CNN has been investigating the flourishing world of human trafficking for some time now, particularly Amber Lyon. You may have seen her latest investigation this past Sunday on CNN "Selling the Girl Next Door." She investigated how the prevalence of escort classifieds have moved from Craig's List to Backpage.
Many people have misconceptions regarding these girls who have classifieds listed on these websites. Many believe they are whores, prostitutes, etc... Little do they know that often their ads are posted by pimps who are selling these underage girls for profit. The girls often receive little or none of their wages. This is how the modern day slave trade works.
And what about the men purchasing these girls?? It could be your neighbor, a family member, friend, colleague, etc... Men of all walks of life are participating and perpetuating the slave trade. The may think of it as their guilty pleasure, but maybe they should think about what they are doing to the females they are abusing. Some men say the females are obviously willing, they just responded to an ad. Well if that female is under the control of a trafficker, then the ad was not posted of her will, nor is she sleeping with men for pleasure.
While Craig's List has taken off it's escort services section, the problem has just moved to a different site; Backpage. On Backpage, escort ads can be posted for as little as $5. With words such a youthful and innocent, one can clearly discern underage females are being sold.
When confronted, the CEOs have little to say about the escort services listed on their sites. Craig's List was supposedly filtering all escort ads posted, but when investigated, it was revealed to be untrue. It is a shame incidences like the Craig's List killer must occur from greedy businesspeople to realize lives are at risk in such an industry.
It is said Backpage is gaining millions from profiting off the extra escort ads posted on their site since Craig's List has taken off its escort services section. The proliferation of this horrendous crime will continue until we have another 'Craig's list killer.' What happened to making an honest wage? The CEOs of these companies which allow escort classifieds are clearly profiting from these girls who are being put into danger every day they spend in the control of their pimps and traffickers.
When is it going to be enough? Prostitution is prohibited in the United States, except in Nevada. Should we not have laws regulating this online? It would be unheard of to open the Sunday paper and see escort services advertised, so why is it acceptable online? There has been much talk of how to regulate online activities, but maybe now is the time to stop talking, and start doing.
28 January 2011
23 June 2009
Recession Boosts Global Human Trafficking, Report Says
WASHINGTON: CNN: 16 June 2009 - The global financial crisis has increased the worldwide trade in trafficked persons, says a State Department report released Tuesday.
The State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report also says trafficking has increased in Africa and slaps six African nations on a blacklist of countries not meeting the minimum standard of combating trafficking.
The report, mandated by Congress, features data and statistics from 175 countries around the world regarding the amount of human trafficking that goes on within their borders.
The report cites the International Labor Organization, which estimates that at least 12.3 million adults and children are victims of forced labor, bonded labor and sex slavery each year.
"This is modern slavery. A crime that spans the globe, providing ruthless employers with endless supply of people to abuse for financial gain," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said as she announced the report. "With this report, we hope to shine the light brightly on the scope and scale of modern slavery, so all governments can see where progress has been made and where more is needed."
The report says the global economic crisis is boosting the demand for human trafficking because of a growing demand for cheap goods and services.
"A striking global demand for labor and a growing supply of workers willing to take ever greater risks for economic opportunities seem a recipe for increased forced labor cases of migrant workers and women in prostitution," it says.
It predicts that the economic crisis will push more businesses underground to avoid taxes and unionized labor, which will increase the use of forced, cheap and child labor by cash-strapped multinational companies.
African countries Nigeria and Mauritius are praised in the report for making strong efforts to combat trafficking.
But six African nations -- Chad, Eritrea, Mauritania, Niger, Swaziland and Zimbabwe -- were put on the report's "Tier 3" blacklist of countries whose efforts to combat trafficking are inadequate.
Most of the countries are "source" and "destination" countries, the report says, meaning trafficking victims both come from and are sent there. Most are trafficked throughout Africa, but many end up in the Middle East, it says.
Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria remain on the blacklist for another year, with the report saying they often become a destination for trafficked persons who are sold into domestic servitude. Other repeat offenders on the list include North Korea, Myanmar and Fiji.
The State Department also put Malaysia in the Tier 3 list, because of its trafficking of Burmese refugees.
The report cites information that Malaysian immigration officials sold refugees to traffickers operating along its border with Thailand. When the victims were unable to pay a ransom demanded by the traffickers, the report says, they were sold for labor and commercial sex exploitation.
The blacklisted countries are subject to U.S. sanctions if they don't make greater efforts to fight trafficking.
The Philippines, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Pakistan were added to a "watch list" because of what the report calls a worsening trafficking record in those countries. The 52 countries on the watch list have failed to to meet the minimum anti-trafficking standards but are making efforts to do so.
For the first time, countries that have been on the watch list for two years -- including China, Russia, India, Sri Lanka and Egypt -- will automatically be moved to the Tier 3 blacklist next year without a presidential waiver if they fail improve their trafficking record, the State Department said.
This year, the Justice Department also put out a report on U.S. efforts to combat trafficking efforts at home. In 2008, the FBI opened 132 trafficking investigations, made 139 arrests and obtained 94 convictions.
Clinton invited to Tuesday's event members of Congress who are active on the issue, as well as global advocates for trafficking victims, in an effort to give the issue a higher profile and shine a spotlight on the need to combat it.
Calling for a renewed worldwide partnership between countries and non-governmental organizations to combat trafficking, Clinton said, "Trafficking thrives in the shadows, and it can be easy to dismiss it as something that happens to someone else, somewhere else. But that's not the case.
"Trafficking is a crime that involves every nation on Earth, and that includes our own," she said, calling trafficking a "grave problem" in the United States.
For the first time, she said, the United States next year will rank its own efforts at combating trafficking along with the rest of the world. She expressed hope that it will be on the Tier 1 list of countries that are making robust efforts.
The State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report also says trafficking has increased in Africa and slaps six African nations on a blacklist of countries not meeting the minimum standard of combating trafficking.
The report, mandated by Congress, features data and statistics from 175 countries around the world regarding the amount of human trafficking that goes on within their borders.
