Sailing to Yemen with human traffickers

From Aljazeera: 

By Glen Johnson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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First shelter for trafficked people opens in Damascus

From IRIN:

DAMASCUS, 2 February 2009 - A shelter for people trafficking victims has just opened in an undisclosed location in Damascus. It is the first of its kind in Syria, which has only recently recognised human trafficking as a problem but still has no specific laws against it.

Human trafficking is only just starting to gain widespread public attention in the region: Jordan passed a law to penalise people trafficking only last week; a similar Egyptian law is still in draft form, and other countries like Lebanon still have no specific legislation against people traffickers. The new shelter has 20 beds, a communal area, a kitchen and a bathroom. Further rooms are for medical treatment, psychological care and legal advice. A second shelter is planned for the northern city of Aleppo.

The shelter is “pioneering work”, according to Laila Tomeh, national programme officer at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) office in Syria. “In 2005 Syria set up a national committee to draft a law on counter-trafficking and to look into establishing a shelter,” she said.

“Before then the Middle East did not talk about counter-trafficking as an issue relevant to it; you couldn’t sense a problem. A few years on and Syria has one shelter open, another under way, and a draft law in the cabinet,” Tomeh said.

The international nature of trafficking means it is no longer viable for any country to ignore, according to Ibrahim Daraji, professor of international law at Damascus University, who authored a recent study of the Syrian laws that could cover human trafficking in the absence of specific legislation.

Syria’s geographical location, in the centre of the Middle East and close to conflict zones such as Iraq, makes it especially susceptible to traffickers, Daraji said in his report. Syria has been slow to tackle human trafficking despite being party to relevant international conventions, according to the 2008 US State Department’s report on trafficking in persons. The report accuses the Syrian government of failing to implement the minimum required counter-trafficking protection. The Syrian Foreign Ministry said the report was “based on political considerations” and “not objective”.

A lack of research means the nature of Syria’s victims and whether it is predominantly a country of origin, transition or destination is unknown. The 2008 US report said Syria is “a destination and transit country for women and children trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour”. Domestic workers, it said, came from southeast Asia and Africa, often lured under false promises of jobs and better living conditions. Some countries, such as the Philippines, have banned their citizens from seeking domestic work in Syria due to the lack of protection. Women from eastern Europe and Iraq are believed to be trafficked for sexual exploitation.

Influx of Iraqis

The influx of Iraqis following the war and sectarian strife in Iraq has been a huge impetus for the shelter in Syria. During interviews UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) officials identified refugees whom they suspected had been induced to enter the country under false pretences. Most were women and children.

“We will certainly be referring people,” said Carole Laleve, spokesperson for the UNHCR. “In 2008 we identified over 800 women who were victims of sexual gender-based violence. Some of those are thought to be victims of trafficking but we have no figures on how many. Anecdotal evidence suggests the victims in the Iraqi community are women, and the exploitation of a sexual nature.” Evidence from other refugee organisations paints the same picture. The Good Shepherd Convent in Damascus has cared for Iraqi women who have been sold into prostitution by their own husbands, according to a report by syrian-news.com in 2005.

The Damascus shelter

Such agencies will refer victims to the Damascus shelter, which is run by the Association for Women’s Role Development (AWRD), a Syrian NGO.

“The shelter caters for residents’ daily needs - food, clothes and general care - as well as ongoing support,” says Tomeh. Victims of trafficking are frequently traumatised by their experience, compounded by being in a foreign country without family and friends and sometimes with no knowledge of the local language. The shelter, says Tomeh, will offer psychological support, medical and legal care.

Once more is known about the demographics of Syria’s share of the four million people the UN estimates to be the global figure of trafficked persons, more specific services can be put in place. “The Syrian government is very supportive,” says Tomeh. “Once the law is passed we will work to raise awareness and train judges and law enforcement officials.”

The current predicament of many victims, say NGOs who prefer anonymity, is to be stranded with few resources and even fewer rights, sometimes ending up in Syrian jails for lack of papers.

Workshops across the Middle East continue to raise awareness of people trafficking and counter-initiatives among NGOs and governments. The Arab League has also proposed an initiative to work towards an Arab convention against human trafficking, with ministers due to meet in Saudi Arabia later in 2009.

This is a very well-written article about the shelter with good general information about the situation in Syria. The article is sensitive to the confidentiality of the shelter while still being able to bring attention to the issue of human trafficking and the progression of laws and victim services.

Post on Dipnote from Mark Lagon

This is a post from Dipnote, the official blog of the U.S. State Department:

About the Author: Ambassador Mark P. Lagon is Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State and Director of the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

I have recently visited two major powers in the Middle East -- Egypt and Saudi Arabia -- quite different from one another in the context of trafficking in persons (TIP). I came away with striking impressions from my visits and dialogue.

