The Scourge of Human Traffiking

Written by an Ethics student at Midway University
Midway, Kentucky

Human trafficking in the United States can be reduced and possibly eliminated through education, awareness, and government intervention. Through these means, this illegal form of modern day slavery might finally be stopped.

The illegal trade and exploitation of human beings for forced labor, prostitution, and reproductive favors is termed human trafficking. Human trafficking is a transnational phenomenon and is second only to the international drug trade in relation to organized crime. By some estimates, it is a multi-billion dollar business affecting several million people in virtually every country across the globe. It is equated with a modern day version of slavery (US Department of State, 2011).

Human trafficking has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. The issue of human trafficking has many layers and is complex. Human traffickers can be individuals working for large trafficking networks such as the Chinese, Columbian, Mexican, Russian, Ukrainian, and the United States’ own cartels, or they can be small, one man, mom and pop operators or inner city pimps. A major challenge in human trafficking is data collection. If you cannot measure a problem, you cannot solve the problem. Most law enforcement officials and congressional leaders do not have accurate statistics reflecting the increase in demand trafficked victims. As a result, it is easier for them to sweep the problem under the rug, not lobby Congress for state and federal funding, and be free of the responsibility and accountability to the court of public opinion. Some government officials even claim the problem is vastly exaggerated or does not exist at all (Sarnoff, 2016).

Educating the public about human trafficking is essential to ending this modern day slavery. Everyone is needed to identify it where it hides and bring it to the attention of law enforcement. Misconceptions about human trafficking thwart efforts to stop the practice. One major misconception is the idea that only women can be its victims. Men can also become victims, especially of labor trafficking. Men often have a harder time identifying themselves as trafficking victims and they have access to fewer emergency resources, like safe houses, than women have. Another common misconception is that human trafficking is only sex trafficking. Labor trafficking and domestic servitude are major forms of trafficking. Generally, victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor. Identifying victims can be a challenge, especially for the public. However, some indicators that human trafficking is occurring include restricted or controlled communication; signs of fear, anxiety, depression, submission, tension and/or nervousness; not being in control of one's own identification documents; and performing odd tasks at odd hours. Working and living environments also tend to have very poor health and safety conditions, and often have peculiar security precautions such as bars on the windows or being surrounded by barbed wire. Many community members want to help end trafficking, but do not have the tools or resources to do so (Ortiz, 2011).

Awareness is the first step to preventing human trafficking and prosecuting the traffickers is therefore to recognize the complexity of the crime, which cannot be tackled in a vacuum. Anti-trafficking strategies have to be embedded in every policy area, from improving female education in source countries so that girls are less vulnerable to trafficking, to increasing police pay in destination countries so that officers are less susceptible to bribery (Dearnley, 2012).

Government intervention varies—while some countries are creating policies that work for their cultures, others are lagging behind with no counter-trafficking laws at all. There are also some international standards: In 2003, the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons established a universal trafficking definition and set a goal for countries to prevent and combat trafficking and assist victims. The United States Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report offers suggestions for nations to comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. These efforts are challenging, however, as there is no one way to address the variations in trafficking across the world. Differing cultures, economics, and religions all make laws complicated to implement, and corruption, cultural interpretations, and different systems of justice make them even more difficult to enforce. Another thing that should be noted is that many of the laws worldwide focus on sex trafficking as opposed to labor trafficking (which is more widespread), partially because sex trafficking is talked about in the media more (Gulledge, 2015).

