Human Trafficking in [Timor-Leste] [other countries]Street Children in [Timor-Leste] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Timor-Leste] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early years of the 21st
Century - 2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/EastTimor.htm
Timor-Leste
is a destination country for women from Indonesia, Thailand, the People’s
Republic of China, Malaysia, and the Philippines trafficked for the purpose
of commercial sexual exploitation, and a destination for men from Burma
trafficked for the purpose of forced labor. Timor-Leste
has a growing internal trafficking problem, mainly women and children lured
to Dili from rural areas or camps for internally
displaced persons with offers of employment and subsequently forced into
prostitution. Transnational traffickers, who may be members of organized
crime syndicates, typically recruit and control their victims through fraud
and psychological coercion. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons
Report, June, 2009 [full country report] |
|
||
|
CAUTION:
The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Advancing the Campaign Against Child Labor: Efforts at the
Country Level - www.dol.gov/ILAB/media/reports/iclp/Advancing1/html/indonesia.htm [accessed 2 February 2011] [see footnote 992] Children have been reported
in militia groups that formed in East Timor and in the separatist region of Aceh and in the According to this source, sources within the churches in the region said at least 200 boys had been forcibly recruited and trained as fighters. ***
ARCHIVES *** Human
Rights Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61607.htm [accessed 2 February 2011] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – The law
prohibits trafficking in women and children, whether for prostitution or for
forced labor; however, there have been several reports of women and girls
trafficked into the country for prostitution in recent years. In 2004 a local
NGO conducted a baseline study of human trafficking and the sex industry and
estimated that as many 115 foreign sex workers in the capital might be
victims of trafficking. Several establishments in the capital were known
commercial sex operations and were suspected of also being involved in
trafficking. UN officials and local NGO leaders
cited several instances in which foreign women, usually of Chinese,
Indonesian, or Thai origin, reported that they had been trafficked to the
country and were being held against their will. For example, in 2004 two Indonesian
women interviewed by a local NGO stated that they had been hired by a
businessman in Timor-Leste: Tackling human
trafficking Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), 4
February 2009 www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82744 [accessed 2 February 2011] Since Timor-Leste
gained independence in 2002, local Timorese women have been lured away from
their homes and recruited with promises of work abroad. Francisco Belo, a coordinator for the
counter-trafficking project of the Alola
Foundation, an NGO founded in 2001 to respond to the needs of women in Timor,
told IRIN: "We have heard of almost 100 such cases… Especially near the
border [with West Timor], traffickers have recruited women to work in Indonesia,
Malaysia and other countries in southeast Asia. The families in Timor haven't
heard from those women [again]." TRAFFICKED PEOPLE IN TIMOR - Perhaps a bigger problem is the
number of people being trafficked into the country. "Timor has become a
destination for human traffickers. We have found people from Thailand,
Indonesia, China and the Philippines - most of them working in the sex
industry and most of them victims of human trafficking," he said. Belo said the number of female commercial
sex workers in Dili is now probably close to 550.
Back in 2004, the prosecutor-general estimated there were 400 Chinese and 300
Vietnamese construction workers in Dili who were
possible victims of trafficking. Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 3 Civil Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=363&year=2009&country=7599 [accessed 2 February 2011] Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide [accessed 2 February 2011] Kimberly Hamilton, Migration Policy Institute, Migration
Information Source, May 2004 www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?ID=213 [accessed 2 February 2011] BUILDING AN IMMIGRATION SYSTEM - The immigration function
currently falls within the domain of the police. Because Timor-Leste shares a 142-mile (228km) long border with
Indonesia, and has several Indonesian islands near its coastline, there are
enormous security concerns. The border is porous and difficult to monitor.
Current steep border crossing charges ($2 for native Timorese) encourage
unauthorized crossings. Trafficking of women and girls from countries such as
Thailand and Indonesia has also emerged as a problem in the country.
Familiarizing the police force with the provisions of a new immigration law,
tracking visas, and enforcing the law within a framework of human rights and
due process remain important tasks as the country works to secure its border
and to track and manage immigration. Advancing the Campaign Against Child Labor: Efforts at the
Country Level - www.dol.gov/ILAB/media/reports/iclp/Advancing1/html/indonesia.htm [accessed 2 February 2011] [see footnote 992] Children have been reported
in militia groups that formed in East Timor and in the separatist region of Aceh and in the According to this source, sources within the churches in the region said at least 200 boys had been forcibly recruited and trained as fighters. Seven Asian Nations Sign Pact to Limit Sex Trade Marie Tessier, WEnews, January 8, 2002 [accessed 2 February 2011] Human rights groups and UNICEF
also have documented the special threats of sexual exploitation spawned by
war and armed conflict. Desperation often compels women and children to offer
sex in exchange for food, shelter, vital documents or safe passage through a
war zone. In East Timor, women were
abducted, traded, raped and forced to do household chores. BACK DOOR Newsletter on BACK DOOR Newsletter on members.pcug.org.au/~wildwood/01junchild.htm [accessed 2 February 2011] New legislation being adopted for
an independent 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 - Timor-Leste ( |
|||
Human Trafficking in [Timor-Leste] [other countries]Street Children in [Timor-Leste] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Timor-Leste] [other countries]