By host on 11/22/2009 9:54 PM

The US State Department has issued new guidelines saying no diplomat below the rank of minister can bring any domestic servants without proof the diplomat can pay a prevailing wage. This is in part in response to 42 documented allegations of diplomats engaging in human trafficking, many in the Washington, D.C. area, according to a Government Accountability Office report. To read more, click here.

By host on 11/16/2009 1:00 AM

A young Moldovan woman who was trafficked into Israel almost 10 years ago is fighting to stay in Israel rather than being deported. 

By host on 11/16/2009 12:55 AM

The British government's most recent anti-trafficking push, Operation Pentameter Two, has been more of a push against prostitution rather than trafficking and all that it encompasses, according to The Guardian. To read more on their opinion, click here.

By host on 11/16/2009 12:45 AM

The United Nations recently estimated that there are around 270,000 victims of human trafficking living in the European Union today. Many more victims are simply not known about, and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime estimate that as many as 30 times more people are affected. To read more, click here.

By host on 11/16/2009 12:42 AM

Three people in Manchester, UK were arrested for selling virgin girls between the ages of 14 and 23 for up to 50,000 pounds. To read more, click here.

By host on 11/16/2009 12:37 AM

The Buy Responsibly campaign is running television ads showing exploited workers trapped under upside-down shopping carts. It encourages consumers to understand where the goods they purchase come from and how they were developed. The International Organization for Migration points out that exploited workers provide cheap labor in "construction, agriculture, fishing, textiles and other sectors whose products end up on rich-country shop shelves." To read more, click here and visit www.buyresponsibly.org.

 

By host on 11/16/2009 12:27 AM

A gang of 13 was convicted of human trafficking in Oman and sentenced to seven years and a fine. Thirteen women were brought into Oman before being trafficked into Bahrain for prostitution by this ring. To read more, click here.

By host on 11/16/2009 12:18 AM

Despite recent changes in legislation and other new resources, victims of human trafficking in Israel continue to go undetected and without help said Ilan Cohn, senior program officer for the Center for International Migration and Integration (CIMI). 

By host on 11/15/2009 11:58 PM

Police officers in Missouri, USA spoke out about their initial difficulty recognizing victims of human trafficking as victims and not as criminal prostitutes. They used their forum to encourage other police officers to identify and act on the difference. To read more, click here.

By host on 11/15/2009 11:54 PM

Police busted a human trafficking ring in Pandan Perdana, Malaysia that had been sending women and girls to Australia and forcing them into commercial sexual exploitation. Nineteen people have been arrested for human trafficking in Malaysia this year. Click here to read more.

By host on 11/15/2009 11:45 PM

In a recent study by the Indian National Commission for Women, more than half of the 612 provinces in India serve as an origin point for human trafficking. The south and east are especially affected. The report also said that at least 2.4 percent of the entire female population has been affected by commercial sexual explotation. To read more about the report, click here.

By host on 11/15/2009 11:39 PM

Several non-profit organizations are urging the Metropolitan police of London, UK to not disband its human trafficking task force in the face of budget difficulties. A model of international best practices, the organizations are especially worried about the task force not being in place to protect against human trafficking for the 2012 Olympics. To read more, click here.

By host on 11/9/2009 3:41 PM

Four people have been arrested in Indonesia for allegedly running an employment agency which promised domestic work in Malaysia, but actually forced women into prostitution in that country. Women who travel abroad to work as domestic servants are vulnerable to traffickers as the work is often unregulated and out of the public view. To read more, please click here.

By host on 11/2/2009 2:04 AM

Two residents of Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the USA have been convicted of trafficking children for sexual exploitation. David Pierre, 34, was sentenced to ten years in a federal prison. His partner Jenna Linden, 24, had earlier been sentenced to five years in prison. Investigations had been initiated after a fourteen year old and a sixteen year old were rescued from the escort service Pierre had been operating.
To read more, please click here.

By host on 9/30/2009 7:46 PM

Vancouver police have decided to launch their own campaign against human trafficking and commercial sex services before the 2010 Winter Olympics. The campaign will include training courses for police officers, hotel workers, taxi drivers and others in hospitality industry. To read more, click here.

By host on 9/30/2009 7:41 PM

Diplomatic immunity has not sheltered a Filipino ambassador to the United Nations from a suit alleging trafficking and slavery in New York. Diplomats misusing people and their services have a history in the United States, but previously those diplomats have claimed diplomatic immunity. In fact, "a July 2008 Government Accountability Office report identified 42 cases of abuse by diplomats over an eight-year period but emphasized that the actual number was probably higher." To read more, click here.

By host on 9/19/2009 6:23 PM

Dutch police are searching for a convicted human trafficker after he escaped while on temporary leave to see his newborn child last week.

By host on 9/19/2009 6:20 PM

Four Americans were accused of human trafficking in cases of  illegal adoption. "Last year, they adopted children from a Cairo orphanage that allegedly gave them forged documents stating the adoptive children had been born to them. Islamic law observed in Egypt bans Muslims from adopting children, in the name of maintaining clear bloodlines to ensure lines of patrimony and inheritance. At most, Muslims can take a child into long-term foster care, but this doesn't allow the child to inherit from the foster parents." 

 

By host on 9/11/2009 3:08 PM

The United States Department of Labor has produced a report listing 122 items from 58 countries that it believes were "produced by forced labor, child labor or both in violation of international standards.... The countries with products included on the TVPRA List span every region of te world. The most common items listed include cotton, sugar cane, tobacco, coffee, rice and cocoa in agriculture; bricks, garments, carpets and footwear, manufacturing; and gold and coal in mined and quarried goods. For more information, click here.

 

 

By host on 9/11/2009 2:56 PM

 

Arguments are being made for a global list of sex offenders to help reduce international sex tourism. "The case has reinvigorated support for House Resolution 1623, the "'nternational Megan's law,' which US Representative Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, introduced in March 2009. If passed, the bill would alert officials abroad when U.S. sex offenders intend to travel and would encourage other countries to keep sex-offender lists and notify American officials about offenders' U.S. travel plans. U.S. law can grab American predators overseas." To read more, click here.