Human Trafficking in [Pakistan Street Children in [Pakistan] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Pakistan] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early years of the 21st
Century - 2000 to 2011 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Pakistan.htm
Pakistan is a source, transit, and
destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes
of forced labor and sexual exploitation. The country’s largest human
trafficking problem is that of bonded labor, which is concentrated in Sindh and Punjab provinces, particularly in brick kilns,
carpet-making, agriculture, fishing, mining, leather tanning, and production
of glass bangles; estimates of Pakistani victims of bonded labor, including
men, women, and children, vary widely but are likely over one million.
Parents sell their daughters into domestic servitude, prostitution, or forced
marriages, and women are traded between tribal groups to settle disputes or
as payment for debts. - 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 Pakistan. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt has been made to validate their
authenticity or to verify their content. ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Slavery in the 21st century Alan McCombes, Scottish
Socialist Voice, November 2001 www.scottishsocialistvoice.net/2001/12/slavery-in-the-21st-century/959 [accessed 21 December 2011] Bonded labour otherwise known as
debt slavery is rampant in In return for the loan, the entire
family is turned into the private property of the employer. They are forced
to work long hours for pitiful wage and half of these wages are kept by the
factory owner as payment towards the loan.
The loan may take a generation or more to pay off. But until it is
paid, the family are held in slavery. Iqbal had been sold by his mother to a
carpet manufacturer at the age of four. For years he spent twelve hours a
day, seven days a week working in carpet factories for a pittance. He eventually rebelled against his conditions
and became a major figure in the BLLF. At the age of 12 he was traveling
Pakistan addressing mass meetings and leading demos of thousands of children
against industrial slavery. To this
day, his murder has never been satisfactorily explained. Contemporary Forms of Slavery in Human Rights Watch/Asia, Library of Congress Catalog Card
Number: 95-77876, ISBN 1-56432-154-1, July 1995 www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1995/Pakistan.htm [accessed 15 December 2010] SUMMARY - Millions of workers in Third Anniversary of the Murder of Iqbal
Masih, Pakistani Child Activist (1983-1995) Child Labor Coalition, Washington DC, April 15, 1998 killarneyaboutchildlabour.blogspot.com/2008/11/americans-honor-iqbal-masih.html [accessed 28 August 2011] Iqbal Masih made a difference. His was the voice of a child pointing out to adults the horrible costs and injustices of child slavery. Twelve years old and one of the mightiest voices in Pakistan against child labor, Iqbal was a compelling survivor of slavery in Pakistan's carpet industry. For half of his life, Iqbal was bonded in the hand-knotted carpet industry.
Enslaved at the age of four, for an advance of less than $16 to his parents,
he was chained to his loom, tying tiny knots for twelve hours a day, every
day. Six years later, when he confronted his boss demanding his freedom, the
debt he owed had risen to $419. Woman jailed for forcing child into sex trade Independent Online (IOL) News, www.iol.co.za/news/world/woman-jailed-for-forcing-child-into-sex-trade-1.226224 [accessed 15 December 2010] Last week a non-governmental organisation said there was a growing trend in the abduction and sale of Tajik boys for sexual exploitation abroad. The Modar organisation said groups in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan and other countries were prepared to pay as much as $70 000 for a Tajik boy between the ages of 10 and 12. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms
of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/pakistan.htm [accessed 15 December 2010] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61710.htm [accessed 15 December 2010] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – Although
no accurate statistics on trafficking existed, the country was a source,
transit, and destination country for trafficked persons. Women and girls were
trafficked from Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 3 October 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/pakistan2003.html [accessed 15 December 2010] [76] While noting the serious
efforts undertaken by the State party to prevent child trafficking, the
Committee is deeply concerned at the very high incidence of trafficking in
children for the purposes of sexual exploitation, bonded labor and use as
