Sex trafficking in Israel

This is from a recent BBC article on the problem of trafficking in women to Israel:

During the height of the phenomenon, from the beginning of the 1990s to the early years of 2000, an estimated 3,000 women a year were brought to Israel on the false promise of jobs and a better way of life.

Last year, the United Nations named Israel as one of the main destinations in the world for trafficked women; it has also consistently appeared as an offender in the annual US State Department's Trafficking in Persons (Tip) report. [Tier Two Watchlist- the same as Ukraine]

In all cases, the traffickers - as many as 20 in the chain from recruitment to sale - take away the women's passports before selling them on to pimps. Sometimes the women are subjected to degrading human auctions, where they are stripped, examined and sold for $8,000-$10,000.

Rinat Davidovych, the director of the Maagan Shelter in Tel-Aviv, is someone who travels the world in the effort to fight human traffiking. She was interviewed for this BBC article:

For years, Israel treated trafficked women as criminals"When they come here they are in a bad condition," said Rinat Davidovich, the shelter's director.

"Most have sexual diseases and some have hepatitis and even tuberculosis. They also have problems going to sleep because they remember what used to happen to them at night," she said. "It's very hard and it's a long procedure to start to help and treat them."

I was lucky enough to have her as a guest in my family's home last year in Buffalo. This year, I bumped into her at a conference in Kyiv where she presented a host of information about trafficking in Israel. Rinat broke down the statistics of origin for Israel's sex trafficking victims- Ukraine 21.45%, Moldova 11.24%, Russia 9.2%, and Uzbekistan 5.11%, and now recently, victims are coming from China as well. She also did a thorough review of Israel's anti-trafficking laws. Up until 2006, the law only included women sex victims and protection was only offered to victims if they agreed to testify against their traffickers and pimps. Now, following the threat of sanctions against Israel by the United States, Israel has stepped up their efforts and has included a broader range of trafficking victims under national law. Rinat says that soon, the same protection given to victims of sex trafficking will be provided for those of labor trafficking.

The shelter she directs is a state shelter, and at the moment, only provides assistance to female victims of sex trafficking. Victims must be brought to the shelter by police, or if an ngo refers a victim, they must do so through the police. The shelter provides additional rights to the victim including full medical services, weekly allowances, temporary residence visas, and work placement. Rinat was overloaded with questions about why the state response was so weak, some of which seemed like they were more questions about why she works for the state shelter as opposed to the ngos. Rinat seemed more hopeful though that through her position, she is able to keep in contact with both ngos and the government, and that she is able to facilitate communication between both.

One of the things she mentioned has changed though, is that because of the crackdown on sex trafficking in Israel, more of the prostitution and, by extent, the trafficking victims have been moved underground. Now, instead of a place quite obviously being a brothel, it is hidden either as a massage parlor or sauna, forcing ngos to find more creative ways of reaching victims.

For more information on human trafficking in Israel, click here.

Scotland Provides Support to Trafficking Victims to Encourage Pursuit of Legal Cases

Source: Corbis

A month ago I wrote a post on Australia's anti-trafficking law and the lack of support it provides to victims. I'm glad to see Scotland taking the opposite approach and offering temporary residence, stipends, etc to victims if they cooperate with the police on their investigations. The law is beneficial for both parties: victims receive the counseling, housing and support they deserve and law enforcement gets assistance putting traffickers behind bars.

From scotsman.com:

Four human trafficking victims who were forced to work as "sex slaves" in Edinburgh have vanished before their tormentors could be caught and prosecuted.

The women all disappeared within days of being freed from their ordeals. The move is a blow to police efforts to bring the criminal gangs behind the trade to justice. But steps have now been taken to encourage future victims to stay in Edinburgh and give evidence against the human trafficking gangs.

The victims, usually poverty-stricken immigrants forced to work as prostitutes, are to be offered free housing and other benefits in return for helping the authorities with their investigations. They will be offered basic living expenses of £50-a-week, legal advice, psychological counselling and health care, as well as accommodation, for up to a year.

Previously, if they were illegal immigrants, they faced the threat of immediate deportation.

Last year, Lothian and Borders Police was involved in a national initiative - Operation Pentameter - to tackle human trafficking. More than 70 potential victims in towns and cities across the UK were rescued in the three-month operation. The true extent of the problem in Edinburgh is unknown, but police chiefs have previously stated their belief that people-smuggling gangs are active in the city.

Read the full article

Human Trafficking Conference in India Reveals a Work in Progress

India's bonded child laborers (Source: Corbis)

From the Telegraph:

“Trafficking is about completely reducing accidents,” the smug, paunchy constable on the screen was saying, causing much amusement among the audience. Only seven per cent of Indian police personnel are known to have received any training in the subject.

Anti-human trafficking efforts have netted only three convictions so far in India. Three is also the number of states — Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Goa — where anti-human trafficking units have been formed within the police force.

