Sex Tourism: Addressing the Demand for Trafficking

House Committee on Financial Services ^ | 2000-2005 | EQUALITY

[Calpernia]

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EQUALITY NOW

New York: 250 West 57 Street, #1527, New York, NY 10107, USA ▪ Tel:+1 212-586-0906 • Fax:+1 212-586-1611 • Email: info@equalitynow.org

London: 6 Buckingham Street, London WC2N 6BU, UK • Phone:+44 (0) 20-7839-5456 • Fax:+44 (0) 20-7839-4012 • Email: ukinfo@equalitynow.org

Nairobi: PO Box 2018 KNH 00202, Nairobi, Kenya • Tel: +254 20-2719-832 • Fax: +254 20-2719-868 • Email: equalitynow@kenyaweb.com

Sex Tourism: Addressing the Demand for Trafficking

Testimony by Jessica Neuwirth, President of Equality Now

Thank you for this opportunity to testify before you, and thank you for your interest

in and support for efforts to combat trafficking in persons. My name is Jessica Neuwirth and

I am the founder and President of Equality Now, an international human rights organization

based in New York working for the protection and promotion of the rights of women and

girls worldwide. Equality Now’s membership network is comprised of more than 25,000

individuals and organizations in 160 countries. Issues of concern to Equality Now include

trafficking of women and girls, rape, domestic violence, reproductive rights, female genital

mutilation, denial of equal access to economic opportunity and political participation, and all

other forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 recognized that sex tourism is one of

the means through which the commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls has

contributed to the growth of the international sex industry and feeds the demand for sex

trafficking. The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003 went a step

further in requiring the dissemination of materials alerting U.S. citizen travelers that, “sex

tourism is illegal, will be prosecuted, and presents dangers to those involved”. In evaluating

how other countries are addressing human trafficking, HR 972, the Trafficking Victims

Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, would require adding as a minimum standard for

eliminating trafficking in the State Department’s annual report, “measures to reduce the

demand for commercial sex acts and for participation in international sex tourism”. We

should hold ourselves to the same minimum standard and play a leadership role for other

countries in this regard.

My comments today will focus on Big Apple Oriental Tours of Bellerose and

Poughkeepsie, New York and G&F Tours of New Orleans, Louisiana. I will speak about

these sex tour companies because in their methods of operation they demonstrate the typical

activities of sex tour companies. I will also speak about them because the lack of action

against them by both federal and state prosecutors is also typical of our country’s inadequate

response to the demand side of the trafficking of women and children.

From its locations in New York, Big Apple Oriental Tours was advertising its

services, communicating with potential sex tourists to persuade them to travel with Big

Apple Oriental Tours, making airline and hotel reservations, and arranging for local tour

guides in the destination countries to introduce men to women from whom they could buy

sex. The local Big Apple representative who escorted the men to the clubs was also available

to negotiate the sex acts to be purchased and their price with the “mamasan” who controlled

the women in these bars and clubs. G&F Tours in New Orleans conducts its activities in

precisely the same way, even using the same tour guide as Big Apple in Thailand.

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It should be simple to prosecute a company that so blatantly accepts money to

facilitate and arrange commercial sex acts. New York Penal Law Section 230.20 makes it a

Class A misdemeanor when a person “knowingly advances or profits from prostitution”.

Penal Law Section 230.25 makes it a Class D felony when a person “knowingly advances or

profits from prostitution by managing, supervising, controlling or owning either alone or in

association with others, a house of prostitution or a prostitution business or enterprise

involving prostitution activity by two or more prostitutes”.

Despite the clear language of the New York Penal Law and the uncontroverted

activities of Big Apple Oriental Tours, Equality Now campaigned unsuccessfully for seven

years with the Queens County District Attorney to prosecute Big Apple Oriental Tours for

promoting prostitution. Only when the case was brought to the attention of New York

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in 2003 was a civil proceeding to shut down the company

undertaken and a criminal prosecution subsequently commenced. The criminal case was

dismissed and then the dismissal was reversed on appeal. We are now waiting for another

grand jury proceeding and hoping the case will go to trial. No other State level prosecution

against sex tour operators for promoting prostitution has even been attempted despite most

states having similar prohibitions of such activities as those of New York that I just

described. I would like to note that from the beginning of our campaign seven years ago,

Congresswoman Maloney has been tremendously supportive of our efforts to close down Big

Apple Oriental Tours and prosecute its owner/operators. I would like to thank her for this

support, which has been instrumental in leading finally to the case currently underway.

Federal prosecutors have been equally unwilling to address the demand for trafficked

women and girls created by sex tour operators and their customers. Unless it can be proven

that children are involved, they are not interested. Very often minors are involved, but it is

usually impossible to prove. Moreover, as a matter of principle as well as practicality, law

enforcement interest in sex tourism should not be confined to cases involving minors.

Section 2421 of Title 18 of the United States Code, known as the Mann Act, provides a ten

year sentence for anyone who “knowingly transports any individual in interstate or foreign

commerce . . . with the intent that such individual engage in prostitution or in any sexual

activity for which any person can be charged with a crime, or attempts to do so.” Section

2422(a) makes it a crime for anyone who “knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or coerces

any individual to travel in interstate or foreign commerce . . . to engage in prostitution, or in

any sexual activity for which any person can charged with a criminal offense, or attempts to

do so.” These provisions of the Mann Act could be effectively used against United States

sex tour operators but the Department of Justice has so far failed to apply this statute against

them. Neither of these sections requires that prostituted person or victim be a minor and

neither of these sections requires that the individual being transported or induced or

persuaded to travel in foreign commerce be the prostituted person or victim. In other words,

transporting “johns” in foreign commerce, which is exactly what sex tour companies do, falls

within the scope of the Mann Act.

In virtually every popular sex tour destination country, such as Thailand, patronizing

a prostitute is illegal and “johns” can be charged with a crime for purchasing sex acts.

Although both of the Mann Act sections just described could be applied to sex tour operators

who every day induce, persuade and ultimately transport individuals in foreign commerce to

engage in criminal sexual activity, Equality Now has not been successful in its efforts over

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the past six years to get the Department of Justice and the United States Attorneys Offices in

the Eastern District of Louisiana and Southern District New York to apply the Mann Act

against G&F Tours. By its failure to use the Mann Act against sex tour operators like G&F

Tours, the Department of Justice has created a de facto narrowing of that law’s application.

