Human Trafficking in [Myanmar (Burma Street Children in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early
years of the 21st Century - 2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Burma.htm
Burma is a source country for women, children, and men
trafficked for the purpose of forced labor and commercial sexual
exploitation. Burmese women and children are trafficked to Thailand, the People’s
Republic of China (PRC), Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, and South
Korea for commercial sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, and forced
labor. Some Burmese migrating abroad for better economic opportunities wind
up in situations of forced or bonded labor or forced prostitution. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2009
[full country
report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in *** FEATURED
ARTICLE *** Remarks at Swearing-in Ceremony Mark P. Lagon, Director, Office
to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4 September 2011] Last week in The isolated 10-acre factory was surrounded by steel walls, 15 feet tall with barbed wire fencing, located in the middle of a coconut plantation far from roads. Workers weren’t allowed to leave and were forbidden phone contact with any one outside. They lived in run-down wooden huts, with hardly enough to eat. Aye Aye is a brave, daring soul. She tried to escape with three other women. But factory guards caught them and dragged them back to the camp. They were punished as an example to others, tied to poles in the middle of the courtyard, and refused food or water. Aye Aye told me how her now beautiful hair was shaved off as another form of punishment, to stigmatize her. And how she was beaten for trying to flee. Beaten. Tortured. Starved. Humiliated. Is this not slavery?? Thai families partners in child sex trade - Border area's
products are drugs and daughters Andrew Perrin, San Francisco Chronicle, Mae Sai, www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/02/06/MN11926.DTL [accessed 25 January 2011] When Burmese migrant Ngun Chai sold his 13-year-old
daughter into prostitution for $114, his wife, La, had one
regret -- they didn't get a good price for her. "I should have asked for 10,000 baht
($228)," La Chai said. "He robbed
us." She was angry that the agent
who bought her eldest child, Saikun, in 1999 took
her to Bangkok, some 460 miles away, rather than a nearby city as promised.
It did not concern La Chai that Saikun
would be forced to have sex with as many as eight men a day. With prices varying from $114 to $913
-- the latter figure equal to almost six years' wages for most families --
parental bonds in impoverished households are easily broken. In fact, child
prostitution is so established that many brothel agents live in the village,
and are often friends or relatives of the family from whom they buy the
children - htcp ***
ARCHIVES *** Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61603.htm [accessed 25 January 2011] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – The
government made limited progress on trafficking in persons during the year.
The government's pervasive security controls, restrictions on the free flow
of information, and lack of transparency prevented a comprehensive assessment
of trafficking in persons activities in the country. While experts agreed
that human trafficking from the country was substantial, no organization,
including the government, was able or willing to estimate the number of
victims. The government did not allow an independent assessment of its
reported efforts to combat the problem. Trafficking of women and girls to Human traffickers appeared to be
primarily free‑lance, small‑scale operators using village
contacts that fed victims to more established trafficking "brokers". Concluding Observations of the
Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 24-01-1997 sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/uncom.nsf/0/0f90115e70a4b29ec125663c00343b92?OpenDocument [accessed 25 January 2011] [24] Furthermore, the Committee
expresses its regret that insufficient measures are being taken to address
the problems of child abuse, including sexual abuse,
and the sale and trafficking of children, child prostitution and child
pornography. It is especially concerned by the fact that a significant number
of girls, and sometimes boys, are victims of transnational trafficking for
the purpose of sexual exploitation in brothels across the border. Suffer the children Danielle Bernstein, Asia Times Online, www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/LK06Ae02.html [accessed 25 January 2011] Recent interviews with underage deserters from the Burmese brides for sale Way Yan, Mizzima
News, Ruili, 28 October 2008 www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/1208-burmese-brides-for-sale.html [accessed 25 January 2011] Wah Wah was
one of the women that Ma Phyu and her gang had sold
into slavery. Wah
Wah was sold to a Chinese man living in Sandong, near Beijing, at the price tag of Chinese RMB
20,000 (approximately US$ 2,900). A few weeks later, Wah
Wah managed to flee from the clutches of her buyer
and made her way back to Ruili earlier this
month. The hapless young lady had
nowhere else to go but to return back to her perpetrators, and Ma Phyu was happy when her commodity arrived back in her
hands for resale. However, when she tried to sell her to another Chinese man,
Wah Wah vehemently
refused. But the traffickers, having
already struck a deal and received some advance money, tried to force Wah Wah to accept her newest
companion. As dusk fell over Ruili on that fateful day, Wah Wah was taken by taxi along the road to Namkhan, Burma, a few miles away. Accompanying her in the
vehicle were several members of the human trafficker's family. Eventually, they stopped the taxi next to a
paddy field beside the highway in the vicinity of Man Heiro,
still in Burmese territory and about 20 miles from Ruili. "Before leaving Ruili,
they were drunk with beer. She was taken to a paddy field near the highway.