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was authorized in 2000 and was the first federal law to address sex trafficking and labor trafficking in the United States. The TVPA focused on the prevention and protection for trafficking survivors, as well as prosecution for traffickers. The TVPA was reauthorized in 2003, 2005, and 2008 as the Trafficking Victim’s Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), and each reauthorization offered positive changes. For example, the TVPRA of 2008 required the Department of Labor to publish a list of products produced by child labor or forced labor. However, the TVPRA expired in 2011, and is in need of an update to keep up with the rapidly evolving landscape of human trafficking. This year (2016), a bill to reauthorize the TVPRA has been reintroduced to Congress. It holds government contractors accountable for using foreign labor recruiters that use exploited labor, helps law enforcement prevent and prosecute sex tourism, and creates a grant-making program to prevent trafficking in humanitarian crises (such as in the case of Haiti or Syria). On the state level, while there has been vast improvement in some legislation, a few states have a long way to go. Massachusetts, rated one of the most improved states created a Human Trafficking Task Force, which strengthens protections for victims of trafficking and makes using the internet as a trafficking tool a punishable offense. On the other hand, there are states like Wyoming, where until January 29; no state law existed to punish traffickers. The just-passed House Bill 133 adds human trafficking legislation to the law books, and the bill will now go onto the Senate, which is a step in the right direction for the state (Jesionka, 2013).

In conclusion, Human Trafficking may seem too big to tackle, but for the thousands of people caught in this dangerous world, there is hope and ways people can help. Anyone can join the fight against human trafficking. Education, awareness, and government intervention are of utmost importance. Human trafficking awareness training is available for individuals, businesses, first responders, law enforcement, educators, and federal employees. Be a conscientious and informed consumer. Trafficking victims, including undocumented individuals are eligible for services and immigration assistance. Volunteer and support anti-trafficking efforts in your community. 

Be well informed. Provide jobs, internships, skills training, and other opportunities to trafficking survivors. Several organizations are helping victims start new lives. The Living Water Center, which is a safe house and rehabilitation center for human trafficking victims. It also helps survivors graduate from high school and apply for college and/or job placement. Wellspring Living provides a safe house, education, and therapy for underage victims. It also offers independent living programs, which includes continued education and job skills training. 4 Sarah is an intervention program that reaches out to women working in strip clubs and informs them about the risks of the human trafficking industry. Learn the indicators of human trafficking so you can help identify a potential trafficking victim. People are talking, communities are rising, global networks are being forged, and governments are responding to the united message that human trafficking must end. Only with a concerted effort by governments, private companies, non-governmental organizations, and above all communities, can we hope to end the horror of human trafficking.


References

Dearnley, R. (2012, February 1). UN Chronicle. Retrieved July 24, 2016, from The Magazine of the United Nations, http://unchronicale.un.org/article/prevention-prosecution-and-protection-human-trafficking/

Gulledge, J. (2015, July 23). Ways to help sex trafficking victims in the U.S. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/15/world/iyw-how-to-help-victims-of-human-trafficking/

Jesionka, N. (2013, February 1). What’s being done to stop human trafficking? Retrieved July 24, 2016, from https://www.themuse.com/advice/whats-being-done-to-stop-human-trafficking

Ortiz, D. (2011, March 30). Ending Human Trafficking. Retrieved July 24, 2016, from Opening Doors, http://www.openingdoorsinc.org

Sarnoff, C. (2016, June 21). Is there an end to child sex trafficking? Retrieved July 24, 2016, from http://dailycaller.com/2016/06/21/is-there-an-end-to-child-sex-trafficking/

US Department of State. (2011, February 15). Diplomacy in Action. Retrieved July 24, 2016, from http://www.state.gov/j/tip/id/help/

Child Trafficking Verdict in Sarasota, Florida

The first human trafficking guilty verdict in Sarasota Florida was handed down last week, to Ronald McBride III, 22, for six felony counts, one of which was human trafficking. After the jury’s conviction, McBride could face up to life in prison. It is a milestone case for the Sarasota Police Department.

According to news reports the trafficker began “grooming the victim in November 2015, on how to trade her body for drugs and money.” The young woman was in her twenties receiving counseling for drug addiction at the time she met McBride. Instead, McBride got the victim hooked on heroine and crack cocaine.

The girl told the Sarasota police, “If she didn’t make a certain amount of money for a sexual act, McBride would beat her or have another girl beat her. I have to give all the money I make to McBride because he says he owns me.” On the day she escaped, December 29, 2015, McBride beat her with a gun and told her he would come back to kill her.