Equality Now welcomes the End Demand for Sex Trafficking Act of 2005, HR 2012,

and we thank Congresswoman Pryce and Congresswoman Maloney for their sponsorship of

this bill. The bill includes a needed clarification that the Mann Act does apply to sex tour

operators who transport purchasers as well as sellers of commercial sexual acts. We hope

this clarification will facilitate law enforcement efforts to end sex tourism. More generally,

we welcome the focus in HR 2012 on the demand for prostitution, which is the engine

driving the commercial sex industry. For too long, efforts to combat trafficking and the

commercial sex industry have focused exclusively on the supply side of the industry, which

cannot be effective in isolation. As a committee with a particular interest in the financial

workings of this industry, we hope you will work with us and support our efforts to ensure

that trafficking is addressed comprehensively, as an industry in which consumer demand for

sex tourism and prostitution play a central role in generating the demand for trafficking.

Thank you.

[Calpernia]

>>>I wonder if it is anywhere near possible to track down individuals in the sex-slave trade?

Do you mean victims? Or the ones that run the trade?

[HiJinx]

The victims.

[Calpernia]

>>>>In the 1970s, a series of corruption scandals such as Abscam, involving payoffs for the sponsorship of private immigration laws, culminated in the expulsion of one Member of the House of Representatives and led to a decline in private immigration laws, which were perceived as tainted in general bythe scandals. In the past decade, the trend reached a low point with only 2 private immigration laws enacted in the 104th Congress. The late 1990s, after the enactment of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), saw a brief increase in the number of private laws, with a decline in the wake of 9/11. Four private immigration laws were enacted in the 108th Congress; none have yet been enacted in the 109th Congress, although 72 private immigration bills have been introduced as of the date of this report.<<<<


::Charles Kuschner sponsored Golan Cipel::

http://www.visalink.com/files/Document%20165.pdf

[Paul_Denton]

You bring up a very good point.

[Calpernia]

Child sex slaves
Sunday, September 22, 2002
Kevin Doyle in Phnom Penh

Monsoon rains pour down on the two children dressed in brightly coloured pyjamas as they rush through the warren of muddy Cambodian village paths.

Gaining speed, they leave behind an escort of child protection workers. They are on their way to the wooden shack homes on the outskirts of Svay Pak, Phnom Penh's notorious prostitution village, to meet parents they haven't seen for over three months.

The girls are aged between 11 and 14, though no one knows for sure. Earlier this year they were freed from sexual slavery after international child abuse investigators found them at work in the brothels behind their home.

But with no laws compelling them to stay under the protection of the organisations that assist the victims of Cambodia's booming child sex trade, they are returned to their parents and a less-than-reassuring promise that they will be kept out of prostitution.

A stone's throw away, dozens of western and Asian male tourists slug cans of imported beer and ensure that business at the brothels that have made Cambodia a world capital for child prostitution is brisk.

Drawn by the country's abysmal record on child protection and the grinding poverty that leads parents to sell their children into the sex trade, Cambodia has become a magnet for foreign paedophiles and child sex tourists.

A search on the internet turns up a sex tourism website with information on Svay Pak's brothels, detailing everything from the age of prostitutes to how much they should be paid for their services. Some provide details on how to deal with the police if arrested.

Incompetence and institutionalised corruption in the police force and judicial system have earned Cambodia an international reputation for child prostitution. The market for human traffickers who buy, cheat or kidnap women and children to work in the booming flesh trade is thriving.

Despite dozens of arrests in the past few years, only three foreigners -- two British and one Italian citizen -- have been successfully convicted for the sexual abuse of children in Cambodia.

Two Australian teachers in their mid-30s and a 69-year-old British man were arrested last month by Cambodian police, leading some children's rights workers to believe that the authorities may be trying to clean up the country's image as a haven for sex tourism.

With tourist arrivals growing at 30 per cent per year -- and expected to top one million people next year -- Cambodia's interior ministry recently announced the deployment of 500 tourist department police officers to hotels, beach resorts and ancient Buddhist temples to crackdown on the trade in children.

But without the real will of the government will to end the culture of child prostitution, judicial reform to stop offenders escaping prosecution and co-operation from foreign embassies -- some of whom have been accused of trying to protect their nationals from imprisonment -- children in Cambodia remain in danger, say child protection workers.

"Our women and children are not products for the sexual desires of foreign and local men," said the Cambodian Minister of Women's Affairs, Mu Sochua, a longtime campaigner against child sexual exploitation.

Key to rooting out the trade is punishing those who traffic children, and the pimps who profit from the business.

But there is also a pressing need to sensitise society to child sex crimes and force the police and Cambodian courts to get tough with offenders, says Sochua.

Police raid brothels to `rescue' children, but only rarely do they arrest the people who run them. When children are brought to court to testify against offenders, judges frequently cite a lack of evidence to pursue prosecutions.

"It is really, really clear that these cases are not important and women and children are stigmatised and discriminated against," says Sochua.

During a three-day official visit to Cambodia last month, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson spoke out against the Cambodian government's record on human trafficking, and said that Cambodian culture must no longer tolerate sex with children.

Speaking to the Cambodian parliament, Robinson acknowledged the country's Five Year Plan of Action against Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children. But she said the government needed now to implement existing protection laws.

Robinson highlighted the controversial prosecution of ten Vietnamese prostitutes recently rescued from a brothel in Svay Pak village.

The youngest of these was just 13 years old, but they were later treated as criminals by a Cambodian court, which ordered them to spend up to three months in prison before being deported back to Vietnam.

"I can only say I regret the Cambodian court verdict," Robinson told the parliament.

"Those who have the misfortune to be trafficked are not criminals, but simple victims," she said.

Westerners only account for a small percentage of the adults who seek out sex with children each year. The majority of abusers are Cambodians and citizens of other Asian countries.

Many of these believe that having sex with children is therapeutic in old age, says Christian Guth, a former French police officer who leads a newly-established Cambodian police task force to fight child abuse.

Men searching for young partners, who they believe are less likely to be infected with Aids, have driven the growth of child sex in Cambodia. The country has the highest Aids rate in the region, with almost 3 per cent of adults infected out of a population of 12 million people.

