Resources for Teachers – Background -
Human Trafficking, including modern day slavery, contemporary slavery, debt bondage,
serfdom, forced labor, forced marriage, transferring of wives, inheritance of wives, and transfer of a child for purposes of
exploitation. Also forced prostitution,
child prostitution, sale of children, and trafficking in children.
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Human Trafficking
& Modern-day Slavery Resources for Teachers |
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Background
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information that is unsubstantiated or even false. Their authenticity has not been verified
and their content has not been validated. Unbearable
to the human heart Trafficking in children and action to combat it [DOC] ROOT
CAUSES OF CHILD TRAFFICKING - There are many reasons why child trafficking occurs,
but it is overwhelmingly a demand-driven phenomenon. It occurs first and foremost because there
is a market for children in labour and in the sex trade, and this is matched
by an abundant supply of children, most often from poor families, who are
easy prey for those who seek to make a profit by exploiting their
vulnerability. Complementing the forces of supply
and demand that underlie trafficking are the infrastructure and trends
associated with a rapidly globalizing world: increasingly open borders,
better transport, and increased overall migration flows. Globalization has provided impetus to both
those who wish to migrate and those who traffic the unwilling. In 2000, the
United Nations estimated that almost 13 million people, or 2 per cent of the
world population, are on the move at any given time. Human Rights
Watch’s Statement to the IOM Council A RIGHTS-BASED APPROACH TO MANAGING
MIGRATION - Contrary
to popular belief, human trafficking should not be understood necessarily or
exclusively as an underground phenomenon run by criminal syndicates. Instead,
trafficking often results from inadequate or faulty government policies that
place certain groups of migrants and workers at greater risk of abuse and
with little hope for redress. Anti-trafficking efforts must target and reform
these policies. For example, poor regulation and monitoring of recruitment
agents leads many migrants to become heavily indebted or deceived about
working conditions. Sponsorship visas in the Middle East and Asia tie workers
to their employers making it difficult for them to change employment in cases
of abuse. And certain categories of work in which migrants are concentrated,
such as domestic work and agriculture, are excluded from key labor
protections. Protecting
the Innocent: Reducing Vulnerability to Human Trafficking in West and Central
Africa INNOCENCE
LOST - Human
trafficking is a global problem. But Western Africa is particularly hard hit. q
Children - drugged, coerced, and forced to carry guns almost as big as
themselves - become killers, child soldiers on the frontlines of savage
conflicts (for example in Congo, Liberia, or Sierra Leone); q
Boys, with stones tied around their ankles, are forced to dive into
dangerous waters to untangle nets (like on Lake Volta); q
Girls, caught up in conflict, are forced into sex slavery; q
Children, who should be at school, are working long hours in coco
fields or in mines (even here in Cote d’Ivoire) doing back-breaking work for
almost nothing. This has an impact far beyond the
trauma suffered by these children. For how can West Africa build a peaceful
and prosperous future if its youth is being exploited, recycled, and scarred
for life? Literary
Happenings: Book details human trafficking in world "Not for Sale: The Return of the
Global Slave Trade — and How We Can Fight It" by award-winning
journalist David Batstone (HarperCollins; $15). Filled with victims' stories,
reformers' struggles, political trends and opportunities for individual
involvement, "Not for Sale" is a literary spark capable of igniting
real change in the fight against human trafficking. Fascinating, well-written
and readable, the book also includes an extensive list of Web sites,
resources and organizations that are making a difference. [fliers] MODERN-DAY
SLAVERY - Important Information About Trafficking in Persons [PDF] -MODERN-DAY SLAVERY - Important Information About
Trafficking in Persons -MODERN-DAY SLAVERY - Important Information for
College Students about Human Trafficking -[poster]
SAY NO TO SLAVERY - FORCED LABOR IS ILLEGAL -HIGHLIGHTS OF THE U.S.