Then Kyaw Swa started
raping her. After that, Bo Bo stabbed her
repeatedly. She died from five stab wounds. Then her corpse was left in the
nearby drainage," recalls a source from the Chinese police investigation
team of the incident. KWAT: Women enslaved due to economic hardships Phanida, Mizzima
News, Chiang Mai, 05 August 2008 www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4-inside-burma/864-kwat-women-enslaved-due-to-economic-hardships [accessed 25 January 2011] Economic hardship and poverty have
caused several young women in US Senate 'Trafficking of Burmese Migrants' Report Holds Member of Parliament Klang
Charles Santiago, mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/21029/84/ [accessed 25 January 2011] The report suggests that Malaysian
authorities are in cohorts with human traffickers in Human Traffickers Get Free Rein with Burmese Migrants in Original reporting in Burmese by Kyaw
Min Htun.
Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie, Radio Free www.david-kilgour.com/2008/Feb_09_2008_11.htm [accessed 25 January 2011] Burmese migrant workers in Several secret jails or deportation
camps exist around the country to hold foreign nationals found without
papers. From there, officials take them to the Thai border, where trafficking
gangs have close ties to Malaysian officials and have been tipped off to
their arrival. Economic Crisis Fueling Child Labor, Trafficking Saw Yan Naing,
The www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=9627 [accessed 25 January 2011] The economic crisis and instability
in Meanwhile, the results of child
trafficking has had a huge impact on the education of many Burmese migrant
children, forcing the children into hard labor in factories, sweat shops and
even into the sex trade, according to Burmese migrant education groups. Many victims under the age of 18 have
become street beggars and sex workers instead of studying at school, said Paw
Ray, the chairperson of the BMWEC, which operates nearly 50 schools for
children of Burmese migrant workers in Mae Sot. Ben Blanchard, Reuters, www.reuters.com/article/idUSPEK11308820071212 [accessed 25 January 2011] There has been a rise in
trafficking cases involving Governing Justly and Combating Human Trafficking: The
Linkages Mark P. Lagon, Director, Office
to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Dept of State, Remarks at
the Freedom House-SAIS "Human Trafficking and Freedom" Event,
Washington DC, December 3, 2007 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4 September 2011] The Burmese people represent a
case study of repression at home and then vulnerability abroad. Facing a
cruel regime, bleak economic conditions and the prospect of forced labor at
home, millions of Burmese have had to flee. Among these most vulnerable are
girls and women from Burma's ethnic minorities. Rape is widespread in Burma.
Shan, Karen, Chin, Mon and other ethnic minority women and girls live in
daily fear of sexual violence by their military oppressors. After
successfully escaping slavery in Burma, another cruel fate awaits too many
Burmese. They are preyed upon by traffickers and exploitative employers. They
are pushed into the sex trade or into highly predatory economic sectors in
neighboring countries. Fleeing literal enslavement at home, they face extreme
exploitation in neighboring countries—these women, migrants and refugees are
regularly dehumanized. Agence France-Presse
AFP, afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i5sgDe5nc_q0BvgvxntVLr5YCKNA [accessed 25 January 2011] In a statement released Friday, UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that both the
military government and rebel groups continued to violate children's rights
by recruiting underage soldiers.
