Network of nuns helping fight human trafficking in PHL

Story originally published on August 2, 2014

Associations of nuns across the Philippines have pledged to help law enforcement agencies and NGOs in the fight against human trafficking in the country. The nuns are part of an international organization called Talitha Kum formed in 2009 to raise awareness of human trafficking worldwide. In the Philippines, Talitha Kum’s members include local law enforcement, congregations of religious women and the Philippine Interfaith Movement Against Human Trafficking (PIMAHT). Talitha Kum has already helped to rescue several trafficked women in Southeast Asia. Recently, a priest on board a ship going to Jakarta, Indonesia noticed that five women seemed troubled and decided to speak to them. Upon hearing of their situation, he called the nuns at Talitha Kum who subsequently called the police. The women were returned home shortly afterward. A Drugs and Crime Global TIP Report published in 2012 by the United Nations states that between 800,000 and two million people are trafficked yearly around the world.

Full account available at:

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/373060/news/nation/network-of-nuns-helping-fight-human-trafficking-in-phl

Baldoz thanks EU for P6.8 million support for PH's anti-human trafficking and illegal recruitment drive

Story originally published on August 12, 2014

The European Union (EU) has provided financial support worth P6.8 million to promote initiatives against human trafficking and illegal recruiting in the Philippines. The grant will go to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), a DOLE agency. Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz thanked the EU for its assistance and added that she "will ensure that the grant will be used as intended: to strengthen the POEA's capabilities and enhance cooperation between national and local authorities in combating illegal recruitment and trafficking". The grant comes a month after the Philippines and Australia signed the Australia Asia Program to Combat Trafficking In Persons (AAPTIP) agreement. Australia provided funding of AUS$5 million to the Philippines and other ASEAN countries under the agreement. Trafficking and illegal recruiting have remained prevalent in the Philippines; the POEA said that, in 2011, there were 224 victims of trafficking and 135 cases of illegal recruitment.

Full account available at:

http://news.pia.gov.ph/index.php?article=2131407741640#sthash.7gqlFjTv.dpuf

FBI Sting Spotlights Human Trafficking

Story originally published on July 17, 2014

The FBI recently arrested four men in Arizona following a sting operation that uncovered a human trafficking scheme. The FBI began preparing the sting after it learned last summer about an attempt by several persons to buy sex slaves from Malaysia. Though that offer turned out to be a scam, the FBI was able to gain the contact details of the suspected traffickers. They lured one, Edward Kandl, to a fake sex slave auction after he attempted to buy a mail-order bride for $5,000 from the same website in December 2013. Kandl expressed interest in attending the auction and he arrived at the auction venue with $10,000, where he was subsequently arrested. A search of his home revealed a bed with chains, locks and a room with blacked-out windows. George Steuer of the Phoenix FBI field office stated that "We realized that there was this group of individuals in the U.S who were interested in owning a human slave both for sexual exploitation and domestic labor". According to the annual State Department report, there has been a rise in the prosecution of human traffickers in the U.S. with the Justice Department winning 174 convictions for sex and labor trafficking in 2013.

Full account available at:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/fbi-sting-spotlights-human-trafficking-1405625023

Australia, Philippines ink agreement to continue fight against human trafficking

Story originally published on July 4, 2014

Australia and the Philippines signed the Australia Asia Program to Combat Trafficking In Persons (AAPTIP) agreement in Manila in July 2014. The Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, Bill Tweddell, signed for Australia, while Undersecretary Jose Vicente Salazar of the Department of Justice, who heads the Philippines’ Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) signed the pact for the Philippines. The agreement will run for five years and will provide AUS$5 million in subsidies to the Philippines and other ASEAN countries to help improve their capacity to tackle human trafficking and bring offenders to justice. Australia will work closely with the Philippine government and support the country through 'technical assistance and training'. The Philippines has been trying to bolster its anti-trafficking laws by amending the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, which widens the number of offences that an offender could be charged with.

Full account available at:

http://news.pia.gov.ph/index.php?article=231404371279

Ohioans selling sex with their own kids

Story originally published on 7/11/2014

Children in Ohio as young as six years old have been sexually trafficked by their own parents in return for drugs, rent and cash. The Ohio Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers has revealed that 51 minors from all over the state were potential trafficking victims over the space of nine months, with five of them below the age of six. “The network had a state contract to screen children referred by law enforcement, children’s services agencies and others, to determine whether they may have been trafficked.” With the exception of those who were below the age of six, the minors reported were between the ages of 13-18, with only one of them being male. The minors came from both urban and rural areas of the state. “I’m most shocked that families are doing this to their own children,” said the director of the advocacy center that originally detected cases involving the youngest children. She cannot be named for the children’s safety and due to the ongoing legal proceedings. “We think it happens to young girls who are runaways. But with these youngest kids, it’s their actual families who are trafficking them” she continued. The suspected victims have been referred for help to law enforcement, children’s services, mental-health providers and other agencies. Officials in Ohio estimate that 1,100 children are forced into the sex trade each year, with 13 being the most common age for victims.

Full account available at

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/07/10/child-trafficking-study.html