Forced Labor: Slavery Spreading in Thailand & Cambodia

From UPI:

Human trafficking in Cambodia and Thailand is no longer limited to women and children, a Cambodian rights activist said. 

Poor formers in Cambodia are convinced to leave home on the promise of better work in Thailand. Many are finding themselves on long-haul trawlers in the South China Sea and forced to work against their will.

"It's slavery. There's no other way to describe it," Lim Tith, national project coordinator for the U.N. Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, told the United Nations' humanitarian news agency IRIN.

Exploitation is spreading beyond Cambodia and Thailand to Malaysia and Indonesian waters, with 25 men reportedly in slave-like conditions documented regionally this year.

"It's not just women and children anymore," San Arun, chairwoman of the Cambodian Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking taskforce, told IRIN.

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Human Trafficking in Chicago

Dozens of girls, some as young as 12, were pulled into a human trafficking ring that forced them into prostitution, State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said today.

The girls and women, some of them homeless, were recruited on CTA trains, the Internet or during random meetings on the street, Alvarez said while announcing that nine people were charged under a state anti-human trafficking law passed last year.

During a yearlong investigation dubbed "Little Girl Lost," investigators armed with wiretaps listened as girls were beaten and, sometimes, thrown into a car trunk and driven around as a form of punishment, Alvarez said. Others were branded

One 13-year-old was sold from one pimp to another for $100.

Michael Anton, a commander with the Cook County sheriff's vice unit, called the case among the worst he's seen.

"There's so much of this out there," Anton said about human trafficking. "It's happening every day. It's happening in Chicago,Cook County, it's happening across the state.

Those arrested were charged with "involuntary sexual servitude of a minor" and trafficking in persons for forced labor. Four of them appeared in Cook County court today and ordered held on bail as high as $1 million.

The other five are scheduled to appear Thursday. Alvarez said the investigation is ongoing.

Thailand urged to stamp out human trafficking

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UN Urges Asia to Enforce Human Trafficking Laws

From Voice of America:

By Ron Corben

Senior United Nations officials say countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region including Thailand, Cambodia and Laos are failing to apply existing laws aimed at combating human trafficking.  The conclusions come as a U.N. envoy on human trafficking concluded a 10-day assessment of Thailand's efforts to curb labor migration abuses.

The U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on Human Trafficking, Joy Ezeilo, says countries need to adopt a comprehensive approach to combat trafficking and implement laws that are already on the books.

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Beat Down Human Trafficking- The Definition

The first single from the album Beat Down Human Trafficking.

Click to Download: J Nice- The Definition

More to come!

Happy Friday,

The HTP Team

ATEST/CNN Forum on Human Trafficking

ATEST and the CNN Freedom Project hosted a forum on human trafficking in Washington, D.C. on June 23, 2011. Moderated by CNN anchor Jim Clancy, participants included Mira Sorvino, Congressman Chris Smith, Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, CNN International's chief Tony Maddox, survivor and advocate Rani Hong, human trafficking expert Kevin Bales, and Humanity United's David Abramowitz.