Citing a recent UN report, he said that the government was picking up
street children or those without national identity cards and offering them
the choice of arrest or joining the army. Myanmar's military government
officially denies using child soldiers and has passed a law to outlaw the
practice. But human rights groups say
child soldiers in Myanmar remain alarmingly common, with boys as young as 12
recruited to fight the ethnic rebel armies in the country's border regions. - htsc The Burmese Junta's Hidden Victims Mark P. Lagon, Director, Office
to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, online.wsj.com/article/SB119395280138879609.html?mod=googlenews_wsj [partially accessed 25 January 2011 - access restricted] Facing bleak economic conditions
and the prospect of forced labor at home, millions of Burmese have had to
flee their homes and villages, usually without legal documents, making them
even more vulnerable to human trafficking and the predations of corrupt
officials. Human trafficking helps spread HIV/AIDS in Asia: UN Ranga Sirilal,
Reuters, www.reuters.com/article/idUSL22325220070822 [accessed 25 January 2011] "Trafficking ... contributes
to the spread of HIV by significantly increasing the vulnerability of
trafficked persons to infection," said Caitlin Wiesen-Antin,
HIV/AIDS regional coordinator, Major human trafficking routes run
between Nepal and India and between Thailand and neighbors like Laos,
Cambodia and Myanmar. Many of the
victims are young teenage girls who end up in prostitution. "The link between human trafficking
and HIV/AIDS has only been identified fairly recently," Wiesen-Antin told the International Congress on AIDS in
Asia and the Pacific. Remarks at Swearing-in Ceremony Mark P. Lagon, Director, Office
to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4 September 2011] Last week in The isolated 10-acre factory was
surrounded by steel walls, 15 feet tall with barbed wire fencing, located in
the middle of a coconut plantation far from roads. Workers weren’t allowed to
leave and were forbidden phone contact with any one outside. They lived in
run-down wooden huts, with hardly enough to eat. Aye Aye is a
brave, daring soul. She tried to escape with three other women. But factory
guards caught them and dragged them back to the camp. They were punished as
an example to others, tied to poles in the middle of the courtyard, and
refused food or water. Aye Aye told me how her now
beautiful hair was shaved off as another form of punishment, to stigmatize
her. And how she was beaten for trying to flee. Beaten. Tortured. Starved. Humiliated. Is
this not slavery?? Xinhua News Agency, February 19, 2007 english.people.com.cn/200702/19/eng20070219_351227.html [accessed 25 January 2011] According to the report, the human
traffickers deceived 49 young Myanmar court sentences woman to 12 years for human
trafficking The Associated Press AP, www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/28/asia/AS_GEN_Myanmar_Human_Trafficking.php At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
A Senior Officials Meeting for the Coordinated "The New Light of myanmargeneva.org/04nlm/n041028.htm [accessed 25 January 2011] [scroll down] INTERNATIONAL RELATION - SENIOR OFFICIALS MEETING
FOR THE COORDINATED MEKONG MINISTERIAL INITIATIVE AGAINST TRAFFICKING
(COMMIT) OPENS - In Myanmar, we have, as of last year, formed a Specialist
Anti-trafficking Police Unit and Anti-trafficking Task Forces around the
border and other hot spot areas. At the same time, we are of course aware, of
the absolute need to provide psycho-social support to the victims of
trafficking, undertake and improve repatriation and reintegration systems,
and provide rehabilitation services for the victims of trafficking and
vulnerable groups. Xinhua News Agency, August 05, 2006 english.people.com.cn/200608/05/eng20060805_290239.html [accessed 25 January 2011] During the period, subordinate
committees at different levels in 14 states and divisions were able to expose
and arrest 1,484 persons -- 815 males and 669 females, and also rescued in
time 3, 694 persons -- 1,904 males and 1,790 females, the paper disclosed. Three Women Arrested in Muse for Human Trafficking Narinjara Independent Arakanese
News Agency, 7/23/2006 www.narinjara.com/details.asp?id=797 [accessed 25 January 2011] According to confirmed sources,
some human trafficking syndicates have been dispatching young women from Xinhua News Agency, June 20, 2006 english.people.com.cn/200606/20/eng20060620_275589.html [accessed 25 January 2011] Noting that Myanmar passed an
anti-trafficking in persons law in September 2005 that covers sexual
exploitation, forced labor, slavery, servitude and debt bondage, the release
said during the year, the government prosecuted 426 traffickers in 203 cases
under the new law and identified 844 victims. Xinhua News Agency, news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-05/07/content_4517342.htm [accessed 25 January 2011] Since the signing of the historic
