Yemeni human traffickers drown African migrants

32 migrants drown when forced into sea SAN'A, Yemen - Human traffickers wielding knives forced about 300 African migrants to jump into the sea off Yemen early Friday, causing at least 32 to drown, a Yemeni security official said. The migrants, mostly Ethiopians and Somalis, were packed into two rickety boats that had crossed the Gulf of Aden from Somalia when their crews forced them overboard as they approached Yemen's coast, the official said. Survivors said those who stood up to the crew were stabbed, beaten and thrown overboard, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. The incident is the latest case of abuse of people trying to get to Yemen from the Horn of Africa, where violence has escalated, especially since Ethiopia intervened in the armed struggle between Somalia's U.N.-supported interim government and Islamic groups. human trafficking, fleshploitation

Goa developing plan to combat sex tourism

The Navhind Times: Action plan devised to curb sex tourism: CM NT Staff Reporter Panaji, Feb25 Goa by no means is a sex capital, where tourist can come and pay for sex -- we do not want to become Bangkok, Bali or Pataya, said the Chief Minister, Mr Prataphsing Rane this evening. Addressing the inaugural session of a two-day workshop on ‘Prevention and combating human trafficking with special focus on children and women’ at a South Goa resort, Mr Rane revealed that a Goa state action plan has been devised with a code of conduct for foreign tourists who visit the state to curb the growing menace of trafficking of women and children, which lead to prostitution and paedophilia. Trafficking in human beings, more so in women and children, is one of the fastest growing forms of criminal activity, next to drugs and weapons, generating unaccountable profits annually. The reasons for this increase are multiple and complex, affecting rich and poor countries alike -- India being no exception. Of late, there is an expanding market for commercial sexual exploitation through non- brothel-based modalities wherein the trafficked persons are made to pose as attendants, masseurs and bartenders. Child pornography is another area that requires concerted attention. Sex tourism is also growing and India is emerging as a major tourist destination. Speaking further, Mr Rane said women and children are the greatest sufferers during any calamity and poverty is a great evil, which forces women and children into sex racket, which is a shame to modern society. There are 800 red light areas in the country where 75 per cent of the women are HIV positive. This is both alarming and a setback for a country which is trying to jump economically ahead. By eradication of poverty and illiteracy, the problem may be combated and the coming assembly budget session will be directed to women and children, especially of the rural sector of society, so as to make them independent, he said. Further referring to statistics, Mr Rane highlighted how Goa being a tourism hotspot has attracted trafficking of both women and children. Paedophilia is a matter of concern, and is on the rise, he added. The Goa Governor, Mr S C Jamir said that consciousness needs to be aroused amongst the people to solve what he described as one of the most formidable challenges faced by the society today; mere laws, legislations and NGOs would not be enough. Trafficking of children is not only a crime but also a shame to society and seeing the statistics which show that the same is on the rise, we must concentrate more on prevention than on rehabilitation, the Governor said. Read the rest here. human trafficking, sexual slavery, pornography, child pornography, prostitution, sex tourism, fleshploitation

Local television station exposes trafficking in Tex.

I-Team: Young children forced into a world of prostitution. Web Posted: 11/11/2005 02:47 AM CST Brandy Ralston KENS 5 Eyewitness News A young girl, just 6 years old, forced into prostitution. Another who's 7 has lived in a brothel for three years. It may sound hard to believe, but each year more than a million children are sold as sex slaves. In a KENS 5 I-Team investigation, Brandy Ralston discovered some of them are trafficked right through San Antonio. “There's almost no country in the world that's immune from this crime. It's one of the three largest profit-making criminal activities of organized crime around the world,” spokeswoman for the International Justice Mission Sharon Cohn said. They are the children, the innocent victims that groups like International Justice Mission are trying to save. “International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that rescues victims of violence, oppression, sexual exploitations and slavery,” Cohn said. “I remember a girl who said through a translator, ‘Thank you very much for rescuing me.” She's helped rescue young girls all around the globe who have been sold by their families, kidnapped, or gone on their own with the promise of a better life. “The youngest girls we've ever rescued were in Cambodia, where we rescued about 10 girls under the age of 10 who were being sold primarily to Western pedophiles who traveled to Cambodia specifically for the purpose of having sex with young children,” Cohn said. “These are crimes against children, the most vulnerable members of our society, and they're going to be protected by the U.S. government,” said San Antonio division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Al Peña [?]. He says the U.S. passed the protection act in 2003 to cut down on what they call sex tourism. Already, there have been 12 cases of men arrested and accused of traveling to foreign countries to have sex with children. “We'll go after you no matter where you go commit your offenses. The U.S. government will pursue you and bring you to justice,” Peña said. Amen. Read the rest of the story here. [HT] human trafficking, sexual slavery, prostitution, fleshploitation

Kathryn Jean Lopez: Emancipation 2006

An excellent article by Kathryn Lopez of NRO: Saving innocents from modern-day slavery (a work in progress). On September 2003, President George W. Bush started something of a sexual revolution. Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly, the president, known more popularly by left-wing groups as the man who would "turn back the clock on women's rights," challenged his fellow leaders to crack down on the sex trade in their countries, promising to lead by example at home. George W. Bush is waging a war on modern-day slavery with a winning plan for success, involving an essential ingredient: building coalitions. And what was once under most of our radars is now a fight that so many are now involved in that it's impossible to give them all adequate credit for their work ­ which, in its way, is an excellent problem to have. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investigations into trafficking "increased by more than 400 percent in the first six months of fiscal year 2005, compared to the total number of cases in fiscal year 2004." Although keeping true numbers on these elusive crimes is next to impossible, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, between 14,500 and 17,500 people are being traded within the United States. Internationally, the estimate is between 600,000 and 800,000, mostly women and children. But nations plagued with sex trafficking, who've enabled sex trafficking, are changing in part because, according to Congressman Chris Smith (R., N.J.), "they know we mean business." On January 10, President Bush signed the bipartisan 2005 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, providing $361 million over the next two years to combat trafficking domestically. At the signing ceremony, the president noted, "Over the past four years, the Department of Homeland Security has taken new measures to protect children from sexual predators, as well as pornography and prostitution rings. The Department of Health and Human Services has partnered with faith-based and community organizations to form anti-trafficking coalitions in 17 major cities across our country." The bill renewed 2000 legislation that made human trafficking a federal crime. It was authored by Congressman Smith, who was already a veteran of the fight, having participated in the rescue of Ukrainian girls in bondage in Montenegro ­ long before trafficking was on most people's radars. Closer to home, he sees the fruits of his labor: In Smith's own New Jersey this November, one Xochil Nectalina Rosales Martinez, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from her role in running a trafficking ring that smuggled Honduran women some younger than 21 into the United States to be forced to work at Union City bars. [...] But abroad and at home, folks are at work, educating, investigating, enforcing, and healing. This is a fight the United States is in to win because it is quintessentially what we're about as a nation. As one slave in North Korea wrote to a rescuer-pastor in South Korea: "I want to live like a human being for one day. I am a human being. How can I be sold like this? I need freedom." Read it all. [HT] human trafficking, fleshploitation