The report cites the International Labor Organization, which estimates that at least 12.3 million adults and children are victims of forced labor, bonded labor and sex slavery each year.
"This is modern slavery. A crime that spans the globe, providing ruthless employers with endless supply of people to abuse for financial gain," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said as she announced the report. "With this report, we hope to shine the light brightly on the scope and scale of modern slavery, so all governments can see where progress has been made and where more is needed."
The report says the global economic crisis is boosting the demand for human trafficking because of a growing demand for cheap goods and services.
"A striking global demand for labor and a growing supply of workers willing to take ever greater risks for economic opportunities seem a recipe for increased forced labor cases of migrant workers and women in prostitution," it says.
It predicts that the economic crisis will push more businesses underground to avoid taxes and unionized labor, which will increase the use of forced, cheap and child labor by cash-strapped multinational companies.
African countries Nigeria and Mauritius are praised in the report for making strong efforts to combat trafficking.
But six African nations -- Chad, Eritrea, Mauritania, Niger, Swaziland and Zimbabwe -- were put on the report's "Tier 3" blacklist of countries whose efforts to combat trafficking are inadequate.
Most of the countries are "source" and "destination" countries, the report says, meaning trafficking victims both come from and are sent there. Most are trafficked throughout Africa, but many end up in the Middle East, it says.
Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria remain on the blacklist for another year, with the report saying they often become a destination for trafficked persons who are sold into domestic servitude. Other repeat offenders on the list include North Korea, Myanmar and Fiji.
The State Department also put Malaysia in the Tier 3 list, because of its trafficking of Burmese refugees.
The report cites information that Malaysian immigration officials sold refugees to traffickers operating along its border with Thailand. When the victims were unable to pay a ransom demanded by the traffickers, the report says, they were sold for labor and commercial sex exploitation.
The blacklisted countries are subject to U.S. sanctions if they don't make greater efforts to fight trafficking.
The Philippines, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Pakistan were added to a "watch list" because of what the report calls a worsening trafficking record in those countries. The 52 countries on the watch list have failed to to meet the minimum anti-trafficking standards but are making efforts to do so.
For the first time, countries that have been on the watch list for two years -- including China, Russia, India, Sri Lanka and Egypt -- will automatically be moved to the Tier 3 blacklist next year without a presidential waiver if they fail improve their trafficking record, the State Department said.
This year, the Justice Department also put out a report on U.S. efforts to combat trafficking efforts at home. In 2008, the FBI opened 132 trafficking investigations, made 139 arrests and obtained 94 convictions.
Clinton invited to Tuesday's event members of Congress who are active on the issue, as well as global advocates for trafficking victims, in an effort to give the issue a higher profile and shine a spotlight on the need to combat it.
Calling for a renewed worldwide partnership between countries and non-governmental organizations to combat trafficking, Clinton said, "Trafficking thrives in the shadows, and it can be easy to dismiss it as something that happens to someone else, somewhere else. But that's not the case.
"Trafficking is a crime that involves every nation on Earth, and that includes our own," she said, calling trafficking a "grave problem" in the United States.
For the first time, she said, the United States next year will rank its own efforts at combating trafficking along with the rest of the world. She expressed hope that it will be on the Tier 1 list of countries that are making robust efforts.
11 June 2009
Officials Want More Pressure on Human Trafficking
The NY Times: 10 June 2009 - WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration and Sen. Chuck Schumer want to step up pressure on human-trafficking operations by taking away their safe houses.
Schumer announced plans Wednesday to propose legislation to allow federal agents to seize houses if they can prove the buildings were used by smugglers to shelter illegal immigrants temporarily.
Under current law, the home owner must be convicted of a smuggling-related offense before prosecutors can seize the safe house.
Officials say taking safe houses out of play could disrupt many smuggling operations. Federal law allows prosecutors to seize houses in drug cases, money laundering and child pornography, but not for human smuggling.
''This policy needs to be fixed right away,'' Schumer, D-N.Y., said after a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. ''It can put a serious dent in the operations of the Mexican cartels that deal in human trafficking.''
Richard Stana, director of Homeland Security and Justice programs at the Government Accountability Office, said he doesn't know why the administration and Congress hasn't made this a priority in the past.
Stana said that in dealing with human smuggling operations, the goal is to take away the tools used to carry out the operation -- specifically the houses where illegal immigrants are hidden by their smugglers.
In Florida, a high (-tech) eye on smugglers
Los Angeles Times: 21 May 2009 - A new computer system and camera installed in government aircraft can study a wide stretch of ocean, zoom in on a single vessel, and track courses for easy interception by the Coast Guard.
Off The Florida Coast — They can spot the smile on a suspected smuggler's face from 10,000 feet in the air, record full-color video of his run for shore and simultaneously track 5,000 ships spread over hundreds of miles of ocean.
Flying above the Atlantic about halfway between Florida and the Bahamas, the latest addition to the government's anti-smuggling arsenal can track the trajectory of a boat leaving Cuba and compare it -- in seconds -- to every filed course plan for vessels on the water. And if the boat seems suspicious, the computer will calculate course, speed and relative positions to tell the nearest Coast Guard vessel the bearings to follow to intercept it.
"With the old system, you were looking through a straw for a quarter on a card table," said Michael Ringgold, an air interdiction agent who worked with the engineers to develop the new system. "Now you're looking with your eyes open at the whole room."
Only two airplanes -- both belonging to the United States -- carry this combination of smuggler-spotting equipment and computer software. One belongs to the Miami office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The new computer can identify and filter out hundreds of legitimate cargo ships or boats within minutes. With the old system, it could take up to 10 minutes for a radar operator to manually identify a single vessel. The computer also matches the outline of any unidentified craft against its database to determine what type of vessel it is -- a freighter, sailboat or yacht, for instance. The time saved allows operators to concentrate on other suspicious targets.
"In a sense, you have an air-traffic control system for the ocean," said Blake Page, a Dallas-based radar expert.
The system proved itself while it was still in development last May, flying test missions aboard a Customs twin-engine turboprop Bombardier Dash 8 while engineers worked out kinks in the computer code.
