Global human trafficking roundup (May 6, 2011)

NORTH AMERICA

Texas: A 33 year old mother and a survivor of sex trafficking shares her experience as a sex slave. She arrived in San Antonio from Honduras a few years ago to support her children. Instead, she was lured by another woman who forced her into prostitution. The woman threatened her that she will report her to immigration office and hurt her child if she refused to prostitute. The case is still under investigation.

Minnesota: The new bill is proposed to protect child prostitution victims. The new bill, if implemented, will treat prostituted children as victims rather than juvenile delinquents. If Minnesota lawmakers pass the legislation, it becomes only the fifth state in the nation to make this plan into law.

Michigan: Federal agents suspect that Grand Rapid prostitution ring case may be connected to human trafficking. In this case, a man allegedly ran the prostitution ring in Grand Rapid, one of several in four states. According to the report, all women were in debt as they were told to repay the smuggling fees. They had to pay the house manager for costs of food and other living expenses.

EUROPE

Finnland: Foreign workers are increasingly exploited with labor in Finland. Many labor trafficking of foreign workers take place in cleaning and household service sectors, according to the report. Many victims are hired by private citizens. They often receive small wages and live under very poor conditions. According to the immigration status, most victims are from the Philippines recruited for domestic chores.

ASIA

China: Human trafficking in China is on the rise, according to a watchdog. More than 130 human trafficking cases were documented along the borderline between China and Burma last year. According to some source, parents are selling their daughters to traffickers for $1800 to pay off their debts.

Philippines: A 30 year old man was arrested for transporting eight women for prostitution. According to the report, he picked up women in the age between and 18 and 23 in Manilla and took them to Coron, where his mother runs a videoke bar. An authority says that the videoke bar caters tourists, mostly Americans. However, the man denied the allegation.

Global human trafficking roundup (February 26-28, 2011)

NORTH AMERICA

Colorado: A missing teen's father traveled to speak against human trafficking at a rally. Her teenage daughter was missing since December 28, 2010. The police is spotlighting the ex-boyfriend of the teen's mother as a suspect, since he was the last person who saw the teen. The missing teen's father also said that the police officers wasted a week in search of his missing daughter because of their lack of experience in missing person's case.

Canada: An international watchdogs say domestic helpers may be victims of human traffickers and sexually are abused by the employers. The report recommends that the government must regulate domestic work and recruitment agencies.

EUROPE

Finnland: Many foreign migrants are exploited with labor at shipyards. Twenty workers lived in a small flat room and worked as long as 12 hours a day. They are also placed in industrial buildings even during the winter. However, according to the report, the law is far from protecting these migrants' basic rights.

ASIA

UAE: A carpenter was sentenced to 15 years in jail for sex trafficking seven girls. According to the report, the 28 year old Bangladeshi man locked the victims in an apartment room on the third floor and forced them into prostitution. Police discovered the prostitution ring after one of the victims from Indonesia escaped the apartment by using a rope and reported to the police.

India: Many young women, particularly Muslim girls, are trafficked for forced marriage. One victim from Assam was trafficked to another village and sexually and physically abused when she was 18. Later, her abuser re-sold her to another husband who also physically and sexually exploited her. According to the report, 80% of 100,000 trafficked annually are trafficked for forced marriage.

Indonesia: Three women escaped from a human trafficking ring. They were promised a high paying jobs at a five star hotel in a beach resort. However, after the recruitment agency deducted their salaries, they were forced to drink, sing, and dance erotically with the customers at a local karaoke bar.

AFRICA

Nigeria: Immigration service has installed information technology equipments to fight against human trafficking. The equipments include document fraud readers, scanners, and passenger registration, which will assist the immigration officers to closely monitor who is traveling in and out of the country.

Global human trafficking roundup (February 4, 2011)

NORTH AMERICA

Louisiana: Indian workers are filing a class action lawsuit against a labor contract company in New Orleans. The lawsuit was filed originally on behalf of seven workers but now the workers' attorney seeks to include all 500 workers who came to the U.S. with a promise of green card. The workers were lured to come to the U.S. after the Hurricane Katrina swept the region in 2005. Upon arrival, they workers never received the green card but forced to lived in a crowded prison like conditions.

Massachusetts: The state Senate and attorney general announced a human trafficking bill to criminalize sexual servitude and labor exploitation in the state for the first time. The bill also gives law enforcement the necessary tools to investigate and prosecute the crimes and and attempts to address supply, demand, and victim service aspects of human trafficking.

Rhode Island: Rhode Island cracks down on indoor prostitution to fight against human trafficking. Two years ago, prostitution is legal in spas and strip clubs. But, as new legislation banned indoor prostitution to curb human trafficking, many spas have been shut down . Also, johns can be punished with a jail sentence for up to a year and cannot expunge their criminal history.

EUROPE

Finnland: Many migrant workers from Eastern Europe are hidden away because they are difficult to be identified. They work for 15 hours a day for 7 euros an hour. They also stay in car wash. Many migrants choose to work in Finland despite of horrific work environment because it is better to be employed for lower wages in the Finland than being unemployed in their own country.

ASIA

The Philippines: The Philippines might lose a million dollar worth of U.S. aid due to its poor anti-human trafficking measure. According to the report, the U.S. State Department expressed its concern that the Filipino administration has caught so few number of traffickers. In response, the authority responded that it would work harder to toughen up countermeasure against human trafficking.

Japan: Kyoto local government is seeking ti implement ordinance to ban child pornography. The expert committee is working out the final draft of the ordinance by the end of this month. Meanwhile, other local governments are working on anti-child porn ordinances. But, Kyoto will be the first one of these kind if implemented according to the schedule.

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Global human trafficking roundup ( January 21, 2011)

NORTH AMERICA

Georgia: An ICE representative says human trafficking is increasing in Atlanta, but the crime is hard to uncover because victims do not come forward. He also pointed out two growing trends; that victims are becoming as young as 14 and that traffickers increasingly use violence to control victims.

North Carolina: Authority says the number of victims for sex trafficking in North Carolina has increased in recent years. Many female victims are lured into coming to North Carolina with a promise of a better job. The Immigration officers therefore work with local and state authority to combat human trafficking in North Carolina.

Massachusetts: A New Hampshire police is searching for a suspect setting up a girl in a Portsmouth hotel room for prostitution. Police arrested a girl earlier this month at a hotel, where she was working as a prostitute. But, police believes that this incident is part of a large human trafficking or child prostitution ring throughout New England.

EUROPE

Finnland: Four Latvians are convicted of human trafficking through Russia and Balkan states. They smuggled 80 people from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria in 2008 and 2009. The victims also paid $10,000 for smuggling fee. The Latvians received jail sentence ranged between 14 months and 5.5 years. Whether the victims were forced into slavery is unknown.

UK: A female applicant for refuge status is found herself to be in the center of the biggest human trafficking investigation in the north of England. According to the report, she was forced into having sex with men at a massage parlor by gangs members. She was beaten and raped by the gang and forced to work six or seven days a week. Sometimes she was forced to have sex with as many men as 10 a day.

ASIA

Indonesia: Police arrests a new suspect in child prostitution ring. The ring victimized at least 98 children by kidnapping and raping. Police also said that the suspect is one of 18 people who were involved in the child prostitution ring.