Read more here.

Thailand Holds 100 for Human Trafficking

Thailand is a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking. It is a destination-side hub of exploitation in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, for both sex and labor exploitation.

 

Fish for sale in Thailand market

Thai police said Monday over 100 people have been arrested in a crackdown on human trafficking since the European Union threatened to boycott the country’s multi-billion dollar fishing industry over the issue.

The EU hit Thailand with a “yellow card” warning last April, threatening to ban all seafood exports unless the military government tackled rampant illegal fishing and labour abuses among its fleets.

A delegation from Brussels visited the kingdom last month to assess progress but did not say when it would reach a decision on the boycott, which could cost Thailand $1 billion annually.

Thailand is the world’s third largest exporter of seafood – a status that rights groups say is achieved through overfishing, and a reliance on low-paid trafficked workers from neighbouring countries, such as Myanmar and Cambodia.

It is desperate to avoid any costly sanctions on the fishing sector.

A spokesman for the Thai embassy in Brussels told EurActiv that Thailand was “committed to combat illegal fishing and to preserve the marine resources for our future generations”, pointing out that Thai authorities have now inspected some 8,398 fishing vessels operating in Thai waters, and that nearly 94% of fishing vessels have now installed a “Vessel Monitoring System.”

The Thai cabinet has also approved measures to ensure the legal minimum age for working in the industry is 18, and promised to expedite the judicial process for human trafficking cases, he said.

Read it all here.


Related reading: EU to decide on Thai seafood ban; EU Team Visits Thailand to Assess Fishing Industry Cleanup

Obama and Human Trafficking

By Sheila Liaugminas

He probably means what he says, or at least we should extend that presumption of goodwill. But he doesn’t say what he means, as proven by the policies his administration has enforced.

Just one of many examples is the remarks he made this week on the public stage.

After his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, President Obama today addressed the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting, where he called for an end to human trafficking.

The president also unveiled new initiatives aimed at combatting the practice — which the administration says impacts more than 20 million people around the world.

“It ought to concern every person,” Obama said, “because it is a debasement of our common humanity. It ought to concern every community because it tears at our social fabric. It ought to concern every business because it distorts markets. It ought to concern every nation because it endangers public health and fuels violence and organized crime.”…

In a more emotional moment, Obama shared the real-life stories of a few women who survived the “unspeakable horror” — including Sheila White, a Bronx woman.

“Fleeing an abusive home, [Sheila] fell in with a guy who said he’d protect her. Instead, he sold her — just 15 years old, 15 — to men who raped her and beat her and burned her with irons. And finally, after years, with the help of a nonprofit led by other survivors, she found the courage to break free and get the services she needed.

Stop there. This is a good point at which to examine his administration’s policy toward helping such victims, which nobody did better than the US bishops. But in one of the earlier steps to excise faith-based organizations from the social services they have so long delivered better than government, the department of Health and Human Services (yes, the same HHS that delivered the notorious controversial contraceptive mandate this year) cut out the bishops’ organization from providing aid and relief to victims of trafficking.

“Show me the data” is an urgent request from USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services. MRS has long worked with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to help refugees, migrating children, and people trafficked to the U.S. for labor and the sex trade. The U.S. Justice Department recently lauded MRS in a brief defending HHS, which is being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for working with Catholics. Said the Justice Department, as reported in the Washington Post, “the bishops have been ‘resoundingly successful in increasing assistance to victims of trafficking.’”

Despite this, a recent anti-trafficking grant application from MRS to continue serving people caught in the 21st Century’s version of human slavery was denied. MRS asks why?

I have been informed that six organizations applied for anti-trafficking grants from HHS’s Office for Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Four scored so low they did not make the cutoff when evaluated by an independent review board. Two applicants scored well. Heartland Human Care Services scored highest and MRS came in second, very close to Heartland, even after losing points for not being willing to refer for contraceptives and abortions. Yet, after finagling by Sharon Parrott, one of three politically-appointed counselors to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, ORR awarded $4.5 million, spread across Heartland, which earned the award, and United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and Tapestri, groups that hadn’t made the grade according to the independent review board.

