Human Trafficking in [Colombia Street Children in [Colombia] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Colombia] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early years of the 21st
Century - 2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Colombia.htm
Colombia is a major source country for women and girls
trafficked to Latin America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, Asia, and North
America, including the United States, for purposes of commercial sexual
exploitation and involuntary servitude. Within Colombia, some men are
trafficked for forced labor, but trafficking of women and children from rural
to urban areas for commercial sexual exploitation remains a larger
problem. - U.S. State Dept
Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 [full country report] CAUTION: The following links have been culled from the web to
illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Colombian Hailed as Hero in Fight Against Trafficking in
Persons Brian www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2004/June/20040616130952MBrepaK0.8762171.html
[accessed 30 January 2011] Francisco Sierra, Sierra said the women are told
they will find a better life by working in other countries such as Holland,
Japan, and Spain, but they most often find themselves trapped into working in
brothels to pay off their so-called "transportation" fees; such
fees may total as much as $50,000 to $80,000. Sierra said that the women are
expected to pay their captors roughly $2,000 every ten days or they will be
severely punished. 24 August 2006 -- Source:
www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BF048200B-8872-4382-9DA5-E794A6D11AE8%7D&language=EN [accessed 30 January 2011] U.N. Official Says Indigenous Face Extinction [Regarding
Conditions in Stacey Hunt, 2004 www.libertadlatina.org/Lat_Colombia_Indigenous_Face_Extiction_03-22-2004.htm [accessed 30 January 2011] Colombian indigenous communities
are in danger of extinction as paramilitaries and guerrillas target them for
massacre, torture, displacement, rape and forced recruitment, a U.N. official
said March 16. One group, the Kankuamos
of northern Colombia's Sierra Nevada Mountains, has lost more than 200
members to killings since 1986, said Stavenhagen, a
Mexican. Ten Kankuamos have been murdered since an
October demand by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights that the
Colombian government adopt measures to prevent the group's genocide, he
added. While indigenous peoples
constitute only 2 percent of Colombia's 44 million inhabitants, their
traditional territories cover 30 percent of the country.
Paramilitaries, guerrilla groups and government forces fight to control rural
land and people for a variety of reasons, including drug cultivation, forced
conscription and land grabs. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms
of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/colombia.htm [accessed 30 January 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61721.htm [accessed 30 January 2011] CHILDREN
– Although the law
prohibits service in the public security forces before age 18, both
paramilitaries and guerrillas forcibly recruited and used children as
soldiers. The IOM estimated that since 1999 it assisted 2,426 children in the
country who had been members of illegal armed groups. The Ministry of Defense
estimated that 20 percent of FARC members were minors and that most guerrilla
fighters had joined the FARC ranks as children. TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – Many
traffickers disclosed the sexual nature of the work they offered but concealed
information about working conditions, clientele, freedom of movement, and
compensation. Others disguised their intent by portraying themselves as
modeling agents, offering marriage brokerage services, or operating lottery
or bingo scams with free trips as prizes. Recruiters reportedly loitered
outside high schools, shopping malls, and parks to lure adolescents into
accepting nonexistent jobs abroad. Most traffickers were well-organized and
linked to narcotics or other criminal organizations. The armed conflict
created situations of vulnerability for a large number of internal
trafficking victims. Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 6 October 2000 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/colombia2000.html [accessed 30 January 2011] [69] While the Committee takes
note of the State party's efforts to combat the trafficking and sale of children,
it remains concerned about the lack of adequate preventive measures in this
area. RIGHTS-COLOMBIA: Trafficking Victims’ Ordeal Never Over Helda Martínez,
Inter Press Service News Agency IPS, Bogotá, Jun 10 , 2009 www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47163 [accessed 30 January 2011] According to the available data,
some 70,000 people fall victim to human trafficking every year in MARÍA AND HER NEVER-ENDING FEAR - But people do fall for the
bogus offers because they are in dire need of an opportunity for a better
life. That was what happened to María, a 40-year
old woman originally from the central province of Tolima,
who was living on the outskirts of Bogotá when she was captured by members of
a trafficking mafia. She admitted to
IPS that she’s still scared her captors will find her or come after her kids.
