Human trafficking increases in Ukraine

Police officers and human rights workers decry Ukraine's expanding human trafficking industry. Sunita Rappai reports.

Alleged Leader of Trafficking Ring in Court for Bond Hearing

From Pal-Item.com:

INDIANA, United States- A woman accused of being the leader of a human trafficking and prostitution ring believed to have connections to Richmond is expected to have her bail hearing completed this afternoon.

Yong Williams, 50, will have her bail hearing continued in the U.S. District Court in Covington, Ky., a court clerk said this morning.

The clerk said Williams was in court at 8:30 a.m. along with 63-year-old Myong Rogers. Rogers is charged with accepting customers' credit cards to pay for prostitution.Williams admitted to undercover agents this week that she drove 40,000 miles in seven months delivering Korean women to massage parlors that are believed to have offered sexual services, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer and NKY.com, a northern Kentucky Web site.

Williams acted as a “bank” by collecting, holding and distributing money to and from the owners of the massage parlors across the nation, including parlors in the region, according to court documents.

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Officials Raid Alleged ‘Happy Ending’ Massage Parlors

From Newslink Indiana:

Some Richmond business-owners were relieved Wednesday, one day after police raided two massage parlors accused of prostitution and human trafficking.

Sunshine Spa and Apple Studios were among 19 parlors hit Tuesday in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. Police detained four women in Richmond – two legal U.S. residents and two illegal immigrants. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials took both illegal immigrants to Lawrenceburg for further investigation.

“I’ve always known something shady was going on over there,” said Tim Cole, who owns a business across the street from Sunshine Spa. “I am absolutely glad it is gone.”

Other owners wondered why the investigation took so long. Police learned of the parlors’ alleged criminal activity and began questioning customers when the businesses opened in 2006. They had enough evidence to make prostitution arrests long ago, Lt. Brad Berner said.

But they were looking beyond prostitution.

“Prostitution charges, while serious, did not address the larger issue, which was human trafficking,” Berner said. “That was our concern through all of this.”

Berner said the federal government had long suspected the parlors were bringing women from Korea illegally and forcing them to perform sex acts to earn their way into the country. “‘Sex slaves’ was one of the terms used,” he said.

Police coordinated a task force with other local and federal agencies to shut down the ring of massage parlors in Richmond, Lawrenceburg, New Albany, northern Kentucky, Cincinnati and Indianapolis. Other agencies involved included the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, State Excise Police, U.S. Customs and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Indianapolis.

Police gathered much of their information through surveillance and by questioning customers as they left the parlors, Berner said. Most customers agreed to talk with police.

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Human Trafficking Suspected at Two Richmond Massage Parlors

From WHIOTV.com:

Local and federal officials raided two massage parlors Tuesday in Richmond, Ind., as part of a national sting operation investigating prostitution and human trafficking.

News Center 7 was the only television news crew on the scene when authorities busted the Apple Studio Spa and the Sunshine Spa in Richmond Tuesday afternoon.

Four women were taken away in handcuffs from the two establishments. Police said they found evidence of a sex shop in both locations.

The raids were part of 19 in 3 different states by U.S. Customs, Immigration Enforcement and local police.Authorities said they suspect the women are sex slaves in an international human trafficking ring. They believe the ring operated from Korea to Ohio and two other states.

Local Sushi Owners Arrested for Human Trafficking Employees

From My Fox:

A couple who owned a Denver sushi restaurant were arrested in connection with human trafficking and having ties to the Korean mafia.

Young Jo Kwon and his wife Jessie Kwon, who formerly owned and operated Denver's Osaka Sushi, were arrested May 9 and charged with 5 counts of theft and forgery. The Kwons, who now own Greenwood Village's Sushi Moon, are accused of forcing two South Korean immigrant employees to work without pay.

The Kwons allegedly threatened employees Jailhee Jo Hong and Jong Chul Choi with the revocation of their sponsorship which the Kwons claimed would result in the subsequent deportation of the employees' families.

Between 2000 and 2005, the Kwons are accused of depriving Jaihee Jo Hong of more than $19,000 in overtime wages. The Kwons are also accused of depriving Jong Chul Choi of more than $900,000 for four years of unpaid labor.

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More Korean International Marriage Woes

From the Korea Times:

South Korea has increasingly come under attack for the abuse and exploitation of foreign wives, especially those from Southeast Asian countries. The plight of Vietnamese wives married to Koreans has already invited international criticism over rights abuses and human trafficking. It is heart-wrenching to read frequent stories that Vietnamese spouses were beaten to death or committed suicide ― far from realizing their ``Korean dream.''

What's more worrisome is that such a story does not stop with the ill-fated Vietnamese. The problem is now spreading to Cambodia. The Cambodian government has recently suspended processing all documents for marriages of its citizens with foreigners as a measure to minimize the possibility of human trafficking. You Ay, Cambodia's deputy minister of women's affairs, said April 3 that the suspension was prompted by concerns about exploitation and trafficking amid a surge in the number of Cambodian women marrying South Koreans.