ANTI-TRAFFICKING LAW:
THE VICTIMS OF
TRAFFICKING AND VIOLENCE PROTECTION ACT OF 2000 Who's afraid
of ... human trafficking? Nathalie Rothschild says the
promiscuous use of the term ‘trafficking’ to describe migration across
borders is leading to new and stringent restrictions on free movement around
the world. Task
Force Battles Human Trafficking It's important to establish
the difference between human smuggling and human trafficking. Smuggling
is when people pay to be taken across the border illegally. Trafficking, on
the other hand, goes a lot further. In many cases, victims of human
trafficking are detained against their will and forced into slave labor. "Once the victims arrive in
the United States, the traffickers then tell them, 'You know what? You're not
free to leave. You owe me five, ten... In some cases we've heard 20-thousand
dollars for taking care of your travel to the United States. Now you're going
to work it off.' " Paul Pinon heads the El Paso Police Department's
Human Trafficking Task Force. Most people think of slavery as a purely
historical phenomenon. In fact, the practice thrives around the world today.
The same factors that contribute to economic globalization have given rise to
a booming international traffic in human beings, often with the connivance of
national governments. Fighting this scourge successfully will take more than
another UN treaty: Western nations must use their military might. Global
solution needed to eradicate human trafficking, says expert Heyzer traced the dramatic growth
in migration and trafficking flows to so-called “push and pull” factors. Push
factors would include uneven economic growth, war and armed conflict, natural
disasters, high levels of gender inequality, and family violence. Prosperity
and stability in medium and high growth countries and regions act as pull
factors creating increased demand for imported labor in what Heyzer termed as
the “global workplace.” Migrant workers are cast under two
categories: highly skilled professionals demanded by the new global economy
and technologies; and the much larger group composed of semi-skilled and
unskilled workers willing to take low wages, insecurity and dangerous work,
said Heyzer. ILO
estimates 218m child labourers in world “Unfortunately, most of the
national actors where the problem of bonded labour prevails have neither the
technical capacity nor the political will to effectively address a problem of
such a magnitude. Governments must focus on children in bondage,” stated
SPARC National Manager-Promotion Fazila Gulrez. She said there were three types of
bonded labourers, adding, “The first is when a child inherits a debt carried
by his/her parents. Another form of bonded labour occurs when a child is used
as collateral for a loan. Finally, a child worker may enter into bondage when
the parents request an advance on future wages they expect to earn.” A
Report on Debt Bondage, Carpet-Making, and Child Slavery OVERVIEW - In Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy, Dr. Kevin
Bales estimates that there are at least 27 million slaves in the world today
– more than at any other time in human history. Slavery is on the rise around
the world for the simple reason that unpaid, forced labor constitutes an
excellent (though brutal) means to economic profit. For callous businessmen,
slaves are disposable people who toil to meet the global market’s demand for
goods. The lower a good’s production costs, the more competitive it will be
on the global market. Sex
Trafficking Victims: Disposable or Human There are those who would argue
that human trafficking is the inevitable outcome of poverty and that some
poverty-stricken people choose willingly to be involved. But, as Ambassador
Lagon pointed out, “There is a growing refusal to accept enslavement as an
inevitable product of poverty or human viciousness. Corruption is typically
poverty’s handmaiden in cases of human trafficking.” Russian
Mob and Human Trafficking From Himalayan villages to Eastern
European cities, people -- especially women and girls -- are attracted by the
prospect of a well-paid job as a domestic servant, waitress or factory
worker. Human traffickers recruit victims through fake advertisements,
mail-order bride catalogues and casual acquaintances. Upon arrival at their
destination, victims are placed in conditions controlled by traffickers while
they are exploited to earn illicit revenues. Many are physically confined,
their travel or identity documents are taken away and they or their families
are threatened if they do not cooperate. Women and girls forced to work as
prostitutes are blackmailed by the threat that traffickers will tell their
families. Trafficked children are dependent on their traffickers for food,
shelter and other basic necessities. Traffickers also play on victims’ fears
that authorities in a strange country will prosecute or deport them if they
ask for help. A major purveyor of these de facto slaves is the Russian
organized crime syndicate. Brutal, cunning and ruthless, these 21st Century
mobsters present a new threat to US national security. Slavery:
A Worldwide Evil - From India to Indiana, more people are enslaved today than ever before In 1993, Abdul Momen traveled to
the town of Tungipara, 25 miles from Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, where 1,000
children, mostly girls, were reported missing. A dozen mothers told him the
same tale: Their children had left with labor contractors who promised good
jobs in the Persian Gulf. HumanTrafficking.com has just
released one of the largest online collections of survivor testimonies, with
over 90 testimonies from around the world. Browse the testimonies
organized by country and by type of trafficking How does a person become enslaved?