There are some promising efforts in Egypt. Amendments to the child protection law last June define for the first time crimes of trafficking of children. This includes the most serious TIP vulnerability in Egypt: children (especially street children) exploited as domestic servants or in prostitution.

Since ratification of the UN TIP Protocol four years ago, discussion of crafting a comprehensive anti-human trafficking law has seemingly accelerated. The Egyptian anti-TIP interagency group (like the one I chair in the United States) is consulting with UN agencies on the law's content, and we hope it will cover internal, as well as transnational (e.g. through Egypt to Israel), TIP.

Notably, a rising generation of key government officials has a clear interest in fighting the gross exploitation which constitutes TIP. 

Nonetheless, it was clear from our visit to Cairo that Egypt needs a system for identifying victims and for referring them to social services. Although drop-in centers for vulnerable street children exist, we hope the Government of Egypt and civil society will band together to make these centers safe havens for all children exposed to forced begging, sexual exploitation, and other harm on the streets.

Sexual exploitation of young people is taking some troubling forms in Egypt. We learned of Sudanese refugee girls and young women lured into prostitution by gangs. This is a sorry fate for those fleeing Sudan. Moreover, sex tourists are increasingly going to places like Luxor and Alexandria to abuse Egypt's young. I stressed how the United States has enacted and enforced laws to punish child sex tourists who commit crimes abroad, and is urging European nations to follow suit. One particular horror is Saudi and other Gulf visitors acquiring (and I use that word purposefully) youth brides in so-called "temporary marriages." 

It was, in fact, the Gulf and Saudi Arabia which we flew to next. I had very direct dialogue with the Ministries of Interior, Labor, and Social Affairs, sharing our steady, though not perfect, experiences in confronting TIP at home.

The sponsorship system in Saudi Arabia -- tying migrant workers to a single employer -- is rife with vulnerability to human trafficking. This system, which is seen throughout the Gulf, is compounded in Saudi Arabia by the disproportionate power given to employers of housemaids, construction workers, and agricultural laborers in the form of exit permits. A migrant worker cannot leave the country without the okay of their "sponsor." This gives unscrupulous employers devastating leverage should they subject workers to abusive conditions or withhold their pay. We heard countless testimonials of this kind of abuse.

One potentially positive initiative is discussion of reforming this sponsorship system. We were told by senior officials of serious discussions to create large labor companies in the Saudi Kingdom to more flexibly manage the placement of workers. If adopted this could do much to reduce the vulnerability of migrant workers, and indeed offer momentum to similar changes throughout the smaller states of the Gulf.

We visited two shelters -- one run by the Ministry of Social Affairs and one by the Embassy of the Philippines. The contrast between the two was marked. The Government shelter is limited to serving female domestic workers who are not met by employers at the airport, as well as short-term guests near resolution of contract disputes in court. But there is no systematic or broad referral of victims to this shelter. 

By contrast, the Philippines is as active on behalf of the welfare of its migrant workers in the Kingdom as it is worldwide. We met with housemaids compelled to flee employers. One woman was in two leg casts after leaping to escape from a window. We heard of employers' repeated violence, and the squeezing of every hour of the day and ounce of energy from these survivors. One such survivor described the brutality of the employer who kicked, pushed, and punched her for the slightest mistake. Facing years of court battles if they brought their cases to the court, many of these women opted dejectedly to simply return to the safety of their home countries.

The stories of these victims drove home the violence and desperation women and migrant workers face in Saudi Arabia and many other countries, at the hands of people who treat them as less than human. States must step up to the responsibility of protecting the helpless on their soil. The United States devotes diplomacy to this cause every day.

Cohen Milstein Files Human Trafficking Victims Lawsuit Against U.S. Military Contractors in Iraq

From Market Watch:

Aug 27, 2008

LOS ANGELES- Cohen Milstein, representing victims of human trafficking and their survivors, filed suit today in the United States District Court for the Central District of California against a prominent U.S. military contractor, Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc. ("KBR"), and its Jordanian subcontractor, Daoud & Partners ("Daoud"). During the relevant time period, KBR was the largest military contractor for the United States in Iraq.

According to the lawsuit, the trafficking victims include 13 Nepali men who were taken to Iraq against their will to provide menial labor at a United States military facility.

The men, ages 18-27, were recruited in Nepal to work as kitchen staff in hotels and restaurants in Amman, Jordan. Their families went deep into debt to arrange the jobs, which they hoped would lift them out of poverty. Once they arrived in Jordan, however, they were not provided the expected employment. Instead, their passports were seized, they were held against their will, and they were told that they were being sent to work at a military facility in Iraq, the United States Al Asad Airbase.

