Official figures show 54 foreign women were trafficked into prostitution last year, but true figures could be higher
April 14 2010
New figures from the Danish Centre against Human Trafficking show that 54 foreign prostitutes were identified as victims of human trafficking last year, but experts fear the true figures are much higher.
Systematic registration of human trafficking first began in 2008 and the centre contacted 1,067 foreign prostitutes last year to see if they had been victims.
Almost half of the 54 victims identified last year stem from Nigeria, with others coming from countries such as Thailand, Lithuania and Russia.
But anthropologist Trine Mygind Korsby from the Centre against Human Trafficking told Berlingske Tidende newspaper that the figures could be much higher as it’s difficult to get in touch with the women and get them to admit that they have been trafficked.
‘They’re afraid of the pimps, of being sent home and they’re not always interested in cooperating with authorities because of negative experiences with them in their homeland,’ Korsby said.
Organisations such as HopeNow and Reden International offer assistance to foreign prostitutes in Denmark and they also believe that the human trafficking figures are much higher.
‘It’s incredibly hard to identify them because they are physically and emotionally threatened by their pimps. Most of the women suffer from a form of Stockholm syndrome and feel a kind of loyalty to their pimps,’ said founder of HopeNow Michelle Mildwater to Berlingske Tidende. Source
Related
Slavery and Human Trafficking Crimes/Numerous other stories of slavery/Sex slavery from around the world. That wonderful job offer may be sex slavery/prostitution.Thousands have been kidnapped or conned and forced into prostitution/Sex Slavery.
Victim escapes from human trafficking ring Amira Agarib
April 15 2010,
DUBAI — The Dubai Police recently nabbed five Arabs, including a couple, for allegedly bringing a woman to the country with a job offer and forcing her into prostitution.
All five have been referred to the prosecution mainly on the charge of running an international human trafficking ring, Dr Sultan Abdul Hameed Al Jamal, Director of the Human Trafficking Monitoring Centre of the police, said on Wednesday.
The 20-year-old Arab woman, who arrived in the country recently, called the police and said she was forced into prostitution but had managed to escape from the gang holding her up.
The police met the woman who said that she had meetings with some people who promised to find her a job in a hotel in the UAE. She gave them a cheque for Dh50,000 as demanded by them and they sent her a visa taken by a hotel. When she arrived in the country, a man and a woman met her at the airport and took her to their residence and took away her passport. A few days later, the woman explained to her that her job was to have sex with men but she refused. Enraged, the woman beat her up for days and threatened her that she would lodge a complaint against her for issuing a dud cheque.
The victim told the police that she agreed to work as a sex worker after this blackmail. But she managed to escape on the way to meet a member of the prostitution ring and called the police.
Officers of the CID asked the woman to contact the gang and return to their flat to round them all up at one go.
The police raided the flat as soon as the woman entered it and arrested the couple who are also from the complainant’s country and three others.
Al Jamal said the police have found a house for the woman to live and they would find her a job if she wished to stay in the country till the court procedures are completed.
He said they would issue a certificate showing that the complainant was forced to issue a dud cheque due to blackmail so that other members of the gang do not trap her by submitting the cheque in her country. They would also coordinate with police authorities of her country to nab the others involved. Source
Nine arrested in city human trafficking raids
April 14, 2010
NINE people have been arrested in Nottingham on suspicion of human trafficking, tax credit fraud and money laundering.
The six men and three women, from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, were arrested in a series of raids carried out at addresses in the city last night and earlier today.
The investigation carried out by Notts Police, HM Revenue & Customs, the UK Border Agency and the Department of Work and Pensions.
The men and women are alleged to have illegally claimed over £1 million in tax credits.
Six addresses were searched and the men and women were arrested on suspicion of tax credit fraud and money laundering offences. One of the men was also arrested on suspicion of human trafficking.
Detective Chief Superintendant Ian Waterfield, head of the Force Crime and Intelligence Directorate, said: “The inquiry has taken many months and the investigation will continue, starting with the search of a number of addresses and interviews with those detained.”
Anyone with information relating to Tax Credit fraud is encouraged to call the Benefits Anti Fraud Helpline on 0800 854 440.
NINE people have been arrested in Nottingham on suspicion of human trafficking, tax credit fraud and money laundering.
The six men and three women, from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, were arrested in a series of raids carried out at addresses in the city last night and earlier today.
The investigation carried out by Notts Police, HM Revenue & Customs, the UK Border Agency and the Department of Work and Pensions.
The men and women are alleged to have illegally claimed over £1 million in tax credits.
Six addresses were searched and the men and women were arrested on suspicion of tax credit fraud and money laundering offences. One of the men was also arrested on suspicion of human trafficking.