How are slaves treated? What is the mental toll of slavery? How do slaves
become free? MODERN-DAY SLAVERY - The most common stories are of
young women and girls who are lured from poverty-stricken places with
promises of work as servants or nannies, only to find themselves turned into
shut-in sex slaves in alien countries where, even if they do escape, the
authorities are often inaccessible to them. There are also men and boys,
offered well-paying labor in faraway locations, only to be told when they
arrive that they must work off the (previously unmentioned) costs of their
transportation, and that their passports, wages, and freedom will be withheld
until they do. Different
forms of human slavery Despite centuries of struggle, slavery
has not been eradicated from our world. Slavery is readily found on the farms
of India, the heritable debt-bondage brick making kilns of Pakistan, and the
cocoa plantations of Cote d'Ivoire. Slavery thrives in the rug loom
sheds of Nepal; the sex-slavery brothels of Manila, Thailand, Japan and the
U.S.; the water-carrier chattel in Mauritania; the charcoal-making camps of
Brazil; child prostitution in Ecuador; and child camel-jockey riding for the
wealthy Sheikhs in United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. Migrant trafficking exists for
sexual labor throughout visa-free Canadian borders and into the U.S.A.
Slavery exists in the garment manufacturing sweatshops of Los Angeles and New
York, in the numerous sex clubs of St. Paul and Minneapolis, or domestic
servitude in the wealthiest homes in Paris, London, Los Angeles and
Washington, D.C., just to name a few. MORE SLAVES NOW THAN EVER - Today, 21st century slavery has
changed a little from Solzhenitsyn's 1974 portrayal. The numbers and profits
have increased, as well as the clandestine methods of human
trafficking--moving victims from one location to another and still to
another. According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI], human
trafficking alone generates a staggering $9.5 billion in yearly revenues
worldwide. The International Labour Office [ILO] estimates that figure to be
$32 billion each year. Moreover, there are more slaves today than any other
time in human history. Worldwide estimates are that 27 million men, women,
and children, even babies, are in slavery today, at any given time, a number
much greater than any other period in recorded history and exponentially
growing. Part 2: ENSLAVED AND FORGOTTEN - Many believe that the future is
bright for our children. And yet, many children of this world are enslaved,
trafficked, and forgotten. Here is the tragic reality of the loss of
innocence. Vigilance
Needed in Fight Against Human Trafficking All of the media stories depict
sex trafficking. Sex trafficking, however, is only one of the many types of
human trafficking that violates a person's rights, safety, and dignity. Human
trafficking also refers to the ways people are recruited and then forced into
labor such as factory work, agricultural work, domestic servitude, restaurant
work, and servile marriage. ILO
releases major new study on forced labor The report is the most
comprehensive analysis ever undertaken by an intergovernmental organization
of the facts and underlying causes of contemporary forced labor. It was
prepared under the Follow Up to the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and
Rights at Work adopted by the ILO in 1998 and will be discussed at the
Organization's annual International Labor Conference in June. The new study confirms that forced
labor is a major global problem that is present in all regions and in all
types of economy. Of the overall total, some 9.5 million forced laborers are
in Asia, which is the region with the highest number; 1.3 million in Latin
America and the Caribbean; 660,000 in sub-Saharan Africa; 260,000 in the
Middle East and North Africa; 360,000 in industrialized countries; and
210,000 in transition countries. TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN
FOR SEXUAL EXPLOITATION IN THE AMERICAS
An Introduction to Trafficking in the Americas - written by Alison Phinney, Intern at the
Inter-American Commission of Women of the Organization of American
States and the Women, Health and Development Program of the Pan American
Health Organization 2001 Trafficking
in Persons: the New Protocol Every year hundreds of thousands
of men, women and children are trafficked illegally all over the world. Most
of us assume that these people are willing participants in a criminal
transaction. We believe that they are simply looking for an escape from
poverty. Rarely do we pause to think about the specific problems they
encounter when they are being smuggled or what happens to them afterwards.