The men allege that the illicit trafficking scheme--from their recruitment in Nepal to their eventual employment in Iraq--was engineered by KBR and its subcontractor Daoud.

Tragically, as the men were being transported to Iraq, a car containing twelve of the men was stopped by members of the Ansar al-Sunna Army, an insurgent group. The 12 men in the car were taken hostage and executed by the insurgents. The executions were filmed and posted on the Internet.

The Inspector General for the United States Department of Defense investigated and confirmed the facts related to the fate of the 12 men, which led to increased enforcement of anti-trafficking measures by the United States.

The 13th trafficking victim, Buddi Prasad Gurung, was not kidnapped with the others and arrived at the U.S. military facility in August 2004. He was assigned to work as a loader/unloader in a warehouse, supervised by KBR.

For 15 months, Mr. Gurung was held in Iraq against his will, before KBR and Daoud allowed him to return home to Nepal. Mr. Gurung has joined with the family members of the 12 deceased victims to file claims under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and the Alien Tort Claims Act.

They are represented by Agnieszka Fryszman, Matthew Handley, and Molly McOwen of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll P.L.L.C. (Washington, D.C.) Cohen Milstein's International Human Rights practice group has earned a stellar reputation for its work representing victims of forced and slave labor and other violations of international law.

A copy of the human trafficking complaint is available on the firm's website, www.cmht.com, as are copies of relevant Department of Defense documents. Ms. Fryszman and Mr. Handley are available for comment.

10% of Israeli Prostitutes are Minors

From the Jerusalem Post:

By Ruth Eglash
July 23, 2008

The age of those being forced into the sex industry is rapidly falling, with more than 1,000 out of the estimated 10,000 prostitutes in Israel being minors, according to statistics collected this year by counter-trafficking non-governmental organization, the Task Force on Human Trafficking (TFHT).

These figures, which are based on the findings of numerous non-governmental and official sources, were presented Wednesday at a special session of the Knesset Sub-Committee on Human Trafficking - headed by Meretz MK Zehava Gal-On - focusing on a new Education Ministry initiative aimed at raising awareness of the dangers of the sex industry in general and human trafficking in particular among school-age children. TFHT's report also noted a new trend of 13 and 14 year olds frequenting prostitutes.

"It is essential that the future generation learns about equality between the sexes and is given the tools to correctly judge and evaluate this phenomenon," Education Minister Yuli Tamir told The Jerusalem Post following the meeting.

Earlier in the session, the minister had referred to the rise in media reports of children, some as young as 11 or 12, using cellphones to capture graphic sexual incidents on camera and stories of teens pimping out their peers for cash. Tamir said that the goal of the program, which started work six months ago, was to combat such incidents and to provide teachers with the educational tools to raise awareness of right and wrong among teens.

"Our main goal is to teach children that other people should not and cannot be seen as mere objects to be purchased," commented Miriam Schechter, Commissioner of Gender Equality in the Education Ministry and the one responsible for incorporating information on trafficking and prostitution into the education system.

She said that so far this year the ministry had worked together with several hundred teachers on how to present the subject to high schoolers and had run a handful of workshops and other pilot programs in Ashdod, Kiryat Gat, Bat Yam and Nahariya.

"We are very happy that this [education] minister is so open to this topic and willing to raise the issue among the country's youths," said Gal-On. "It is not easy to introduce a new topic to the education curriculum and obviously there is always more work that can be done in this area, but this is definitely a step in the right direction."

Read the full article

Trafficking Tough to Tame in Rich Gulf states

By Lin Noueihed

From Reuters:

Aysha sold her wedding gold to pay traffickers $200 (100 pounds) to find her and a cousin jobs in Dubai. A world away from her village in Uzbekistan, she was forced to work in a disco and expected to offer sex.

Beaten by her Uzbek boss when she shooed prospective clients away, she and her cousin fled and hid in airport toilets for two days, surviving on tap water.

Aysha's story reveals the dark underbelly of glitzy, fast-paced Dubai, the Gulf Arab trade and tourism hub. It also highlights a problem that bedevils many states in the region and is a bone of contention with their close ally the United States.

The 26-year-old, who only identified herself as Aysha for fear the traffickers would hurt her family, supports her son and sick mother back home.

"Some girls like going to discos but I am Muslim, I cannot go to places where people dance and drink let alone work there," she said at the shelter in Dubai where she now lives.

Tens of thousands of people arrive in Dubai and neighbouring states each year, seeking a better life in a region booming on record oil revenues. But the wealth on show in Dubai's sprawling shopping malls, skyscrapers and smart restaurants attracts traffickers too.