camel jockeys. Saeed Shah in www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/21/pakistan-gang-rape-mukhtaran-mai [accessed 22 April 2011] Mai's ordeal began after her
13-year-old brother was accused by a more powerful clan of having sex with
one of their young women. He was then sodomised in
a sugar cane field by the woman's brother, Abdul Khaliq,
and two other men. There appears to be no basis for the original accusation. A tribal council was assembled
from Khaliq's clan, which ordered that Mai be
punished for her brother's illicit sex by being raped, on the basis of
eye-for-an-eye justice. Mai was forced at gunpoint by Khaliq
into a stable, where he and other clan members raped her. She was then
paraded naked around the village. Tradition dictated that Mai commit suicide,
as the shame supposedly fell on her, but she decided to fight her tormentors. The cruelty of Mai's case is
repeated in the treatment of women across the country, with tribal councils
regularly ordering young girls to be handed over in compensation for crimes
committed by other family members, and women to be killed for "honour". Human trafficking gang busted, girl recovered The News International, www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=179371 [access date unavailable] The Federal Investigation Agency
(FIA) Sunday busted an international human trafficking gang and recovered a
girl sold to an Arab Sheikh for Rs2 million. The officials of the FIA
Peshawar were tipped off that a gang would smuggle a young girl of Lala Killay to Dubai where she
had been sold to … Human trafficking victim narrates her ordeal The News International, 01/07/2009 www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=155996 [access date unavailable] Shabana was lured with a nice job and
kidnapped along with her three daughters and one son on July 20, 2008 and
taken to the ‘katcha area’ of Kashmore
on the Sindh-Balochistan border area. “A man called Rasheed
Shar said I was like his sister. He offered me a
nice job in interior Sindh,” Shabana
told The News on Tuesday. “He took me to a ‘katchi
area’ near Kashmore along with my four kids —
seven-year-old Sana, four-year-old Roshi, six-year-old Aisha, and
eight-year-old Suleman.” “He kept us there for three days and then
disappeared. My elder daughter Sana became ill and
I tried to escape but Rasheed’s younger brother, Shabeeb, threatened to kill us,” she said with tears in
her eyes. “Then they shifted me to a place near the river and threatened to throw
me in the water after killing me. However, Rasheed’s
son-in-law Lalu became a blessing in disguise and
helped us.” After two or three weeks, one of Rasheed’s brothers came to Shabana
and said that they were dacoits. “Rasheed called us
up on his brother’s cell phone, and said he was waiting for us on the other
bank of the river. He told us to get on a boat which was waiting there. He
promised he would take us back to Karachi,” Shabana
said. “After about two hours we were shifted to the ‘katcha
area’ across the river. However, the moment we arrived there, we were
surrounded by many people and I came to know that I was being sold. I told
them I was already married but I was sold to an elderly man, Ali Mohammad
Kurd. I remained with him for about two months and was often beaten severely.
In the meantime, several other people offered to purchase me. I was sold
thrice. However, on a lucky day, I along with my kids managed to escape to Kashmore.” 'Rat people' forced to beg on Agence France-Presse
AFP, afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jOmE7u7DlUpw1GwT37ut9uc1xf7A [accessed 15 December 2010] Outside a Muslim shrine in this
dusty Pakistani city, a "rat woman" with a tiny head sits on a
filthy mattress and takes money from worshippers who cling to an ancient
fertility rite. Nadia, 25, is one of
hundreds of young microcephalics -- people born
with small skulls and protruding noses and ears because of a genetic mutation
-- who can be found on the streets of Gujrat, in
central Punjab province. Officials say
many of them have been sold off by their families to begging mafias, who
exploit a tradition that the "rat children" are sacred offerings to
Shah Daula, the shrine's 17th century Sufi saint. According to local legend,
infertile women who pray at Shah Daula's shrine
will be granted children, but at a terrible price. The first child will be
born microcephalic and must be given to the shrine,
or else any further children will have the same deformity. Hussain said
Nadia was just a young child when she was dumped at the shrine 20 years ago
in the dead of the night. Her parents were never traced, he says. "Some of these children, the
handicapped ones especially, are accompanied by relatives," he told AFP.
"But begging gangs also look for poor parents who will sell them because
they are a burden to feed and shelter."