Her fear will not leave her, even though she knows she’s protected by Fundación Esperanza and that her case is being
prosecuted. "I wanted to go back to being me, but I can’t anymore,"
she said. She’s also filled with
rage. In November 2008 she and her family carefully examined the work
contract before she decided to accept a job as a domestic in the home of a
wealthy Colombian family in the United States. It provided at least a
short-term solution to the unemployment and lack of income that were causing
her such anxiety. In the 39 days she worked as a
modern-day slave, María’s weight plunged from 58 to
41 kilos, and she was forced to spend hours on her knees cleaning, constantly
watched and threatened, until she was collapsing from exhaustion. Worst of all, she was prevented from
contacting her family, María told IPS, speaking
very softly, as if trying to exorcise the horrible experience. A Salvadoran
woman working as a domestic in a neighbouring house
noticed María’s rapid weight loss and the
frightened look on her face, and decided to approach her when her captors
were not watching. The woman from El
Salvador told María that what her
"employers" were doing was illegal, explained how to unblock the
telephone, and gave her an emergency number to phone the police for
help. But the police merely forced
her captors to give back her passport and admonished them for how they were
treating her. That night, María’s kidnappers scared her with all sorts of threats
against her and her family back in Colombia. They warned her that if she
didn’t sign a paper exonerating them from all responsibility, they would
report her to the police and accuse her of several offences, and she would be
thrown in jail for years. 24 August 2006 -- Source: www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BF048200B-8872-4382-9DA5-E794A6D11AE8%7D&language=EN [accessed 30 January 2011] Human trafficking's dirty
profits and huge costs Inter-American Development Bank, Nov 2, 2006 www.iadb.org/news/detail.cfm?language=English&ARTID=3357&id=3357 [accessed 30 January 2011] CASES IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE
CARIBBEAN - In Report: Associated Press AP, www.japanaddicted.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1333 [accessed 30 January 2011] When she arrived she was raped by all three men and sold to a Yakuza organized crime boss, who branded her across the chest with a 6-inch (15-centimeter) rose tattoo. He forced her to provide sexual services to up to 40 clients a day, she said. The Protection Project - The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/colombia.doc [Last accessed 2009] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - As of November 2003, more than
70 Colombian women claiming to be victims of trafficking had sought refuge at
the Colombian embassy in Some 567,000 minors from 6 to 18
years of age work in Colombia, 323,000 of them in the domestic service
industry. Of these children, 87 percent are girls. Young women from rural
areas leave for provincial capitals with offers of good jobs as domestic
workers. Often, actual working conditions are much worse than those promised
to them. They are subjected to sexual, physical, and psychological abuse and
receive only a portion of the wages promised them. Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 3 Civil Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=363&year=2009&country=7587 [accessed 30 January 2011] Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide [accessed 30 January 2011] Library of Congress Call Number F2258 .C64 1990 lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cotoc.html [accessed 30 January 2011] The Asahi Shimbun & The
International Herald Tribune IHT/ASAHI, January 19,2005 www.asahi.com/english/nation/TKY200501190138.html [accessed 30 January 2011] The Japanese and Colombian
governments have agreed on a series of steps aimed at preventing human
trafficking and providing support to sex-trade victims. The officials explained to their
Colombian counterparts about Japan's new policy of treating women duped into
exploitation as victims to protect. The women will be allowed to stay in
shelters for an extended period of time rather than be subject to immediate
deportation. In turn, the Colombian government
has promised to step up control on passport forgeries, according to the
officials. Colombia will also make
efforts to publicize that victims of human trafficking in Japan, if they seek
help from police, will be placed under protection. Colombia will also take measures to improve
mental care provided to victims when they return to Colombia, according to
the officials. Yoshimi Nagamine, 2003 Yomiuri Shimbun, 2003-11-29 www.libertadlatina.org/Lat_Colombia_Japan_Pressured_to_End_Trafficking_11292003.htm [accessed 30 January 2011] "I was told there was a job
at a beauty salon. But when I arrived in Japan, I was taken to a strip joint
and confined in a second-floor room," said the woman in a vivid
description of her treatment.