Foreign workers and expatriates with different lifestyles and cultures make up over 80 percent of the more than 4 million population in the United Arab Emirates, a Muslim country. Prostitution, even adultery, are illegal yet bars abound where women are available for sex.

In a 2007 report, the U.S. State Department accused its Gulf Arab allies of being among the worst offenders in failing to prevent people from being sold into sex and servitude.

Read the full article

Gulf states condemn US human trafficking report

From AFP:

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) - The Arab countries of the Gulf have dismissed as unjustified and political a recent US report which accused the rich countries of not combating human trafficking.

Foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), who met in Saudi Arabia on Monday, said the GCC "deeply regrets the wrong information on the GCC states contained in a US State Department report for 2008 on human trafficking," SPA state news agency reported on Tuesday.

"(This information) aims to practise unjustified pressure for political ends," said a statement issued by the ministers of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, without elaborating.

They called on the US State Department to "revise its unfriendly policy towards GCC countries," SPA added.

In a report issued last week, the US State Department kept Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia on a black list of countries it says traffic in people, while it applauded progress made by Bahrain and the UAE.

It said the four oil-rich countries admit men and women from Asian countries- such as Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Indonesia - and African countries like Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia to work as domestic servants or other low-skilled labourers.

Many subsequently "face conditions of involuntary servitude," the report said adding that, to a lesser extent, they are forced into prostitution.

"For the last four years, the weak performance of several nations in the Persian Gulf has been the matter of great concern and disappointment," said Mark Logan, US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice's senior advisor on the human trafficking problem.

"As an update, I am happy to report that the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain continued to make significant improvements, notably the United Arab Emirates," Logan told reporters. "It is a model in the region."

Egyptian Law Enforcers Training on Protecting Victims of Trafficking

From the International Organization for Migration:

Egypt - A three-week long training for Egyptian law enforcers begins this weekend which will better help them to tackle human trafficking in the country and to assist victims of trafficking.

The training by IOM, in coordination with the Egyptian Ministry of Interior for 20 officials will also tackle other forms of irregular migration, including human smuggling.

During their training, which is funded by the US State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP), law enforcers will review international and domestic legal instruments on migration in general, and on irregular migration and human trafficking in particular.

Amongst other things, they will also learn how to identify and assist trafficked victims appropriately, how to manage professionally those that cooperate as witnesses with the Egyptian criminal justice system and how to apply up-to-date methods to investigate and prosecute traffickers.

Other resources:

UNODC's Toolkit to Combat Trafficking in Persons, which includes a section for law enforcement and prosecution.

UAE to Open Shelters for Victims of Human Trafficking

From the Inquirer:

The United Arab Emirates will set up shelters for victims of human trafficking, a regional problem highlighted by the United States and international rights groups, the local press reported on Wednesday.

The centers will provide shelter, health care and social support to women and child victims and will operate under the umbrella of the UAE Red Crescent Authority, the English-language Gulf News said.

"(The UAE) strongly supports international efforts to fight human trafficking," Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed al-Nahayan and Red Crescent Authority chairman was quoted as saying.

In 2006, the oil-rich UAE introduced stiff penalties including life sentences to combat human trafficking. In July 2007, two Indian nationals were jailed for 15 years in the first punishment under the legislation aimed at cleaning up the Gulf state's human rights record.

UAE Takes Tough Stand on Trafficking

By Zoi Constantine

From the National:

The UAE has underlined its determination to stamp out human trafficking in a report outlining, for the first time, a raft of measures being implemented to combat the crime. Download the report here.

Tough penalties, support to victims and co-operation with an international network against human trafficking form part of the approach described in the report from the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking (NCCHT), chaired by Dr Anwar Gargash, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

Combating Human Trafficking in the UAE 2007, released a year after the establishment of the NCCHT, also covered the challenges faced by those trying to tackle the problem, said Dr Gargash. “The report seeks to document our serious efforts to combat human trafficking and to outline and articulate our four-pillar strategy,” he said. “Through a tough legal framework, preventive action, our social support network and transnational co-operation, we intend to assert the UAE’s commitment and lead role in combating this heinous crime.”

The report will be presented at a UN General Assembly debate on trafficking in June in New York. It explains the steps being taken by the UAE since the introduction of Federal Law 51 in 2006 – the nation’s first legislation to be enacted against human trafficking – which set tough penalties ranging from one year to life in prison and fines of up to Dh1 million (US$273,000).

At least 10 human trafficking cases were registered in UAE courts in 2007 under the framework of Law 51, the report said. At least five cases resulted in convictions during the year, with jail terms ranging from three to 10 years for committing, aiding or abetting human trafficking.