Sohail said his department had busted more
than 30 gangs across the province involved in exploiting street children, some of which had broken the limbs of children
so that they would earn more as beggars. - htsc HRCP terms 2007 ‘multi-crisis year’ Daily Times, www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\03\30\story_30-3-2008_pg7_36 [accessed 15 December 2010] HRCP Director IA Rehman told reporters at the launch of the organisation’s annual report – ‘State of Human Rights in
2007’ – at the Lahore Press Club that many reports had been received from
various parts of Balochistan in 2007, claiming that
parents or children had been left with no option but to sell their kidneys in
order to feed their families, due to the ongoing crisis of armed conflict
there. Organ trafficking: a fast-expanding black market ISH Janes, 05 March 2008 www.janes.com/news/publicsafety/jid/jid080305_1_n.shtml [accessed 15 December 2010] UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportID=76109 [accessed 10 September 2011] While boys in impoverished parts
of rural Pakistan, particularly towns in the southern Punjab, are more likely
to be trafficked overseas, girls are trafficked more often within the
country, and sometimes sold into what amounts to little more than sexual
slavery, says the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). HRCP has reported that in most
cases, they are given away for amounts of money ranging from US$1,300 to
$5,000 by impoverished parents, sometimes in "marriage"; and
sometimes to agents who promise lucrative jobs as domestic servants in large
cities. Many of these girls, according to
child rights groups, end up as sex workers. Some are no older than 10 at the
time of the "sale". "Hundreds of girls are
trafficked within the country each year. There are markets in the North West
Frontier Province where these victims are sold like cattle," I.A. Rehman, director of the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan, said. - htcp Woman jailed for forcing child into sex trade Independent Online (IOL) News, www.iol.co.za/news/world/woman-jailed-for-forcing-child-into-sex-trade-1.226224 [accessed 15 December 2010] Last week a non-governmental organisation said there was a growing trend in the abduction and sale of Tajik boys for sexual exploitation abroad. The Modar organisation said groups in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan and other countries were prepared to pay as much as $70 000 for a Tajik boy between the ages of 10 and 12. International day to eliminate violence against women on
25th Nadia Usman, Daily Times, www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\11\24\story_24-11-2007_pg7_49 [accessed 15 December 2010] According to the data compiled by Madadgaar Helpline, 4,624 women were victimised
in SPARC condemns human trafficking The News, At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] Some tribal elders from Balochistan also attended the meeting in which the girl’s
family was told to give her as per their customs. This trading, which in many
cases is done under the name of loan settling, is contingent upon the power,
might and money of the lenders, who provide loans to the needy and later
impose heavy interest in order to get away with their innocent minor
daughters. “Child trafficking can be facilitated by local practices and
customs because of the economic problems a family faces that forces them to
sell their daughters to marriage. Horrific fate awaits children spurned by society Aroosa Masroor
Khan, The News, At one time this article had been archived and may possibly
still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] “Saddar is the hub
of street children from all areas of Govt committed to eliminate problems
of human trafficking: Shaukat Aziz The News, At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] The Prime Minister was informed
that there has been a significant increase in the arrest of human traffickers
and smugglers. Whereas only 300 human smugglers were arrested in 2004. The number of arrested smugglers increased
to 874 in 2006 while the number of deportees has been decreased. UN report regarding Pak Tribune, [accessed 15 December 2010] Meanwhile, Federal Health Minister
Nasser Khan told Upper House a particular lobby is working against Pak one of the key sources of women trafficking in world: UN
report Bureau Report, Zee News, September 12, 2006 www.zeenews.com/news322023.html [accessed 15 December 2010] A UN report has described Pakistani minister for community involvement in
eliminating human trafficking Xinhua News Agency, June 20 2006 english.people.com.cn/200606/20/eng20060620_275489.html [accessed 15 December 2010] Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao on
Monday stressed the need for involvement of the whole community in the
efforts to eliminate human trafficking.