Ringgold used the system's powerful camera to spot and record a boat near Cay Sal, Bahamas, with a suspicious tarp covering the back. With three clicks of a mouse, he was able to give the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Chandeleur the coordinates to intercept the boat, which carried 20 Cubans. On April 14, a Key West federal jury convicted Ricardo Espildora on 22 counts of human smuggling charges in the case.
Human trafficking raids
BBC: 29 May 2009 - Six women have been rescued from human traffickers who were forcing them to work as prostitutes in brothels run by the Chinese mafia here.
Three people were arrested in the searches that took place in five different locations - Belfast, Londonderry and Newry in Northern Ireland, and Birmingham and Kidderminster in England.
Our Home Affairs Correspondent, Vincent Kearney, was there when the Belfast raids took place.
Human trafficking - Belfast raid
Twenty women have now been rescued from human traffickers here in just over a year.
In the north west, where another search took place, Women's Aid welcomed the police action and urged women who are being abused in any way to come forward.
This from our north west reporter, Keiron Tourish.
Human trafficking raid - Londonderry
10 June 2009
MPs warn of 'slave trade' in UK
BBC: 14 May 2009 - Britain is the destination for what amounts to a modern-day "slave trade", the Home Affairs committee has warned.
The cross-party group of MPs, which is tasked with scrutinising the Home Office, said there are at least 5,000 human trafficking victims in Britain.
The committee said most are women and children who are forced to work in the sex trade or as beggars.
MPs criticise a lack of safe-house places and "major gaps" in awareness at the UK Border Agency.
The committee also warned that some 60% of trafficked children held in council homes go missing and are never found.
'Enforcement patchy'
The report states that some homes are used by traffickers as "holding pens" for their victims until they are ready to pick them up.
Committee chairman Keith Vaz said there was a lack of understanding of the situation among authorities.
He said: "This is not immigration crime and cannot be dealt with as such. What we are seeing is in effect a resurgence of a type of slave trade.
"Yet we have no good information on the scale of the problem, enforcement is patchy, prosecution rates are low and there is little protection for victims."
Missing children
Mr Vaz's comments come a week after Prime Minister Gordon Brown vowed to investigate reports that trafficking gangs have targeted a children's home next to Heathrow airport.
According to the Guardian newspaper, a report from the UK Border Agency showed more than 80 Chinese children have gone missing from the home since 2006.
The report, which was marked "restricted", said the centre had become a "clearing house" for international gangs.
It says Chinese children who arrive alone at the airport are taken into local authority care, and in two thirds of cases vanish within a week.
Family jailed for sex trafficking
BBC: 4 June 2009 - Three members of a Hungarian family have been jailed for trafficking women to the UK for sexual exploitation, by an Inner London Crown Court judge.
Istvan Kalocsai, 42, and his son Istvan, 19, were jailed for six-and-a-half and five years respectively for sex trafficking offences.
Istvan Kalocsai, 42, and his son Istvan, 19, were jailed for six-and-a-half and five years respectively for sex trafficking offences.
Istvan's wife Istvanne, 39, got three years for controlling prostitution. All three lived in Barking in Essex.
Police said they had exploited "another human being in the most horrible way".
The family were arrested after a young Hungarian woman was found cowering in the toilets of London City Airport, the court had heard.
Tricked and beaten
They tricked her into leaving her village home and forced her into prostitution with threats and beatings.
A second son, Gabor Kalocsai, 22, is still on the run from police and believed to be in Hungary.
In May 2008 a cleaner found the young woman, who was in her early 20s, unable to speak English, with no passport or baggage, and begging to be flown back to Hungary.
Police first thought she had been robbed, but after speaking to her via a translator, it became clear she had been trafficked into the UK and forced to work as a prostitute.
She originally came from a remote village in Hungary and was told she could have an all-expenses paid trip to Britain, where she would then work legitimately to pay back the cost of her trip.
But no sooner had she been picked up by Istvan Kalocsai and his sons, than the three men began to threaten her, telling her she had been sold to them and "there is no going back now".
Terrified, she was driven through Germany and even forced into prostitution on the way to the UK, when the family sent her to have sex with lorry drivers, telling her she had to earn petrol money.
Once in the country the young woman was taken to the Kalocsai family home in Barking, Essex, where she was bought mini skirts and taught how to "walk like a working girl" by the family's mother.
The sons, Gabor and Istvan Jnr, would go out with the victim and negotiate fees with the clients before she would either take them back to a hotel address in Barking or a local park.
On several occasions she was beaten by the father and mother and was told that she had to earn £200 a day.
She believed that if she refused to work, she would be beaten until she did.
At first the young woman was not allowed out of the family's home unless it was to work or when she went shopping with the mother.
But after an incident where she was stopped by police for prostitution while she was with Gabor, the family members accompanied her less often.
After two months she finally escaped, following an incident where the mother threatened to kill one of her friends.
Det Con Mark Simpson, of the Metropolitan Police's Human Trafficking Team, said: "They sought to profit from the exploitation of another human being in the most horrible way.
"Through violence and intimidation they forced her to do things against her will and failed to honour any of her basic human rights."
At the Kalocsai's home police found that a second Hungarian woman had been living there while the family prostituted her at brothels in west London and over the internet.
The Metropolitan Police are working closely with the Hungarian human trafficking team in Budapest to find him.
09 June 2009
Hookers for Jesus founder, Christian rocker wed in Vegas
CNN: June 5, 2009 - She was a call girl working the streets of Sin City. He's a guitarist in a heavy metal band. They found commonality in their Christian faith and Friday evening, the two were married in a Las Vegas, Nevada, ceremony broadcast live via the Web.
Annie Lobért, who founded Hookers for Jesus, and musician Oz Fox of the Christian band Stryper said their "I do's" at the Church of South Las Vegas in front of an applauding crowd and an audience on the Internet. The wedding had been widely touted on several Christian Web sites.
Lobért, 41, walked up to the stage in a white strapless gown, gloves and veil. Earlier this week, she wrote on her MySpace blog: "I am getting married. It's about time."