"It's a huge business," says Guth.

Though technically illegal, prostitution booms in the country's brothels, massage and karaoke parlours, hotels, nightclubs and even restaurants where pretty `beer girls' -- promotional waitresses working for local and international beer companies -- earn extra money by having sex with customers whose appetites go beyond food.

Cambodia has an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 sex workers, and around a quarter of them work in the capital Phnom Penh. 30 per cent are under 18 years of age.

You don't have to look far to find the reason.

Three decades of civil war ended in 1998, and the country has made some progress in moving beyond the bloody legacy of the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge `killing fields' regime when an estimated 1.7 million people died as a result of Pol Pot's radical Maoist policies to create an agrarian utopia.

But Cambodians are still grindingly poor. Almost 40 per cent live below the poverty line -- which is set at a livelihood of less that US$1 a day.

Amid such poverty, the sex trade has flourished. Cambodian and Vietnamese children are frequently sold as virgins to men who pay anywhere from $700 to $1,000 to spend several days with them.

But their value soon depreciates to between $30-$40. Eventually, as the children mature, the price plummets to as low as $2.5 to $5 per customer.

Koey, who is 15 and from northwestern Cambodia, and her friend Lan, also 15 and from Vietnam, made headlines when they were rescued with eight other young girls from a underground sex ring set up exclusively for foreigners in the centre of Phnom Penh in 2000.

Both girls were sold as virgins to their first western and Japanese customers two months before being rescued. Despite their short time in the child sex business, both tested positive for HIV just days after being taken into care.

The girls were delivered in taxis to hotels and residential houses in the capital, where customers paid $30 to have sex with them. Child rights investigators who staked out the child sex ring reported that one of the customers was a western woman.

Police said they arrested two pimps when they raided the house where the girls were being held, but no foreign customers were apprehended and authorities would not release the names of the hotels to which they had been delivered.

Kim Sophon, the investigating judge in the case, said at the time that there was no need to charge the child sex customers. "We do not need to find the foreigners, because the prostitutes are used to having sex with customers and were not virgins," he said.

Child protection workers scoffed at the police investigation and said they were reluctant to provide police with evidence on child sex suspects because police would use the information to blackmail the suspect in return for burying an investigation.

Minister Sochua has protested publicly against several controversial court decisions that freed offenders. Combined with her efforts to keep the spotlight on the issue, including programmes to educate both law enforcement agencies and court officials, the message that sex with children is a serious crime may be sinking in.

"I still have a strong hope we can turn this situation around," she says. Recent imprisonments and arrests of foreign sex offenders are "a warning bell to foreigners who consider Cambodia a safe haven".

Before he moved to Cambodia John Keeler had lived in Ireland, travelling the country in an ambulance he had converted into a mini theatre which put on puppet shows for children.

The British national was arrested in 2000 in Cambodia, charged with videotaping four girls aged between 10 and 11 in sexually explicit poses. Only the second foreigner ever convicted of child abuse in the country, he got a three-year jail term. He will be out before he turns 60.

Keeler had lived in Cambodia, where he was the director of an English language school for young children, for around a year. He travelled regularly to meet his four victims, plying them with sweets near their tarpaulin-covered home on the banks of a river near Phnom Penh.

Court investigators also discovered indecent photographs of children on Keeler's home computer, literature from a paedophile website and e-mails which police investigators thought may have linked him to other sex offenders outside Cambodia.

Keeler later admitted to the Phnom Penh Post newspaper that he had been convicted in Britain for child abuse. He was known to police in this country as the `puppetmaster', and is understood to have been under close police watch while here.

The second foreign national convicted was Alain Filippe Berutti, 30, an electrician from Milan, who was arrested in June 2001 when police spotted him naked on a riverbank in Phnom Penh with four homeless boys aged 10 to 13.

Berutti, who admitted to soliciting the boys for sex, was imprisoned for 10 years in July. "I just make erotic experience, but not child abuse," Berutti told reporters after his trial.

Another British national, Derek Baston, who is 69, was arrested last month on charges of debauchery after he was allegedly discovered in a Svay Pak brothel engaging in sexual acts with an 11-year old girl.

Police who arrested Baston said that the owner of the brothel escaped before he could be arrested. If convicted of the crime, Baston could spend between 10 and 20 years in prison.

Shortly after this, two Australian men, employed as school teachers, were arrested separately in Siem Reap -- Cambodia's main tourist centre and gateway to the renowned 9th-13th century Angkor Wat temple complex.

Both men are charged with debauchery for allegedly having sexual relations with three girls aged between 12 and 14.

Long says she is 18 years old but looks far younger in her flip-flops, shorts and tight strappy tee shirt. A Vietnamese prostitute in Svay Pak, Long giggles when she says that `boom-boom' and `yum-yum' costs $5.

"But if you like young girls, it will cost $30," says Long, as she disappears then returns with a gaggle of Vietnamese children aged between 10 and 13, who are ushered in by a middle-aged `mamasan' -- a woman with cruel eyes and a head of tightly-set curls.

In accented English, the words `very clean', `very good for you', are the mamasan's pitch to the mostly foreign men who frequent Svay Pak and these young girls.

Like the majority of teenagers and children in Svay Pak, they have been brought by parents or human traffickers from Vietnam to work as prostitutes, feeding the faithful army of sex tourists who daily make the 11 kilometre trip from Phnom Penh.

In the past five years there has been an increase in the number of foreigners arrested for sexually abusing children in Asia.

The children abused were as young as six years old, says Christine Beddoe, program manger of Child Wise Tourism -- an initiative of the ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) organisation.

Offenders will only go to places where they think they will not get caught, and Beddoe says that it was imperative to build a regional approach to the problem.

"We should remember the balloon theory. Squeeze a balloon on one side and it will bubble up somewhere else," she says. "Put pressure on the balloon from all sides and it will burst."

Ask Women's Affair's Minister Mu Sochua if pressure is being exerted in the right places to protect children in Cambodia and she replies with a question: "Have you seen Gary Glitter come back?"

Cambodia was thrown into a storm earlier this year when British tabloid press tracked down the disgraced 1970s glam rock icon Gary Glitter at an apartment in Phnom Penh where he had lived secretly for several months.

Glitter was sentenced to four months in a British jail in 1999 after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.