HHS denies any hanky-panky. Show me the data.

Obama’s high profile rhetoric received higher level scrutiny soon after he delivered it.

Obama announced a new executive order to prevent human trafficking through new regulations for U.S. contractors and subcontractors, including a prohibition on trafficking-related practices such as charging recruitment fees.

Large contract holders will be required to implement awareness and compliance programs, and a process will be created to identify industries with a problematic history.

The order also requires additional “guidance and training” for those responsible for enforcing the new measures.

The announcement, however, drew criticism from Representative James Lankford (R-Okla.), who said that the president has put his own political gain before the good of trafficking victims.

While he says that he “wants to promote awareness of human trafficking,” Obama has a “record of removing the experts at providing these services,” Lankford charged in a statement responding to the president’s speech.

He pointed to the administration’s decision last year not to renew a grant with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services to aid human trafficking victims.

An independent review board gave the bishops’ group superior ratings for their work over several years. However, the group was passed over for a grant renewal, and the funds were instead given to an organization with a significantly lower score.

The decision came after new guidelines for grant applicants indicated that “strong preference” will be given to organizations that offer referrals for the “full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care.”

Critics contended that the administration was putting the promotion of abortion before the needs of trafficking victims.

The administration and its party is putting the promotion of abortion before just about all else, as was evident in the DNC in Charlotte. The media aren’t paying attention to this story at all. But that doesn’t change its appalling truth.

From here.

Human Trafficking in East Africa

A new study into human trafficking trends in East Africa reveals that the capitals of Kenya and Tanzania are the region's main magnet for children and adults tricked into exploitative labour including prostitution.

The research found that - although people initially may have travelled across East African borders voluntarily in search of greener pastures - they were invariably deceived by a range of actors including family, religious acquaintances, business men and retired prostitutes, into working in exploitative situations.

The new research, done by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), concluded that the main cities in Kenya and Tanzania are the main recipients of trafficked adults and children in East Africa. The main countries of origin are Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Congo Kinshasa (DRC).

In Kenya, the study found evidence of Rwandan, Tanzanian and Ugandan victims of trafficking, including children, working in Nairobi as domestic labourers, in the commercial sex and hospitality sectors, and in the agricultural sector in various locations around the country.

Victims were identified in the Kenyan-Ugandan border town of Busia, while Tanzanian children were found working as cattle herders and in motorbike repair shops in Oloitoktok on the Kenyan-Tanzanian border, as well as begging on the streets of Nairobi and Naivasha.

In Tanzania, the IOM researchers found evidence of child trafficking from Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda for sexual exploitation, fishing, domestic servitude and agricultural labour.

Adult victims of trafficking into Tanzania were mainly identified in the domestic sector, as well as the mining, agricultural and hospitality industries.

But while Ugandan children are trafficked to all the countries in the region, Uganda was also registered as a destination for trafficked victims from Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. In addition, instability in eastern Congo was found to be fuelling the influx of trafficked children to Uganda.

Although information on Rwanda was scant, the country was identified as a source for victims destined for Italy, Norway and the Netherlands as well as for child victims destined for Nairobi and the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa as domestic workers and for sexual exploitation.

"The lack of referral mechanisms providing protection and support, especially for adult victims, is a major weakness in the counter-trafficking response in the region," the IOM researchers warned.

Indeed, Rwanda is the only country in the region where authorities have established shelter and hotline services to assist victims of gender violence, including victims of trafficking. However the lack of appropriate referral mechanisms across its border was hampering efforts to expedite the return and rehabilitation of cross-border victims, according to IOM.

The results of the study were presented at a Nairobi workshop to senior East African government officials, civil society groups and international experts. Participants called for the implementation of a region-wide 116 emergency number - an internationally recognised hotline number for trafficked children, which is currently in use in Kenya.

From here.

