Three Charged in Sweden Human Trafficking Case

*This article never specifically mentions why this is a case of human trafficking and NOT smuggling. The journalist never specifies what actions qualified the crime as human trafficking and in doing so blurs the line between human trafficking and smuggling which are two fundamentally different actions.

From The Local:

September 25th, 2008

Three men have been charged for arranging to have 49 foreign citizens smuggled into Sweden.

The human trafficking victims were allegedly taken across the European continent through Denmark and then over the Öresund bridge to Skåne in southern Sweden.

The suspects are said to have cooperated with accomplices in France, according to charges filed on Thursday in Malmö District Court.

The victims who asked for help to enter Sweden each paid 10,000 kronor ($1,515) to the smugglers.

The men are charged with organizing and carrying out human trafficking.

Two other men were also charged with the latter crime.

According to the charges, the men are suspected of conducting their human trafficking operations in cooperation with several different groups, including with a man who has already been convicted in Denmark, as well as another man not included in the charges.

The charges cover seven separate instances of human trafficking which took place between February 13th and June 16th of this year.

One of the men is also charged with serious forgery crimes. At his home police found a USB-memory stick with digital images of Arabic-language identity papers bearing official stamps.

Read the full article

Customs Officials Advertising to Help Human Trafficking Victims

From SignonSandiego.com:

*Note: Human trafficking does not equal human smuggling.

SAN DIEGO – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are trying to reach out to human smuggling victims through advertisements featured in major cities, including San Diego. Advertisements posted on billboards and transit shelters with the slogan, “Hidden in Plain Sight” were put on display in June around San Diego county.

The goal is to educate the public about the existence of human trafficking in the country and urge them to report such crimes, officials said. “These victims are domestic servants, sweat shop employees, sex workers and others lured here by the promise of prosperity, then forced to work without the ability to leave their situation,” Miguel Unzueta, special agent-in-charge in San Diego, said in a news release.

In addition to San Diego, advertisements have been posted in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Chicago, Baltimore and New York City. Displays are also planned for Houston Miami and Washington D.C. People can make anonymous tips to ICE agents at (866)347-2423.

Confusing trafficking and smuggling

Multiple articles were published yesterday and today in major news agencies around the world regarding the Europol operation that arrested 75 people yesterday in nine different countries in Europe under charges of smuggling. 

From the Europol press release:

Today, a total of 75 persons suspected of being part of a people-smuggling network were arrested throughout Europe...

All suspects are said to be involved in the clandestine smuggling of a large number of illegal immigrants into and within the European Union. This was one of the largest co-ordinated actions against people smugglers ever, involving more than 1,300 police officers...

Operation Baghdad targeted a network primarily consisting of Iraqi nationals and former nationals facilitating the illegal immigration of citizens from Afghanistan, China, Turkey, Bangladesh, and Iraq into and within Europe.

No where in the release is it mentioned that there were suspicions or charges of human trafficking although it did mention that the migrants often suffered through cramped conditions while being smuggled into the EU.

However, the BBC and the Times Online reported that this effort was a part of a bust on human traffickers.

BBC: A pan-European police operation has led to the arrest of 75 people suspected of trafficking Iraqi Kurds in the EU

Times Online: Dozens of suspects were arrested in Britain and across Europe yesterday in one of the largest co-ordinated crackdowns on people-trafficking.

It is important to recognize the distinction between trafficking and smuggling for multiple reasons:

• They are different problems, even though their paths sometimes cross. Essentially, smuggling is the facilitation of illegal border crossing or irregular stay, while the final purpose of trafficking is exploitation. Also, borders need not be crossed in trafficking (i.e. internal trafficking.
  
• By not distinguishing the issues, it creates confusion among the public and hinders general awareness of both problems.
  
• It impedes a more nuanced and comprehensive approach to tackling the problems effectively.

While, other news sources such as AP, Al Jazeera,  and CNN (although CNN used the term "funneling" immigrants, which is not an official term) did not place trafficking anywhere in their reports, the fact that some news agencies did confuse the two terms shows that there is still a lack of awareness among journalists covering these stories, even in major news networks.