COMMIT Memorandum of Understanding in Yangon, Myanmar in October 2004, by
Ministers of the six countries, the Governments have been active in laying
the foundation for a network of cooperation to stop traffickers and prosecute
them, protect victims of trafficking and assist them return safely home, and
launch efforts to prevent others from sharing the same fate. Rice Names 'Outposts of Tyranny' The Associated Press AP, Jan. 19, 2005 archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/1/18/160202.shtml [accessed 25 January 2011] Condoleezza Rice named Diminished ILO Visit Spells Trouble Larry Jagan, www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1354851/posts [accessed 25 January 2011] When the high-level delegation cut
short its visit and left Rangoon a week ago, it left the regime with a
four-point plan of action: the issuance of clear instructions to the army,
and publicity for a campaign, to stop the use of forced labor; a renewed
commitment to the previously agreed plan of action on forced labor, after the
regime has dragged its feet over the past year; the granting of freedom of
movement to the ILO liaison officer in Rangoon, which has been curtailed
significantly for some time; and the extension of an amnesty to the third of
three people convicted of high treason essentially for having contact with
the ILO. 18. Allegations On Exercising Forced Labor in OKKAR, Union of www.myanmar-information.net/political/english.pdf [accessed 25 January 2011] [scroll
down to … 18. Allegations On Exercising Forced Labor in This allegation has been widely
and conveniently used against the Government of Myanmar by certain quarters
to disseminate disinformation in the attempt to portray her as a cruel and
wicked regime. U.N.: Jonathan Fowler, Associated Press AP, www.burmanet.org/news/2005/03/25/associated-press-un-myanmar-must-stop-forced-labor-jonathan-fowler/ [accessed 25 January 2011] "For years we've had a
contradictory message," she said following a meeting of the ILO's governing body. "There is always a promise to
do something, a few little steps, then a terrible backlash." Sex Trafficking Growing In S.E.Asia Fayen Wong, Reuters, At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4 September 2011] Girls from the villages of 4 Kyodo News International, www.thefreelibrary.com/4+Myanmar+officials+get+jail+over+forced+labor.-a0128174630 [accessed 25 January 2011] Four local officials in Travel Guides and the Nov 6, 2004 www.gadling.com/2004/11/06/travel-guides-and-the-burma-debate/ [accessed 25 January 2011] The Burmese democracy movement,
led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has asked that
tourists not visit Big Business Keeps Eye on Historic Human Rights Case Anna Sussman, Pacific News
Service, Nov 19, 2004 news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=910d6bde26c3823430b0f878520c3dc1 [accessed 4 September 2011] One of the plaintiffs, Jane Doe,
has testified that her husband was shot when attempting to flee forced labor on
the pipeline, and that her baby was killed when thrown into a fire in
retaliation for his attempted escape. All 12 plaintiffs remain anonymous for
fear of repercussions against them and their family members. The Protection Project - The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/myanmar.doc [Last accessed 2009] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Women and children are
trafficked from Reportedly, Myanmar women and
girls are commonly sold to Chinese men as mail-order brides and for the
purpose of forced marriage. More than 100 Myanmar women are reported to be
living in the Chinese province of Anhwei alone,
where they are exploited by their Chinese husbands sexually and forced to
work on farms and as housemaids. Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 7 Civil Liberties: 7 Status: Not Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&year=2009&country=7577 [accessed 25 January 2011] Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide [accessed 25 January 2011] Harsh Policy Towards Burmese Refugees Sam Zia-Zarifi, Deputy Director
of Human Rights Watch/Asia, Special to The Nation ( www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/01/27/thaila7075.htm [accessed 25 January 2011] The Thai government made this
decision, despite the fact that the horrendous conditions in Conscripts - Soldiers of misfortune Alex Perry, Reported by Robert Horn/Karen state, www.badasf.org/slavery/timeasia-childsavery.htm#five [accessed 29 August 2011] For years, sein
win's job in the burmese army was to guard citizens
who had been forced into hard labor, building the nation's roads, railways,
helipads and barracks. "We threatened them with guns to make them
work," says Sein Win, now 20, who recently
deserted from the military. "No soldier would dare be kind to the
villagers because the officers would beat us if we showed them any
mercy." Now Program on Posted by Randy Paul in weblog