She had worked as a prostitute for 11 years, making as much as $500 an hour. She said she hit rock bottom when she overdosed on cocaine and everything went black, according to an ABC interview posted on her Web site. She asked Jesus to help her and became what many jokingly call a "porn-again Christian."
Lobért says her mission now is to save the souls of women who sell their bodies. She often spends time at night on Las Vegas streets handing out Bibles to prostitutes and seeking to convince them there is a better way to make a living.
The Hookers for Jesus Web site describes the organization as "an international, faith-based organization that addresses the realities of human sex trafficking, sexual violence and exploitation linked to pornography and the sex industry."
Before he administered the vows, Pastor Benny Perez said Lobért was a shining example of Christ's love for everyone.
Fox, 47, is a longtime member of Stryper, which stands for Salvation Through Redemption, Yielding Peace, Encouragement and Righteousness. The band's albums include "Reborn: and "In God We Trust."
01 June 2009
Nevada Governor Signs Legislation Cracking Down on Child Sex Trafficking
Polaris Project: Carson City, NV, May 26, 2009 - Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons signed legislation into law last Friday targeting human traffickers and pimps who exploit children in prostitution – bringing Nevada law more in line with other western states.
Assemblyman John Hambrick (R, 2), a former law enforcement officer and Assemblyman Bernie Anderson (D, 31) introduced this bi-partisan legislation in response to witnessing the many children grossly exploited and subject to violence in the sex trade. In May of 2007, outreach workers identified over 400 prostituted children on the streets of Nevada alone, and while the use of children in prostitution is a severe form of human trafficking under federal law, it still remains rampant. In the U.S. uncountable child victims are trapped in pimp-controlled street prostitution or sold on the internet, with no hope of escape. Victims face a horrific life in which they are repeatedly threatened, beaten, raped, starved, or psychologically tortured. These crimes are committed for one reason: the financial profit of traffickers.
The newly enacted law improves Nevada’s response to trafficking by adding severe financial penalties - and risk - to the crime of prostituting a child, while providing a funding mechanism to prevent and prosecute the crime. "The new law targets traffickers’ greatest motivation – their profits," stated Hambrick, "and clearly demonstrates that we mean business." The new law provides for criminal fines of up to $100,000 for a person convicted of prostituting a child between the ages of 14 and 18, and fines of up to $500,000 if the child is under 14. The assets of those convicted may also be forfeited and directed to law enforcement and to organizations working to end the sex trafficking of minors. The new fines are more in line with Nevada’s neighboring state of Arizona and several other western states that have sent a strong message to traffickers that exploitation will not be tolerated.
According to Hambrick, "this new law is but a first step in cracking down on the malicious and insidiously cruel crime of human trafficking in Nevada, and I look forward to even more comprehensive reforms in the next session." Human trafficking is the modern day practice of slavery and it is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, generating over $36 billion annually. Victims of human trafficking in the U.S. are children and adults, and both foreign nationals and U.S. citizens, who are subjected to force, fraud, and coercion for sexual or labor exploitation.
Ambassador Mark Lagon, Executive Director at Polaris Project commented, "We commend Nevada legislators, advocates, and Governor Gibbons for addressing this critical need. We look forward to Nevada authorities -- in concert with non-governmental organizations -- taking even greater steps next year to end human trafficking of both minors and adults, by implementing greater penalties against traffickers and improving protections for victims."
20 May 2009
Girls on Our Streets
NEW YORK TIMES: 6 May 2009: Jasmine Caldwell was 14 and selling sex on the streets when an opportunity arose to escape her pimp: an undercover policeman picked her up.
The cop could have rescued her from the pimp, who ran a string of 13 girls and took every cent they earned. If the cop had taken Jasmine to a shelter, she could have resumed her education and tried to put her life back in order.
Instead, the policeman showed her his handcuffs and threatened to send her to prison. Terrified, she cried and pleaded not to be jailed. Then, she said, he offered to release her in exchange for sex.
Afterward, the policeman returned her to the street. Then her pimp beat her up for failing to collect any money.
“That happens a lot,” said Jasmine, who is now 21. “The cops sometimes just want to blackmail you into having sex.”
I’ve often reported on sex trafficking in other countries, and that has made me curious about the situation here in the United States. Prostitution in America isn’t as brutal as it is in, say, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Cambodia and Malaysia (where young girls are routinely kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured by brothel owners, occasionally even killed). But the scene on American streets is still appalling — and it continues largely because neither the authorities nor society as a whole show much interest in 14-year-old girls pimped on the streets.
Americans tend to think of forced prostitution as the plight of Mexican or Asian women trafficked into the United States and locked up in brothels. Such trafficking is indeed a problem, but the far greater scandal and the worst violence involves American teenage girls.
If a middle-class white girl goes missing, radio stations broadcast amber alerts, and cable TV fills the air with “missing beauty” updates. But 13-year-old black or Latina girls from poor neighborhoods vanish all the time, and the pimps are among the few people who show any interest.
These domestic girls are often runaways or those called “throwaways” by social workers: teenagers who fight with their parents and are then kicked out of the home. These girls tend to be much younger than the women trafficked from abroad and, as best I can tell, are more likely to be controlled by force.
Pimps are not the business partners they purport to be. They typically take every penny the girls earn. They work the girls seven nights a week. They sometimes tattoo their girls the way ranchers brand their cattle, and they back up their business model with fists and threats.
“If you don’t earn enough money, you get beat,” said Jasmine, an African-American who has turned her life around with the help of Covenant House, an organization that works with children on the street. “If you say something you’re not supposed to, you get beat. If you stay too long with a customer, you get beat. And if you try to leave the pimp, you get beat.”
The business model of pimping is remarkably similar whether in Atlanta or Calcutta: take vulnerable, disposable girls whom nobody cares about, use a mix of “friendship,” humiliation, beatings, narcotics and threats to break the girls and induce 100 percent compliance, and then rent out their body parts.
It’s not solely violence that keeps the girls working for their pimps. Jasmine fled an abusive home at age 13, and she said she — like most girls — stayed with the pimp mostly because of his emotional manipulation. “I thought he loved me, so I wanted to be around him,” she said.