The AP story did include an interview with a representative from UNHCR who commented on how this operation, for example, affects refugees desperate to reach Europe.

William Spindler, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva, urged authorities to consider the interests of refugees who at times count on human smugglers to help them flee misery at home.

"We welcome actions to crack down on human smugglers, some of whom are utterly ruthlerr characters who abuse, exploit, rob and sometimes even kill their clients. But it is important to ensure that their victims are properly protected," he said.

"An unintended effect of cracking down on human smugglers - as important as that is - may be to close the only avenue left for refugees to escape persecution or conflict," he said.

He noted cases in which some Iraqis had been granted refugee status in European countries but were unable to get there without turning to people smugglers.

"For many refugees it is well nigh impossible to get passports, visas or plane tickets," Spindler said. "They have to travel in an irregular way in order to save their lives and reach a secure place."

An article such as this one approaches these issues from multiple points of view without confusing them. Law enforcement must also be careful in these situations with migrants who may, in fact, end up becoming victims of trafficking. The importance is to approach the migrants with a consideration for human rights and the possibilities facing these migrants as to why they went through a smuggler in the first place. However, it is the media's job to be responsible and not confuse the issues, thus hindering better public awareness and a better response to each of these problems.

Mexican National Pleads Guilty to Trafficking

By Missy Diaz

From the Sun Sentinel:

FLORIDA, United States- A Mexican national has pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle Mexican women and girls into the United States and force them into prostitution, the United States Attorney's Office said Thursday.

Juan Luis Cadena-Sosa, 43, is one of 16 defendants charged in 1998 with smuggling the women and girls from Mexico to Florida and South Carolina. Cadena-Sosa remained a fugitive until November 2007, when he was extradited from Mexico to the United States. Nine of the defendants, including Cadena-Sosa, have now been convicted in federal court; one was convicted in state court and another was convicted on related charges in Mexico. A third defendant died while a fugitive. Three remain at large.

According to federal court documents, Cadena-Sosa, his brothers and a nephew operated a number of brothels, some with girls younger than 18, throughout South Florida. The women and girls were smuggled into the country primarily from Veracruz, Mexico, by Cadena-Sosa and his associates.

Once in the United States, the women and girls were informed that they owed a debt to the Cadena organization for bringing them here and that they would be required to repay the debt by working as prostitutes. Those that tried to escape were tracked down. The men used physical violence and threats to intimidate the women and girls, according to court records.

Cadena-Sosa, who pleaded guilty on Wednesday, will be sentenced on Aug. 20. He faces 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Prosecutions of human trafficking cases have increased seven-fold over the past seven fiscal years, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Victims Defend the Accused

A good article that discusses the attachment of trafficking victims to their traffickers. The only issue I have is that, as we have seen in several other articles, smuggling is confused with human trafficking. Also it's good to see Andrea Bertone get interviewed, go visit her excellent website.

By Brian Donohue

From NJ.com:

Last September, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested two men and a woman from Togo who they said smuggled 14 girls and young women from West Africa, forced them to work without pay at hair-braiding salons in Newark and East Orange, and kept them in line with threats and beatings.

It was, one agent said, a case of modern-day slavery.

Now, four of the alleged victims say they weren't exploited at all.

Rather, they described the three people charged in the case, Lassissi Afolabi, 44, Akouavi Kpade Afolabi, 39, and Dereck Hounakey, 30, as benevolent parent figures who rescued them from misery in their African village, where drinking water was hauled from a stream each day and their parents struggled to feed their families.

They say they long to return to the hair salons -- even if they weren't paid for their long hours performing intricate hair weaves. And worse, they say, their parents in Africa are blaming them for the downfall of the three jailed suspects, who had been sending money to the workers' families before the salons were shut.

When she calls home, says one 21-year old woman, her parents blame her for disappointing the village, then they hang up on her.