Though he had committed no crimes in Cambodia, Sochua led a campaign for his deportation, saying Cambodia was not a dumping ground for undesirables.

Glitter quietly slipped out of Cambodia as police discussed his deportation. There are no reports of his return.

[Calpernia]

 

Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery The United Kingdom (UK) [ Country-by-Country Reports ] The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [map] is a constitutional monarchy located on the British Isles, off W Europe. The country comprises England; Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland. The capital and largest city is London. The United Kingdom is primarily a country of destination for trafficked women, children, and men from Eastern Europe, East Asia, and West Africa. Women are trafficked primarily for the purposes of sexual exploitation and involuntary domestic servitude, while men are trafficked for the purpose of forced labor in agriculture and sweatshop industries. The United Kingdom may also play a role as a transit country for foreign victims trafficked to other Western European countries. The Government of the United Kingdom fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The United Kingdom handed down significant anti-trafficking prosecutions and sentences during 2004. The first prosecution under recent legislation that specifically criminalized trafficking for sexual exploitation resulted in a sentence of 18 years for the main offender. The parliament enacted new legislation to criminalize labor trafficking. The government continued to fund assistance to adult victims; however, its inability to accommodate the number of victim referrals was problematic. The government should prioritize establishment of a more stable mechanism to regularize victims’ status to ensure consistent delivery of services and protection. Moreover, differentiation of trafficking and smuggling statistics is recommended to better gauge year-to-year improvements. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2005 [full country report]

CAUTION: The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the UK. 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. Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices Far More Lithuanians Sold Into Prostitution In Britain Since EU Membership The number of young Lithuanian women sold for sex in Britain has increased from "single cases to dozens every month" since the Baltic state joined the European Union last year, the head of Lithuania's Interpol bureau said. "Nightclub Girls Helped Me Escape Captivity" The youngster, from Lithuania, says she was sold to a string of Albanian men who kept her prisoner in their homes, repeatedly raped her and forced her to work in brothels. The girl, who was allegedly tricked into traveling to the UK after being told she would work in a restaurant. Tackle Child Exploitation, Ministers Urged Based on reports from social services, police and immigration, it is known at least 250 children were trafficked into the United Kingdom between 1999 and 2003. UNICEF believes the true figure is much higher and that in the vast majority of cases children are brought in for labor. Migrants Subject To Forced Labor In The UK This report reveals that migrants who can legally work in this country are also shockingly badly exploited because they are unable to enforce their legal rights because of the power their employer has over them. The report, 'Forced Labor and Migration to the UK' reveals abuse, including very long hours, pay below the minimum wage and dangerous working conditions in a range of sectors including construction, hospitality, agriculture, food processing, horticulture, contract cleaning, nursing and care homes. Employers and agencies who break the law are rarely prosecuted or even inspected by the authorities. Migrant women forced into cheap sex trade London is witnessing a rising influx of eastern European prostitutes, many of them forced to sell unprotected sex for as little as £30 a time. Many of the women are trafficked here, under the illusion they will get jobs as waitresses or au pairs, or perhaps as lap dancers and nightclub hostesses - but will not have to sleep with customers. Sex Slaves Vice Baron Sentenced women kept by Ismailej, an illegal immigrant, were forced to work seven days a week, for up to 13 hours a day, and give up their passports to satisfy his "love of money". Brian O'Neill, prosecuting, told the court that Ismailej was the ringleader and that he did not regard the women as anything other than chattels. The Third Way's Dirtiest Secret A year ago this Saturday, 23 Chinese cockle pickers died at Morecambe Bay. A major new report uncovers the scale of forced labor in Britain and makes recommendations on curbing this new form of slavery. Damning Report On Migrants Delayed The report catalogues coercive techniques used by private employers to force migrants to work for low wages and in poor conditions, from physical and sexual violence to debt bondage and blackmail. 2005 Illegal immigrant who made a fortune from trafficking sex slaves was jailed for 11 years 2005 Criminal gangs blighting the UK with the problem, with women pressed into prostitution 2005 Trafficker jailed for 18 years … lured Lithuanian women with false promises of employment 2004 Three illegal immigrants jailed for a total of 40 years for selling teenage girl as a sex slave 2004 Grooming & trafficking vulnerable children as young as 12 from Welsh care homes 2004 Groundbreaking sentence increase for human trafficker 2004 Intl child trafficking ring sending Cameroonian children to UK to work in the sex industry 2004 Research shows - Trafficked women forced to work as prostitutes in every London borough 2004 Malawian women targeted by trafficking groups because they do not require a visa to enter 2004 They end up in bonded employment, paid minimal wages, unable to discharge their debt 2004 More than 250,000 sex tourists visit Asia each year, with 13 percent from Australia & UK 2003 At Nottingham's bus station, a young West African girl was found wandering alone 2003 She responded to a job advertisement in a local paper and accepted an au pair post 2003 Face of child trafficking to the UK is changing. Children transported from more countries 2003 4.25 Human trafficking 4.26 Trafficking for Prostitution 4.33 Trafficking in minors into UK? 2003 Africans Reportedly Trafficked To U.K. - child trafficking prostitution ring uncovered

[human trafficking]

[street children]

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1499376/posts
US State Dept Trafficking (Human Trafficking) in Persons Reports

[Calpernia]

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/10/242005g.asp


CWA Teams with Pro-Family Mexican Groups in Anti-Trafficking Effort

By Ed Thomas
October 24, 2005

(AgapePress) - Concerned Women for America has received a $200,000 grant from the State Department to help implement the next phase of a campaign against sex trafficking in Mexico.

The funding is for phase two of the "Bridge Project," which brought five Mexican pro-family organizations to the United States in April for training. Project director Dr. Janice Crouse says those group "all went back [from the training] just fired up, ready to dream up projects that would accomplish the goals that they wanted to accomplish."

The organizations are part of the pro-family network "Red Familia" -- Spanish for "Family Network." According to Crouse, the projects within the network's approximately 200 pro-family, pro-life, pro-marriage groups include establishing a safe shelter in Mexico's red-light district; creating a training program for citizen involvement; producing a white paper and a victim database to assist in lobbying efforts for laws against sex trafficking; and law enforcement training workshops.

"[E]ach separate group is working on different projects," Crouse explains, "and all of them just really are very wonderful efforts that I think are going to make a tremendous difference in Mexico."