That’s common. Girls who are starved of self-esteem finally meet a man who showers them with gifts, drugs and dollops of affection. That, and a lack of alternatives, keeps them working for him — and if that isn’t enough, he shoves a gun in the girl’s mouth and threatens to kill her.
Solutions are complicated and involve broader efforts to overcome urban poverty, including improving schools and attempting to shore up the family structure. But a first step is to stop treating these teenagers as criminals and focusing instead on arresting the pimps and the customers — and the corrupt cops.
“The problem isn’t the girls in the streets; it’s the men in the pews,” notes Stephanie Davis, who has worked with Mayor Shirley Franklin to help coordinate a campaign to get teenage prostitutes off the streets.
Two amiable teenage prostitutes, working without a pimp for the “fast money,” told me that there will always be women and girls selling sex voluntarily. They’re probably right. But we can significantly reduce the number of 14-year-old girls who are terrorized by pimps and raped by many men seven nights a week. That’s doable, if it’s a national priority, if we’re willing to create the equivalent of a nationwide amber alert.
Torture a hallmark of Phoenix's drug kidnappings
CNN: Phoenix, AZ: Jaime Andrade had just gotten out of the shower when the men came to snatch him.
His wife, Araceli Valencia, was mopping the kitchen in their family home on a typical warm spring morning in Phoenix, Arizona, "when she suddenly felt a hard object pointed to the back of her head and a voice in Spanish tell her not to move," according to a Phoenix, Arizona, police investigative report.
"I told you not to look at me!" Valencia heard one of the kidnappers bark as he struck Andrade across the head.
Her four children bawling, Valencia was hustled into a bedroom where an armed man fondled her and threatened to rape her if she didn't tell him where Andrade hid his money, according to the report.
After beating and binding Andrade, one of the kidnappers put a gun to Valencia's head. His message: We're taking your husband and SUV. We'll be watching your house. If you call the cops, he's a dead man.
Andrade, his wife would later tell police, was a mechanic and freelance human smuggler, or coyote. Police say his 2006 kidnapping was evidence of a growing trend in Phoenix: drug and human traffickers abducting each other for ransoms or retribution.
The trend continues, as police investigated roughly a kidnapping a day in 2007 and 2008 and are on track to shatter those numbers this year. Police are stingy with details of fresh cases navigating the court system, but recently allowed CNN to review the files from Andrade's kidnapping.
For two and a half days after Andrade's abduction, the kidnappers -- including a man whom Andrade later said had been a friend -- deprived their victim of food and water. Through the door of the closet where he was held, Andrade could hear the cries of other victims being tortured in the house, the report said.
Meanwhile, Valencia had defied the kidnappers and called police, who listened to Andrade "scream and howl in pain" over the phone as the kidnappers tried to cut off his ear and a finger. The torture would continue until Valencia came up with the ransom, the kidnappers told her.
They were true to their word.
Andrade was pistol-whipped and beaten with a baseball bat and the butt of a rifle. The kidnappers tried to gouge out his eye and slashed open his left eyebrow. They burned his back as well -- presumably, police said, with a blowtorch found at the scene.
The blindfolded Andrade "could feel his pants and underwear being cut open by an unknown person," he told police. He was told to bend over and was beaten when he refused.
"Jaime felt his legs being forced apart and heard Aldo say he was going to get his money," the report said. The kidnappers then sodomized him with a broomstick, a pair of scissors and a wooden dowel used to hang clothes in a closet.
Kidnappers creative with coercion
Ferocity is often a hallmark of the abductions taking place in this south Arizona city of 1.5 million that serves as a prime transshipment point for drugs and human cargo.
Phoenix police say they have yet to witness the level of violence -- the beheadings, the bodies shoved in drums -- that their counterparts are seeing in Mexico City or the border town of Juarez.
"It gets close sometimes," said Lt. Lauri Burgett, who heads the Home Invasion and Kidnapping Enforcement squad.
Kidnappers will smash their victims' fingers with bricks, snip their backs open with wire cutters, carve them up with knives or simply shoot them.
"We've had them electrocuted. They set them in a tub with water and use kind of barbaric means and zap the tub. I think it was a battery hooked up," Burgett said.
Two kidnappings last year resulted in murders, she added, but it's not the norm.
Phoenix police formed the HIKE squad in October after two years of unprecedented kidnapping numbers -- 357 in 2007 and 368 in 2008 -- gave the city the dubious distinction of being the nation's kidnapping capital. Home invasions were not far behind: 317 in 2007 and 337 in 2008.
"It's all about the money. And there's so much money to be made in this that you can't stop it, but you can try to reveal it, and then you can try to do something about it," Burgett said.
The task force has made dozens of arrests, but as of March 31, the city had 101 reported kidnappings. If the trend continues, Phoenix will record an increase in kidnapping for a fourth straight year.
More frustrating is that the numbers represent only a third, maybe less, of the city's kidnappings, said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a police spokesman with 16 years of drug enforcement experience. Most kidnappings aren't reported, he said, because the victims are generally smugglers, drug dealers or illegal immigrants -- or some combination of the three.
Other criminals targeted
The most common cases are criminal-on-criminal -- drug smugglers or coyotes snatching rivals or their loved ones. In some cases, a drug dealer may have lost a load or failed to make a payment, but there are also cases when kidnappers do it solely for the ransom, which can be between $30,000 and $250,000, Thompson said.
"[The victims are] wearing the doper bling-bling, and they target them," he said. "We've had several cases where the ransom amount has been $1 million that the person has asked for. In addition to that, they often ask for drugs -- 100 pounds of marijuana, perhaps a pound or two of speed, a pound or two of cocaine or several ounces of heroin."
Phoenix police have even arrested victims after rescuing them, Burgett said.
Less frequent but still accounting for 78 kidnappings last year are cases in which coyotes hold their human cargo captive or steal another coyote's patrons, known as pollos (Spanish for chickens), Burgett said.
Burgett said human trafficking is often linked to the drug trade because both industries require the same routes and subterfuge to ferry their wares into the country.
There are rarely "true victims" in Phoenix's kidnappings, the lieutenant said.