The reality reflects a very different picture After
Palermo - what the Convention and Protocols Hope to Accomplish As trafficking in persons,
especially women and children for forced labor or "sex slavery",
becomes increasingly linked to transnational organized crime, Governments
have decided that a separate legal instrument -a Protocol against Trafficking
in Persons, especially Women and Children- is needed to fight it U.N.
anti-trafficking drive hits culture barriers Global efforts to crack down on
human trafficking are handicapped by lack of information from countries whose
cultures have not deemed some forms of slavery to be a crime, U.N. officials
said on Monday. The United Nations is
trying to raise awareness that two centuries after the transatlantic slave
trade was abolished, millions of adults and children are sold into
prostitution or made to work in degrading conditions for little or no pay. Costa told a news briefing during
a break in the meeting: "When families (in Asian villages) sell their
daughter, it's not out of poverty necessarily, it may be cultural." A diplomat close to the UNODC said
its campaign was running up against cultural traditions in some significant
developing nations that tolerated human trafficking and related slave labour
outlawed by U.N. conventions. Trafficking
In Women and Children ACTS OF
TRAFFICKING - The
following are deemed acts of trafficking committed either by a person or an
entity when done for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual
exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage:
(a) to recruit, transport, transfer, harbor, provide or receive a person on
the pretext of domestic or overseas employment, training or apprenticeship;
(b) introduce or match for a consideration any Filipino woman to a foreign
national for marriage for the purpose of trading her for prostitution; (c)
offer or contract marriage; (d) undertake or organize tours and travel plans;
(e) maintain or hire a person; and, (f) adopt or facilitate adoption. Any undue recruitment, hiring, adoption,
and movement of persons and children for removal or sale of organs or for the
children to engage in armed activities in the Philippines or abroad are also
considered acts of trafficking. The child sex trade, like all
trades, exists not because there is poverty but because there is demand and
supply The
Link Between Prostitution and Sex Trafficking Prostitution and related
activities—including pimping and patronizing or maintaining brothels—fuel the
growth of modern-day slavery by providing a façade behind which traffickers
for sexual exploitation operate Trafficking:
A Threat to Women Worldwide “Trafficking.” It’s a bland
euphemism for a despicable crime committed primarily against women and
children. It involves the theft and sale of human beings into lives of
bondage, sexual abuse or both. Trafficking
and the Commodification of Women and Children by Richard Poulin, professor,
Ottawa University. This article
examines industrialization of the sex trade and the mass production of sexual
goods and services structured around a regional and international division of
labor which has resulted in the commodification of women and children Stolen
Lives: Trafficking of women Gathering for what moderator
Swanee Hunt, director of the Women and Public Policy Program, called a
"grim subject," a group of experts met in the Kennedy School Forum
to talk about the trafficking of women and girls worldwide and what, if
anything, can be done to stop it Ten
Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution by
Janice G. Raymond. As countries are considering
legalizing and decriminalizing the sex industry, this article urges you to
consider the ways in which legitimating prostitution as "work" does
not empower the women in prostitution but does everything to strengthen the
sex industry Prostitution:
Reality Versus Myth There are many myths about
prostitution _ that women become rich from prostitution; that women
prostitute themselves to support expensive habits; that it is a job like any
other; that it could even be a harmless, part time job for college girls
wanting to earn tuition; or that women do it because they like it. These myths could not be further from the
violent reality of prostitution In 2003, an estimated 500,000
children under eighteen years of age served in the government armed forces,
paramilitary forces, civil militia, and armed groups of more than eighty-five
nations, and another 300,000 children were active in armed combat in more
than thirty countries. Some of the children were as young as seven years of
age History
Of Modern Slavery--Slavery Still Exists! by Komlan Johnson. This story is to prove that Slavery Still
Exists in the 21st Century Millions
'forced into slavery' Between 5,000 and 14,000 people
are said by the group to have been abducted into forced labour in Sudan since 1983. There are also problems of forced labour in
Mauritania where, the London-based
rights group says, little has been done to secure the release of slaves or
punish those who use them despite the abolition of slavery in 1981. In Brazil,
the report says, more than 1,000 people were rescued from forced labour last
year, but many more remain enslaved on Amazonian estates. The report says that in Pakistan, particularly in Sindh
province, many women, children and men are forced to accept landlords' cash
advances and work all day long for no wages.