"I can't take it any more," said the woman, who, like all of those interviewed requested her name be withheld because she is a witness in an active criminal investigation.

"Before, we were happy," she added, shaking and visibly nervous as she spoke. "Now we are not happy. My life is going to hell."

Prosecutors and social workers cast doubt on the women's statements, noting such victims remain vulnerable long after they are pulled from abusive situations. They also fear the women may have been coerced to protect the suspects, or have developed a psychological attachment to them.

Nonetheless, no one involved in human trafficking can recall a case, in New Jersey or elsewhere, in which victims have launched such a defense of their alleged abusers.

Their account shines a rare light into the complex world investigators and prosecutors navigate battling human trafficking -- where toughened U.S. laws and hard evidence often collide with complex victim pathologies and conflicting cultural and economic norms.

"This is not an unusual case, although it's complicated, and it's heart-wrenching for these girls," said Andrea Bertone, executive director of Humantrafficking.org, an anti-trafficking organization in Washington, D.C. "They don't think of themselves as victims, but our law defines them as such," she said.

"It makes it difficult for prosecutors emotionally, but our laws are very clear: You can't bring them here to work and keep them in these conditions."

Read the full article

Conviction in Canada

From the Canadian Press:

VANCOUVER — A Vancouver man convicted of smuggling women into this country to work as prostitutes was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in jail.

Michael Wai Chi Ng was charged with 22 counts of human smuggling, prostitution offences and offences against the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. He was the first person in Canada charged under the relatively new human trafficking law but Ng was acquitted of the human smuggling charge last year, and was instead convicted of five lesser charges.

Ng was sentenced to nine months for two counts of falsifying immigration documents and an additional six months for the charges of keeping a common bawdy house and two counts of procuring a person to have illicit sexual intercourse with another. Charges of living off the avails on prostitution were dismissed.

The prostitution ring was uncovered when police were called to the massage parlour for a disturbance.During Ng's trial, provincial court Judge Malcolm MacLean was told Ng brought women to Canada, promising them jobs as waitresses and then putting them to work as prostitutes in his east Vancouver massage parlour.

One woman, whose identity is protected by court order, told MacLean she had been brought to Canada by Ng to work in what she thought was a restaurant.Instead of a waitress job, the woman testified she was taken to a Ng's massage parlour and told she was expected to pay him $11,000 a month by prostituting herself.

Read the full article

"Human Trafficking" Ring Busted in Arizona

The U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona

*The author of this article confuses human trafficking and smuggling. The operation detailed in this article states that illegal immigrants who had crossed into the U.S. from Arizona payed for transportation to cities across the country. This is smuggling, NOT trafficking- please know the difference.

From the Daily News:

Six people were arrested this week in a human-smuggling operation based in Los Angeles that involved thousands of illegal immigrants held in horrid conditions.

Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement culminated a three-year investigation that began when police found about 140 illegal immigrants locked inside two "drop houses" in South Los Angeles.

"We believe this ring was probably bringing 100 aliens a week into the L.A. area," ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said. "You're looking at a lot of people - and a lot of money."

Agents said the three ringleaders are all named Francisco and worked only in the U.S., picking up immigrants they called "pollos" - Spanish for chickens - who had crossed the border into Arizona. The "pollo books" were seized in raids on Wednesday and show the ring charged clients $1,200 to $3,700 each for transportation to cities across the U.S., according to an affidavit filed in federal court.

From August 2004 to Jan. 5, 2007, one of the ringleaders had $456,897 deposited into bank accounts.

"The significant thing about this organization was that it moved a very large number of people, and they had a specialty," Kice said. "They had their niche. They handled domestic transportation only."

Three Guatemalan nationals were accused of being ringleaders: Francisco Andres Pedro, 35, who appeared in court Thursday; Francisco Andres Francisco, 39, arrested last month in Pennsylvania; and Francisco Pedro-Francisco, 29, who remains at large. They are among 13 individuals, linked to what agents call the Francisco ring, who face charges of transporting and harboring illegal immigrants.