"We believe that most effective way of eliminating human
trafficking is by empowering people at risk," he said, adding that
"empowerment of people is possible through education, employment and
provision of security," Crackdown on human trafficking At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] Human trafficking allegations involve Swiss diplomatic
missions in Pakistan Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC News, May 19, 2006 www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/05/19/swiss05192006.html [accessed 15 December 2010] Switzerland shut the visa section
at its Islamabad embassy earlier this month, following a Pakistani
investigation into the illegal issuing of Swiss visas that has led to a
number of arrests. Swiss Envoys in IdslamOnline.net, slashnews.co.uk/news/2006/05/09/3551/Swiss-Envoys-in-Pakistan-Embroiled-in-Human-Trafficking [accessed 15 December 2010] The issue came to the surface
after local media started highlighting the plight of Pakistani visa
applicants who complained of sexual harassment by Swiss embassy officials. FIA has curbed human trafficking Javed Afridi,
Daily Times, www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\05\07\story_7-5-2006_pg7_21 [accessed 15 December 2010] The Federal Investigation Agency’s
(FIA) work over the last year and a half has brought down human trafficking
by “200 percent” over the period, Sherpao told
reporters at Indo-Pak girls forced into prostitution Hindustan Times, Asian News International, fleshploitation.blogspot.com/2006/02/young-indo-pak-girls-sold-into-mid.html [accessed 15 December 2010] In a startling case of organised women trafficking that has come to light,
Pakistani and Indian girls aged between 11 and 13 are being smuggled to the Quake Orphans Being Sold into Prostitution The Australian News, 10/30/2005 www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=50943 [accessed 15 December 2010] Aisha loves the clothes her new
guardian has bought for her, what she doesn't realize is this woman just bought
her for $1500 and intends to make her into a prostitute. Other children in
the area are being bought up by pimps who will pay twice that. Slavery Survives, Despite Universal Abolition Ron Synovitz, Radio Free
Europe/Radio www.rferl.org/content/article/1060833.html [accessed 15 December 2010] Nadeem has spent most of his life
hunched over a carpet loom in US Report Lauds Pak Steps Against Human Trafficking At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] The US State Department has
praised Girls In At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 10 September 2011] At least 54 Iranian girls and
young women, between the ages of 16 and 25, are sold on the streets of Forced Marriage - Pakistanis Order Betrothal of 2-Year-Old Khalid Tanveer,
Associated Press AP, engforum.pravda.ru/showthread.php?118957-Pakistanis-Order-Betrothal-of-2-Year-Old [accessed 15 December 2010] A tribal council in In 2002,
another village council near Man Sells Two Minor Daughters The Dawn Media Group, Sukkur,
Aug 25, 2004 archives.dawn.com/2004/08/25/local43.htm [accessed 10 September 2011] A man
allegedly sold his two minor daughters in the Allah Warrayo
Mallah village, near Bozdar
Wada, Khairpur, on Tuesday morning. Seven-year-old Fauzia and five-year-old Aasia
were sold by their father , Lal
Bux alias Laloo Shaikh, for Rs80,000 and an acre of agricultural land. She said
their father without their consent had engaged them to Sikiladho
and Allah Warrayo, both sons of Sono
Pasayo. She said when they resisted this decision, their father started beating them after which
she came to the house of her uncle. Judge Orders Inquiry Into Qurban Ali Khushik,
Dadu, April 6, 2004 [accessed 15 December 2010] A judge
directed police to conduct an inquiry into the sale of a seven-year-old girl
to a 35-year-old man for marriage. His
wife complained that he had sold the girl for Rs18,000 to a resident of Mazdoorabad Mohalla in Dadu for marriage but the girl managed to escape. Girl Rescued From Gamblers The Dawn Media Group, Okara, Jul
21, 2004 archives.dawn.com/2004/07/21/local34.htm [accessed 10 September 2011] Reports
said Allah Ditta of 20/GD lost Rs160,000 in gambling a month ago. After
some time when Allah Ditta could not pay the
amount, the winners sought custody of his daughter Child camel jockeys find hope Lucy Williamson, BBC News, newswww.bbc.net.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4236123.stm [accessed 15 December 2010] Children from Pakistan, Bangladesh
and Sudan are still being smuggled to the United Arab Emirates to work as
camel jockeys, despite a law passed two years ago banning their use. It is not uncommon for child jockeys to
fall off and be injured while racing, and their illegal status means race
track owners are often reluctant to take them to hospital. Instead, says Ansar
Burney, the boys often arrive with broken hands or broken legs. And many, he
says, have been sodomized. Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 4 Civil Liberties: 5 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=363&year=2009&country=7678 [accessed 15 December 2010] Human Rights Overview Human Rights Watch [accessed 15 December 2010] Library of Congress Call Number DS376.9 .P376 1995 lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/pktoc.html [accessed 15 December 2010] Andrew Bushell, www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/top/features/documents/02161800.htm [accessed 15 December 2010] Servitude exists in many forms in www.paralumun.com/issuespak.htm [access date unavailable] Women are being sold like animals
in Pakistani markets. The trade is
being encouraged by corrupt officials and politicians in the Sindh province of the country. Anti human practices are taking place in
markets of Thar and other parts of Sindh under protection of influential politicians. The buyers of these unfortunate women fix
their prices after examining and scanning their bodies. They humiliate and sexually harass these
women in public. Slavery in the 21st century Alan McCombes, Scottish
Socialist Voice, November 2001 www.scottishsocialistvoice.net/2001/12/slavery-in-the-21st-century/959 [accessed 21 December 2011] Bonded labour otherwise known as
debt slavery is rampant in In return for the loan, the entire
family is turned into the private property of the employer. They are forced
to work long hours for pitiful wage and half of these wages are kept by the
factory owner as payment towards the loan.
