Worst Human Traffickers!
June 12, 2007 11:22 PM EDT
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HOLLYWOOD -- India, which advocacy groups say may have as many as 65 million forced laborers, was spared the worst ranking on the State Department's new list of nations where humans are bought and sold. Countries not doing enough to combat human trafficking could face sanctions if they don't take steps to improve. The annual Trafficking in Persons report, released Tuesday, says that as many as 800,000 people -- largely women and children -- are trafficked across borders each year. Many are forced into prostitution, sweatshops, domestic labor, farming and child armies. Rice is considering a special evaluation of India in six months, and then may take action if India does not make improvements. Worst offenders could face penaltiesThe United States added Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar and Bahrain to Tier 3 as countries that are destinations for trafficking victims who are exposed to sexual exploitation and forced labor.Saudi Arabia, a nation considered friendly toward the United States, also is a Tier 3 country.The State Department also lists Burma, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan and Venezuela as Tier 3 countries, defined as those "whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards" set by American law and "are not making significant efforts to do so."These countries have 90 days take additional steps to combat trafficking or face penalties, such as sanctions, including withholding of non-humanitarian and non-trade-related U.S. assistance and U.S. opposition to assistance through international financial institutions. President Bush can waive sanctions if he deems it in the United States' interest. The Bush administration has increased attention to the trafficking problem in recent years as a part of its focus on promoting democracy and human rights as the cornerstone of Bush's foreign policy agenda, specifically in the Middle East. Other countries on the watch listThe United States put several countries on notice that they risk being put on the Tier 3 list if they fail to take adequate steps to combat human trafficking. China, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Mexico, the Philippines and Russia were among 32 on a Tier 2 watch list, and under U.S. law will receive special scrutiny and be subject to an interim assessment before next year's report. India was put on the watch list for the fourth year in a row "for its failure to show increasing efforts to tackle India's large and multidimensional problem," according to the report. The report found while the Indian government was making significant efforts to combat trafficking, it "did not recognize the country's huge population of bonded laborers," which advocacy groups estimate to range from 20 million to 65 million.The report also found efforts by Indian law enforcement agencies to punish traffickers "uneven and largely inadequate."
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Comments: 20
1) Dang! Is there no limit to evil?
2) India's in the hotseat? The same India where some of my jobs (literally my jobs, not meaning ME as in the American people) have gone to to save the company money becaue the 8 bucks or so an hour I was making was too high a price for my work? That India?
3) It seems so odd that we can have a report about this stuff, people study it, yet, nothing can be done? That's a hard concept for my brain to get around.
Thanks for bringing it to our attention Gaelyn
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/4514279.stm
"Around 12.3 million people are enslaved worldwide, according to a major report.
The International Labour Organisation says 2.4 million of them are victims of trafficking, and their labour generates profits of over $30bn.
Migrants, women and children are most at risk from forced labour.
In some countries, like Mauritania and Niger, people are born into a class where they are viewed and treated as only being suitable for slave labour. "
and more recently:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/6459369.stm
"Sex slavery widespread in England
There is evidence of thousands of children working in the sex trade
Young women tricked into coming to England, often by boyfriends, are being sold off in auctions at airport coffee shops as soon as they arrive.
They are among the thousands of women brought into the UK to be sex slaves, usually with no idea of their fate.
The trade was one of the findings of a BBC News website investigation into slavery in 21st Century England.
As the UK marks 200 years since the Parliamentary Act to abolish the slave trade, slavery goes on in another form.
...
The slave trade, outlawed by legislation introduced in March 1807, saw people from Africa transported en masse to the Americas with the involvement of people from the UK and other European countries.
...
Modern day victims of slavery are often young women from eastern Europe, thinking they are coming to England to work as cleaners or au pairs, only to be forced into prostitution.
...
The Home Office estimated in 2003 that 4,000 women were trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation. It is thought the figure may have grown since.
..."
Your numbers seem more realistic. It's probable that many illegal aliens in the US suffer similar fates -- I've heard terrible stories of inhuman conditions suffered by hispanics in sweat shops close to the borders.
"Enlightened" beings from another planet or another plane, scrutinizing our world, probably consider factors like how we treat eachother. How could I blame them for not wanting to do business with us, after all some of us would want to enslave them too!
Then I started thinking about how America was built using slave labor & indentured bond labor...
Yuck.