Investigation of India Govt Officials Accused of Human Trafficking Moves Forward

From Sify News:

NEW DELHI, India- The Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha has granted permission to Delhi Police to examine original documents related to recent foreign trips made by five MPs who are facing charges of human trafficking.

The MPs against whom the Crime Branch of Delhi Police has filed a case of human trafficking are Babubhai K Katara, Mitrasen Yadav, Mohammad Tahir Khan, Ashok Kumar Rawat and Ramswaroop Koli.

A report of the Privileges Committee chaired by V Kishore Chandra S Deo was presented in the house on Wednesday. It said: “Forensic and handwriting experts will photograph the original documents like letters, application forms, and permission submitted to the Lok Sabha secretariat about their foreign visits since 2000.”

The experts will photograph “documents within the precincts of the Lok Sabha Secretariat in the presence of the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Crime and Railways, Delhi, or any other designated police officers and concerned officers of the Lok Sabha Secretariat.” The anti-extortion cell of the Crime Branch was investigating the case.

In May 2007, J S Malik, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Anti-Extortion Cell, had written to Lok Sabha Secretary General P D T Achary, and had sought the original documents regarding the five MPs’ foreign visits since 2000. The matter was referred to the Privileges Committee, which held two meetings with Madhup Kumar Tiwari, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime and Railways, Delhi Police, before granting the permission.

Delhi Police arrested Katara, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Dahod in Gujarat, whom the party suspended later, at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on April 18, 2007 for trying to take a woman and a teenage boy to Canada on the diplomatic passports of his family.

After further investigations and interrogation of Sunderlal Yadav, an alleged conduit, the names of other four MPs also cropped up.

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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.

Human trafficking awareness workshops in Trinidad and Tobago

From the Trinidad Express:

The Government of Trinidad and Tobago is working with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to increase awareness of human trafficking, as it becomes more prevalent locally and regionally.

Amy Mahoney, project coordinator of the Counter Trafficking Unit of the IOM, spoke recently of the training workshops the organisation had already conducted and planned to continue conducting on human trafficking.

She said various groups, including immigration officers and non-governmental organisations, had already been sensitised to the issues as they relate to trafficking and how to deal with information received on trafficked people.

Mahoney explained the difference between human smuggling and human trafficking.

"Trafficking in persons includes three inter-dependent elements: the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons by means of threats, force, coercion, abduction, fraud or deception for the purpose of exploitation through the use or sale of the victim to benefit the trafficker."

Whereas with human smuggling, there is no deception as to what the person is getting into. They pay the smuggler for his service and there and there is no exploitation of the person for the gain of the smuggler.

"You need to be very careful in your reporting of human trafficking because if the last element of exploitation is not present, it cannot be considered or classified as trafficking."

Media representatives were advised that people who are exploited by traffickers are not criminals, but rather victims of a crime.

Mahoney said the IOM was at present working with the Government to formulate legislation on human trafficking, as well as taking steps toward the development of a coalition between the Government, local NGOs and itself to deal with trafficking in the country.

This is an interesting development in the partnership between the IOM and the government of the country. According to the section on Trinidad and Tobago in the 2007 Human Rights Report of the U.S. State Department:

The government had not designated a specific agency to combat trafficking in persons, and it sponsored no public awareness campaigns to address this issue during the year. The government continued to cooperate with the International Organization for Migration, which began a Strengthening Technical Capacity (STC) project. The STC's goal was to bolster capabilities of the Immigration Division and other law enforcement agencies. Domestic NGOs were available to provide care and protection to trafficking victims.

Members of Indo-Pakistani Human Trafficking Gang Arrested in Italy

From AKI:

BRESCIA, Italy, February 27, 2008- Police in the northern Italian city of Brescia said on Wednesday that they arrested 8 people in connection with an Indo-Pakistani organised crime gang accused of human trafficking.

Through the operation, dubbed "Orient Express", the police discovered that the immigrants pay as much as 20,000 euros to arrange for their travel from India and Pakistan to Europe.

It is believed that after they leave the Asian continent, the immigrants cross through Russia to finally arrive at the borders of the European Union.

The human trafficking gang, made up of people of Indian and Pakistani origin, allegedly had numerous connections with other European countries and Brescia was considered the gang's headquarters.

After the immigrants arrive in Italy, they are put into vans and taken to various European countries, such as Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, and Britain, where they were employed in the black economy.

The vans used to transport the immigrants would be rented vehicles which made them difficult to trace.