"Then they demanded I return 5 million yen in travel expenses and
I was forced to work as a prostitute.
"A Japanese broker took pictures of me naked and said he would
kill my family if I ran away. He kept punching me until I was left covered in
bruises," the woman went on to say.
This woman ran into the Colombian Embassy in May last year, seeking
protection after running away from her captors. According to the embassy, more than 70 such
women have sought refuge at the embassy. Fanny Polanía Molina,
libertadlatina.org, www.libertadlatina.org/paper30ColombiaJapan.pdf [accessed 30 January 2011] "A dangerous network of
trafficking in women is captured. A dangerous network dedicated to
trafficking in women, at the service of the Japanese Mafia, was
disarticulated this weekend by units belonging to the DAS – the
Administrative Security Department. The DAS had known of the existence of the
actions by the Japanese Mafia for two years now, which, through Colombian
contacts, sought beautiful young women to engage them in prostitution." Trafficking in Colombian women to
the Asian continent has become “a true threat for thousands of Colombian
women who end up as slaves in Japan and other countries." Trafficking in
Colombian women to Japan began in the 80s, when the Japa
nese Mafia began to make incursions in Colombian
territory and decided to set up their center of operations in certain regions
of the country. Sex slavery racket a growing concern in Latin America Timothy Pratt, The Christian Science Monitor, January 11,
2001 www.libertadlatina.org/LA_Colombia_CS%20Monitor%20Article_01112001.htm [accessed 30 January 2011] Viviana was one of what the Interpol
estimates are 35,000 women trafficked out of The offer seemed like a good deal,
until she got to Asturias, Spain, where a man began explaining about
"towels, sheets, condoms, and percentages." He also said she owed
them $4,000. She then realized - "this was not a casino, it was a
bordello." She spent that night crying, convinced she had "fallen
into the jaws of a beast." Colombian Hailed as Hero in Fight Against Trafficking in
Persons Brian www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2004/June/20040616130952MBrepaK0.8762171.html
[accessed 30 January 2011] Francisco Sierra, Sierra said the women are told
they will find a better life by working in other countries such as Holland,
Japan, and Spain, but they most often find themselves trapped into working in
brothels to pay off their so-called "transportation" fees; such
fees may total as much as $50,000 to $80,000. Sierra said that the women are
expected to pay their captors roughly $2,000 every ten days or they will be
severely punished. Colombia This Week is a news summary produced and
distributed by ABColombia Group. Sources include daily
Colombian, US, European and Latin American newspapers, and reports from
non-governmental organisations and the UN System colhrnet.igc.org/newitems/nov04/abccolwk.n22.htm [accessed 30 January 2011] [scroll down] THURS 18- 14,000 CHILDREN IN
COLOMBIAN ARMED GROUPS; COLOMBIA'S ROLE IN PLAN PUEBLA-PANAMA - UK-based NGOs Save the Children
and Amnesty International report that more than 14,000 child soldiers are
fighting in the Colombian conflict, denouncing that the illegal armed groups
(FARC, ELN and AUC) are systemically recruiting children under 15 years old
from indigenous and rural communities, putting their lives at extreme risk
and sending them to the front line of battle. U.N. Official Says Indigenous Face Extinction [Regarding
Conditions in Stacey Hunt, 2004 www.libertadlatina.org/Lat_Colombia_Indigenous_Face_Extiction_03-22-2004.htm [accessed 30 January 2011] Colombian indigenous communities
are in danger of extinction as paramilitaries and guerrillas target them for
massacre, torture, displacement, rape and forced recruitment, a U.N. official
said March 16. One group, the Kankuamos
of northern Colombia's Sierra Nevada Mountains, has lost more than 200
members to killings since 1986, said Stavenhagen, a
Mexican. Ten Kankuamos have been murdered since an
October demand by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights that the
Colombian government adopt measures to prevent the group's genocide, he
added. While indigenous peoples
constitute only 2 percent of Colombia's 44 million inhabitants, their
traditional territories cover 30 percent of the country.