However, one criminal attorney who has represented at least 10 kidnappers in the last decade insists that the coyote business is "uglier than the drug trade" and that pollos are often killed or forced to do coyotes' bidding when they can't come up with the ransoms.
"In the drug business, the people getting killed are in the business. They are not end users, not consumers," said Antonio Bustamente. "In the coyote business, the people killed are really innocent. [First-time] illegal entry is a petty offense."
Though many might debate the innocence of victims entangled in Phoenix's border-related violence, police say there have been instances when the kidnappers snatched the wrong mark.
Girl mistakenly snatched
On the evening of March 17, 2008, a 13-year-old girl and her friend were walking out of a home in the suburb of Avondale. They were planning to play basketball. The friend, according to a police investigative report, was the niece of a man named "Chucky."
Chucky and his cohorts, witnesses told police, had earlier stolen 55 pounds of marijuana and left several men tied up in a vacant house.
Hours later, the investigative report said, armed men arrived at Chucky's sister's house in three vehicles, one a white Chevrolet Tahoe with blue-and-red strobes like the police use.
The men wanted Chucky, their drugs or $24,000. The 13-year-old said she didn't know Chucky. When she tried to walk away, "one of them grabbed her by the neck, pointed a gun at her and forced her in the vehicle," the report said.
Eventually, the men called the girl's mother to demand ransom. A police officer took the phone and informed the men they had the wrong girl. She was released relatively unharmed in the suburb of Surprise.
The case serves as a reminder that as police scramble to tamp the bloodshed before it reaches the levels proliferating south of the border, collateral damage is a reality.
The origins of the kidnappers -- 90 percent of whom hail from the Mexican state from which the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel takes its name -- also remind law enforcement that 150 miles south lies a country racked with a more extreme brand of violence.
The tortured Andrade was fortunate that police were able to find him. On Andrade's third day in captivity, an undercover officer posing as a loan shark convinced the kidnappers to lower their ransom from $50,000 to $10,000 and the title to the Ford Expedition they had stolen.
When the kidnappers arrived at the drop point, a Safeway supermarket parking lot, police swarmed on their green Chevrolet Tahoe, the report said. One of the men, Luis Alberto Castro-Vega, then 23, disclosed Andrade's whereabouts after police promised not to charge him with kidnapping.
Only Castro-Vega has been convicted of crimes associated with Andrade's kidnapping: first-degree burglary, theft by extortion, armed robbery and three counts of aggravated assault. In September 2006, a judge sentenced Castro-Vega to 54 years in prison.
Thompson said he hopes the stiff sentence sends a message that Phoenix police expect the kidnappings and violence to end, regardless of the targets and the perpetrators.
"The problems that occur when it's criminal versus criminal, that's still violence on the streets of America," he said. "If those people get in a gunbattle, those bullets have to go somewhere, and that could be a playground where kids are playing. That could be a neighbor's house where a neighbor is inside sleeping that has nothing to do whatsoever with the illegal activity, but yet they become senseless victims of the violence."
16 May 2009
Craigslist Dropping Erotic Ads
FOX: WASHINGTON, D.C. - An "internet brothel." That's how Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan describes the "erotic services" section of Craigslist.
Madigan helped negotiate the deal that will put an end to the section of Craigslist.
Mark Lagon runs Polaris Project. It's a non-profit devoted to fighting human sex trafficking.
"The proof of the pudding is in the tasting," Lagon told FOX 5 on Wednesday. "Whether the adult section that replaces it is in fact more benign. Will it be policed? Will it no longer have prostitution for sale?"
Just last month, Lagon sent a letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster offering assistance and asking Buckmaster to "take responsibility."
Craigslist says the new "adult services" section will be legal business only and those adult ads will now cost money. In Craiglist's defense, CEO Buckmaster blogged Wednesday, "...the record is clear that use of Craigslist classifieds is associated with far lower rates of violent crime than print classifieds let alone rates of violent crime pertaining to American society as a whole."
But pressure on Craigslist intensified after a Boston medical student was arrested for a murdering a masseuse he met through Craigslist.
Many say they'll wait and see. That list includes Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler.
"It is a good next step in our efforts to eliminate illegal sexual classified ads on the site," said Gansler. "We will continue to monitor the site to make sure Craigslist keeps its word."
12 May 2009
Official: More than 1M child prostitutes in India
CNN: NEW DELHI, India: Around 1.2 million children are believed to be involved in prostitution in India, the country's federal police said Monday.
Ashwani Kumar, who heads the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), told a seminar on human trafficking, that India occupied a "unique position" as what he called a source, transit nation and destination of this trade.
India's home secretary Madhukar Gupta remarked that at least 100 million people were involved in human trafficking in India.
"The number of trafficked persons is difficult to determine due to the secrecy and clandestine nature of the crime.
"However, studies and surveys sponsored by the ministry of women and child development estimate that there are about three million prostitutes in the country, of which an estimated 40 percent are children," a CBI statement said.
Prostitution in pilgrim towns, exploitation through sex tourism and pedophilia are some of some of the "alarming trends" that have emerged in recent years in India, it noted.
Authorities believe 90 percent of human trafficking in India is "intra-country."
This week on Marketplace Middle East
CNN: In Focus -- The Darker Side of LaborGovernments in the Middle East are moving with plans to pass legislation and adopt protocols against human trafficking and forced labor, but implementation and enforcement remain challenging.
This week MME explores how domestic workers and laborers struggle to survive, and how governments are trying to force change within their societies.
Facetime -- Roger Plant, International Labour Organisation
Over 12 million people are victims of forced labor and human trafficking, a problem that spans the globe. The Middle East relies heavily on foreign labor, which in some cases can make up 80 percent of the total population.
This week MME talks to Roger Plant from the UN's International Labour Organisation about this week's global report on forced labor and human trafficking -- and what countries can do to attack the $36 billion business of illegally trading workers.
07 May 2009
06 May 2009
West woman wins trafficking award
BBC: A West Country woman has been recognised for her work to highlight the problem of human trafficking.
Trish, whose full identity cannot be revealed for safety reasons, won the prize at the Extraordinary Women Awards in Nottingham.
