By host on 10/23/2008 9:46 AM

GRAND CHUTE — To her knowledge, Julie Bahr, the Appleton Police Department's support services captain, hasn't dealt with cases involving human trafficking, a crime that now is a felony offense in Wisconsin.

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By host on 10/23/2008 9:39 AM

The Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern and the Garda Commissioner are launching a major new awareness campaign on human trafficking.

It is based on the "blue blindfold" concept, which was initially developed in the UK.

It represents the risk of people having their eyes closed to crime, and not being aware of what is going on around them.

A key purpose of the campaign is to encourage the public to report anything suspicious to Gardai anonymously, either through Crimestoppers or a new dedicated email address, "blueblindfold@garda.ie."

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By host on 10/23/2008 9:36 AM

They are lured into Lebanon to work as models, masseuses or dancers in nightclubs. But some of these young Eastern European women, especially from Moldova, are sold by criminal networks to brothels, where they are forced to work as prostitutes.

These were among the findings of a report about human trafficking in Lebanon released recently by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

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By host on 10/23/2008 9:34 AM

AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) -- The number of cases of human trafficking are going up in the Austin area. Traffickers use the Interstate 35 corridor to bring their victims in. From Austin, the victims are sent to Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth. Detective Jerry Gonzalez with the Austin Police Department's Human Trafficking Unit said the number of cases have tripled in the last few years.

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By host on 10/21/2008 8:27 AM

For more than an hour Monday, U.S. District Judge Christopher F. Droney listened as Dennis Paris, a man convicted of running a prostitution and sex trafficking ring with young women, one just 14, told how the government got it all wrong.

Paris, 36, of Middletown, insisted that jurors who convicted him of two counts of sex trafficking minors, two counts of sex trafficking through force, fraud or coercion, and 13 counts of using interstate facilities to promote a prostitution business made a mistake.

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By host on 10/21/2008 8:22 AM

The second EU Anti-trafficking day will take place tomorrow. On this occasion, the European Commission approves an evaluation of the implementation of the EU Action Plan to prevent and combat trafficking in human beings. The Commission concludes that the EU has developed a dynamic process of approximation of legislation, both in the fields of criminal law and victims' support. However, there is still a serious gap between legislation and implementation.

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By host on 10/21/2008 8:16 AM

State Attorney General Rob McKenna has said trafficking, far from being consigned to foreign lands, occurs "on the next street over." At a massage parlor. In a restaurant. At the home with the pristine lawn.

But getting people to realize that such exploitation festers, often hidden in Seattle, remains a challenge, says Avi Zellman, a 22-year-old University of Washington senior.

 

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By host on 10/20/2008 11:03 AM

VIENNA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Human trafficking is the most profitable criminal industry nowadays, and Austria has becomes the international human trafficking transit point and destination, Heidrun Silhavy, Austrian Federal Minister for Health and Women said here Friday.

    She told a press conference that the criminals get more than 35billion U.S dollars for human trafficking each year according to the statistical data, and the huge pecuniary benefit temptation made this rampant crime increased rapidly. The main victims of the crime are women and children, she said.

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By host on 10/20/2008 10:45 AM

Mid international criticism on China’s handling of North Korean refugees, European countries have come forward to announce that they would protect North Korean victims of human trafficking the same as they would do to the victims from European member countries.

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By host on 10/20/2008 10:40 AM

TASHKENT: Some 1,450 Uzbeks have fallen victim to human trafficking so far this year, the top state prosecutor in the former Soviet republic said in a report published on Friday.

Human trafficking charges were laid against 339 people during the first nine months of 2008, the prosecutor, Rashitjon Kadirov, was quoted as saying in the Russian-language daily Narodnoye Slovo.

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By host on 10/17/2008 8:40 AM

Roxas City (16 October) -- Strong networking down to the community level is a tool to fight human trafficking.