The loan may take a generation or more to pay off. But until it is
paid, the family are held in slavery. Iqbal had been sold by his mother to a
carpet manufacturer at the age of four. For years he spent twelve hours a
day, seven days a week working in carpet factories for a pittance. He eventually rebelled against his
conditions and became a major figure in the BLLF. At the age of 12 he was
traveling Pakistan addressing mass meetings and leading demos of thousands of
children against industrial slavery.
To this day, his murder has never been satisfactorily explained. Modern Day Slavery Fact Sheet Meg, Anti-Slavery, Sep 29, 2004 antislavery.multiply.com/journal/item/1 [accessed 15 December 2010] The most common form of slavery is
debt bondage, in which a human being becomes collateral against a loan. With
a massive population boom in regions of staggering poverty, some families
have nothing to pledge for a loan but their own labor. With inflated interest
rates, debts are often inherited, ensnaring generations. 15 to 20 million
slaves are in debt bondage in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Facts & Figures A Rapid Assessment of Bonded Labour in the Carpet Industry
of At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 10 September 2011] PAKISTAN - • Young children whose parents
take money in advance for their work on carpet looms are victims of the “peshgi” or debt-bondage system in Pakistan. They are paid
half the wages of older workers and are not allowed to leave the premises
until the debt is fully paid. Older workers sexually abuse these
children. (A Rapid Assessment of
Bonded Labour in the Carpet Industry of Pakistan, International Labour
Office, March 2004). Nike Shoes and Child Labor in TED Case Studies www1.american.edu/TED/nike.htm [accessed 15 December 2010] NIKE AS A HELPER OR EXPLOITER TO
IIIRD WORLD - A
columnist 'Stephen Chapman' from Libertarian
newspaper argues that "But why is it unconscionable for a poor country
to allow child labor? Pakistan has a per-capita income of $1,900 per year -
meaning that the typical person subsists on barely $5 per day. Is it a a revelation - or a crime - that some parents willingly
send their children off to work in a factory to survive? Is it cruel for Nike
to give them the chance?" (source:
http://www.raincity.com/~williamf/words96.html) Stephen argues that the best way
to end child-labor is to buy more of the products that children produce. This
would increase their demand, and as they will produce more, they will earn
more, hence giving themselves chane to rise above
poverty level and thus also benefiting the families of the children and as
well as the nation. However, the issue is not that
simple. Increasing the demand of the products produced by child labor means
encouraging more child labor, encouraging more birth rates, more slavery,
increasing sweatshops and discouraging education - as parents of the children
working in factories would want them to work more and earn more. If this
happened to be the case, then more and more children will be bought and sold
on the black market, leading no end to this problem. By encouraging more
child labor, you are not only taking away those innocent years from them but
also the right to be educated and the right to be free. Saudi Religious Leader Calls for Slavery's Legalization Daniel Pipes, Lion's Den (Daniel Pipes Blog),
November 7, 2003 www.danielpipes.org/blog/2003/11/saudi-religious-leader-calls-for-slaverys [accessed 15 December 2010] Muslims, in contrast, still think the old way. Slavery still exists in a host of majority-Muslim countries (especially Sudan and Mauritania, also Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) and it is a taboo subject. To enable pious Muslims to avoid interest, an Islamic financial industry worth an estimated $150 billion has developed. The challenge ahead is clear:
Muslims must emulate their fellow monotheists by modernizing their religion
with regard to slavery, interest and much else. No more fighting jihad to
impose Muslim rule. No more endorsement of suicide terrorism. No more
second-class citizenship for non-Muslims. In Owais Tohid, www.csmonitor.com/2003/1215/p08s01-wosc.html [accessed 15 December 2010] "Once the hari
[peasant] is caught in debt then he and his family becomes virtual prisoners
of the feudal lord," says Nasreen Pathan with Pakistan-based Human Rights Commission.