“The country’s resolve to fight human trafficking at home and abroad in collaboration with international partners remains central to our counter-trafficking strategy,” Dr Gargash said.

Read the full article

Three Women Accuse Owner of the City of Hope of Selling Their Babies

From Gulf News:

Three young women of different nationalities are accusing the owner of the City of Hope shelter, Sharla Musabih, of selling their new-born babies to families in the UAE.

The women claim they were forced to give up their babies without compensation.

Irina Guseynova, a 25-year-old Russian woman, arrived in the UAE through Sharjah airport on June 3, 2003, on a tourist visa.

She is currently being detained at Dubai Central Jail for staying illegally in the country after being arrested in Abu Dhabi. She told Gulf News that she came here when she was only 20 with another Russian woman, to work as a prostitute.

"The moment I landed at the airport my boss seized my passport. I worked as a prostitute for a year just to pay back my boss the cost of bringing me here, and then I started to work on my own," Irina said. "Later I met an Emirati man from Fujairah. He told me we were married in the Muslim way, and I believed him," she said.

She added when she was six months pregnant the man ran away, leaving her with no money, no food and expecting a child.

"An Uzbekistani human rights activist took me to Sharla. I stayed in her villa in Jumeirah from August 19, 2005 until November 9 when I gave birth to my baby boy at Al Oasis Hospital in Al Ain," she said.

Irina claimed Musabih promised to help her get her passport back and help her with a ticket home, but she did not do it. "The day I went to Sharla an American woman married to an Emirati, identified as Linda, took me to Fujairah Hospital for a health check-up," she said.

Irina said during her stay Sharlah tried to convince her to give her baby to Linda, because Linda had no children and in return Irina would be given a ticket home. "Sharlah threatened to pass my info on to the the police if I refused to give them my baby," she said.

"On the day of the delivery an Ethiopian woman, identified as Zahra, took me to Al Ain and at 11pm on February 9, 2005, I gave birth to my baby boy, whom I have never seen," she said. "I was not allowed to touch or to look at my baby. When we went back to Dubai from Al Ain the next day, Zahra held my baby in her arms and at Sharla's villa the baby was kept away from me in a hall. I tried to enter the hall to see the baby but Sharla did not allow me," she said.

Irina added she was scared and decided to escape that same day at midnight. "After some time, while I was in Abu Dhabi staying with friends, I received a phone call on my mobile from Linda who asked me to go for a full medical check-up, but I did not go. A few days later Linda contacted me again, but I said I had no money."

"Linda was outraged and said she had paid Sharla a huge amount of money in return for my baby," Irina said. Irina said she never received a single dirham from Sharla or from any one else in return for her baby.

Read the full article

Filipina Accuses Shelter of Selling Her Child

From the Philippines Star:

A Filipina has accused the owner of a shelter for selling her baby to a family in the United Arab Emirates.

Gulf News reported that the Filipina, who refused to divulge her name, said she has given birth to a baby boy in 2005 with the aid of Sharla Musanih of the City of Hope shelter.

The baby was soon sold to an American woman identified as Layla who is married to a Saudi man living in Dubai.

The Filipina is one of three victims including a Russian and Uzbekistani by Musabih who earlier said that she never had pregnant women in her shelter. Musanih has yet to reply to the accusations.

Dr. Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and head of the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking said the "UAE government is keen to fight international human trafficking."

Under Wraps, Prostitution Rife In North Afghanistan

*This article sheds light on the connection between prostitution and the spread of HIV and AIDS. Although prostitution is not by any means always connected to sex trafficking, the societal health risks posed by the respective issues remain the same.

From the New York Times:

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - When 19-year-old Fatima returned to her home in northern Afghanistan after years as a refugee in Iran, she struggled desperately to earn a living.

She briefly found work with an NGO, before being let go, and then spent two months learning how to weave carpets, before the factory shut down and she was again out on the streets of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Determined to support her mother, two sisters and young brother, she turned to a profession that has long been practiced the world over but remains deeply suppressed in conservative Afghanistan -- prostitution.

"I had no other way but prostitution," says the pretty teenager, dressed in tight blue jeans with a black veil pulled loosely over her head.

"I get up early in the morning and wander around the city," she said, at first reluctant to discuss her work. "My customers stop me and give me a lift and then we talk about the price," she explains, her face coated in make-up.

Sometimes charging $50 a time, her work is illegal and would bring shame on her family if discovered, but it provides a lifeline she otherwise could not have imagined.

And there is anecdotal evidence, supported by doctors concerned about the potential for the spread of HIV and AIDS, that more and more young women across northern regions of Afghanistan are turning to sex work to escape grinding poverty.