Detective Chief Superintendant Ian Waterfield, head of the Force Crime and Intelligence Directorate, said: “The inquiry has taken many months and the investigation will continue, starting with the search of a number of addresses and interviews with those detained.”
Anyone with information relating to Tax Credit fraud is encouraged to call the Benefits Anti Fraud Helpline on 0800 854 440. Source
Rethink human-trafficking reports Sound alarm … take action In a recent sentencing by the Criminal court, “an unidentified Asian man” was given “10 years imprisonment for trafficking in human beings.” The court also sentenced “two other men to five years, another to seven years and an Asian woman to three years.” The suspects were charged “with kidnapping an Asian maid, forcing her into prostitution and premeditatedly murdering her.” During the interrogation with the accused, the Asian suspect “admitted….forcing [the Asian maid] into prostitution and that she died in an attempt to escape.” Previously he sold her to a brothel in Jleeb Al-Shuyukh for KD 100.(Arab Times April 11, 2010).
I suggested in earlier articles published in the Arab Times that the Interior Ministry should do more raids on prostitution and criminal dens in Al-Jleeb. Our security forces already know the whereabouts and perhaps identities of would-be criminals.
What we need today is the use of more media exposure coverage of human trafficking committed by foreigners on our Kuwaiti soil.
Such media coverage of human trafficking crimes accompanied by reports on the efforts of the Interior Ministry to fight such phenomena will improve our standing in future international human rights reports.
At least we can clarify and throw light on some of the exaggerated accusations against our country.
Moreover, currently there seems to be a half-hearted media effort by some local agencies to shed more light on human trafficking committed by some expats against their own compatriots or those from other Asian nationalities. It is, of course, ironic that such cases of expat-expat human trafficking and sexual exploitations do not seem to stand clear in international human rights reports. What we need to do is to sound the alarm louder than before and perhaps accompany such calls with security action against perpetrators.
A tiny number of foreigners in Kuwait do actually engage in the “flesh trade” and their crimes seem to have far greater consequences on our society. The Kuwaiti government has already established fully-equipped shelters for runaway maids who do not necessarily runaway from their Kuwaiti sponsors. In other words, we do not have to accept some human right reports on their face value, but point out the reality of the situations.
Strangely enough, such international reports seem to ignore the particulars of incidents and crimes committed by some expats against other expats victims. We will be silent no more! Source
Govt must tackle trafficking – HSRC
March 24 2010Johannesburg – Government and civil society need to take serious action against human trafficking in South Africa, according to a Human Sciences Research Council report released on Wednesday.
“Human trafficking in South Africa is a serious problem and warrants intervention on all fronts”, said the study released at a National Prosecuting Authority conference on the subject.
Victims are mostly women, girls and boys, and they are trafficked for a variety of purposes, including prostitution, pornography, domestic servitude, forced labour, begging, criminal activity, and trafficking for the removal of body parts, or muthi.
Young boys are trafficked to smuggle drugs and for other criminal activities.
Destination country
South Africa is a destination country for long-distance flows of mainly women from Thailand, Philippines, India, China, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and the Ukraine, who enter the country at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport.
From within Africa, people are trafficked across the extensive land borders of South Africa, mostly from Mozambique and Zimbabwe and to a lesser extent Malawi, Swaziland and Lesotho.
Longer-distance trafficking involves victims trafficked from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Kenya, Cameroon, Nigeria and Somalia.
“All documented cases in this last category are women trafficked for both sexual and labour exploitation,” according to a summary of the report.
The albino community was also identified as vulnerable to human traffickers for the harvesting of body parts, due the belief that a white skin had potent powers, the report claimed.
Trafficking out of SA
Trafficking of South Africans out of the country was less of a problem, but eight cases were identified between January 2004 and January 2008.
Destination countries included Ireland, Zimbabwe, Israel, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Macau.
In all cases, the victims were women trafficked for either sexual exploitation, labour exploitation or forced marriage.
Perpetrators and intermediaries included large, organised crime networks and South African men with ex-military backgrounds working together with these syndicates.
The researchers said they experienced serious difficulties in conducting the study.
“South Africa is not collecting even basic national-level data which will allow sound estimates about the scale of the problem. They also had difficulty accessing key informants in government departments, because government databases of contacts were not made available.” Source
Victims of Human Trafficking need protection in the event they manage to escape and contact authorities. This does not always happen for the victims.
They many times are treated like illegal immigrants and jailed or just deported. They need a safe heaven. They are also threatened by those who have bought them or sold into the sex slave trade. Victims should always be protected. They also need a lot of time to heal and will need therapy.
Recent
Did You Know 