It will be unfair to say, however, that any of the three states mentioned has a weak officer handling human trafficking, and the success of decoy-based raid-cum-rescue operations proves that law-enforcement agencies are waking up to the seriousness of the crime. But the problem here is that the anti-human trafficking units are located in the police headquarters in the state capitals, while the thanas in the districts and villages — from where most trafficked persons are sourced — are still largely oblivious to the threat.

More important, in the balance of power, the beneficiaries of trafficking — from the local dalals to the higher criminals who have the money both to buy human beings and to hush up investigations — have far too much advantage over those they buy, sell or exploit. In south Asian countries, where corruption is endemic to the system, how realistic is it to expect that the victims — raped, battered and psychologically wrecked — will be able to fight the unequal battle?

Rehabilitation and repatriation continue to be a sticky area in the discourse on trafficking in developing countries. For the State is unable to offer viable livelihoods to the rescued individuals, who often go back to sex work simply to ensure a steady income. If the State and the NGOs were better equipped with an infrastructure of shelter homes and self-employment schemes, most stories of trafficking could have had happy endings.

The Union minister for women and child development was heard promising changes in the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, so that trafficked girls are not doubly victimized by being charged with soliciting customers for sexual services. Bureaucrats and ministers from the labour and home affairs ministries seemed equally committed, but the NGO workers seemed to know better. They preferred taking a break for tea while the ministers waxed eloquent on the many challenges ahead.

Read the full article

From reading the article, here is the sense I get of what India needs to address to improve its anti-trafficking efforts:

• Lack of coordinated government efforts and resources
• Lack of police training to understand and recognize trafficking
  
• Low public awareness of trafficking
  
• Corruption in the government, law enforcement and criminal justice system
• Lack of collaboration between non-governmental organizations and the government to provide livelihood opportunities for trafficking survivors
• Cultural values
• Widespread poverty

If only to identify problem areas; however, this conference is a good first step towards shoring up the main weaknesses amongst the efforts of anti-trafficking stakeholders.

Let's see if their findings translate to meaningful action.

Stay tuned...

USAID-backed Trafficking Awareness Program in Jamiaca Makes an Impact

Awareness: a key element in combating trafficking. As I've mentioned before, there is no one method that will single-handedly eliminate trafficking; a holistic approach is needed.

Other integral elements include:

• A government that provides resources for anti-trafficking efforts as well as national and state level coordination
  
• Legislation that protects victims and prosecutes traffickers and those who use the services provided by victims (i.e. prostitution, forced labor, domestic slavery)
  
• Law enforcement that is trained to recognize and report trafficking situations
• An efficient criminal justice system that is not hampered by corruption
• An active civil sector that can assist with rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration of trafficking survivors

From the Jamaica Observer:

Testimonies from young participants in the recent Anti-Trafficking in Persons Project in Kingston were a poignant reminder of the value of education in Jamaica's fight against human trafficking. "It was an eye-opening adventure," said Shana-Kay Campbell, 14, a student at Children First. "Personally, I have been able to make informed choices, and understand the dangers of trafficking in persons."

The project, the second of its kind, was implemented by People's Action for Community Transformation, in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development. The first was implemented in 2004, and ran for one year.

The initiative was geared at educating people identified as the most vulnerable in the society to recognize the various elements of trafficking, and to mobilize strategies to counteract the phenomenon. The project also sought to mobilize at-risk youths to identify alternative careers and lifestyles by providing them with the necessary education and skills to pursue their future goals.

Jamaica received a tier two ranking in June, which was an improvement over the country's earlier ranking, which put it on the tier two watch list. The island, the permanent secretary said, is now working towards a tier one ranking. "As we work towards tier one, the focus is on effective investigation and prosecution," she said, adding that ongoing education campaigns, a data collection system, and the training of state agents were also key.

Read the full article

We have moved past the age of public service announcements. Although still informative, nowadays there are more innovative ways to get people to connect to and learn about modern day slavery. Emerging technologies like Youtube and Facebook present interesting possibilities.

Do you know of successful trafficking awareness programs around the world? If so please share: the more creative, effective modes of raising awareness we can discover the better! Ending trafficking starts with awareness.

What else are people doing?

Council of Europe Convention to enter into force February 2008

The Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings of the Council of Europe, a pan-European organization with 47 member states (and 1 applicant country, Belarus), is set to come into force on February 1, 2008. The Convention was actually opened for signature in 2005 by the Committee of Ministers and has been signed by 37 member countries. Only ten countries, however, have ratified the document. Ukraine is not one of them. Yet.

According to Darina Malko of the Ministry of Justice during a conference last week in Kyiv entitled "New challenges in providing social assistance to trafficked persons in the countries of origin, transit, and destination," there is a hold-up within the Ministry of Transportation regarding the articles and subsections related to the obligation of commercial carriers to check travel documents:

Article 7, subsection 3: Where appropriate, and without prejudice to
applicable international conventions, such measures shall include establishing
the obligation of commercial carriers, including any transportation company or
the owner or operator of any means of transport, to ascertain that all
passengers are in possession of the travel documents required for entry into the
receiving State.