Human Rights and weblog International Law, January
12, 2004 www.beautifulhorizons.net/weblog/2004/01/now_program_on_.html [accessed 25 January 2011] Last week on NOW with Bill Moyers, there was a segment that dealt with this issue
and the specific case in Burma in which several Burmese citizens are suing
the oil company, Unocal over allegations of complicity with slave labor that
the Burmese military (which provided security for a oil pipeline that Unocal
was building). Oral intervention delivered by Anti-Slavery International
on 6 April 2004 Anti-Slavery International, Oral intervention, UN
Commission on Human Rights 60th session, 6 April 2004 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4 September 2011] ITEM 13 RIGHTS OF THE CHILD - Restrictions of freedom of
movement, as Rohingya children and their parents are
virtually confined to their village tracts. The need to obtain travel passes
limits their access to health, education and employment, thus severely
affecting the livelihood of the family. In the field of health and
education, they are particularly neglected. Sixty per cent of the Muslim
children of Northern Rakhine State are said to
suffer from malnutrition and the level of illiteracy is extremely high. Restriction of access to food
through a series of constraints, including arbitrary taxation and extortion,
is the main strategy of the regime to encourage departure, and a major root
cause of the ongoing exodus to Bangladesh. Increasingly, measures are being
imposed to control birth and to limit expansion of the Rohingya
population. Unlike other people of Burma, the Rohingyas
must apply for permission to get married, which is only granted in exchange
for high bribes and can take up to several years to obtain. To register their
children's birth, parents are charged fees that significantly increased in
2003. Moreover, building a new house or repairing or extending an existing
dwelling also require authorisation, resulting in
overcrowded and precarious living conditions, affecting women and children. Many Rohingya
children are subject to forced labour. Cultural practices in the Rohingya community prevent women from participating in
activities outside of their homes. As male adults are busy earning the daily
wage to feed the family, the burden of carrying out forced labour duties
often falls on children. Solar Health Clinics in Burma Geoffrey Schöning, SEI
Newsletter Issue 17 - May 2004 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4 September 2011] BACKGROUND - The Eastern area of In the past, it was possible to
escape to refugee camps within the Thai border, and currently there is a
string of refugee camps along the border with US House of Reps. Extends uscampaignforburma.org/pr/2004-us-house-of-reps-extends-burma-sanctions-in-landslide.html [accessed 25 January 2011] The regime's brutality is well-documented. According to credible nongovernmental organizations, it has imprisoned over 1,500 political prisoners, conscripted up to 70,000 child soldiers, carries out a modern form of slavery, and uses rape as a weapon of war. Case Study: Corvée (Forced) Labour Adam Jones, Gendercide Watch www.gendercide.org/case_corvee.html [accessed 25 January 2011] FOCUS (4): "Trading Women" Filmmaker Shatters Myths about Human Trafficking Vicki At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4 September 2011] IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM IN ASIA - "One thing our research
showed, for a highland girl in "If you look at where the key
problem of trafficking is (in this area of Southeast Asia), it is in Burma.
The majority of girls who are trafficked come from Burma. For the Shan women,
the way they express their choices are to stay home and get raped by the
Burmese army for free, or come down to Thailand and do sex work for money.
This is not a choice anyone should ever have to make," he said. www.burmatoday.net/kaowao/2003/10/031012_thailand_kaowao.htm [accessed 25 January 2011] Local migrant advocacy groups say
the Chiang Mai raid, like other actions taken against human trafficking, had
netted Burmese women voluntarily engaged in prostitution. Now, they say,
those women may be worse off than before. These groups accuse the US-funded
anti-trafficking task force that led the raid of steamrolling women's rights
and treating all sex workers as victims. "The women didn't feel like
they were rescued because they lost their money.... They felt like they were
trapped," says Hseng Noung,
of the Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN), who interviewed ethnic Shan women
detained in the raid. "Being forced to work physically is one thing, but
these women were forced to work by their situation." Oil-gas giant faces landmark trial over slavery in Kathy George, www.seattlepi.com/local/150576_human01.html [accessed 25 January 2011] The soldiers' true role was to
force villagers in the pipeline region to work without pay -- a modern form
of slavery, the 9th Circuit opinion said.