UK Opts Out on EU's Sex Trafficking Directive

The Archbishop of York has joined critics of the government's opt-out from the EU's new directive on sex trafficking, describing the decision as "stunning".

John Sentamu accused ministers of "sitting on the sidelines" while other countries try to tackle a cross-border problem, which is thought to be growing but has seen fewer traffickers jailed this year than at any time since 2005.

The Archbishop said the "evil trade, which is nothing less than modern-day slavery", requires joint international action with Britain playing a full part. Estimates suggest that 2,500 foreign women have been pimped into prostitution by gangs.

Writing in today's Yorkshire Post, Dr Sentamu said: "I am no great supporter of European directives because of the supremacy of our parliament, but this one seems to be commonsense, designed to coordinate action against the trade in slaves. Britain should get involved now and be part of improving the situation – not sat on the sidelines offering wise words only when the match is over.

"Our government should be ensuring that Britain leads the way, as it did in the days of William Wilberforce."

His plea for a change of heart follows a similar appeal from the Labour party earlier this week, backed by the charity Anti-Slavery International. The Home Office says that caution over the directive protects damage to other national interests, but that the country is already "working constructively with EU partners" to fight sex trafficking.

Read more here.

Name and Shame Sex Merchants

When Melinda Tankard Reist’s latest book, Getting Real: Challenging the sexualisation of girls, was published last year, a reviewer described it as a “collective shout against the pornification of culture”. “I liked the phrase so much I decided to give it to a new grassroots campaign I’d been thinking about,” says the Australian advocate for women and girls. Here she talks to MercatorNet about the impact that campaign is having.


Mercatornet: What is your overall aim in confronting the pornification of culture?

Melinda Tankard Reist: The aim of Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation is to name, shame and expose advertisers, corporations and marketers who objectify women and sexualise girls to sell products and services. We are at the forefront of nation-wide action to pressure them to recognise their corporate social responsibility not to depict women and girls in ways that harm them.

Our overall aim in confronting various forms of objectification is to make them unacceptable. We want companies to think twice before using exploitative, hyper-sexualised imagery of women. We also want them to think twice before marketing inappropriate sexualised toys, games, clothes and other products to children. We want them to recognise what the research says about the connections between over-sexualised imagery and negative physical and mental health outcomes in young people and children especially.

We also oppose the ultimate outworking of repackaging little girls as sexually interesting, which is the global trade in their bodies. We challenge anything that treats the bodies of women and girls as appropriate elements of sexual commerce and fuels the global industries of pornography and prostitution.

Read it all here.

Obama Admin Weakens Anti-Sex Slave Regulation

WASHINGTON — A new regulatory rule that went into effect May 13 modified a policy of President George W. Bush that barred U.S. international aid for organizations that supported either prostitution or sex trafficking.

The new rule does not drop the funding restrictions, which are required by federal law, but the change allows “affiliated entities” — including a separate part of the organization receiving federal funds — to conduct actions in support of prostitution or sex trafficking.

Anti-human trafficking leaders in Congress and some feminists are concerned about the new Obama administration rule.

“Prostitution and sex trafficking are degrading to women and minors, and we should not be in the business of funding organizations that support it,” said Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., at a Capitol Hill press conference on the day the new rule became effective.

Like other trafficking opponents, Chris Smith, R-N.J., co-chairman of the Congressional Human Trafficking Caucus, said the new rules would allow “loopholes” in the congressionally mandated funding ban by allowing overseas groups that receive federal taxpayer funds to share facilities, for instance, with organizations that support trafficking and prostitution.

Smith, who authored a sweeping anti-trafficking law in 2000, wrote the Obama administration opposing the rule and is considering legal action to reverse it.

“The Obama administration is enabling sex trafficking and prostitution by this action,” Smith said.

The new rule has raised concerns among some feminist groups, such as Equality Now, which does not oppose it but has urged careful monitoring of its implementation.

“It is critical that the U.S. government monitor the groups [that receive funding] and make sure they don’t enter into any activity that advocates for the legalization of prostitution or trafficking,” said Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of Equality Now.