The broad-based effort is believed to be the most comprehensive campaign to date combating sex trafficking in Mexico. Crouse, who expects to make several visits to Mexico over the next year to help keep the projects on track, says all the groups involved feel the campaign will have a broad impact. Several organizations, such as World Vision, she adds, have been trying to concentrate on child rescue for many years.

[Calpernia]

TESTIMONY OF ROSA, AGE 14
before U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee

When I was fourteen, a man came to my parents' house in Veracruz, Mexico and asked me if I was interested in making money in the United States. He said I could make many times as much money doing the same things that I was doing in Mexico. At the time, I was working in a hotel cleaning rooms and I also helped around my house by watching my brothers and sisters. He said I would be in good hands, and would meet many other Mexican girls who had taken advantage of this great opportunity. My parents didn't want me to go, but I persuaded them.

A week later, I was smuggled into the United States through Texas to Orlando, Florida. It was then the men told me that my employment would consist of having sex with men for money. I had never had sex before, and I had never imagined selling my body.

And so my nightmare began. Because I was a virgin, the men decided to initiate me by raping me again and again, to teach me how to have sex. Over the next three months, I was taken to a different trailer every 15 days. Every night I had to sleep in the same bed in which I had been forced to service customers all day.

I couldn't do anything to stop it. I wasn't allowed to go outside without a guard. Many of the bosses had guns. I was constantly afraid. One of the bosses carried me off to a hotel one night, where he raped me. I could do nothing to stop him.

Because I was so young, I was always in demand with the customers. It was awful. Although the men were supposed to wear condoms, some didn't, so eventually I became pregnant and was forced to have an abortion. They sent me back to the brothel almost immediately.

I cannot forget what has happened. I can't put it behind me. I find it nearly impossible to trust people. I still feel shame. I was a decent girl in Mexico. I used to go to church with my family. I only wish none of this had ever happened.

[Clemenza]

And so my nightmare began. Because I was a virgin, the men decided to initiate me by raping me again and again, to teach me how to have sex.

This is an old tactic. See "Gangs of Chicago," written nearly a century ago.

[Calpernia]

Sheik now owns NYC trophy buildings.


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1519343/posts
Dubai Royals Snatch Up Manhattan Real Estate

---

Sheik accused in camel jockey abuse plot

By JANET PATTON

Lexington Herald-Leader

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Sheik Mohammed, one of the richest horse buyers in Kentucky and the world, has been implicated in the slave trade of child camel jockeys by a cable TV news program.

A report aired this week on HBO's Real Sports includes footage of appalling living conditions at camel-training camps and alleges that boy camel jockeys -- some as young as 3 -- are kidnapped or sold into slavery, starved, beaten and raped. The report links the abuses to Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.

Sheik Mohammed is the crown prince of Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates. He also serves as defense minister for the UAE.

No representative of the Maktoum organization would comment on the report. Sheik Mohammed owns two horse farms in the Bluegrass -- Raceland in Paris and Darley at Jonabell in Lexington; no one from the farms would respond publicly.

And an e-mail sent Friday afternoon to Sheik Mohammed from his official Web site was not answered.

The report, which HBO says was filmed in the UAE, is not specific about the locations of the camps featured. Some appear to be in Abu Dhabi, which is also in the UAE. The report lays the responsibility for these atrocities at the feet of ''the rulers of the United Arab Emirates I the sheiks.''

But it focuses on only one member of any UAE royal family: Sheik Mohammed. At least some of the boy jockeys shown are allegedly at the Dubai camel track, which is owned and run by the Maktoum family.

The report calls the track ''the playground of the crown prince'' and contrasts the boys' hovels with the treatment of Sheik Mohammed's horses and camels.

HBO correspondent Bernard Goldberg said on the report that HBO received a letter from unnamed UAE officials who said that they were ''shocked that this is happening'' and that they ''are adamantly against it.''

The UAE, a confederation of Arab states, in 1993 banned the use of jockeys under the age of 15 or under 45 kilograms (99 pounds); in 2002, it reiterated the ban.

Greg Sullivan, chief spokesman for the State Department's Near Eastern Affairs Bureau, said State Department officials have urged the UAE to aggressively crack down on the trafficking of underage camel jockeys and are looking into the allegations raised in the HBO documentary.

''If the allegations prove true, the U.S. will use that information to further engage the United Arab Emirates government on that issue,'' he said.

Sullivan said that the State Department asked HBO to provide the names of the underage children featured in the documentary, but HBO declined to provide the information.

The State Department's 2004 Trafficking in Persons Report said the UAE government has made ''substantial efforts'' to crack down on the trafficking of children for camel jockey work, but Sullivan said the practice still exists as ''a form of human slavery.''

State Department officials have urged the UAE to impose a minimum age of 18 for camel jockeys.

Kentucky ties

Sheik Mohammed and other members of the Maktoum family have long been fixtures at the thoroughbred auctions at Keeneland. Under the royal blue silks of Godolphin, the family racing stable, the Maktoums have run horses in the biggest races in Europe and the United States, including the Kentucky Derby. The Maktoums annually hold the richest race in the world -- the Dubai World Cup at Nad Al Sheba -- and they fly the best horses and trainers there to compete.

Kiaran McLaughlin, a Lexington native who now trains horses in New York, spent a decade working for the Maktoums in Dubai. He said on Friday that he and other horse workers were well-treated.

McLaughlin said that he trained within half a mile of the camels but never saw any abuse or signs of child slavery. ''I don't know about that. I can tell you that I lived there and loved it,'' McLaughlin said.

''I can promise you Sheik Mohammed did not abuse any children,'' he said.

Members of the racing press, including a Herald-Leader photographer and reporter, were invited to Dubai in 1999 and given a tour of the country. While there, they saw tiny jockeys who appeared much younger than 15.

And Anti-Slavery International, a human rights group, in June 2004 released photos that they said were taken in Dubai showing child jockeys; they accused the UAE of keeping the boys in brutal conditions.

Kentuckians Marci and Todd Boston lived in Dubai for years. Todd Boston moved to Dubai in 1995 to work as a blacksmith for Sheik Mohammed. His wife joined him in 1996; Marci left in 2000; Todd left in 2002.