And Unocal knew, both before and after investing in the project, that
the military was enslaving the people, the opinion said. Unocal's own consultant, former
military attache John Haseman,
reported to Unocal in December 1995 that the soldiers were committing
"egregious human rights violations" along the pipeline route. "The most common are forced relocation
without compensation of families from land near/along the pipeline route,
forced labor to work on infrastructure projects supporting the pipeline ...
and imprisonment and/or execution by the army of those opposing such
actions," Haseman told Unocal in a report
quoted in court records. Thai families partners in child sex trade - Border area's
products are drugs and daughters Andrew Perrin, San Francisco Chronicle, Mae Sai, www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/02/06/MN11926.DTL [accessed 25 January 2011] When Burmese migrant Ngun Chai sold his 13-year-old
daughter into prostitution for $114, his wife, La, had one
regret -- they didn't get a good price for her. "I should have asked for 10,000 baht
($228)," La Chai said. "He robbed
us." She was angry that the agent
who bought her eldest child, Saikun, in 1999 took
her to Bangkok, some 460 miles away, rather than a nearby city as promised.
It did not concern La Chai that Saikun
would be forced to have sex with as many as eight men a day. With prices varying from $114 to
$913 -- the latter figure equal to almost six years' wages for most families
-- parental bonds in impoverished households are easily broken. In fact,
child prostitution is so established that many brothel agents live in the
village, and are often friends or relatives of the family from whom they buy
the children - htcp New Coalition urges UK Government to stop investment in
Burma Anti-Slavery International, 18 March 2002 At one time this article had been archived and may possibly
still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4 September 2011] Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said:
"Burma's military has put millions of civilians into forced labour,
imprisoned hundreds of political prisoners, has created more child soldiers
than any other country in the world, and has forcibly 'relocated' half a
million ethnic people". Millions Suffer in Sex Slavery United Press International UPI, Chicago, April 24, 2001 archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/4/23/184354.shtml [accessed 25 January 2011] Statistical estimates indicate 300,000
women have been sold into the sex trade in Western Europe in the last 10
years, and since 1990, 80,000 women and children from Myanmar (formerly
Burma), Cambodia, Laos and China have been sold into Thailand's sex industry.
Silver Cos. needn't look far to find some slave-museum
artifacts Rick Mercier, The Free Lance-Star, December 1, 2001 www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2001/122001/12012001/461253/index_html [accessed 25 January 2011] Last year, the ILO condemned the
Burmese military's "widespread and systematic" use of forced labor
as "a modern form slavery," and called on
governments, labor unions, and employers to take steps to ensure they were
not helping to sustain the Burmese junta's practice of enslaving its
citizens. There are a couple of ways that
Burmese imports enrich Burma's slavemasters and
contribute to their ability to continue enslaving people, according to the
Free Burma Coalition. First, Burma's
military dictatorship charges a 5 percent tax on all exports from Burma, and
much of that revenue goes straight to the military. Second, the junta retains
partial ownership of most factories in Burma, with profits going largely to
the military. Moreover, the coalition
says, Burmese imports never even would have made it to places like Central
Park had it not been for roads and other infrastructure back in ILO team completes mission to assess forced labor in Myanmar Agence France-Presse
AFP, www.burmalibrary.org/reg.burma/archives/200010/msg00110.html [accessed 25 January 2011] An International Labor Organisation
(ILO) team has completed a six-day mission to "They are not completely
happy with what they have seen so far, and want to see more progress being
made (on ending forced labor)," the source said. "However, there are signs of goodwill
on the part of the Burmese, who were cooperative. The team managed to see
everyone they wanted to see." 2000 Update on Forced Labor and Forced Relocations United States Department of Labor, Bureau of International
Labor Affairs, 2000 www.dol.gov/ILAB/media/reports/ofr/burma2000/forced.htm [accessed 25 January 2011] Since the Department of Labor's
1998 report, there has been little change in the situation with regard to the
use of forced labor in Maggie O'Kane, The Guardian, 27
July 2000 www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2000/jul/27/burma [accessed 25 January 2011] The Burmese have been accused of
using "security" issues in the pipeline area of Tanasserim
to drive ethnic Karen people from the land. There are now 120,000 Karen
living in refugee camps and human rights groups say at least 30,000 Karen
have been killed. The army's tactics include rape and summary executions. The report says the army was
extorting money from local people and using children and forced unpaid labour
- described by the special UN rapporteur to Burma as a modern form of slavery
- to build military barracks.