One suspect, a Guatemalan native, had been deported four times, authorities said. Over the course of three years, more than 800 immigrants linked to the operation have been arrested nationwide - some on the road and some in drop houses where they await transportation. One SUV linked to the Francisco ring overturned in Arizona, seriously injuring 10 immigrants packed inside, Kice said.

Read the full article

48 Charged in Supposed Human Trafficking Ring

The Arizona-Mexico border

*There is no specific mention of exploitation in this article. Smuggling is smuggling. Human trafficking is human trafficking. Although similar, there is a distinct difference in that human trafficking involves the deceit, coercion and exploitation of its victims while smuggling involves a consensual transaction between transporter and transportee for mutually advantageous reasons. Read more about trafficking vs. smuggling HERE.

From Fox News:

PHOENIX — Four dozen people accused of taking part in an immigrant trafficking ring have been indicted on human smuggling and money laundering charges, authorities said.

The group brought in as much as US$130,000 a week moving people from Naco, Mexico, to its center of operations in Phoenix and then to destinations across the U.S., Phoenix police Lt. Vince Piano said Thursday. Piano said the ring was believed to be one of the biggest operating in Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point into the country.

"It's not the end of the game, but we believe we have made some very important intelligence directions in the fight against the smugglers," said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, whose office was prosecuting the case.

Ten of the 48 suspects were arrested. An additional 10 people who are expected to face charges in the future also were netted in the sweep, authorities said. The investigation led to the discovery of 13 "drop houses" in Phoenix where human smugglers hold customers until they pay up and are sent to their final destinations. The area is believed to have about 1,000 drop houses.

Authorities allege that two Cuban immigrants living in the area, 41-year-old Jose Luis Suarez-Lemus and 35-year-old Roel Ayala Fernandez, ran the ring and paid people in Mexico and Arizona to help smuggle immigrants.The two paid recruiters in Mexico to find customers, Mexican police to allow smugglers to stage their crossings and trail guides to lead immigrants through a conservation area in southeast Arizona, Piano said.

Drivers were paid to bring the immigrants by van to Phoenix, and other drivers were used to spot law enforcement vehicles and protect rival smugglers from forcing them off the road in an attempt to kidnap and extort their customers, he said. Once the immigrants were in a drop house and payments were made, drivers were hired to bring immigrants to spots across the country, authorities said.

They said the group would move four to six loads of immigrants per day, each with six to 10 people. Smuggling fees averaged US$2,500 per person.

Indian American Convicted of Human Trafficking in the U.S.

The U.S.-Canadian border

*What appears to be a human smuggling ring has been misconstrued by the media as a human trafficking operation. The journalist makes no clear distinction between human trafficking and smuggling. For clarification on the issue read HERE.

From the Hindustan Times:

2/23/07, Vancouver, Canada- An Indian American has been convicted in a human trafficking racket that illegally transported South Asians from Canada to the US.

The trial in Seattle showed that as many as 100 Indian and Pakistani nationals were smuggled first into Canada and later into the US. The gang charged up to USD 40,000 per head.

Thirty-eight year old Harminder Singh of Kent, Washington, was convicted on Monday and faces between three and 10 years in jail, including deportation, the Vancouver Sun said yesterday.

Four Canadian residents facing similar charges are yet to be extradited to the US, but have a hearing scheduled in late March, according to the Canadian Department of Justice. Five other Canadian residents arrested for their involvement in the racket pleaded guilty and testified at Singh's trial, Assistant US Attorney Ye-Ting Woo said in an interview.

The five, Raman Pathania, Jatinder Singh Brar, Sukhveer Singh Sandhu and Harjeevan Singh Parhar, all of Surrey, as well as Matthew Dehagi of Port Coquitlam, are due to be sentenced in the next two weeks, the US Attorney said.

From the Vancouver Sun:

"Throughout the course of the investigation both Canadian and American investigators had full access to each other's intelligence on a daily basis," said Mercer. "This collaboration demonstrates our shared resolve to keep our borders secure while respecting each other's sovereignty."

