Human Trafficking in [Iraq Street Children in [Iraq] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Iraq] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the
early years of the 21st Century - 2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Iraq.htm
Iraq is both a source and
destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes
of commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude. Iraqi women and
girls, some as young as 11 years old, are trafficked within the country and
abroad to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, UAE, Turkey, Iran, and possibly
Yemen, for forced prostitution and sexual exploitation within households in
these countries. Some victims are sexually exploited in Iraq before being
sold to traffickers who take them abroad. In some cases, women are lured into
sexual exploitation through false promises of work. The more prevalent means
of becoming a victim is through sale or forced marriage. Family members have
trafficked girls and women to escape desperate economic circumstances, to pay
debts, or resolve disputes between families. Some women and girls are
trafficked within CAUTION: The following links have been culled from the web to
illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Focus on Boys Trapped in
Commercial Sex Trade UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, August
8, 2005 www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/167/35567.html [accessed 13 February 2011] A 16-year-old boy has started a
desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Rania Abouzeid,
www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1883696,00.html?xid=newsletter-weekly [accessed 13 February 2011] That underworld is a place where
nefarious female pimps hold sway, where impoverished mothers sell their
teenage daughters into a sex market that believes females who reach the age
of 20 are too old to fetch a good price. The youngest victims, some just 11
and 12, are sold for as much as $30,000, others for as little as $2,000.
"The buying and selling of girls in Iraq, it's like the trade in cattle,"
Hinda says. "I've seen mothers haggle with
agents over the price of their daughters." (See pictures of Iraq since
the fall of Saddam.) The trafficking routes are both
local and international, most often to Syria, Jordan and the Gulf (primarily
the United Arab Emirates). The victims are trafficked illegally on forged
passports, or "legally" through forced marriages. A married female,
even one as young as 14, raises few suspicions if she's travelling
with her "husband." The girls are then divorced upon arrival and put
to work. (See Iraq's return to "normalcy".) ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms
of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/iraq.htm [accessed 13 February 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Anti-government militias, such as Al-Sadr’s
Mahdi Army, exploit children as young as ten years old
as child soldiers. CHILD
LABOR LAWS AND ENFORCEMENT - The Criminal Code, which predates the Iraqi conflict but remains in
effect, prohibits any form of compulsory or forced labor. Order 89 prohibits the worst forms of child
labor, which it defines as all forms of slavery, debt bondage, forced labor,
trafficking of children, compulsory use of children in armed conflict, child
prostitution, illicit activity, including drug trafficking and work likely to
harm the health, safety or morals, among others Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61689.htm [accessed 13 February 2011] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS –
Detection of trafficking was extremely difficult due to lack of information
because of the security situation, existing societal controls of women, and
the closed-tribal culture. There were reports of girls and women trafficked
within the country for sexual exploitation.
Five European countries successfully stymied a criminal network
trafficking Iraqi citizens to Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 9 October 1998 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/iraq1998.html [accessed 13 February 2011] [26] The Committee notes with
concern that the economic exploitation of children has increased dramatically
in the past few years and that an increasing number of children are leaving
school, sometimes at an early age, to work to support themselves and their
families. In this regard, the Committee is also concerned about the existing
gap between the age at which compulsory education ends (12 years old) and the
minimum legal age for access to employment (15 years old). The Committee
recommends that research be carried out on the situation with regard to child
labor in the State party, including the involvement of children in hazardous
work, to identify the causes and the extent of the problem. Rania Abouzeid,
www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1883696,00.html?xid=newsletter-weekly [accessed 13 February 2011] That underworld is a place where
nefarious female pimps hold sway, where impoverished mothers sell their
teenage daughters into a sex market that believes females who reach the age
of 20 are too old to fetch a good price. The youngest victims, some just 11
and 12, are sold for as much as $30,000, others for as little as $2,000.