Mohammad Khalid, a doctor who runs an AIDS awareness clinic in Mazar-i-Sharif, says he has seen a rise in infections, although from a very low base, and fears that women working in prostitution are reluctant to come forward to be tested.

"Unfortunately the public is not aware of the risk of HIV infection," he says. "It is very dangerous and these prostitutes will be a major factor in spreading it."

Read the full article

Former Pakistani Minister Detained for Trafficking

From the Earth Times:

Islamabad - Pakistani authorities arrested a former government minister Saturday for allegedly smuggling about two dozen people into Germany and other European countries, officials said.

Police detained former minister for religious affairs Mushtaq Victor after a pre-dawn raid at his home in Islamabad. He will be held for seven days while they investigate the case.

"The action was taken on a complaint from the Norwegian Embassy that the minister had used official recommendation letters to illegally send people aboard," Omar Hyyat, an investigator with the Federal Investigation Agency told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa. "The former minister sent at least 23 people, including three women, to Germany, the UK, Austria, Italy and Canada," he said.

Victor, a Catholic, used his position as minister to prepare fake identity cards where he would register himself as husband, father or brother of those he wanted to smuggle, Hyyat said, adding he would then request the concerning embassy to issue visas for his family members. The former minister sent one woman and five children to Germany by pretending they were his wife and children.

In another instance in late 2007 Victor requested visas for 20 people on the pretension that the group wanted to see the new Pope in Rome. The Italian embassy issued visas to 10 of them, including Victor, but eight were deported back to Pakistan after a short time in Italy.

The FIA first learned of what Victor was doing in August 2006 when he was a member of President Pervez Musharraf's cabinet, but took no action because of pressure from the government. He quit his post following the dissolution of parliament last December.

Kidnapping of Women on the Rise in Pakistan

From the Daily Times:

ISLAMABAD: Seventy-six kidnapping cases of women were registered by 14 police stations of the federal capital in the last 14 months compared with 13 cases of men, data gathered from police stations revealed.

The kidnapped women, married and unmarried, were abducted for various reasons.

Requesting anonymity, a police official said that women kidnapping incidents were increasing in the capital due to failure of police and other law-enforcement agencies to crack down on organized gangs dealing in human trafficking. He said parents were also responsible for the rising incidents of kidnapping.

The official said in most cases girls married against their will absconded with men of choice, instigating parents to label such cases as kidnapping to save their face. He said better understanding between parents and their daughters could avoid such cases.

Malik Naveed Fazal advocate said that lack of understanding between parents and their daughters had caused an increase in divorce rate and court marriage cases.

Naeem Mirza, the Aurat Foundation, director said that the main reason for rising women kidnapping cases across the country was that internal human trafficking was yet to be included into the human trafficking law. He said law-enforcement agencies need to crack down on the internal kidnapping gangs, as most of them were linked with international human traffickers.

Shehnaz Bukhari, a women rights activist, said that the main reason for rise in women kidnapping cases was the inability of the state to implement the human trafficking law. She said corruption in police department was another reason for rising women kidnapping cases.

UN Council Hails Bahrain Human Rights Actions

By Sandeep Singh Grewal

From All Headline News:

GENEVA, Switzerland- Bahrain made gender equality, women's empowerment and protection of migrant workers its main bragging points Monday as the country became the first to come under the scanner of the UN Human Rights Council here.

The three-hour interactive Universal Periodic Process session, shown live on the Web, was led by Dr. Nizar Al Baharna, minister of state for foreign affairs, who headed the Bahrain delegation. He was accompanied by lawmakers and senior government officials.

Bahrain is the first country whose human rights record will be reviewed at the Council. Forty-eight countries are scheduled to undergo the UPR process.

Representatives of member states praised Bahrain's report and said it was a model for other countries to follow.Women's empowerment was one of the main issues raised by member states.

Sameera Rajab, member of the Bahrain Shura (Consultative) Council said, "There is a law enacted which provides maternity leave for women. We will also continue to amend legislations which discriminate women."

Bahrain's only women parliamentarian, Lathifa Al Gaoud, added that "The parliament is studying a bill which enables women to work from their home. The MP's also voted unanimously for setting up a National Human Rights Commission."

Al Baharna revealed that the Commission was approved by the Bahrain cabinet and would be set up this year.

The minister also spoke about the new press law and freedom of expression and association. He added that Bahrain was considering a law to give more rights and privileges to female domestic workers.

Bahrain's report was also praised by the representative from the United States, who said the kingdom had made efforts to integrate Shias in the community and to protect expatriate workers.

However it was not all praise. Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab, who attended the session, told AHN on Monday, "It is a great disappointment that Arab countries hijacked the process by consuming time praising the report rather than raising key issues. I am also not happy with the response from Indian and Bangladeshi representatives who only praised and did not speak about protection of migrant workers," he said.