They always said that they loved their time in Dubai, thought of it as a second home, and meant to return someday.

But the Bostons said Friday they are very disturbed by the HBO report, and in retrospect by what they saw in Dubai.

They remember child camel jockeys.

''You kind of knew about it. You knew about the little kids,'' Todd Boston said, but they never heard about sexual abuse or beatings.

But based on the way he saw Arabs treat adult workers from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, he said, he isn't surprised by the allegations of child abuse.

The HBO report said many of the child jockeys were from slums in those countries.

Marci Boston said that she heard rumors at the time that the boys were ''taken'' from poor homes in South Asia, but that she never imagined the conditions they were living in while in Dubai.

Todd Boston said that in the morning as he went to the horse track he would wait as the camels crossed the road to their track.

''There would be a pickup truck following them with little bitty kids in the back, with little helmets on, waving,'' Boston said.

The Bostons are haunted by the memory of one green-eyed boy, about 4 years old they think, who they saw at the camel market wearing a helmet.

The boy stared at them as if he were ''desperate for love,'' Todd Boston said. They have no idea what happened to him.

''This is a double-edged sword. I worked for Sheik Mohammed and I respect him very much, but on the other side, I am just horrified by this,'' he said.

''I expect to hear from Sheik Mohammed. We need explanations,'' Marci Boston said. ''I'm so angry. We were there -- we saw the kids riding camels. I don't have a doubt about it.''

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1519343/posts
Dubai Royals Snatch Up Manhattan Real Estate

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UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (TIER 3) [Extracted from U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June 2005]

The United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) is a destination country for women trafficked primarily from South, Southeast, and East Asia, the former Soviet Union, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries, and East Africa, for the purpose of sexual exploitation. A far smaller number of men, women, and teenage children were trafficked to the U.A.E. to work as forced laborers. Some South Asian and East African boys were trafficked into the country and forced to work as camel jockeys. Some were sold by their parents to traffickers, and others were brought into the U.A.E. by their parents. A large number of foreign women were lured into the U.A.E. under false pretenses and subsequently forced into sexual servitude, primarily by criminals of their own countries. Personal observations by U.S. Government officials and video and photographic evidence indicated the continued use of trafficked children as camel jockeys. There were instances of child camel jockey victims who were reportedly starved to make them light, abused physically and sexually, denied education and health care, and subjected to harsh living and working conditions. Some boys as young as 6 months old were reportedly kidnapped or sold to traffickers and raised to become camel jockeys. Some were injured seriously during races and training sessions, and one child died after being trampled by the camel he was riding. Some victims trafficked for labor exploitation endured harsh living and working conditions and were subjected to debt bondage, passport withholding, and physical and sexual abuse.

The U.A.E. Government does not collect statistics on persons trafficked into the country, making it difficult to assess its efforts to combat the problem. Widely varying reports, mostly from NGOs, international organizations, and source countries, estimated the number of trafficking victims in the U.A.E. to be from a few thousand to tens of thousands. Regarding foreign child camel jockeys, the U.A.E. Government estimated there were from 1,200 to 2,700 such children in the U.A.E., while a respected Pakistani human rights NGO active in the U.A.E. estimated 5,000 to 6,000. The U.A.E. Government has taken several steps that may lead to potentially positive outcomes, such as requiring children from source countries to have their own passports, and collaborating with UNICEF and source-country governments to develop a plan for documenting and safely repatriating all underage camel jockeys

The Government of the U.A.E. does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Despite sustained engagement from the U.S. Government, NGOs, and international organizations over the last two years, the U.A.E. Government has failed to take significant action to address its trafficking problems and to protect victims. The U.A.E. Government needs to enact and enforce a comprehensive trafficking law that criminalizes all forms of trafficking and provides for protection of trafficking victims. The government should also institute systematic screening measures to identify trafficking victims among the thousands of foreign women arrested and deported each year for involvement in prostitution. The government should take immediate steps to rescue and care for the many foreign children trafficked to the U.A.E. as camel jockeys, repatriating them through responsible channels if appropriate. The government should also take much stronger steps to investigate, prosecute, and convict those responsible for trafficking these children to the U.A.E.

Prosecution During the reporting period, the U.A.E. made minimal efforts to prosecute traffickers. Despite the ongoing trafficking and exploitation of thousands of children as camel jockeys and women in sexual servitude, the government made insufficient efforts in 2004 to criminally prosecute and punish anyone behind these forms of trafficking. The U.A.E. Government announced in April 2005 that it would soon enact a new law banning underage camel jockeys. Currently, the U.A.E. does not have a comprehensive anti-trafficking law. The government can use various laws under its criminal codes to prosecute trafficking-related crimes effectively, but there have been only a few such cases prosecuted. In 2004, U.A.E. officials declared that the 2002 Presidential Decree against the exploitation of children as camel jockeys was legally unenforceable - effectively asserting that the U.A.E. had no legal mechanism to address this serious crime. The U.A.E.'s new law, when enacted and implemented, is expected to enable enforcement of the Decree.

In 2004, according to an NGO, immigration authorities worked with source-country NGOs, embassies, and consulates to rescue and repatriate 400 trafficked former camel jockeys to Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sudan. The government transferred the anti-trafficking portfolio from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Interior - a ministry with a law enforcement authority - and created a designated anti-child trafficking unit within the Ministry of Interior. In December 2004, the government opened a rehabilitation center for the care of rescued child camel jockeys, and from December 2004 to April 2005, rescued approximately 68 children and repatriated 43 of them to their countries of origin, primarily Pakistan. However, the number of rescued and repatriated children through these efforts is insignificant compared to the huge number (estimated in the thousands) openly exploited at camel racetracks throughout the country. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the government investigated, prosecuted, and punished anyone for trafficking, abusing, and exploiting children as camel jockeys.

The U.A.E. Government's efforts to prosecute crimes relating to trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation were equally disappointing. Despite a few arrests and prosecutions of those involved in such crimes, including travel and employment agencies that reportedly facilitate the trafficking of victims, U.A.E. law enforcement efforts during the year focused largely on the arrest, incarceration, and deportation of over 5,000 foreign women in prostitution, many of whom are likely trafficking victims. The police do not make concerted, proactive efforts to distinguish trafficking victims among women arrested for prostitution and illegal immigration; as a result, victims are punished with incarceration and deportation. Although the U.A.E. criminalized the withholding of employees' passports by employers, there is inconsistent enforcement of the law, and the practice continues to be widespread in both the private and public sectors. The government claims to have taken civil and administrative actions against hundred of employers who abused or failed to pay their domestic employees. The government does not keep data on trafficking and related investigations, arrests, and prosecutions.