"The buying and selling of girls in Iraq, it's like the trade in
cattle," Hinda says. "I've seen mothers
haggle with agents over the price of their daughters." (See pictures of
Iraq since the fall of Saddam.) The trafficking routes are both local
and international, most often to Syria, Jordan and the Gulf (primarily the
United Arab Emirates). The victims are trafficked illegally on forged
passports, or "legally" through forced marriages. A married female,
even one as young as 14, raises few suspicions if she's travelling
with her "husband." The girls are then divorced upon arrival and
put to work. (See Iraq's return to "normalcy".) Yochi J. Dreazen,
The Wall Street Journal/Business, online.wsj.com/article/SB118118318284127413.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us&apl=y [partially accessed 13 February 2011 - access restricted] Federal prosecutors are
investigating the Kuwaiti company building the U.S. Embassy in The Department of Justice launched
the probe of First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co. after former
employees alleged that workers at the company were told they were being sent
to Dubai, only to wind up in Iraq instead, people familiar with the matter
said. According to the allegations, First Kuwaiti confiscated the workers'
passports, so they were unable to depart Baghdad. Abuses Found in Hiring at Cam Simpson, The Baltimore Sun ( www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0424-04.htm [accessed 13 February 2011] Gen. George W. Casey Jr. ordered
that contractors be required by May 1 to return passports that have been
illegally confiscated from laborers on Focus on Boys Trapped in
Commercial Sex Trade UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, August
8, 2005 www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/167/35567.html [accessed 13 February 2011] A 16-year-old boy has started a
desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Cry, the Beloved Iraqi Women www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/17/103717/905 [accessed 13 February 2011] "Freedom" has become a
cruel joke. Saddam's regime was
brutal, but it was secular, and women in Freedom or Theocracy?: Constitutionalism in www.law.northwestern.edu/journals/jihr/v3/4/ [accessed 13 February 2011] ¶ 113 Women suffered along with many other
Iraqis as a result of the war to oust Saddam.
A breakdown of law and order after the fall of Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 6 Civil Liberties: 6 Status: Not Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&year=2009&country=7628 [accessed 13 February 2011] Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/iraq [accessed 13 February 2011] Library of Congress Call Number DS70.6 .I734 1990 lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/iqtoc.html [accessed 13 February 2011] UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=41044 [accessed 13 February 2011] Eleven-year-old Mahmoud al-Obaidi walks seven
km every morning to get to work at a carpentry factory in More than a million youngsters
work often enduring hazardous conditions, as well as being vulnerable to
sexual abuse and violence, according to a report released at the end of 2004.
The report was based on a nationwide survey in which 19,610 Iraqis participated. Probe into Elise Labott, CNN State
Department Producer, edition.cnn.com/2004/US/05/05/iraq.india.trafficking/ [accessed 13 February 2011] Indian press reports said that
Indian nationals in Forced Labor added to charges of U.S. crimes in Iraq The NewStandard, May 5, 2004 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] Four Muslim Indian citizens say
they and about 20 others were abducted by US military personnel in Indians say they were held against their will in V.M. Thomas, Associated Press At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] Faisal said the four men paid
$1,750 each to a travel agent, who arranged the Combating Prostitution, Human Trafficking In Press Release: Commission On Security And Coperation In www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0305/S00297.htm [accessed 13 February 2011] Eight Members of the United States
Helsinki Commission have written to Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage requesting information about State Department
efforts to ensure that UNICEF wary of post-war child trafficking in Iraq UNICEF Press Centre, www.unicef.org/newsline/2003/03nn50iraqtrafficking.htm [accessed 13 February 2011] In the chaos of the post-war
environment, in While well-meaning people around
the world might think that international adoption is a legitimate way to help
some of these children quickly, UNICEF is concerned that too often
unscrupulous child traffickers will try exploiting the chaos and trying to
pass themselves off as legitimate agents of good. - htsc 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 [Iraq Street Children in [Iraq] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Iraq] [other countries]