Winchell said officials have begun deportation proceedings against all of the people caught sneaking into the U.S., but could not say how long it would be until their cases are resolved.

Child Trafficking in Spain

Madrid, Spain

From EITB:

There are 1.2 million child victims of human trafficking per year around the world, according to data given by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Children are used as an economic profit source by organized crime. Trafficking of minors is a prosperous business, which moves 40 billion dollars a year. For under age children alone, the profit reaches 23.5 million euros a year.

"Children are easier to recruit, convince and move and therefore, due to the low costs, they generate an enormous economic profit."

"A child begging in Vienna or Madrid can earn a hundred euros a day, while girls who are forced to prostitute themselves generate profits of 1,000 to 3,000 euros a week. If we take into account that a procurer pays around 3,000 euros a day for each girl, he will have paid off the purchase in a week and he will obtain profits from then on."

In declarations to journalists before taking part in a child trafficking congress organized by Save the Children, Liliana Orjuela, who is in charge of the organization has explained that child exploitation does not only happen in the Global South but also in Europe, especially in poor countries like Romania or former Soviet republics, where there are many at risk minors.

According to local police, in Spain there are around 20,000 minors who have been forced into prostitution, begging or who have been victims of international crime nets which have used them for labor exploitation, illegal adoptions or even organ trafficking. According to Save the Children and Spanish Net against human trafficking data, 50,000 women and girls are victims of human trafficking in Spain. They come from Morocco, Sub-Saharan Africa, eastern countries, Brazil and Central America, and are brought to Spain where "there is great demand."

*Edited for readability

African Cup of Nations '08 May Be Fertile Ground for Human Trafficking

From All Africa:

The African Cup of Nations (ACN) tournament, Ghana 2008, is just around the corner. With thousands of Africans expected from all over the continent to attend the biennial soccer fiesta, much more has to be done to protect vulnerable children and women who may end up as victims of another boom for modern day slave merchants and their collaborators.

Reports clearly state that human trafficking is a major problem in the West African sub-region, and the cross-border nature of the menace makes it even more worrisome. As the tournament, approaches, law enforcement agencies have to be on their toes to combat the plans of human traffickers who may have perfected their acts to turn the football fiesta into another jumbo harvest field for their illicit trade. Human trafficking, according to the United States' State Department report, is the third most lucrative business in the world after drugs and trading in arms, with an estimated annual earning of $5-$7 billion. The United Nations estimates that about 706,000 to four million women and children are trafficked every year. Out of this figure, 50 percent are children with some as young as under six years.

The ECOWAS secretariat estimates that not less than 300,000 children have fallen victim to trafficking in the sub-region, citing an International Labour Organisation (ILO) report. The ECOWAS Commission already has a protocol among member states that makes trafficking an offence. Member states are currently being encouraged to embark on reforms of national laws with a view to harmonising them with international and regional conventions and protocol on Trafficking in Persons.

Only recently, the Ghanaian government was called upon to put adequate measures in place to prevent human traffickers from having their ways. This followed the disclosure by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service and some organisations that some people have perfected plans to recruit children for prostitution during the tournament.

The secret association of commercial sex workers in Accra and Takoradi had earlier expressed concern, though for selfish reasons, about media reports of invasion of prostitutes from neighbouring Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire in the run up to the African Cup of Nations tournament.

Bright Appiah, an activist with the Children Right International, an NGO also said he had information from Kumasi that some "underground agents" have been paid to recruit sex workers, with children as some of their targets.

Speaking at a two-day workshop organised by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and sponsored by the British High Commission at Senchi near Akosombo in the Eastern region of Ghana recently, Appiah said as the security agencies beef up their watchdog role in host cities and surrounding towns of Ghana 2008 tournament, children could also be protected if government imposed a curfew on children during the tournament.

While this may appear a sincere suggestion, observers are not in any way in support of this as it will definitely be an infringement of the rights of the child to free movement.International sporting events, no doubt, have become fertile ground for human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children.

