human trafficking in the news

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CNN
“How one woman escaped sex slavery”
December 1, 2009
By Sean Callebs

She asked not to be identified. Her first name is Melissa. A victim who beat the odds.

“I thought I would be dead. I never thought I would live to be 22 or 24-years-old,” says Melissa. Her story begins when she was 17, living with another runaway, she says a pimp promised them a better life.

“He started to pay our rent. Pay our bills. Make sure that we had food in our house.” But he also – literally overnight – forced Melissa to trade sex in exchange, she tells us… click here to read full story.

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Washington Examiner
"3 alleged gang members indicted on murder charges"
November 26, 2009
By Freeman Klopott

A federal grand jury has indicted three alleged MS-13 gang members on murder charges related to the shooting death of a Maryland pimp as he tried to sell a prostitute in Alexandria.

The arrests of 21-year-olds Eris Arguera and Alcides Umana, and 28-year-old Adolfo Portillo, were first reported by The Examiner last month. According to court documents, the three men lured 40-year-old Carlos Luna to Alexandria by setting up a tryst with one of Luna's prostitutes. When he arrived, the three men allegedly jumped into Luna's car, robbed him and shot him to death… click here to read full story.

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Washington Examiner
"State Department adds restrictions to diplomats bringing servants into the U.S."
November 20, 2009
By Freeman Klopott

Diplomats below the rank of minister no longer will be able to bring domestic servants into the United States without being able to show they can afford to pay them a prevailing wage, U.S. State Department officials told anti-human-trafficking groups during a closed meeting Thursday, The Examiner has learned… click here to read full story.

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Washington Examiner
"Executive accused of planning night of sex with young girl"
November 19, 2009
By Freeman Klopott

An executive with a global aviation consulting company has been accused of trying to have sex with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl he met on the Internet who turned out to be an undercover Alexandria detective... Hours after the press release went out, Beckerman allegedly drove to a Dunkin' Donuts in Alexandria to meet the teenage girl he thought he had been talking to through Yahoo Messenger since late July, court documents said. Instead, Beckerman was taken into custody. He is being held without bail until his Friday arraignment. There was no attorney listed for him in court records… click here to read full story.

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New York Times
“For Runaways, Sex Buys Survival”
October 26, 2009
By Ian Urbina

ASHLAND, Ore. — She ran away from her group home in Medford, Ore., and spent weeks sleeping in parks and under bridges. Finally, Nicole Clark, 14 years old, grew so desperate that she accepted a young man’s offer of a place to stay. The price would come later… click here to read full story.

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NBC Philadelphia
“Sex Slaves Found in Prostitution Bust:  Police”
September 7, 2009
By Teresa Masterson

Two women were found drugged, beaten and bound as apparent sex slaves in a prostitution bust in Northeast Philly midnight Sunday, reports cbs3.com… The prostitution ring may be part of a much larger operation, say investigators… click here to read full story.

CNN.com/US
“Recession boosts global human trafficking, report says”
June 16, 2009
By Elise Labott

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- 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… click here to read full story.

Washington Examiner
"D.C. moves to shutter alleged brothels"
May 26, 2009
By Freeman Klopott

Despite a series of lawsuits and police raids, District Mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration has been unable to close several Northwest massage parlors officials have identified as brothels… click here to read full story.

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El Pais.com
"Cae a network bought Albanian women for prostitution"
March 17, 2009
By Jesus Garcia

A 21-year old Romanian was almost two years locked in an apartment in the Raval in Barcelona. The mafia network which brought her (deluded) to Spain, when still a minor, forced into prostitution. The girl was released and, in an act of courage, given names. The Autonomous Police clung to that track. After several months of research have now arrested 15 members of a violent gang of ethnic Albanians engaged in trafficking. Among those arrested were the owners of three popular brothels in Tarragona… click here to read full story.

…The couple stands charged with running a sophisticated brothel and call-girl operation that catered to the city’s high rollers and screened its prospective clients carefully. Like similar operations that have come to light in New York, Washington and New Orleans, it relied on Internet advertising, well-trained and educated young women and lots of word-of-mouth publicity. Clients paid $300 and up for a one-hour session… click here to read full story.

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Philadelphia Weekly
“Philly is one of a handful of places in the U.S. that offers safe haven to former prostitutes”
February 25, 2009
By Tara Murtha

Mimi's on the run. After five years of being whipped with burning wire, pummeled by bare fists and having her skull repeatedly smashed into concrete, the childlike 20-year-old--who's had nearly 30 pimps since she was 15--is running as fast as she can from a life inside the teen-sex industry.

Two months into her escape, she remains in hiding in New Jersey. If a former pimp catches up with her, she could be killed. Mimi hopes to find salvation in Philadelphia, at a safe haven called Dawn's Place… click here to read full story.

Wall Street Journal
"Sudan's Slaves"
December 29, 2008

Add slavery to the list of Khartoum's crimes in Darfur. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people have been enslaved in the region, the human-rights group Darfur Consortium says in a report based on interviews with escaped or released abductees, witnesses and families. The abductions by Sudanese soldiers and government-backed Arab tribesmen, the Janjaweed, are part of a wider strategy to drive civilians from non-Arabic speaking ethnic groups from their lands. The land is "then seized and repopulated by the militia and Arabic-speaking nomadic groups," the Uganda-based group reports… click here to read full story.

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United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement
"Key member of alleged human trafficking ring pleads guilty to sex trafficking charges following ICE Atlanta investigation”
December 18, 2008

Francisco Cortes-Meza, 21, a/k/a "Paco," of Mexico, pleaded guilty today in federal district court to sex trafficking offenses involving young Mexican women following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)… click here to read full story.

BBC
“Thousands Made Slaves in Darfur”
December 17, 2008

Strong evidence has emerged of children and adults being used as slaves in Sudan's Darfur region, a study says.

Kidnapped men have been forced to work on farmland controlled by Janjaweed militias, a coalition of African charities says.

Eyewitnesses also say the Sudanese army has been involved in abducting women and children to be sex slaves and domestic staff for troops in Khartoum… click here to read full story.

The Guardian
“Revealed: child labour used to make NHS instruments”
December 8, 2008
By James Randerson

The surgical instrument manufacturing industry of Sialkot in Pakistan makes scalpels, scissors and other items for buyers all over the world – including Britain’s NHS. Photograph: BMA Medical Fair and Ethical Trade Group

British hospitals are buying surgical instruments produced in dangerous working conditions in Pakistan using child workers as young as eight, the NHS has admitted. In some workshops, products such as scalpels, clamps and scissors to be used in NHS operations are made by workers paid as little as 170 rupees (£1.40) a day… click here to read full story.

McClatchy Newspapers
“Military contractor in Iraq holds foreign workers in warehouses”
December 2, 2008
By Adam Ashton

BAGHDAD — About 1,000 Asian men who were hired by a Kuwaiti subcontractor to the U.S. military have been confined for as long as three months in windowless warehouses near the Baghdad airport without money or a place to work… click here to read full story.

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California – Office of the Governor
“Governor Schwarzenegger highlights fight against human trafficking at XXVI Annual Border Governors Conference”
August 14, 2008

Furthering California's commitment to take action and end human trafficking, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today highlighted the fight against human trafficking and invited stronger cooperation among the Border States to finally put a stop to this human rights violation at the XXVI Annual Border Governors Conference (BGC). Maria Shriver moderated the policy forum designed to develop solutions to combat human trafficking across the U.S.-Mexico border.

"The practice of trafficking human beings is modern-day slavery and it should not be tolerated by any society," Governor Schwarzenegger said… click here to read full story.