The Brescia police also reportedly raided a Sikh temple in the northern city of Flero, where they found illegal immigrants of Indian nationality in hiding, as well as vehicles reportedly used for the transfer of the other immigrants.

It is believed that the immigrants were kept in a safe house and inside the Sikh temple, while they waited for their eventual transfer.

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Senate Panel Rejects Human Trafficking Proposal

From the Deseret News:

UTAH, United States, February 27, 2008- A bill to create a state felony penalty for human trafficking and smuggling hit a roadblock Wednesday when it was rejected in a tied 2-2 vote by a Senate panel.

Rep. Christopher Herrod, R-Provo, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that HB339 had received unanimous support in the House as a way to add a state provision to match federal law. Herrod said human trafficking is a modern day slave trade, and "some of the saddest ones are children brought ... for sexual purpose."

And he said Southern Utah is a popular human smuggling route. Herrod said a state statute would help bring grants to Utah and pointed out it's local police and social workers who are more likely to encounter trafficking than federal agents.

However, in voting against HB339, Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake, said he believed existing federal efforts to curtail trafficking are sufficient.

US Grants Philippines $.3 M to Combat Trafficking

US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Ken­ney

From ABS-CBN:

The United States has approved a new grant amounting to $300,000 to combat human trafficking in the Philippines.

US Ambassador Kristie Ken­ney Saturday signed the grant agreement providing $300,000 in support of the anti-trafficking in persons efforts done by the group Visayan Forum Foundation (VFF). The group has received multiple grants from different US agencies for the past years.

The US Embassy said that development assistance from the US contributed more than $1 million to support anti-trafficking activities in the Philippines in 2006, that included $500,000 given to the VFF to operate halfway houses at several ports in different areas in the country. VFF Executive Director Cecille Flores-Obaenda co-signed the grant during a ceremony held at the Port Halfway House at the Batangas International Port.

According to the US Embassy, the funds will be used to support ongoing operations at the ports in Batangas, Davao, Manila and Sorsogon. VFF recently opened a halfway house in Zamboanga City.

"The battle against human trafficking is a high priority for the US government and the American people," the Embassy said in a statement.

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France pledges co-op to end trafficking from Africa

France's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Rama Yade

From Xinhua:

PARIS, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The government of France is willing and ready to join hands with African countries as part of wider efforts to combat the trafficking of human beings from the continent for the purposes of sexual exploitation, French media reported Friday.

Towards this end, the French interior ministry is currently holding an international seminar on trafficking in human beings of African origin for the purposes of sexual exploitation with a view to strengthening cooperation between European countries and their African counterparts.

France's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Rama Yade presided over the opening ceremony of the two-day seminar that began in Paris Thursday.

"We want to ensure that there are concerted efforts between our European neighbors and the source countries which mainly include Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon," said Jean-Marc Souvira, head of the Central Office for the Suppression of Trafficking in Human Beings (OCRTEH).

The government-run agency has so far helped dismantle and disrupt over 25 African prostitution networks in three years in France alone, according to official figures.

According to official estimates, some 60,000 young African women are victims of sexual exploitation in Western European countries such as Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Britain and France.

The characteristics of this prostitution, which is normally perpetrated through a multitude of channels often family-linked, made the job of investigators very difficult and treacherous, Souvira told the two-day meeting, underscoring the need for joint efforts and cooperation between source countries and Europe.

"African women are subjected to a legal constraint, often through bewitchment and traditional practices which serve to advance the cause of human traffickers," said the French official, adding:

"It is easier to fight against the physical constraints that are imposed on girls from Eastern Europe."

But according to Patience Ashorkor Quaye, Deputy Chief of Police in Accra, which has become a regional transit point in recent years, the factors which had continued to propagate the presence of the vice laid elsewhere.

"Despite the fact that these practices do exist, the essential breeding ground for prostitution on the African continent is the high levels of poverty," said the Ghanaian police officer, adding that "most parents also agreed to give their children as they are misled not aware of what happens on the other end."

"Ghana cannot wage the fight against a global phenomenon on its own," said Quaye, expressing gratitude that the seminar was taking place to try and come up with joint strategies to deal with the problem.

The seminar, which is set to be addressed by France's Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, is aimed at formulating operational solutions, including the establishment of joint judicial investigation teams and the creation of a working group bringing together Interpol, countries and source destination sources.

Currently, an estimated 30 percent of prostitutes across France are originally from the African continent compared to just below 10 percent in 2000, OCRTEH said in a report recently, stressing that the problem could get out of hand if not addressed with the urgency it deserved.