The case of Ghana 2008 cannot, therefore, be an exception. Adu Poku, Director General of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service confirmed this as well. "The international sporting events have become a fertile ground for human trafficking for sexual exploitation, the documented patterns of frequent trafficking of children for force prostitution during World Cups and others as well as the increase of recruitment of children for prostitution in South Africa for the upcoming World Cup create a dire picture. We need to fight it to ensure zero tolerance for human trafficking," said the Ghana CID boss.

Tatiana Kotlyarenko, Executive Director of Enslavement Prevention Alliance West Africa, however, puts the challenge at hand in proper perspective. "In South Africa, there are media reports of how street children as young as nine years old are being lured and prepared for prostitution for World Cup 2010," she said and warned: "With no preventive measures in place and relatively easy border crossings for other ECOWAS members prior to and during the CAN 2008, it is highly probable that thousands of women and children will be trafficked into Ghana for the purposes of exploitation, as well as recruited internally."

Organisations around the world are currently expressing sincere and serious concerns about the problem of human trafficking into the Southern African region in the run up to the World Cup 2010.

The need to adequately prepare for the upcoming World Cup was on of the topics on the agenda at a conference held by the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW) in Bangkok, Thailand last November.

The Nigerian government passed an Anti-trafficking Act shortly after the UN Protocol came into force. Some states in the country have also localised the Child Rights Act.

The National Agency for the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) was also established in 2005 to prevent human trafficking and protect victims of trafficking as well. Under the leadership of Carol Ndaguba, its Executive Secretary, NAPTIP has successfully prosecuted 9 cases resulting in 11 convictions while 35 more cases are ongoing.

* This article does a good job of providing perspectives from multiple stakeholders on the problem of sex trafficking and child trafficking at large international sporting events in Africa, such as the ACN tournament, yet fails to mention anything about tangible initiatives or actions to address the issue. While this may have been a limitation of the reporting, it may also be that there are is no set plan of action at the current time; however, if the latter is true the reporter should have mentioned it.

Read the full article

Massage Parlor Arrests in Western New York

Before I left for Ukraine, I had heard a bit about the problem of human trafficking in my home area of Western New York and had met with the head of an anti-trafficking task force at the International Institute of Buffalo who works with the government and law enforcement to help tackle the problem. I know that one of the first cases in the U.S. brought under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act of 2000 was carried out in WNY.

News coming out of my hometown now reveals that a task force of local, state and federal law enforcement officers have arrested four in a case dealing with forced prostitution of immigrants working in local massage parlors. The article is definitely written by someone who skeptically approaches the investi

gation, arrests, and basically the whole nature of the problem, but provides information from both sides- both the government and some people who believe these victims weren't really victims. The opening sentences of the article immediately set a tone of dubiety for the reader-

One prostitute was a former elementary school principal. Another lived in a house on Grand Island. Another lived with her husband in an apartment in Niagara Falls.

The three were among nine Asian women federal agents say they "rescued" from indentured prostitution when they raided four massage parlors in Erie and Niagara counties last month.

The fact they're automatically labeled as prostitutes indicates the author believed they gave absolute consent to providing sexual services to parlor customers, and the word "rescued" being put in quotations signifies the author's belief they weren't in an untenable situation. I'm not positive what the first sentence is all about. I'm assuming he meant an elementary school teacher in China because none of the victims had fluency in English.

This hits on an important point. While most victims lived in poverty in their home country, it doesn't mean that necessarily all of them were or even that they're uneducated. In fact, in Ukraine we've been finding that even people with advanced university degrees have become victims of trafficking. Its not solely a matter of education, awareness, and poverty. While all of these things matter, and improvements in those situations would definitely help curtail the problem, its also a matter of demand and fraud.

Erie County Sheriff's Deputy Elizabeth Fildes, who helped work on the case, described the process fairly well.

A man or a woman [by the way, I'm glad she said either/or], sometimes living in poverty overseas, is told of a job opportunity in the United States. The job is described as a legitimate position. The victims are charged a fee in exchange for getting to the new place, a fee that must be repaid.