The UPR process calls for all UN member states to be reviewed over the next four years.

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Tracking Boats to Catch Traffickers

By Suad Hamada

From the Khaleej Times:

MANAMA — Bahrain plans to wage a war against trafficking by implementing soon a comprehensive control system for all marine borders after the conclusion of concern studies.

Boats will be asked to place high-tech detective devices, especially to be operational at night to supervise their movements and eliminate trafficking cases to ensure security and safety measures. The devices will give a clear picture of the ship movements.

The system will reinforce the kingdom’s efforts in combating human and drug trafficking and protect its borders from any illegal activities, the Minister of Interior Lt. Gen. Shaikh Rashed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa said in a written answer to a parliamentary question by brotherhood MP Nasir Al Fudhala on the measures taken by the government to fight trafficking.

Besides the new system, the government is keen to provide the latest devices and equipments to coastguard and train personnel inside and outside Bahrain. The coastguard patrols are always located in the northern area of the kingdom to inspect wooden ships before entering the regional water. Other patrols are assigned round-the-clock to monitor all marine borders, especially in areas surrounding ports.

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Bangladeshi Victims of Trafficking in Yemen

From the Yemen Times:

A group of 15 Bangladeshis have been imprisoned by the Department of Immigration and are awaiting departure, said a source within the department on Tuesday. The arrests have brought to light the plight of approximately 3,000 Bangladesh nationals who were illegally trafficked into Yemen and work in conditions close to indentured servitude.

The departmental source did not want to give more details about the Bangladeshis' custody conditions, because he was directed not to speak to the media.

The Yemen Times received an appeal letter entitled “Bangladeshi nationals are suffering,” on Sunday that referred to the 15 arrested Bangladeshis.

The letter said that some Bangladeshi "brokers" are bringing workers from Bangladesh, providing them with tourist visas to enter Yemen and promising them high salaries of up to US $500 per month, with the support of Yemeni sponsors.

“After bringing these potential workers to Yemen, 'brokers' engage them in inferior jobs illegally, which don’t match what they were offered," said the letter. "Most of the time they don’t provide work [at all].” The letter revealed the names of four major Bangladeshi brokers, including Kabir Hussein, Anamul Hoque, Harunur Rashid and A. Rahman.

According to a reliable Bangladeshi source who asked to remain anonymous, “the "brokers" take US $4,000 for each Bangladeshi worker and give them hope of good jobs and salaries,” he said. “However, they mostly find themselves working as cleaners at restaurants and companies or construction workers."

The source said that there are currently at least 3,000 illegal Bangladeshi workers in Yemen who end up taking menial jobs because they have no other choice. They receive between US $100-130 per month, or approximately three dollars per day.

According to Yemeni labor laws, foreigners are not allowed to work in Yemen without proper labor permits, which must be issued by the government. Frequently in cases like these, the foreigners are arrested and deported.

"For this reason, so many poor Bangladeshi innocent people are suffering in Yemen," said the Bangladeshi source. "Some of them are unemployed and some are working illegally with very low earnings, which aren’t sufficient for their livelihood, as they don’t have any other choice.”

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A Disappointing Life in the Promised Land

By Matt Siegel

From Russia Profile:

TEL AVIV, Israel- Although Israel has only two official state languages—Hebrew and Arabic—it’s difficult to find a restaurant that doesn’t have a Cyrillic menu in the winding alleys of Jerusalem or the wide main boulevard in Haifa. Everywhere, second-hand shops and luxury chains alike hawk their wares to Israel’s Russian population. While these signs can, and often should, be perceived as a sign of hospitality toward Russian speakers, at other times, they signify something radically different.

For Jews, Israel is the “Promised Land,” the biblical home held out as the prospect of a final end to millennia of wandering. But for many thousands of people from the former Soviet Union, Israel held out a different sort of promise: a respite from the crushing poverty of the post-Soviet economic and social decline.

According to experts in Israel and Russia, many of these people, whose hopes and dreams were exploited for nearly two decades, became part of the vast illegal network of human trafficking that fueled the sprawling Israeli archipelago of prostitution and domestic slavery. It now appears, however, that what had for so long seemed to be an intractable problem for both Russia and Israel, is finally beginning to show signs of improvement.

The good news
The U.S. State Department’s scathing 2006 indictment of Israel’s inactivity in combating human trafficking, which nearly relegated the country to the level of North Korea and Sudan, appears to have been the final straw for the government of the Jewish state. Since then, the government of Israel, working together with a tight network of domestic NGOs, has made tremendous inroads against human trafficking from the former Soviet Union. A raft of new laws and tougher enforcement policies, together with increased cooperation on extradition from regional governments, has helped reduce the peak number of trafficking cases by some 90 percent.

