Torture in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]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 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and Combat Trafficking in Persons, At one time this article had been archived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/news/article/Thai-families-partners-in-child-sex-trade-2877185.php [accessed 16 August 2012] 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 www2.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=9627 [accessed 28 August 2012] 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 Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking (COMMIT) opens [PDF] "The New Light of Myanmar",
Yangon, 27 Oct 2004 -- page 16 www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/NLM2004-10-28.pdf [accessed 18 February 2013] [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/report/freedom-world/2009/burma [accessed 26 June 2012] 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 groups.yahoo.com/group/freeburma9999/message/670 [accessed 19 April 2012] [scroll down] 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/news/article/Thai-families-partners-in-child-sex-trade-2877185.php [accessed 16 August 2012] 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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Torture in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Myanmar (Burma Street Children in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]