Protection The U.A.E. Government's efforts to provide protection and assistance to victims of trafficking were minimal during the reporting period. Its efforts to protect child camel jockeys were limited to the opening of one shelter in Abu Dhabi in December 2004 and the repatriation of approximately 443 rescued child camel jockeys. Given the estimated thousands of boys being openly exploited in the country, the total number rescued and repatriated so far is small. Following increased public attention to the camel jockey situation and rescue efforts by the government, an international NGO alleged that some camel owners are hiding a large number of child victims in the desert and in neighboring countries. However, there is no evidence the government has taken action to investigate and prevent this crime. The government is also working with the Governments of Bangladesh and Pakistan to establish U.A.E. Government-funded shelters in those countries to receive and care for rescued and repatriated children.

The government's efforts to protect and assist victims of trafficking for sexual and labor exploitation have also been minimal. U.A.E. police continue to arrest and punish trafficking victims along with others engaged in prostitution, unless the victims identify themselves as having been trafficked. The U.A.E.'s numerous foreign domestic and agricultural workers are excluded from protection under U.A.E. labor laws and, as such, many are vulnerable to serious exploitation that constitutes involuntary servitude, a severe form of trafficking. The government does not have a shelter facility for foreign workers who are victims of involuntary servitude, but relies on housing provided by embassies, source-country NGOs, and concerned U.A.E. residents. The U.A.E. Government states it offers housing, work permits, counseling, medical care, and other necessary support for those labor victims who agree to testify against their traffickers. However, few victims reportedly benefited from these government-provided services. In 2004, the Dubai Police Human Rights Department reported assisting such victims in 18 trafficking cases. The Dubai Police also assigns Victim Assistant Coordinators to police stations to advise victims of their rights, encourage victims to testify, and provide other essential services to victims.

Prevention The U.A.E. slightly increased its trafficking prevention efforts over the past year, particularly efforts to prevent the trafficking of children to work as camel jockeys. Prevention measures reportedly included closer screening of visa applications by U.A.E. embassies in source countries, distributing informational material directly to newly arrived foreign workers, supplying brochures to source-country embassies and consulates to warn potential victims, conducting specific anti-trafficking training for police and various government personnel, and conducting training for immigration inspectors in document fraud detection methods.

In March and April 2005, the U.A.E. Government announced a variety of measures to begin to address the country's serious trafficking problems more effectively. The government announced in April that a new law, similar to the Presidential ban already in place but not enforced since September 2002, would be enacted soon. The law reportedly would ban jockeys under age 16 from participating in camel races and stipulate that a jockey's weight must exceed 45 kilograms (99 pounds). At the time of this writing, the law had not been enacted. The U.A.E. Government also announced in April new procedures to facilitate the repatriation of those underage foreign camel jockeys already in the country and to prevent new ones from entering. Beginning on March 31, 2005, camel farm owners would have two months to repatriate all underage foreign camel jockeys working on their farms. After this grace period, the government would begin levying fines against anyone harboring underage camel jockeys. The government stated in March 2005 that it would enforce a new requirement that all source-country expatriate residents, including children, have their own passports. The government reportedly instructed ports of entry to ensure that no underage children enter the country for the purpose of being used as a camel jockey. It also stated that a medical committee would begin conducting tests on all jockeys as part of the pre-race handicapping. The government reported that it had identified adequate shelters in Pakistan and Bangladesh to assist underage camel jockeys who had been repatriated to those countries, and that it would provide financing to source country organizations to handle such repatriations. From October 2002 to January 2005, the U.A.E., through the use of iris recognition technology and document fraud detecting methods, prevented 26,000 potential illegal immigrants from coming into the country, some of whom were likely trafficking victims.

[Calpernia]

Every year we add to our knowledge of the trafficking phenomenon. In last year’s Report, we used U.S. Government data that disaggregated transnational trafficking in persons by age and gender for the first time. These data showed that, of the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 percent are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors. The data also illustrate that the majority of transnational victims are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation. With a focus on transnational trafficking in persons, however, these data fail to include millions of victims around the world who are trafficked within their own national borders.

The alarming enslavement of people for purposes of labor exploitation, often in their own countries, is a form of human trafficking that can be hard to track from afar. It may not involve the same criminal organizations profiting from transnational trafficking for sexual exploitation; more often individuals are guilty of, for example, enslaving one domestic servant or hundreds of unpaid, forced workers at a factory.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Lusa is a 17 year-old orphan kidnapped in 2004 from her native Uzbekistan. Lusa’s aunt engineered her abduction to Dubai using a cousin's passport, because the aunt wanted to take Lusa’s apartment. In Dubai, Lusa was sold to a slavery and prostitution ring. When she was no longer useable in prostitution, the traffickers sent her to a psychiatric center. An Uzbek NGO located her in Dubai. The NGO arranged to move her to a shelter, and they began working on her repatriation. Because she entered the U.A.E. illegally, on a false passport, the U.A.E. immigration service said she should serve a two-year prison sentence. Government officials and the enterprising NGO are negotiating Lusa’s case.

A wide range of estimates exists on the scope and magnitude of modern-day slavery. The International Labor Organization (ILO) — the United Nations (UN) agency charged with addressing labor standards, employment, and social protection issues — estimates that there are 12.3 million people enslaved in forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, sexual servitude, and involuntary servitude at any given time. The nationalities of these people are as diverse as the world’s cultures. Some leave developing countries, seeking to improve their lives through low-skilled jobs in more prosperous countries. Others fall victim to forced or bonded labor in their own countries. Some families give children to related or unrelated adults who promise education and opportunity — but deliver the children into slavery — for money.

[Calpernia]

Kyrgyz Sex Trade Flourishes

The sex trade in Kyrgyzstan has become a big business that the authorities are powerless to stop

By Alexander Zelichenko in Bishkek (RCA, 24-Mar-00)

It is often said that prostitution did not exist under Communism. It did. The sex trade was simply tightly controlled and organised with the tacit approval of the authorities.