“A lot has been done. It’s actually virtually miraculous how much has been done. I feel that we have a more humane system here: more has been attained here than has, in many ways, been accomplished in the United States,” said Rahel Gershuni, National Coordinator in the Battle Against Trafficking in Human Beings within the Israel Ministry of Justice. “Look, there’s a lot left to do, I’m not saying no, but a lot of progress [has been made].”

According to an October 2007 report by the Ministry of Justice entitled “Trafficking in Persons in Israel,” the police estimate that the trade in women reached its peak in 2003, with 3,000 people being trafficked. The same report claims that this number had dropped to “a few hundred, up to 1,000 in 2005-6.” Due to the problematic nature of documenting an illicit trade, these statistics are almost certainly incorrect. The positive trend, however, has been confirmed by multiple experts with street level knowledge of the situation.

But despite all the good news — and nearly everyone agrees that the news has been good — there is a dark side to the story. Deprived of a steady supply of women from Russia and the former Soviet Republics, internal traffickers are increasingly turning to Israeli citizens, a great number of whom appear to be native Russian speakers who immigrated to Israel legally. The lost children of Russia’s Diaspora live in sub-human conditions on the streets of Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities, many addicted to drugs, all victims of a cruel cycle of exclusion and desperation.

Falling through the cracks
Israel’s improbable victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, in which 264,000 Israeli soldiers delivered a crushing defeat to almost 550,000 soldiers from the combined armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan, led to a massive awakening of Zionist sentiments among the Jews of the former Soviet Union. A surge in protests and lobbying both internally and abroad led to the first wave of emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel in 1969. Emigration continued at a trickle throughout the 1970s and 1980s, with the plight of Soviet Jews becoming a key bargaining chip in the Cold War power struggle. In 1990, with the implosion of the Soviet Union, that trickle turned into a raging river that carried more than a million Russian speaking Jews to Israel over the next decade.

As the social safety nets crumbled beneath millions of former Soviet citizens, many thousands of desperate people, including women with no prospects in their home countries, decided to follow the path of Soviet Jews and flee their homeland for brighter prospects. Israel, with its large population of Russian-speakers (by some estimates as much as one-third of the country), and its porous border with Egypt, became a prime destination for the smuggling of human beings.

“We were all so happy, you know; the wicked Communists fell, but at least when the Communists were in power, people had some sort of welfare network,” said Gershuni. “They weren’t hungry. They may have been in prison for dissenting, but they weren’t hungry.”

According to an unnamed source with first-hand knowledge of Israeli law enforcement, the system for trafficking women from the former Soviet Union has not changed much since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

In most cases, women from all over the region respond to advertisements placed in local media sources looking for exotic dancers or models. According to experts in Israel, these are code words well known in the countries that once comprised the Soviet Union, and very few of the women are unaware of the fact that they will be engaging in prostitution once in Israel. What many of them don’t know is that the glossy descriptions given to them in ads or even by former prostitutes sent as recruiters are often very far from the truth.

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Qatar Conference Addresses Trafficking

From the Associated Free Press:

DOHA, Qatar — A conference in Qatar on human trafficking has urged Arab states to step up the fight against the scourge, seen as widespread in the oil-rich Gulf region.

Delegates called for an agreement within the framework of the Arab League "to combat human trafficking in all its forms," according to a statement issued at the close of the conference late on Thursday.

They urged the Riyadh-based secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to take the lead in boosting "coordination and cooperation among member states to enhance measures to fight human trafficking."

The two-day conference was organised by Qatar and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, with the participation of representatives of the United Nations Children's Fund, jurists and human rights organisations.

Delegates called for "a network to exchange information and expertise on combating human trafficking under the supervision of the Arab League," and the inclusion in school and university curricula of material on fighting the phenomenon.

Five of the six GCC member states -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia -- are on a US blacklist of countries trafficking in people.

GCC countries, which also include the United Arab Emirates, are close allies of the United States.

International human rights groups have also highlighted the problem of human trafficking in the Gulf area, which hosts more than 13 million expatriates, many of them unskilled and low-paid Asian workers vulnerable to abuse.

The US State Department human trafficking report in 2006 upgraded the UAE from the "Tier 3" of worst offenders to "Tier 2 Watch List" comprising countries making "significant" efforts to deal with the problem.

The UAE maintained its rank in the 2007 edition of the report, but Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar were downgraded to Tier 3, joining oil powerhouse Saudi Arabia.

Three other Arab countries -- Algeria, Sudan and Syria -- are on the list of worst offenders.

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