She put trafficking in the spotlight last October when she launched the Unchosen Film Festival in Bristol.
It explored all aspects of the illegal human trafficking trade, from slavery to the sex industry.
Up to 4,000 women are trafficked in to the UK each year, and many are forced in to the illegal sex trade.
Trish was nominated by the Pierian Centre in St Pauls, and came out top in the Extraordinary Personal Contribution category at the awards.
"Human trafficking is the second largest illegal business in the world," she said. "And it's with this in mind that I've been grateful and humble to receive this award.
"I intend to use the opportunity to raise even more awareness of this underground activity in order to successfully rescue some of its victims in Bristol and the surrounding villages."
Trish, whose full identity cannot be revealed for safety reasons, won the prize at the Extraordinary Women Awards in Nottingham.
She put trafficking in the spotlight last October when she launched the Unchosen Film Festival in Bristol.
It explored all aspects of the illegal human trafficking trade, from slavery to the sex industry.
Up to 4,000 women are trafficked in to the UK each year, and many are forced in to the illegal sex trade.
Trish was nominated by the Pierian Centre in St Pauls, and came out top in the Extraordinary Personal Contribution category at the awards.
"Human trafficking is the second largest illegal business in the world," she said. "And it's with this in mind that I've been grateful and humble to receive this award.
"I intend to use the opportunity to raise even more awareness of this underground activity in order to successfully rescue some of its victims in Bristol and the surrounding villages."
FBI Initiatives
- Participating in joint law enforcement task forces (there are up to 30 such task forces around the country right now);
- Using intelligence to identify traffickers and gain insights into how they conduct their operations (i.e., finances, logistics);
- Looking at possible human trafficking elements in cases initially identified as human smuggling, Internet crimes against children, and/or sex tourism matters; and
- Perhaps most importantly, working closely with trafficking victims—many of whom don't speak English—to enlist their help in prosecuting their captors AND to make sure they get the support they need to cope with the horrors they've been through and get back on their feet.
Poor Latinos are victims of abuse nationwide, activists say
CNN: Low-income Latinos are routinely discriminated against in the South, a new report says, but the study's author and others say the problem exists nationwide, with millions of Spanish-speaking immigrants living "beyond the protection of the law."
The report, released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center, documents the experiences of 500 immigrants in the South, finding that Latinos routinely are cheated out of wages, are denied basic health protection and fall victim to racial profiling.
"Under Siege: Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South" details stories such as that of a Tennessee woman who says she was jailed at a cheese factory for asking for pay, a bean picker in Alabama who says his life savings were taken by police at a traffic stop, and a rapist in Georgia who was not arrested because the suspect's victim was an undocumented immigrant.
Forty-one percent of the people surveyed said they had experienced theft of their wages by employers. Forty-seven percent said they know someone who was treated unfairly by police. Seventy-seven percent of women surveyed said they have been sexually harassed by bosses, many saying that bosses used their immigration status as leverage.
"This report documents the human toll of failed policies that relegate millions of people to an underground economy, where they are beyond the protection of the law," said Mary Bauer, author of the report. "Workplace abuses and racial profiling are rampant in the South."
But such discrimination is also rampant nationwide, she said. The human-rights law center focused on the South because that's the area the Montgomery, Alabama-based group knows best, she said.
"This is not limited to the South," she said. "This does not stop when you get to some particular border. These same issues happen everywhere."
The problem may seem more acute in the South because Latinos are a relatively new immigrant group to the area, some observers say.
"Newcomers in any new region are always the first to be exploited. They're at the bottom of the pecking order," said Gustavo Arellano, the California-based author of the nationally syndicated "Ask a Mexican" column and a national radio commentator. "What's going on in the South now has already happened in Southern California."
Teodoro Maus, president of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, has heard thousands of discrimination complaints from Mexican immigrants during the past two decades. "In the South, you just open the door and you find it," he said.
"It's absolutely correct that there's generalized discrimination," he told CNN. "There's a general feeling that discrimination is valid because these people are illegal, because these people have no right to be here."
But the attitude toward discrimination has changed throughout the years, said Maus, who was also the Mexican consul general in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1990 to 1994 and from 1995 to 2001.
"The big difference from previous years is that there were discriminatory acts before, but not the belief that discrimination is allowed," he said.
Bolstered by what Maus called "an ultraconservative element," some people "realized they could have open aggression against a group of people who could not defend themselves."
Arizona also has experienced widespread discrimination, Maus and others say.
Bernardo Mendez Lugo, Mexico's deputy consul in Tucson, Arizona, said he sees three main forms of discrimination: racial profiling by law enforcement officers, problems in the workplace and difficulties in the rental housing market.
"There is much abuse," he said Wednesday.
Police officers frequently stop Latin-looking drivers "for any reason" and immediately call immigration officials if the motorist does not have an Arizona driver's license or other local identification, Mendez Lugo said.
In the workplace, he said, employees often find they are passed over for promotions despite their qualifications or length of employment. The abuse, Mendez Lugo said, is generally aimed at undocumented workers.
"They are told, 'I'm going to call immigration [authorities] if you keep asking,' " Mendez Lugo said.
Federal officials say there are more than 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Most of them come from Mexico and other Latin American countries.
John McManus, president of the conservative John Birch Society, doesn't see a widespread abuse problem.
"I would probably expect there would be some," he said. "There's a small number of unscrupulous people who will always take advantage of others. Generally speaking, I don't think that's the case."
Nor does McManus believe the source of the information.
"I don't put any stock at all in anything the Southern Poverty Law Center says," McManus said. "They like to distort a lot of things."
The center urged the federal government to strengthen labor laws and crack down on racial profiling.
"We're talking about a matter of basic human rights here," said Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen. "By allowing this cycle of abuse and discrimination to continue, we're creating an underclass of people who are invisible to justice and undermining our country's fundamental ideals."
The report, released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center, documents the experiences of 500 immigrants in the South, finding that Latinos routinely are cheated out of wages, are denied basic health protection and fall victim to racial profiling.
