Global human trafficking roundup (April 28, 2011)

NORTH AMERICA

Missouri: A man was sentenced to five years in federal prison for his role in labor trafficking scheme. He was convicted of providing an expertise on how to exploit temporary work visa. The scheme brought 1000 workers from abroad, exploited them with labor, and placed them in a poor living condition.

Canada: Police have arrested six men and two women for trafficking in person. The arrests were made during the investigation, Rescue Innocence that police rescued several women and girls from sex industry. The victims' age ranged between 14 and 23.

Rhode Island: The state's first indoor human trafficking case was settled in Superior Court. The two defendants who are convicted of running a prostitution ring out of an apartment received the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. According to the Attorney General, the case shows that prostitution is not limited to immigrants sold into servitude.

EUROPE

Ireland: A Nigerian woman was charged with running a brothel in Dublin. She was arrested during the Garda National Immigration Bureau's Operation Mast investigation. The police also rescued 11 victims and arrested 40 others during the two year long investigation.

ASIA

Thailand: Authorities raided two brothels that exploited underage girls on Wednesday. During the raid, they rescued more than 30 children in the age between 14 and 17 from Laos. According to the report, the children were lured into working at brothels and prostituted under debt-bondage. The traffickers also starve the children until they were willing to prostitute themselves.

AFRICA

Angola: The vice Attorney General said that Angola lacks the legislation to combat human trafficking. He mentioned that the National Assembly is working on a new and more effective legislation to fight against the crime. He also pledged to train the staff in his department to combat human trafficking.

Global human trafficking roundup (April 2-4, 2011)

NORTH AMERICA

Pennsylvania: Experts say that training is the first step to fight against human trafficking. Representative from nonprofits working to fight against human trafficking and child prostitution spoke in front of law enforcement and social service individuals during the all day training.

Alabama: Another suspect was arrested in connection to the human trafficking case at Homewood motel. Police said that the victim was the daughter and the granddaughter of the two suspects. And, police arrested the male suspect last Friday. They all were charged with sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12 and human trafficking.

Ohio: Lucas County in Toledo offers John schools to first time offender soliciting prostitution. The program coordinator says that most johns believe that prostitution is victimless crime. But, they do not realize what they are doing and that they could be facing serious charges if the woman was a minor. The county opened john school last summer and modeled it after those in other cities in Ohio.

ASIA

The Philippines: Department of Justice charged an immigration officer for human trafficking. He allegedly worked with human trafficking syndicates. The Department of Justice claimed that the immigration officer facilitated human trafficking by allowing seven passengers to travel without properly inspecting travel documents.

Malaysia: Police is investigating that an Indian politician and a Malaysian Pakistani nationale used a nonprofit to trafficking people. Last week, police received a tip from the Indian police that four Indian nationals were held with bonded labor in Malaysia and recent sent back to their village. Police were also informed that there are four more Indian workers enslaved in Malaysia.

China: Police escorted a 42 year old woman from the Philippines to China for sex trafficking women. She allegedly trafficked women and forced them into prostitution in Chongqing Municipality between 1994 and 2009. After the police began the investigation, she fled to the Philippines in 2009. Many victims were physically abused when trying to escape the woman's human trafficking ring. One victim was imprisoned at a house for six years.

AFRICA

Angola: IOM representative said that human trafficking occurs more in developing countries. She also argued that traffickers targets family with no prospective livelihood by feeding them with false hopes to turn them into hostages.