Provincial Prosecutor Rudolfo Beluso, who chairs the Provincial Inter-Agency Committee Against Trafficking (PIACAT) in Capiz, stressed that the barangays, particularly the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC), have the vital role in monitoring the children in their respective communities.

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By host on 10/17/2008 8:37 AM

VIENNA, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- To establish national rapporteurs or equivalent systems throughout the European Union (EU) and beyond will help to combat human trafficking, said an OSCE statement issued on Thursday.

    The OSCE Special Representative Eva Biaudet released the statement on behalf of the Alliance Expert Co-ordination Team (AECT), underscoring the fundamental role of this rapporteur system.

 

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By host on 10/17/2008 8:14 AM

Non-governmental experts and European officials are gathering in Paris Thursday for a conference about the rising phenomenon of human trafficking.  Lisa Bryant reports from the French capital that experts are calling for better monitoring and coordination to combat the problem, especially in cases involving children who have been the most vulnerable.

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By host on 10/16/2008 8:39 AM

UAE. The UAE took part in a regional conference held in Kabul, Afghanistan on 12-13 October, on Combating Human Trafficking. Dr Saeed Al Ghufli, Executive Director at the Ministry of State for the FNC affairs, led the UAE delegation that included Lana Nusseibeh, Director of Research and Communication at the Ministry; Sultan Ibrahim Al Juwaid, the General Lawyer at the Ministry of Justice, and Major Ahmad Al Mazroui from the Ministry of Interior.

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By host on 10/16/2008 8:29 AM

The Belgium Appellate Court increased Tuesday the human trafficking sentence of the Bulgarian citizen Georgi Dimitrov Komitov, a.k.a. Cherniya (the Black) from six to eight years.

The 33-year-old Komitov was found to have been one of the leaders of an organized crime group dealing with human trafficking and prostitution, which functioned in Belgium between November 1, 2005, and May 1, 2007.

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By host on 10/15/2008 8:03 AM

BRUSSELS, Oct 9 (IPS) - The European Union needs to develop a programme against child trafficking, the bloc's only directly elected institution has declared.

Between two and four million people -- most of them children -- are estimated to fall victim to forced labour and other forms of trafficking each year.

Since the Amsterdam Treaty came into effect in 1999, trafficking in human beings has been named as an area of responsibility for the EU as a whole. Yet even though the Union's executive, the European Commission, drew up a strategy on the rights of the child in 2006, anti-exploitation campaigners feel that it does not grapple properly with the problems associated with trafficking.

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By host on 10/15/2008 7:59 AM

Members of Catholic aid agency Caritas from around the world will urge the European Union to do more on child trafficking at a meeting in Paris on 16 October.

Human trafficking is an increasing phenomenon across the world. In 2005, up to 2.4 million people were being trafficked every year, with children among the most vulnerable.

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By host on 10/15/2008 7:49 AM

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Tuesday called for stronger cooperation among government agencies in the fight against human trafficking. Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan expressed the need for a team effort by the Philippine National Police (PNP), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the local government units (LGUs) to make the drive against human trafficking successful.

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By host on 10/15/2008 7:45 AM

Dennis Paris of Middletown, Conn., was sentenced today to 360 months in prison, five years of supervised release and $46,116 in restitution for his role in organizing and facilitating a prostitution ring that victimized minors and coerced multiple young women to engage in commercial sex acts against their will. Paris --- one of 10 defendants associated with this trafficking ring --- was convicted in June 2007 on multiple counts of commercial sex trafficking through force, fraud or coercion.

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By host on 10/14/2008 8:01 AM

IMPHAL, Oct 11: All the five girl victims of human trafficking from Manipur and Assam to Malaysia arrived at Kolkata yesterday from Malaysia via Chennai. The girls from Manipur reached Imphal this afternoon.
After lobbying with the officials of the Indian and Malaysian governments for a whole month they were brought back from Malaysia yesterday, said North East Helpline in a statement today.

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