"Under Siege: Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South" details stories such as that of a Tennessee woman who says she was jailed at a cheese factory for asking for pay, a bean picker in Alabama who says his life savings were taken by police at a traffic stop, and a rapist in Georgia who was not arrested because the suspect's victim was an undocumented immigrant.
Forty-one percent of the people surveyed said they had experienced theft of their wages by employers. Forty-seven percent said they know someone who was treated unfairly by police. Seventy-seven percent of women surveyed said they have been sexually harassed by bosses, many saying that bosses used their immigration status as leverage.
"This report documents the human toll of failed policies that relegate millions of people to an underground economy, where they are beyond the protection of the law," said Mary Bauer, author of the report. "Workplace abuses and racial profiling are rampant in the South."
But such discrimination is also rampant nationwide, she said. The human-rights law center focused on the South because that's the area the Montgomery, Alabama-based group knows best, she said.
"This is not limited to the South," she said. "This does not stop when you get to some particular border. These same issues happen everywhere."
The problem may seem more acute in the South because Latinos are a relatively new immigrant group to the area, some observers say.
"Newcomers in any new region are always the first to be exploited. They're at the bottom of the pecking order," said Gustavo Arellano, the California-based author of the nationally syndicated "Ask a Mexican" column and a national radio commentator. "What's going on in the South now has already happened in Southern California."
Teodoro Maus, president of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, has heard thousands of discrimination complaints from Mexican immigrants during the past two decades. "In the South, you just open the door and you find it," he said.
"It's absolutely correct that there's generalized discrimination," he told CNN. "There's a general feeling that discrimination is valid because these people are illegal, because these people have no right to be here."
But the attitude toward discrimination has changed throughout the years, said Maus, who was also the Mexican consul general in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1990 to 1994 and from 1995 to 2001.
"The big difference from previous years is that there were discriminatory acts before, but not the belief that discrimination is allowed," he said.
Bolstered by what Maus called "an ultraconservative element," some people "realized they could have open aggression against a group of people who could not defend themselves."
Arizona also has experienced widespread discrimination, Maus and others say.
Bernardo Mendez Lugo, Mexico's deputy consul in Tucson, Arizona, said he sees three main forms of discrimination: racial profiling by law enforcement officers, problems in the workplace and difficulties in the rental housing market.
"There is much abuse," he said Wednesday.
Police officers frequently stop Latin-looking drivers "for any reason" and immediately call immigration officials if the motorist does not have an Arizona driver's license or other local identification, Mendez Lugo said.
In the workplace, he said, employees often find they are passed over for promotions despite their qualifications or length of employment. The abuse, Mendez Lugo said, is generally aimed at undocumented workers.
"They are told, 'I'm going to call immigration [authorities] if you keep asking,' " Mendez Lugo said.
Federal officials say there are more than 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Most of them come from Mexico and other Latin American countries.
John McManus, president of the conservative John Birch Society, doesn't see a widespread abuse problem.
"I would probably expect there would be some," he said. "There's a small number of unscrupulous people who will always take advantage of others. Generally speaking, I don't think that's the case."
Nor does McManus believe the source of the information.
"I don't put any stock at all in anything the Southern Poverty Law Center says," McManus said. "They like to distort a lot of things."
The center urged the federal government to strengthen labor laws and crack down on racial profiling.
"We're talking about a matter of basic human rights here," said Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen. "By allowing this cycle of abuse and discrimination to continue, we're creating an underclass of people who are invisible to justice and undermining our country's fundamental ideals."
04 May 2009
Rudd: Human smugglers 'scum of the earth'
CNN: Australia's prime minister Friday slammed those engaged in human trafficking after an explosion aboard a boat carrying Afghan refugees killed three people and injured more than 40 others near Ashmore Reef, off Australia's northwest coast.
"People smugglers are engaged in the world's most evil trade and they should all rot in jail because they represent the absolute scum of the earth," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters.
"We see this lowest form of human life at work in what we saw on the high seas yesterday. That's why this government maintains its hardline, tough, targeted approach to maintaining border protection for Australia. And that's why we have dedicated more resources to combat people smuggling than any other government in Australian history."
The boat was carrying 49 refugees, officials said. In addition to the three killed, two others were missing.
Rudd would not comment on the cause of the explosion, citing the ongoing investigation.
The prime minister acknowledged that human smuggling was an increasing problem exacerbated by "global factors" but defended his government's border security policies.
"Our staff, our naval staff, our coast watch staff, our aerial surveillance staff and others, our police, are doing a first class job backed up by our intelligence officers as well, also in collaboration with partners across the region," the prime minister said.
"Because it is a global phenomenon and we are finding push factors operating from around the world, our active partnership with international governments and international agencies like the UNHCR is equally critical. This is a fight on many fronts. It is a fight which we have been engaged in for some time and a fight which other governments around the world are equally engaged in with us."
Rudd said the refugees' requests for asylum "will be treated under the normal provisions of the law through the examination of each of their individual cases."
"People smugglers are engaged in the world's most evil trade and they should all rot in jail because they represent the absolute scum of the earth," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters.
"We see this lowest form of human life at work in what we saw on the high seas yesterday. That's why this government maintains its hardline, tough, targeted approach to maintaining border protection for Australia. And that's why we have dedicated more resources to combat people smuggling than any other government in Australian history."
The boat was carrying 49 refugees, officials said. In addition to the three killed, two others were missing.
Rudd would not comment on the cause of the explosion, citing the ongoing investigation.
The prime minister acknowledged that human smuggling was an increasing problem exacerbated by "global factors" but defended his government's border security policies.
"Our staff, our naval staff, our coast watch staff, our aerial surveillance staff and others, our police, are doing a first class job backed up by our intelligence officers as well, also in collaboration with partners across the region," the prime minister said.
"Because it is a global phenomenon and we are finding push factors operating from around the world, our active partnership with international governments and international agencies like the UNHCR is equally critical. This is a fight on many fronts. It is a fight which we have been engaged in for some time and a fight which other governments around the world are equally engaged in with us."
Rudd said the refugees' requests for asylum "will be treated under the normal provisions of the law through the examination of each of their individual cases."
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