Paramilitaries, guerrilla groups and government forces fight to control rural
land and people for a variety of reasons, including drug cultivation, forced
conscription and land grabs. Amnesty International, Index Number: AMR 23/040/2004, Date
Published: 11 October 2004 www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR23/040/2004 [accessed 30 January 2011] "Paramilitary and guerrilla
groups seek to intrude into even the most intimate aspects of women’s lives
in areas under their control by setting curfews and dress codes, and by
humiliating, flogging, raping and even killing those who dare to transgress,"
said Ms Lee. Colombia: Full-flexed war after government breaks off
peace talks Human Rights Education Associates HREA, 25 Feb 2002 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 4 September 2011] Those who will be hardest hit by
the government's offensive are the most marginalized Colombians
? poor, indigenous and Afro-Colombian women and their families.
Already, more than 25% of Colombians have been displaced by fighting between
the FARC and the Colombian government (the latter aided by paramilitaries
that are responsible for 75% of the country's human rights violations,
including 3,500 killings each year). All warring parties stand accused of
grave human rights abuses, including assassinations, torture and kidnapping
of civilians. Crimes against women include forced servitude, sexual slavery,
forced prostitution, forced sterilization and forced pregnancy. IOM press briefing notes 10 Aug 2004: Sudan, Colombia Spokesperson: Jean Philippe Chauzy,
International Organization for Migration IOM, 10 August 2004 [accessed 30 January 2011] IOM presented the
"Vulnerability, Risk and Opportunity Map" (Mapa
de Vulnerabilidad, Riesgo
y Oportunidad), a methodology aimed at helping
local governments and civil society to work together to tackle and prevent
forced conscription. Plight of Jeremy McDermott , BBC News, 19 September, 2003 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3121600.stm [accessed 30 January 2011] Some 112 former child combatants
were interviewed for the publication, which describes how children are
recruited into the ranks of the Marxist guerrillas and right-wing
paramilitaries from as young as eight years old and gradually hardened to
violence. Around 25% of guerrilla
ranks are female and the study highlighted the problem of sexual abuse many
young girls are subjected to by their guerrilla superiors. Females as young as 12 are forced to use
contraception and, if they get pregnant, must undergo abortions. You’ll Learn Not To Cry - Child Combatants in Colombia This report provides the first
comprehensive account of child combatants in Human Rights Watch, September 18, 2003 www.hrw.org/en/reports/2003/09/18/you-ll-learn-not-cry [accessed 30 January 2011] RECRUITMENT METHODS - The great majority of child recruits to the irregular forces decide to join voluntarily. Yet forcible recruitment occurs in some parts of Colombia. Human Rights Watch interviewed thirteen former combatants, all of whom had belonged to either the FARC-EP or the UC-ELN, who described having been forced to join the ranks of the group unwillingly; they made up slightly more than 10 percent of the children we interviewed. Another two children said that they had been pressured to join a guerrilla group. And even the voluntary decision to join irregular forces is more a reflection of the dismal lack of opportunities open to children from the poorest sector of rural society than a real exercise of free will. 'Street of the Damned' Loses its Daughters; Colombian
Kidnappers Target Poor Children Anthony www.libertadlatina.org/Latin_America_Cases_Colombia_p1.htm [accessed 30 January 2011] Like a nightmarish fairy tale in
which young girls are spirited away by monsters, five were abducted from this
three-block stretch of War Without Quarter: Human Rights Watch, October 1998 www.hrw.org/reports98/colombia/ [accessed 30 January 2011] II COLOMBIA AND INTERNATIONAL
HUMANITARIAN LAW -
The drama of Guintar is repeated throughout
Colombia, where war is not fought primarily between armed and uniformed
combatants on battlefields, but against the civilian population and in their
homes, farms, and towns. Many of the victims of Colombia’s war wear no
uniform, hold no gun, and profess no allegiance to any armed group. Indeed,
battles between armed opponents are the exception. Instead, combatants
deliberately and implacably target and kill the civilians they believe
support their enemies, whether or not the civilians are even aware that they
are in peril. 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 - |
Human Trafficking in [Colombia Street Children in [Colombia] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Colombia] [other countries]