Catholic leaders, including members of the Coalition of Catholic Organizations Against Human Trafficking, which is led by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, generally declined to comment on the new regulatory rules but emphasized that more efforts are needed to combat trafficking in America and overseas.

“This is a problem that is very significant but is largely unseen,” said Todd Scribner, education outreach coordinator for the Migration and Refugee Services at the bishops’ conference. “Because human trafficking is a direct affront to human dignity, it is important that we work to eliminate it.”

The conference has provided a nationwide network of support services to about 2,000 women and girls who have escaped trafficking over the last two years. The State Department estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year, and approximately 14,500 to 17,500 of them are trafficked into the U.S. annually.

Additionally, more than 300,000 U.S. children are in danger of becoming trafficking victims because of vulnerable circumstances, according to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.

Read it all here.

Mexico's Spiral Into Chaos

(CEPET/IFEX) - Mexico, 22 April 2010 - Evaristo Ortega Zárate, the editor of the weekly paper "Espacio" in the town of Colipa, Veracruz, has been missing since 20 April 2010, shortly after he sent several text messages to his family saying that he had been detained and loaded into a police car.

Ortega, who is also trying to qualify for the National Action Party (PAN) ticket to run for mayor of Colipa, was in Xalapa on 20 April. Around 1:00 p.m., the journalist's sister, Irene Ortega, received three text messages in which her brother wrote: "Tell everybody," "We are being taken by police car to Veracruz" and "They detained us."

Irene Ortega dialed her brother's cellphone. Before their communication was cut off, Ortega asked his sister to advise the authorities and the media to "do what they have to do." Ortega's sisters immediately requested help from local journalists. They went to Veracruz and looked for Ortega in the municipal, state and federal police stations, but they did not find him.

The sisters also went to the state offices of the PAN, where Ortega had been seen ten minutes before he sent his first message; the only responses they received were closed doors, "not even moral support," they said. The women were told that "he must have done something for them to have taken him." However, Francisco Mota Uribe, another qualifying candidate for the mayoralty of Colipa, has also gone missing.

Gerardo Perdomo Cueto, the director of the Committee for the Defense of Journalists in Veracruz, accompanied the family to an interview with the state attorney general on 21 April. Perdomo said that 24 hours after the journalist went missing, the authorities had still not formally opened a case into Ortega's disappearance, even though the governor had been made aware of the case and the police were looking for the journalist.

In a conversation with CEPET, Irene Ortega said that the family filed a report about her brother's appearance ate in the evening on 21 April. His whereabouts are still unknown.

On 22 April, the public security secretary of Veracruz, Sergio López Esquer, dismissed the possibility that police officers under his jurisdiction might have participated in the abduction. "The public security department never transfers suspects to other municipalities or sites. We always turn suspects over to the authorities in the town where they are detained. Nonetheless, to cooperate with the investigation, we checked to see if we have him, if he's in a holding cell, but we don't have him," he said.

The president of the State Commission for Human Rights, Nohemí Quirasco Hernández, did not think the journalist's disappearance was significant. She also dismissed the idea that his kidnapping was related to his professional activities because, as she told several reporters, Ortega was not a media heavyweight. "I don't recognize his name, and I don't think you know him either. I didn't know he was a journalist or that he had any connection to journalism. For his disappearance to be related to professional activities he would have to be an important person, and I don't think that's the case. He's just an ordinary person, and other than someone who wants to run for office in a tiny town, we don't know who he is. That's how I see it," she said.

For more information:
Center for Journalism and Public Ethics
Calle del Puente No. 222, Col. Ejidos de Huipulco
Tlalpan, 14380 México, D.F.
México
cepet (@) cepet.org
Phone: +52 55 2455 5308
Center for Journalism and Public Ethics
http://www.cepet.org/
 
Other pertinent facts:
 
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Mexico has become the number one provider of sexual slaves to Latin America.  In an effort to tackle the problem, the Mexican government has now signed onto the United Nation's Blue Heart campaign, but so far it has had little success in prosecuting and convicting human traffickers.