Many of those who are forcibly employed across the world are children. Human trafficking
from Iran to Gulf Shiekhdoms Shargh daily, May 26 – A group of
Iranian boys and girls will be sold in an auction today in Fojeyreh, United
Arab Emirates Dispatches from the World of Human
Trafficking by Jennifer Goodson Labor
Rules Don't Ease Burden in Bangladesh Under the association's program,
designed in 1995 at the urging of the United States, the apparel industry has
all but wiped out child labor. What's more, garment makers have sent nearly
10,000 children who once toiled in their factories to school, a considerable
accomplishment in a country in which 35 percent don't make it past primary
grades. But to many people here, the program doesn't feel like much of a
success How
can something so sweet taste so wrong? by Athena Sydney After reading this article, chocolate may
not taste so sweet – for the circumstances under which the cocoa laborers
work, are bittersweet to say the least, atrocious is the word that comes to
mind ANGOLA:
Children victims of witchcraft accusations In some areas of Angola the belief
in witchcraft is strong, and an accusation of sorcery can lead to violent and
sometimes lethal retribution by the community. Leonora,
“P” and the human traffickers On the other hand, “P”s older
brother is perceived as the personification of success despite the fact that
a whole dark world is hidden behind his external dignity. He was forced
into human trafficking during his tender years and later decided to become a
trafficker himself. He returned to the village to perform a most
valuable service for his ringleaders. He is now the local recruiter for
the new victims of the human trade, those that are needed to meet the growing
demand. "Modern
day slavery". Prostitution in Thailand To every one of us being a child
means playing, laughing, eating ice cream, being surrounded with loving and
caring parents. For children in Thailand however, this is just a mere image
of the impossible. Thousands of them are tricked, drugged and then sold or
abducted into prostitution The
Salvation Army's Fight Against Modern Day Slavery Human trafficking is an umbrella
term used to describe all forms of modern-day slavery. Yes, SLAVERY! No
longer is this a term from the past, but a horrific and growing reality in
our present and, unfortunately, our future. There are 27 million slaves in
the world today; amazingly, it is a number surpassing any this planet has
seen before. Victims are controlled through force, coercion, threats, or
manipulation; they are bought and sold; they are used; they are devastated
physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Many of these victims are women
and children Human
Trafficking for Forced Labor Might Exceed Perception Human trafficking for forced labor
might be a greater problem than the more widely known problem of trafficking
for sexual exploitation, says Kristiina Kangaspunta, the chief of the
Anti-Human Trafficking Unit for the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) “We don’t know that much about
forced labor issues,” she acknowledged in an April 26 interview with
USINFO. “We don’t know, but it seems that it might be that forced
labor is a bigger part of the human trafficking than human trafficking for
sexual exploitation.” She cited an enormous number of places that could
absorb the forced labor of men, women and children: restaurants,
hotels, bars, agriculture, domestic and construction work. Interpol
Official Discusses Human Trafficking, Internet Pornography Interview with Hamish McCulloch,
the assistant director of Interpol and the head of the agency's
human-trafficking sub-directorate. He also discusses the problems of both
trafficking and child pornography on the Internet Best
Practices to Address the Demand Side of Sex Trafficking [PDF] This report describes efforts to
address the demand side of sex trafficking. It defines the demand and
describes its different components. It describes laws, policies, and programs
aimed at reducing the demand for prostitution in communities and entire
countries. It includes a review of
research on men’s behavior and attitudes towards prostitution and
researchers’ analyses of men’s behavior and motives to purchase sex acts US
decries 'modern-day slavery' Victims worldwide "are
subjected to threats against their person and family, violence, horrific
living conditions and dangerous workplaces," the report says. They end up working as cheap labour, some
on construction sites, others in clothing factories and many in brothels. US Secretary of State Colin Powell
called the practice an "abomination against humanity" and said
Washington would work to put an end to it.
The report lists the root causes for trafficking as "greed, moral
turpitude, economics, political instability and transition and social
factors". |