"Peasants are illiterate and cannot keep account, and the interest on
the loan increases on the whims and wishes of feudal lords and their
men." People are either born into
bondage, sold into it by family members, or enter through loans they cannot
repay. "I was born on the fields,
married there, but did not want to die there," says Sanwal
Kohli, who was released three years ago by the
human rights activists during a police-led raid. Showing scars on his back
and legs, he says, "They used to beat us up for slightest mistakes and
kept us chained at nights. Armed men guarded the fields so nobody would run
away." Killing for carpets -- slavery and death in www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Life_Death_ThirdWorld/Carpets.html [accessed 15 December 2010] "Oriental" carpets are
valued throughout the world. They are found in the homes of the well-to-do,
on the floors of corporate boardrooms, and in marbled palaces of sheiks and
kings. They come from Asia and the Middle East -- Iran, Kashmir, China, and
the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union. They are also made in
Pakistan, in factories in which children as young as four years of age, often
chained to their looms, squat shoulders hunched, for 14 hours a day, six days
a week, making beautifully intricate carpets by tying thousands of knots with
fingers gnarled and callused from years of back-breaking labor. In Pakistan, between 500,000 and 1,000,000
children between the ages of four and fourteen work full-time as carpet
weavers. Stop Child Slave Auctions in Andrew Bushell, " At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] [scroll down to BACKGROUND
INFORMATION] As the war in They are then sold again in
bustling slave auctions to the highest bidder. The boys are used as domestic
or manual laborers; some are shipped to the Persian Gulf, where they are used
as camel jockeys. The price for the girls is euphemized as a dowry. But they
never marry; instead, the girls are used for sex - in a brothel, as a
concubine, or in a harem. Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation - Coalition Against Trafficking in Women www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/pakistan.htm [accessed 15 December 2010] Auctions of girls are arranged for
three kinds of buyers: rich visiting Arabs (sheiks, businessmen, visitors,
state-financed medical and university students), the rich local gentry, and
rural farmers. (CATW - Asia Pacific "Trafficking in Women and
Prostitution in the Asia Pacific". The Enslavement of Dalit and
Indigenous Communities in UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human
Rights, February 2001 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] SUMMARY: This paper describes the gross
and continuing violation of the rights of millions of people in Modern Slavery - Human bondage in Africa, Asia, and the
Dominican Republic Ricco Villanueva Siasoco,
infoplease, April 18, 2001 www.infoplease.com/spot/slavery1.html [accessed 15 December 2010] SHACKLED LABORERS IN In a 1992 law passed by the
Pakistani government, landlords are barred from offering loans in exchange
for work or to hold workers hostage to their debts. The Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan has freed approximately 7,500 bonded laborers since
1995. By the commission's estimates,
there are still roughly 50,000 bonded laborers in southern Singh. Many of
those freed now reside in the city of Hyderabad in makeshift camps. Most are
afraid to return to their homeland, however, for fear they will be recaptured
and enslaved again. Bonded Child Labour in Child Workers in At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] Sakina* is 12 years old and works with
her family as a bonded labourer for a landlord in Umerkot district in I pluck
cotton and chillies, harvest wheat and other crops
and do whatever is asked by the landlord...They beat me and keep us hungry.