She said the suspension affects all foreigners, not just South Koreans. But it is apparent that the measure was closely related to soaring cases of abuse of foreign wives in South Korea. She was quoted as saying that seven Cambodian women recently returned to their country because they could not endure pain from their married life with their Korean husbands. However, the official said the country has yet to uncover systematic exploitation.

The Cambodian move came after the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) disclosed a report that thousands of South Korean men went to the Southeast Asian country to marry Cambodian women through brokers. The report featured the plight of a rising number of Cambodian brides migrating to South Korea in marriages hastily arranged by brokers who make huge profits.

A revised interracial marriage brokerage law is to go into effect in June in a bid to crack down on brokers for human trafficking-style methods. And a multicultural family support law is scheduled to take effect in September. It is urgent for the country to establish a firmer system to embrace foreign wives as well as migrant workers as indispensable members of our society. Interracial marriages now account for 10 percent of total marriages. Therefore, we have to roll up our sleeves to ensure human rights and equal opportunity for brides and workers from other countries.

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Cambodia Halts Marriages with Foreigners to Combat Trafficking

From the International Herald Tribune:

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia- The Cambodian government has halted processing all documents for marriages of its citizens with foreigners as a new step to minimize the possibility of human trafficking, officials said Thursday.

The suspension was prompted by concerns about the potential for exploitation and trafficking following a recent surge in the number of Cambodian women marrying South Korean men, said Deputy Minister of Women's Affairs You Ay.

She said that as of last Saturday, approval for all paperwork needed for marrying foreigners has been put on hold. She did not say how long the measure will last, but that it was introduced so that government agencies involved in processing foreign marriage requests "can work to strengthen their procedures."

"We are not denying our people's rights to marry foreigners, nor are we being discriminatory," she said. "But we have also seen the negative aspects out of such marriages" recently, she said, adding that the suspension affects all foreigners, not just South Koreans. She was not able to say how many Cambodian nationals have married foreigners.

The South Korean connection made headlines here last month after a report by the Geneva-based International Organization of Migration revealed that thousands of men had come to marry Cambodian women through brokers. Over the past four years, some 2,500 Cambodian women have wedded South Korean men, mostly through the services of underground matchmaking businesses, according to the report. It said each man would pay up to US$20,000 (€12,790) to marry a woman but that a bride's family would collect only about US$1,000 (€640), while the rest of the money would go to brokers.

Although their marriages appeared to be legal, the government has expressed concerns that brokered marriages could become a cover for human trafficking, in which women are tricked or forced into marriage.

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Suriname Police Detain Alleged Human Trafficker

By Ivan Cairo

From Caribbean Net News:

PARAMARIBO, Suriname- Police in Suriname have arrested and subsequently detained a Korean national (49) on suspicion of human trafficking, a prosecutor has confirmed. The suspect was the captain on a fishing boat with four Vietnamese fishermen on board. The arrest came after one of the crew members committed suicide by hanging, to escape his ordeal.

Preliminary investigations have revealed, said prosecutor Garcia Paragsingh, that the four Vietnamese nationals working on the boat, were forced to hard labour on the vessel without payment, proper medical care and food. For over a two year period, two of ill-treated crew members did not receive payment for their work, while the remaining two fishermen told police that for over one year they did not receive salaries and were not allowed to leave the boat.

The captain, a Korean national, allegedly refused to allow them to see a doctor when they became sick, while they were forced to work long hours under very poor conditions even when they were physically unable to do so. According to police sources, the worker who committed suicide apparently got sick and asked to be taken to shore to seek medical treatment. After his requests were rejected by the captain, the man hung himself.

The suspected trafficker was arrested by officers of the Trafficking in Persons Unit of the Suriname Police Force (KPS) said police spokeswoman Maritha Ritfeld-Asontoe. According to the spokeswoman, the captain refused to pay salaries, telling his crew that there was no money.

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Enslaved in the U.S.A.

Source: Corbis

From the National Review Online:

As public awareness has grown about global sex trafficking, Americans were shocked to learn that victims from places such as Mexico, Korea, and Ukraine were sexually enslaved in their towns and cities. In communities across the country, concerned citizens voiced calls for zero tolerance for modern-day slavery.

President Bush made combating human trafficking a priority. Both Attorney Generals Ashcroft and Gonzales have spoken out against trafficking in the U.S. and made the investigation and prosecution of trafficking a priority. Most of the focus on identifying and assisting victims and prosecuting offenders has been on foreign nationals trafficked into the U.S.

There are more American citizens than foreign nationals victimized by sex traffickers in the U.S., yet there are no federally funded services for them, particularly if they are over age 17.

Service providers who have requested funds from the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) to assist American victims have been turned down repeatedly by government agencies. The recent attorney general’s report states that TVPA funds are dedicated to non-U.S. citizen victims. Therefore, if you are a victim of sex trafficking in the U.S. from Mexico or Ukraine, there is money for immediate services ($1300 a month), but there are no funds similarly available for an American victim.

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