"The harsh conditions of those carrying out the labour, including
young children and the testimony of local people, belies the government claim
that such work is voluntary," said the report. Welcome to Free Center for Southeast Asian Studies, ny.xmu.edu.cn/Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=1812 [accessed 25 January 2011] [scroll down] The country of The Boston Tea Party Revisited:Massachusetts
Boycotts Burma Robert Stumberg and William Waren, "State Legislatures Magazine", National
Conference of State Legislatures NCSL, May 1999 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4 September 2011] Political repression. When the military
government of Burma lost more than 80 percent of the seats in parliament to
the National League for Democracy in 1990, it repudiated the election and
began closing NLD offices and jailing the party’s legislators. The government
has waged war against rural ethnic minorities, who supported the NLD
commitment to create a federal system with regional self-government. Forced labor. Burma is building
its commercial infrastructure with labor forced at the point of a gun. In the
previous decade, more than 5.5 million people have been forced to work on
construction of airport runways, railroads, highways and agricultural
irrigation systems. Seven percent of Burma’s economy is based on this
slavery. Rape and brutality. The most
common form of forced labor is military portering.
Even old people, women and teenagers are required to carry military supplies
on their backs. Porters are forced to walk ahead of troops to detonate mines
and act as human shields in combat against Burma’s own ethnic minorities.
Soldiers often beat porters with rifle butts and have forced teenagers to
execute other porters who could no longer work. Women porters are separated
at night from the men and are frequently raped by the soldiers. Displacement of populations in Western Burma (Myanmar) Anti-Slavery International, UN Economic & Social
Council Commission on Human Rights 55th Session Item 14(c) Specific Groups and Issues - Mass Exoduses and
Displaced Persons, At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4 September 2011] In Burma, the widespread
repression of ethnic minorities and the countrywide practice of forced labour
as documented in the ILO Commission of Inquiry report dated 2 July 1998, have
led to an unprecedented displacement of populations. So-called "development programmes" consist mostly of infrastructure
projects carried out with unpaid forced labour and extortion from the local
population. New roads are built to facilitate military penetration and to
control border trade for the economic interest of the military. These
projects have thus provided little improvement to the inhabitants of these
regions, but rather persecution and impoverishment. In Sagaing
Division, Naga villagers are used as forced labour
to upgrade roads for military purposes, and are forced to become porters and
recruits for the troops. In the In Sagaing
Division, a series of dam projects for irrigation has led to land
confiscation, destruction of sacred sites and forests, as well as extensive
forced labour. The Kalay-Pakkoku
railway was built with the forced labour of thousands of villagers and prisoners. In In These military practices have meant
that many people are no longer able to grow enough food or otherwise earn
enough income to support their families. They have been impoverished to such
an extent that they have no other option than leaving their homes in search
of a means of survival. Unwanted and Unprotected:Burmese
Refugees in Human Rights www.hrw.org/reports98/thai/Thai989-01.htm#P39_702 [accessed 4 September 2011] SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS - At almost no time since Burmese
asylum seekers started arriving on Thai soil in 1984 has the need for
protection of this group been greater.1
Human rights violations inside Modern Form of Slavery: Trafficking of Burmese Women and
Girls into Brothels in Human Rights Watch, www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1993/thailand/ [accessed 4 September 2011] IV.
TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN AND GIRLS A.
RECRUITMENT THE MONEY - For all but two of the
twenty-six Burmese women and girls trafficked through Mae Sai,
the cash transaction that sealed the recruit's fate took place in the town of
Once the money changed hands, the
Mae Sai agent often arranged through the local
police to send the woman or girl, usually with two or three other new
recruits, sometimes with as many as ten, in a truck or van directly to a
brothel or to another agent at a way station en route to Bangkok -- usually Chiangrai. Of those we interviewed, twenty ended up in All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE
RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.
Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking
& Modern-day Slavery - |
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Human Trafficking in [Myanmar (Burma Street Children in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]