Trafficking: Women lured with student visas forced into sex slavery
Date: 30 March 2014
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
Asian women from Hong Kong and Thailand are being snared in a student visa scam that funnels them into Sydney brothels where they are forced to sell sex and drugs for up to 20 hours a day.
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Moldova: The shocking fate of Eastern European sex trafficking victims revealed
Date: 26 March 2014
Source: Daily Mail
Author Stela Brinzeanu met trafficking victims and uncovered personal stories from some of the 55 female trafficking victims helped each year at the crisis intervention centre run by the International Organisation for Migration and the Ministry of Labour in Chisinau, Moldova.
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Canada: Human traffickers going unpunished in Canada, experts say
Date: 25 March 2014
Source: CBC News
Anti-trafficking advocates say a law designed to catch human traffickers has netted few charges and even fewer convictions in Canada. Winnipeg Conservative MP Joy Smith, an anti-human trafficking advocate, says more charges and convictions are warranted. Jennifer Mann, a Manitoba senior Crown attorney, said there is no question that human trafficking is happening, but it’s a crime that is under-reported.
Report slams Hong Kong for ‘narrow, fragmented laws’ that fail to stop human trafficking
Date: 24 March 2014
Source: SCMP
A newly published report by the Justice Centre Hong Kong and Liberty Asia says the government should broaden its definition of trafficking and pass comprehensive new laws to stamp out the practice. It says the city’s focus on trafficking for prostitution means it is failing to address the wider problem of forced labour.
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Global: Where does human trafficking happen? Right in front of you
Date: 24 March 2014
Source: Reuters
UNICEF’s Emily Pasnak-Lapchick, a specialist in human trafficking, believes the key to soliciting action against trafficking is to make people understand that it’s happening “in our own backyard”, a fact that most people don’t know. No country is free of trafficking. It is a crime characterized by three main elements: force, fraud and coercion – which can happen anywhere.
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USA: Sex-trafficking cases pervasive, hard to crack
Date: 24 March 2014
Source: FDL Reporter
A true story of a victim and her abuser highlights difficulties encountered when attempting to prosecute human traffickers.
Mongolia: Helping to combat human trafficking in Mongolia
Date: 24 March 2014
Source: Asian Philanthropy Advisory Network
The Mongolian Gender Equality Center operates the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Hotline. Since its inception in 2006, the nationwide, 24-hour hotline has received 5,600 calls and has been able to identify and provide vital first-response assistance to 138 victims of trafficking.
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Database of maid abuse being compiled to stop agency exploitation
Date: 22 March 2014
Source: SCMP
Using a US $3 million grant from Google, The University of Hong Kong and support groups will gather evidence to prosecute employment agencies and moneylenders who exploit domestic helpers and harass employers. Research is being led by anti-slavery charity Liberty Asia and includes building a high-technology cloud database to collect past and future cases of abuse from groups that assist domestic helpers.
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Indonesia: Human trafficking ring busted
Date: 21 March 2014
Source: The Jakarta Post
The National Police arrested two suspects for trafficking Indonesians to China and allegedly using them as illegal drug mules. It is alleged that the suspects lured seven people into working in factories in Guangzhou, China. The two helped the migrants obtain passports and visas by using forged identity cards.
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Philippines: Sex trafficking raps filed vs. Japanese, Pinoys caught in cybersex raid
Date: 20 March 2014
Source: GMA News
Three Japanese and four Filipinos are facing sex trafficking complaints for allegedly operating a cybersex den in Pangasinan under the guise of a tutorial school.