Of course, a representative of a relevant Rada committee also complained the text is quite complicated, and they want to ensure correct translation of the document as well as understand the potential consequences of ratifying it. This individual claimed that some parts of the Convention actually overlap or contradict the Palermo Protocol (which Ukraine has ratified), making The CoE Convention difficult to ratify. Actually, the Palermo Protocol has the exact same clause related to carrier obligations. In fact, one of the final chapters of the CoE Convention is about its "Relationship with other international instruments" and the first article deals with Palermo. It states that the Convention shall not affect the rights and obligations of member states to the Palermo Protocol, but is in fact "intended to enhance the protection afforded by it and develop the standards contained therein."

The CoE basically states that the difference between this convention and other existing international protocol and framework is that it is more specific in regards to the protection of victims.

The Council of Europe considered that it was necessary to draft a legally binding instrument which goes beyond recommendations or specific actions.
While other international instruments already exist in this field , the Council of Europe Convention (Warsaw, 16 May 2005) is a comprehensive treaty mainly focussed on protection of victims of trafficking and the safeguard of their rights. It also aims at preventing trafficking as well prosecuting traffickers. In addition, the Convention provides for the setting up of an effective and independent monitoring mechanism capable of controlling the implementation of the obligations contained in the Convention.

The enhanced protection of victims' rights is one of the more important contributions of the CoE Convention as it provides for victims' rights during the identification process (so that one will not be removed before the identification process is complete). It also requires (destination) States to provide for a "Recovery and Reflection Period" at a minimum of 30 days so the victim may contemplate whether to stay and testify, and requires provisions to be taken during the repatriation process so that the programmes avoid re-victimisation.

The Convention is especially protective of children's rights and calls for measures to be taken to provide child victims with appropriate housing, education, counseling, and legal representation, and also requires that child victims shall not be returned to their state of origin if it is determined by a risk and security assessment that the return would put the child in a dangerous situation.

Other unique features of the Convention provide for measures to discourage the demand for TIP, as well as the punishment and sanctioning of traffickers, witness protection, and a monitoring mechanism that has specific protocol to observe the implementation of the Convention (known as GRETA). The articles provide for everything from the creation of the group to the steps that will be taken in order for GRETA to complete it's monitoring program efficiently and transparently.

You can view the State-by-State signature and ratification process and involvement here. Even if a state, such as Ukraine, signed it now, the Convention requires three months in between the submission of the ratification instrument and its entry into force within the state so the earliest it would start would be March. Nonetheless, a country bound to this document is committing to a major leap forward in the protection of the human rights of TIP victims. It has been said that Ukraine will jump on board by early next year so we will have to wait and see.

Short Introduction

Well this is my first post as a contributor to The Human Trafficking Project. Originally from Buffalo, New York, I am currently living in Kyiv, Ukraine where I am completing research for a Fulbright grant on the response to human trafficking in Ukraine. I began by wanting to study the governmental response to human trafficking and looking at how the government works with domestic and international organizations to formulate its response. However, I have shifted more towards looking at how international organizations and pressure, as well as the proliferation of domestic anti-trafficking NGOs, have influenced the Ukrainian government's decisions and actions regarding TIP.

At present, I mainly work with two organizations- the International Organization for Migration's Mission to Ukraine, an intergovernmental organization, and La Strada-Ukraine, part of the larger La Strada NGO network based in the Netherlands, but all domestically operated. Part of my research will include site visits and case studies of about ten domestic organizations involved in prevention, reintegration, and prosecution activities. I'm also quite interested in the response by the religious community in Ukraine. I still plan on doing research about the government response itself, but due to high turnover and due to the extremely complex network of government ministries and committees that are involved in process, and because Urkaine is still undergoing a change in Parliament from the September 30th elections, this part of the research will have to come later.

So, most of my posts will probably have a Ukrainian/Eastern European angle to them, as well as news from the organizations that Urkaine works with on the issue of TIP, such as the European Union and the United Nations. So here we go!

U.N. Says Tackle Human Trafficking with Economics

From Reuters UK:

The industry would continue to thrive as long as criminals benefit from high profit margins and relentless demand.

Human trafficking affects virtually every region of the world and U.N. estimates say the trade could be worth some $32 billion if both "sales" of individuals and the value of their exploited labor is taken into account. The traffic sees the young and vulnerable, particularly in developing regions such as Africa, sold into sexual servitude, child soldiers are drugged and forced into combat, and women enslaved as indentured labor.

Avina said UNODC wanted to secure $100 million (49 million pounds) from private sector donors and philanthropists to help fund a global drive against human trafficking. "The recognition is that there is insufficient resources to deal with this problem," said Avina.

Read the full article