Read more here.

NEWS BRIEFS: March 3-5, 2010

ROME, March 5 LifeSiteNews.com - Human Life International, the largest international pro-life organization in the world, has condemned the signing of Spain's new abortion law by king Juan Carlos I, and says that the monarch has excommunicated himself from the Catholic Church.

CAIRO, March 5 AfrolNews- Egyptian Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni confirmed that the UK has returned 217 ancient Egyptian artefacts, dating from the early Stone Age to the pharonic era. The collection will be used for a new antiquities museum in Qena. The new museum is to focus on the "Naqada period", one of the earliest civilisations known on earth, located near the current-day Naqada village in southern Egypt.

PADANG BESAR, March 2 Bernama - The Secretary General of Malaysia revealed the existence of organ trafficking involving Malaysian victims abroad. Datuk Abdul Rahim Mohd Radzi said most of the victims were women and children who were kidnapped and brought to a foreign country before their organs were removed and sold.

CAIRO, March 3 CIHRS/IFEX - The Bibliotheca Alexandrina has granted a human rights award to the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) "in appreciation of its distinguished, ongoing efforts in the field of human rights and its defense of freedom of expression," the library said. The award includes a shield named for the late Dr. Adel Abu Zahra, a prominent civil society pioneer, and a monetary prize. Dr. Ismail Serag Eldin, the director of the library, will present the award later today to the Institute's program coordinator, Samy Saad.

KUNDA, India, March 5 - (AP) — A stampede among thousands of poor villagers scrambling for free food and clothes at a commemorative event killed 63 people Thursday at a Hindu temple and injured dozens of others. Nearly all the victims were women and children. The stampede was so intense it knocked down a gate at the compound surrounding the temple in the small town of Kunda, on the northern plains of Uttar Pradesh state.

Human Trafficing in Zambia

The Zambian government says it has forseen a number of challenges in the year 2010 owing to the rising illicit drug trade and human trafficking.

Speaking in an interview with ZANIS, today, Home Affairs minister Lameck Mangani says the new year will be challenging for his ministry in providing security.

Mr. Mangani said in view of the forth coming 2010 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2010 World Cup in Angola and South Africa, Zambia was most likely going to be used as transit route for human trafficking and illicit drug curtails.

The minister explained that in in an effort to curb this, government has tightened security at border posts and other border areas.

Mr. Mangani noted that security personel at border posts are also being educated on human trafficking and how to address the vice if found in such a situation.

He said travellors were also being scrutinized at the various border posts to lessen chances of dugs or human trafficking.

Meanwhile the Minister says the crime rate reduced during 2009 becuase of the efficient and professional work done by the Zambia Police.

Mr. Managani has also commended the migration department, Zambia police, the prisons department for there professionalism in the manner the handled situations that have to do with the law in the nation during 2009.

Mr. Magani has since urged the Zambians to continue promoting peace in the country and desist from conducts that hamper peace in the nation.


From here.

Baby Trafficking in China

Chinese police have arrested 42 alleged members of a trafficking ring that sold dozens of infants stolen or bought from their rural parents, state media reported.

The ring had separate units to handle the procurement, transport and sale of the children, the Xinhua News Agency reported. It trafficked 52 children over two years, earning the equivalent of nearly $US60,000 ($A64,650), the report said.

China has a thriving black market in girls and women, often used as labourers or as brides for unwed sons. A traditional preference for male heirs also drives the market in baby boys, who fetch a considerably higher price than girls.

Some families sell their female babies in order to try for a boy, since the country's one-child policy limits most families to having one child.

Xinhua said the ring had operated in impoverished rural areas of the country's north. It began to falter after officers stopped a van in May containing three men and a baby boy, the report said.

It said the child had been rejected by his would-be new parents for not being healthy enough and was on his way to being returned to a pair of middlemen who had procured a total of 13 babies for the ring.

The ring had earned 400,000 yuan from the sale of the 19 boys and 33 girls, Xinhua said.

From here.