Then known as Frunze, the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek boasted a training school for fighter pilots from Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Certain women were allowed to "entertain" the visiting cadets in a handful of local hard currency bars and restaurants.

In an era of general shortage and shabbiness, these women were distinguished by their Western fashions and expensive perfumes. From time to time, the police would organise show raids when the prostitutes were rounded up then released back at the station.

After independence, these women used their experience and overseas contacts to ply a lucrative trade as international pimps. The oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) became their main market. Here Kyrgyz "businesswomen" met patrons, searched out loopholes in the law and studied the mores of potential clients. Returning home to Bishkek, they began to seek out their quarry.

They dazzled Kyrgyz girls with promises of well-paid work in Dubai as waitresses and dancers. Special companies took care of all the travel arrangements. But, as soon as they arrived in Dubai, the girls were relieved of their passports and forced into prostitution by the racketeers.

However, a string of suicides and high-profile scandals forced the cartels to change their tactics.

The sex industry turned its attention to call-girls who were already working in Bishkek's flourishing saunas and hotels. These new courtesans knew exactly what they were getting into and courses were even established to teach manners, dancing and English.

From small beginnings, the sex trade to Dubai has ballooned to such an extent that, according to official figures, a total of 794 Kyrgyz "tourists" visited the Gulf state over a nine-month period last year. Of these, 556 were women - 450 aged between 18 and 35.

Typically, poverty on the one hand and promises of fairytale luxury on the other have pushed a vast number of girls into the international sex trade. Many of these girls first migrated to Bishkek from the countryside in the hope of finding work. Lacking the necessary educational qualifications, many soon took to the streets.

Without the resources to set up a full-blown "vice squad", the Kyrgyz authorities have just one police officer fighting the international trafficking in women. It is part of Lieutenant Tursun Rakhmanov's job to document the plight of the girls he comes across. Veronika's story is typical.

"I came to Bishkek from my village and rented an apartment," says the 22-year-old. "Before that I used to come on holidays and days off, to work as a prostitute, so I knew the market. But soon the rent for the apartment went up and the competition - 13- and 14-year-old girls prepared to do anything for $3 -- forced me out on to the street. But even walking the streets I never let myself go. I took care of myself, tried not to drink or do drugs.

"Perhaps that's why I caught the eye of one madam who turned up at our usual spot. A woman of about 35, Larissa, stepped out of a flashy car, called me over and took a passport and visa out of her handbag - it only needed a photo to be stuck in it. We agreed to meet the following day by the city clock.

"At exactly five, me and another four girls were standing underneath the clock. We thought we'd be able to get an advance, go to the hairdressers and buy some nice clothes. But Larissa explained what was going to happen to us in detail: 'We're going right now,' she said. 'Each of you pays me back $4,000 and another $500 for the visa. If you don't like it, get out of the car!'

"We flew out of Chimkent. In Dubai, the first thing they did at the airport exit was to take our passports away. Then they took us to a hotel. The rooms weren't bad, but we were forbidden from going any further than the hall because of the police. There wasn't any time anyway. Up to 30 clients a day! For the first three days they would take us out to the beach and photograph us in swimsuits they'd hired for the occasion. We found out later that Larissa was using the pictures as adverts to drum up business.

"The hotel was average - not expensive, but not the cheapest either. The slang expression for it was 'a one-off'. That meant that one sexual act there cost 50 diram ($15), while an hour of "loving" costs 100 diram ($27). We didn't see any money anyway. Everything, even what the clients gave us as tips, was taken off us by the minders. They kept telling us that we were lucky. Thais, Indonesians and Filipinos work in the cheap 'workers'' hotels, and the rich Arabs don't make use of their services. They end up catering for the seasonal workers - Indians, Vietnamese, Chinese.

"They paid our keep, fed us quite well, and bought the odd bottle of perfume. But we had to work for that money! You'd just got out of the bath and the next sheik was on the doorstep, and you had to keep everyone happy. And they fined us for every little fault. Once a girlfriend and I went to a shop close by. The minders saw us and made us work off another 300 diram! ($80).

"Four months went by. Then, one day, the minders turned up in a cheerful mood and told us that from now on we would be working for ourselves, but that we would have to pay for food and the hotel. Usually the bell-boy or the receptionist would tell us if the police were coming. But one night nobody gave us any warning. I spent 10 days behind bars before being deported .

"I went home with nothing. But I think I'll go back, only this time I won't be such an idiot. There were girls there from Russia, Kazakstan, the Ukraine as well as Kyrgyzstan. There were at least 500 of us."

For many women going to work abroad, the sex tours had far worse consequences. One returned home in a coffin; others have simply gone missing. A group of 12 mothers recently visited Rakhmanov asking for his help in finding their missing daughters. However, with neither the resources nor the mandate to do so, the lieutenant was unable to help.

The problem of juvenile girls being exported abroad to work as prostitutes is of particular concern. One cartel targets attractive girls from poor families. Sometimes they approach the parents offering money and openly discussing what their daughter will be doing abroad. Sometimes the parents agree to the deal.

If they don't, the recruiters often try to tempt the girls directly by showing them photographs of stunning hotels, swimming pools and fabulous beaches. Using forged passports, the traffickers take them abroad pretending they are relatives.

In the town of Chuy-Tokmok, Fatima A. will be brought to trial for having turned an under-age girl to prostitution. Having forged a Kyrgyzstan national passport, the enterprising "mother" had sold the girl to a brothel-in the UAE.

And today Kyrgyzstan is not only exporting its daughters, but is in danger of becoming a centre for prostitution in its own right. Rakhmanov recently found three Chinese nationals working the streets of Bishkek, whilst in Osh he came across 10 "working girls" from Uzbekistan. Almost every day, new additions are made to the police files-girls from Russia, refugees from Tajikistan and Kazak nationals.

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1530000/posts
Illegal Immigration, Human Trafficking, and Organized Crime

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1529927/posts
CIS - Canada: The Organized Crime Marketplace in Canada

[VeniVidiVici]

bump

[Calpernia]

Now available to rent at Block buster

Human Trafficking

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[Calpernia]

http://www.lifetimetv.com/movies/originals/humantrafficking.html
Human Trafficking

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1674672/posts
Pornography's link to rape