When they finally arrive, they don't get the job they were expecting.

And the workers' debt isn't going away. In most cases, they have a limited education, and they don't know anyone in this new place. More importantly, they don't know whom to trust.

Sometimes women are promised jobs in legitimate massage parlors. They're told the work wouldn't involve performing sex acts, but their need to pay back their debt often means they end up engaging in illicit activity.

And guess who helps to make sure the illicit activity is available? The parlor owners, who then get an enormous share of the money made off of the transaction.

The issue of trust is a particularly important point as well. This is something that might be hard to imagine unless you've been outside your own country in a place where you don't understand the language very well and only know a handful of people, namely your traffickers and the other victims. You obviously don't know the laws, and you don't know who will believe and protect you, and who will abuse you or deport you back to the situation you've sacrificed so much to get away from.

And rightly so. The court papers indicate in this case that three of the victims' customers were a judge, an immigration official, and a police captain.

The author then cites a woman who does work as a prostitute in California, and advocates on behalf of a sex workers union who shockingly (and I say that with sarcasm) questions that these women were victims of any sort. Apparently from her experience, even though she is not familiar with this case, immigration and prostitution together hits a "panic button" that cause people to automatically label it as trafficking. Good to know there are people like this woman to keep a level head.

However, as Taina Bien-Amie of Equality Now puts it in the article:

"You don't have to have a gun pointed at your head or be chained to a radiator to be a victim of human trafficking," she said. "Under federal and state anti-trafficking laws, saying the women gave their consent is not a legal defense."

Cyber Trafficking in the Philippines

Local Politician Drafts Law to Address Forced Internet Pornography

From GMA News:

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab (3rd district, PDP-Laban) has authored a bill seeking to penalize cyber-trafficking, or the sexual exploitation of people through the Internet.

Ungab's House Bill 3249 – The Anti-Cyber-Trafficking Act of 2007 – will impose a fine of up to P1 million and five years in jail for crimes of indecency committed through the Internet.

"Persons performing sexual acts in front of computers, video cameras, or digital cameras are not aware that they are trapped into cyber-trafficking and their human rights are violated," Ungab said in a statement on Tuesday.

He said his bill aims to safeguard the morality of society, value the dignity of every person, and guarantee full respect for human rights.

“This bill seeks to promote human dignity and protect the people from all forms of exploitation," he said.

In the bill, Ungab noted the development of computer technology has made access to information and communication easier, along with cyber-trafficking.

"While there are positive effects of computer technology, there are also negative effects, which include cyber-trafficking," he said. He said the existing law on Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 only covers domestic and international human trafficking.

Because of this, he said "it is essential to address cyber-trafficking problem in the country."

*What I don't understand about this article, or maybe just the soundbyte from the politician, is whether there is a distinction made between willing internet pornography and forced internet pornography under the new law. This article is an example of sensationalism: a controversial and emotional topic offered up on a platter with few facts and fewer insights to ground it. How is the issue defined under the new law? How many victims of cyber-trafficking have been found in the Philippines? How does someone get deceived into cyber-trafficking? What law enforcement strategies effectively combat the issue?

I'll delve further into this topic to see if I can find examples of similar laws/situations around the world and flesh out the topic more.

What other countries are affected by cyber-trafficking? Are certain regions affected more than others and if so why?

More to come...

Well Intentioned, but Potentially Harmful...

This article has been brought to my attention several times over the last few days and I think it would be good to break it down a bit.

It's entitled, "Escaping El Salvador's sex traffickers" and it's by Linda Pressly who writes for the Crossing Continents program for the BBC. As a matter of principle, I'm not going to copy the information directly from the article, because I believe this is an example of reporting that was intended to bring to light the plight of one young woman from Central America who was trafficked to El Salvador under the guise of a lawful job as a waitress, but was instead thrown into a brothel and suffered from physical and sexual abuse. She finally made it back home and is preparing to tesify against the traffickers who were arrested in the bust by San Salvador police.

