 1982 citizenship law, which leaves them out of the 135 ethnic groups officially recognised by the state.

The official view of the Burmese military is that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh or their descendants.

Rohingya trying to leave Burma are often harassed and beaten by the Burmese security forces, but then allowed to leave, and told never to return.

They are also unable to travel freely. The military demands that they obtain an official permit even to travel to the next town.

It is almost impossible for them to get permission to travel outside northern Rakhine.

Marriage restrictions

Rohingya are subjected to routine forced labour.

The amount of time they have to give varies, but Chris Lewa at the Arakan Project says that typically a Rohingya man will have to give up one day a week to work on military or government projects, and one night for sentry duty.

This reduces the time they have to earn a living for their families. Burmese Buddhists living in the area are usually not required to do this.

The Rohingya have also lost a lot of arable land, which has been confiscated by the military to give to Buddhist settlers from elsewhere in Burma.

One of the most bizarre forms of discrimination imposed on the Rohingya is that they must get official permission to get married.

Like all the other documents they must obtain, these give opportunities for officials to extort money from them, and the marriage approval can take two years or more.

Couples caught getting married or sleeping together without this approval can be arrested.
The Arakan Project has documented a number of cases where the men have been jailed, in one case for seven years. When they get married they are required to sign a commitment not to have more than two children.

Camp squalor

This litany of abuse and harassment makes the Rohingya a downtrodden underclass even in Burma, one of the world's most repressive and impoverished states.

This is why 200,000 fled to Bangladesh in 1978, and another 250,000 between 1991 and 1992. There has been a steady stream into Bangladesh since then.

But the numbers heading out into the Andaman Sea by boat have increased sharply over the past two to three years.

There has been no discernable deterioration in the way the Rohingya are being treated by the Burmese authorities, as in 1978 and 1991, so other factors are driving them to leave.

Conditions for the Rohingya in Bangladesh are grim. Around 28,000 live in the two officially recognised camps, which get some assistance from the UN. But 200,000 more eke out an existence outside the camps, in a desperately poor part of Bangladesh, with no official documentation, and no prospect of employment.

In the past they have made their way to the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, in search of work, as many Bangladeshis do. They could do that because it was relatively easy to obtain Bangladeshi passports. But heightened security concerns in Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia over Islamic extremism have made it far more difficult for the stateless Rohingya to travel.

Rare publicity

Instead they have been making their way to Malaysia by boat.

There are already around 20,000 Rohingya in Malaysia, and the UN has had some success in protecting them from deportation. The job prospects there are better than Bangladesh, and this slim hope of a better life is what is now driving thousands to take the risky journey across the Andaman Sea.

Inevitably some have landed in Thailand instead. Others have been intercepted by the Thai navy once they entered its territorial waters, which lie en route to Malaysia.

Networks of brokers have grown to cash in on this hope; they charge up to $800 (£547) to make the trip in rickety and overcrowded boats.

Shortages of food and higher prices over the past year in northern Rakhine state are also driving more people to flee.

Of the Rohingya survivors being washed up in Indonesia and the Andaman Islands after being set adrift by the Thai security forces, some left Bangladesh, some left Burma, and a few had been rounded up in Thailand after living there for some time.

The scandal over Thailand's treatment of the Rohingya has at least brought their plight some rare publicity.

It has also brought home to Thailand and Burma's other neighbours that the unending repression inside Burma affects them far more than anyone else, and that the Rohingya are a regional problem which requires a concerted regional response.

Whatever horrors they may have endured recently in the Andaman Sea, the flow of Rohingya boat people is unlikely to stop.

Whether traffickers are to blame for Rohingya moving in droves across borders, the response currently put forward by the affected governments is hardly productive and puts the refugees at further risk of being retrafficked or killed.

Featured Organization: The Emancipation Network

The Mission
The Emancipation Network (TEN) is an international organization that fights slavery with empowerment, 'slavery-proofing' survivors and high risk communities by giving them economic alternatives and education and using the Made By Survivors products to help build the abolition movement in the US.

History
The Emancipation Network (TEN) was founded in 2005 by Sarah Symons as an organization dedicated to fighting human trafficking and modern day slavery. TEN imports and sells beautiful handicraft products made by survivors of slavery and persons at risk of being trafficked into slavery.


Sarah Symons, the founder and president of TEN with a group of teens at the Apne Aap partner NGO in India.

TEN combines public outreach and education programs about human trafficking with income-generating programs for survivors and high risk girls. Staff members, "Ambassadors" and volunteers organize awareness events across the country to educate people about human trafficking and sell the Made by Survivors products. Sarah was inspired to start TEN after viewing "The Day My God Died," a film about sex trafficking in Nepal and India. She visited Maiti shelter in Nepal and stumbled across a room full of beautiful purses. These handbags were made for art therapy, but Sarah had the idea to sell them in the US and raise money for the girls. The idea became reality and now the selling of Made by Survivors products generates income for both survivors and at-risk groups. Since Sarah's first visit to Nepal in 2005, TEN has expanded to work with over 20 partners in 12 countries.


Watch the Day My God Died trailer

Current Programs
TEN has programs both abroad and in the US.


Abroad
TEN has over 12 programs and partners in countries such as: India, Cambodia, Nepal, Philippines, Ukraine, and Uganda. One of our exciting new programs is the Destiny Program in Calcutta, India.

Destiny Productions at the Thomas Clayton Center in Calcutta, India is TEN's newest initiative to help survivors become fully independent, and to slavery-proof them and their children into the future.

One of the biggest problems confronting the shelters that rehabilitate survivors is that the survivors have no place to go. They are often not welcome back in their own community, especially if they were sold into prostitution. Typically they were trafficked at a young age (average 11-12 yrs) and have never lived independently. This not only means they don't have good options for the survivors, but it also means that the shelters can't free up space to take in newly rescued survivors.

To assist survivors in reintegration, this summer, The Emancipation Network, in partnership with T.E.N. Charities, the Clayton family, and three of our shelter partner organizations, opened Destiny Productions at the Thomas Clayton Center in Calcutta, India. Destiny Productions is housed in a rented 3-story house in the Kasba neighborhood of Calcutta. Calcutta is a city of over 18 million people, near the Nepal border in Northwest India where poverty and human trafficking are endemic.


Watch a video on Destiny Productions

United States
TEN offers concerned persons in the US the opportunity to take action to fight human slavery, and to make a real impact in the lives of survivors and high risk girls. TEN works together with other organizations to create a critical mass of concerned persons who can put pressure on those who tolerate the modern practice of slavery. We have educated tens of thousands of Americans about human slavery and trafficking, mostly in small groups of 10 or 20, in volunteers' homes, schools, and places of worship.

Milestones

John Berger, one of TEN's founders, with a group of girls who are benefiting from one of our partner organizations-Apne Aap

TEN has reached approximately 10,000 Americans with slavery education at home parties and community events and is currently employing approximately 300 survivors/high risk people part-time or full-time at shelters and prevention programs. TEN opened its own protection center, the Destiny Project, in the summer of 2008.

Future Growth

In the future TEN will address increasing NGO demand for its services by growing its marketing program and increasing the number of volunteers and reps it maintains to sell more survivor-made products and generate the funds needed to expand its business development services.

Learn more about TEN