They say they will not give us food if we do not work... I can't leave or my
parents will be beaten and where will I go?" The New Slavery: An Interview with Kevin Bales The Sun, October 2001 news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=02/04/25/4221208 [accessed 15 December 2010] Bales: Debt
bondage is the most common form of slavery in the world today, particularly
in Jensen: So
if you’re a debt-bonded slave, you’re not working to pay back the loan? Bales: No,
because you and all of your labor have become collateral. The money to pay
back the loan has to come from somewhere else. That’s the way it is with most
debt bondage. In some debt bondage, the work is supposedly paying back what’s
been borrowed, but in reality it’s almost impossible to pay back the debt.
I’ve met families in India who’ve been bonded for four generations on one
debt: Great-grandfather borrowed thirty dollars, and Great-grandson is still
working to pay it off. In a sense, this resembles chattel slavery, because
it’s passed down through generations, except the rationale for the slavery is
the debt. Modern Day Slavery Around The World home.earthlink.net/~ynot/slave1.html [accessed 15 December 2010] Slavery takes different forms in
different lands. In Pakistan and India there is debt bondage. Poor people are
tricked with promises of good jobs, but they are isolated and must deal with
their employer in every way. The food they buy and other required things are
sold only by their employers, with very high prices. The workers are forced
to stay and work until the debt is paid off. But the deck is stacked so the
debt keeps getting bigger. The "employee" is a slave for life. And, even beyond life. The
children are kept working until the debt is paid, which never happens.
Generations are forced to work without ever seeing a day of freedom. Like other slaveries, force is used to keep
the worker in his place. Beatings, threats and killings are commonplace. Bonded Labour in United Nations Economic and Social Council Commission on
Human Rights, Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and protection
of Minorities, Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10 September 2011] However, in 1999 we are obliged to
conclude that, despite temporary progress following the Supreme Court's
judgment, debt bondage remains both widespread and virtually unchallenged by
the Government of Pakistan. Indeed, it is both remarkable and tragic how
little government officials have been willing to do to enforce the country's
laws and to bring an end to debt bondage, and how willingly they appear to
tolerate its persistence. Third Anniversary of the Murder of Iqbal
Masih, Pakistani Child Activist (1983-1995) Child Labor Coalition, killarneyaboutchildlabour.blogspot.com/2008/11/americans-honor-iqbal-masih.html [accessed 28 August 2011] Iqbal Masih made a difference. His was the voice of a child pointing out to adults the horrible costs and injustices of child slavery. Twelve years old and one of the mightiest voices in Pakistan against child labor, Iqbal was a compelling survivor of slavery in Pakistan's carpet industry. For half of his life, Iqbal was bonded in the hand-knotted carpet industry.
Enslaved at the age of four, for an advance of less than $16 to his parents,
he was chained to his loom, tying tiny knots for twelve hours a day, every
day. Six years later, when he confronted his boss demanding his freedom, the
debt he owed had risen to $419. Contemporary Forms of Slavery in Human Rights Watch/Asia, Library of Congress Catalog Card
Number: 95-77876, ISBN 1-56432-154-1, July 1995 www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1995/Pakistan.htm [accessed 15 December 2010] SUMMARY - Millions of workers in Child Labour Persists Around The World: More Than 13
Percent Of Children 10-14 Are Employed International Labour Organisation (ILO) News, www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/news/WCMS_008058/lang--en/index.htm [accessed 9 September 2011] "Today's child worker will be
tomorrow's uneducated and untrained adult, forever trapped in grinding
poverty. No effort should be spared to break that vicious circle", says
ILO Director-General Michel Hansenne. Among the countries with a high
percentage of their children from 10-14 years in the work force are: Mali,
54.5 percent; Burkina Faso, 51; Niger and Uganda, both 45; Kenya, 41.3;
Senegal, 31.4; Bangladesh, 30.1; Nigeria, 25.8; Haiti, 25; Turkey, 24; Côte
d'Ivoire, 20.5; Pakistan, 17.7;
Brazil, 16.1; India, 14.4; China, 11.6; and Egypt, 11.2. 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 [Pakistan Street Children in [Pakistan] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Pakistan] [other countries]