Sergeant Jose Ayala of the Police Trafficking Unit was involved in helping rescue this young woman as well as others. He responded to the alarm of the victim's family member who had been contacted by the victim from San Salvador.

The article itself is a stark and realistic description of what a victim of trafficking suffers from and how the process happens. I thought the descriptions of the guilt the victim felt, the extreme depression and loneliness as well as the danger the victim still faces all contribute to a better overall picture of the reality of trafficking.

However, I take major issues with this article for multiple reasons.

1.) It reveals the real names of the victim and her caregiver. At least, there is absolutely no indication otherwise. It reveals specific details about the case, and is to specific about the current location of the victim. This type of reporting could potentially put the victim back in harms way if members of the trafficking network are still at large.

2.) There is not one statement from the victim. Her story is told entirely by her godmother. There is no indication the victim wanted to tell her story, or wanted her trauma to be advertised in a public manner. Consent is not present at all. This quote from the godmother, in particular, infuriated me:

"I am speaking out to you to say to any single mother or any adolescent, 'If you are offered a good job, do not be dazzled by the high salaries, because the price you pay is too heavy'," she says.

"We do not always have the courage to talk about trafficking, but we must be open about these things so this story is not repeated in other families."

It's not necessarily what the godmother said that upsets me. It indicates that she was well-intentioned to help other families prevent this tragedy from happening to someone they love. And I understand she is distraught by the whole event, too.

But the author should have been more responsible! There are ways of writing this kind of story with the same powerful effect on readers without revealing so many details that it runs the risk of putting the victim back in danger or of retraumatizing her by making her story permanently public. Especially if no traffickers have actually been convicted and there is no indication that the victim actually wanted it to be told. The article offers better protection of the traffickers than it does the victim! It even acknowledges that few people have actually been convicted of the crime in Central America. So you release an article with details about a victim before her traffickers have been convicted in a part of the world notorious for not convicting traffickers? This author needs to learn a way to report this problem responsibly. Her writing style is effective, but if she contributes to the victim's suffering, it doesn't mean a damn thing.

Don't Believe the Hype?

Social Networking Sites Used for Human Trafficking



A friend pointed out to me:

This article seemed really fishy to me, so i looked into the publication. It turns out the Edmonton Sun is a tabloid, a pretty typical (i.e., trashy) one as far as I can tell except that it also has a blatantly conservative/reactionary ideological bias. I'd be skeptical of anything this paper publishes. In the case of this article, furthermore, the portrayal of online networking sites as dangerous breeding grounds for criminal perversion might as well have come out of Bill O'Reilly.

*Thanks Noah, now read on with a grain of salt...

From the Edmonton Sun:

City cops are investigating two suspected human-trafficking rings believed to be part of an international network that enslaves hundreds of young Albertans each year, many of whom are forced into the sex trade in Las Vegas.

Staff Sgt. Kevin Galvin, head of the Edmonton police organized crime and gang units, said because the investigations are still underway, he wouldn’t give specific details.

He said that while human-trafficking “criminal enterprises” have operated in Western Canada for at least 20 years – and for decades longer in central Canada – they’re more sophisticated than ever before.

They do most of their recruiting on social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace, choosing naïve or vulnerable victims for “grooming” who are right around 18 years old in order to avoid detection by authorities looking for predators after underage kids.

Asked how many young Albertans are caught up in this web each year, Galvin replied simply, “hundreds.” Most are women, he said, but young men are also targets. Galvin said that typically, a man will develop an online relationship with the victim, selling himself as a glamorous high roller.

Once he’s begun to reel in the victim, he makes a date to meet her. A whirlwind romance follows. “She gets the red carpet treatment,” Galvin explained, “Limos, expensive restaurants, VIP rooms at night clubs.

Everything mirrors the pop culture ideal of good times. These guys can read the girls really well. She thinks he’s her boyfriend.” After four or five dizzyingly spectacular dates, the predator will invite her to a private party...

Read the full article