Over the past few days a sex trafficking story has been highly publicized. Apparently, a Mexican couple who were here illegally forced a young Mexican woman–some sources say she is fifteen years old, whereas others say that she is in her twenties (there’s “news” for ya)–into prostitution. Both the man and woman frequently and grossly abused the woman on top of the abuse that she was already suffering from having to sexually serve between 15 and 25 clients each night (again, information varies between different articles). Another horror of the situation is that law enforcement officials found inside the brothel the young slave’s 2- to 3-month-old infant encased in concrete inside a Rubbermaid containter.  It had been there since January 2008, officials believe. Police do not yet know whether the traffickers killed the baby, who was supposedly ill at the time of death, or whether the baby died of natural causes. Either way, this is one sick and twisted reality for all who were involved.

A New York Daily News article read the headline “Enslaved hooker’s dead baby found during bust of sex trafficking ring”. From the story by news station NY1 came the following statement: “Police believe the body is that of an infant son belonging to an enslaved prostitute”. I am glad that both of these acknowledged that the woman was enslaved, but I think that the word choice of the entire phrase could be slightly altered. These stories use the nouns “hooker” and “prostitute”, which may conjure up negative stereotypes in the minds of some people. In our society a prostitute implies a person, usually a woman, who sells sex. It has the connotation of being a choice. 

If a girl or woman is involved in sexual relations against her will, she is in no way a prostitute but rather a rape victim, a prostituted person. I seriously doubt that too many people would call me a “prostitute” if I was kidnapped or tricked into work in the commercial sex industry. I am a White, English-speaking, educated, Christian woman with a clean record. Other women may not be so fortunate as to have all of these protective factors working for their reputations. For positive social changes to be made in this area, we need to reconsider how we use language. This is not a matter of me exhorting others to be politically correct. I simply want to maintain accuracy and avoid labeling the innocent with derogatory names that have lasting micro- and macro-level implications.

Murder in a major Bangkok metropolitan hospital – controversial, at best; at worst- unthinkable.

The sensational nature of the accusation cannot be ignored, but neither, here in Thailand, can the particulars be revealed in this discussion. The virulent anti-defamation statutes preclude specific references of any kind. But speaking generally, the topic touches on other contemporary issues of ethical (or not) medical practice, namely the black market trafficking in bodily organs, rampant nowadays based on overwhelming demand, endemic poverty in many countries, and a not inconsiderable profit motive on the part of the ‘brokers’. In recounting the details of the tragic death of his 23-year-old son, an understandably distraught American father accused the otherwise reputable facility at which the young man had been treated, of deliberately causing his death, and subsequently concealing the fact with an elaborate cover-up involving several influential agencies-use your imagination. The accusation goes on to describe details of the very real trade in human organs rife in India, China, Southeast Asia, and the (by-no-means) coincidental geographical position of Thailand among these countries.

Reminiscent of the plot of the paranoid 70’s thriller, Coma, directed by Michael Crichton, based on a novel by Robin Cook, I found this story shocking, yet, at the same time-with all due respect- somewhat difficult to believe. This is attributable in no small measure to the fact that I have a great affection for my adopted country, and its dedicated health care professionals, and to one significant detail not addressed in the published allegations. Lest I create the impression of someone looking at this country through ‘rose-colored glasses’, I am aware, as are many, of glaring examples of injustice, crime, and corruption over the past decade in Thailand; my concern is whether this story is or is not one of them.

Organ Trafficking

The organ trade has become a growing part of the world’s contemporary health care picture. In a powerfully written article appearing the November 23, 2009 New York Times, author Larry Rohter recounts a tale of desperate poverty on one hand, and the struggle for life, itself on the other. Spanning four continents, the transport of a kidney sold by an impoverished 38-year old Brazilian man for $6000 brought it finally to the apartment of a critically ill 48-year-old Brooklyn woman, the actual transplant having been performed in South Africa, and having been brokered by a ring which included an Israeli former policeman, among others. The brokers were subsequently arrested and charged with organ trafficking, which, of course, is ‘officially’ illegal in Brazil, and every other country with exception of Iran, for that matter.

Yet organ harvesting operations thrive in Turkey, where compensation for a kidney hovers at around $2700, while an Indian or Iraqi kidney organ fetches only about $1000. In central Europe, primarily in the Czech Republic, and the Caucasus, mainly in Georgia, doctors operate on Turks, Russians, Romanians, Albanians, and other eastern Europeans. They remove kidneys, lungs, pieces of liver, corneas, bones, heart valves, skin, and anything else for which the demand may exist. The organs are put in cold storage and air lifted to illegal distribution centers in the United States, Germany, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, Israel, and Africa. Purchasers may pay in excess of $150,000 by the time a kidney reaches its destination. With the participation of Indian, Brazilian, Turkish, Thai, Philippine, and Israeli doctors who comb the Balkans and other destitute regions in search of donors, organ trafficking has become a thriving international business. The Washington Post reported in November, 2002, that in a single village in Moldova 14 out of 40 men were reduced by poverty to selling body parts.

Condolences

There are no words, I suspect, capable of conveying the devastating emotional horror of losing a child, especially when such events occur far from home and are shrouded behind layers of what may be unclear motives and even less clear communication. In the interest of clarity, therefore, the following question arises: Were organs removed from this unfortunate young man’s body or not? Again, may I express my most sincere condolences on this man’s profound loss.

It’s unfortunate that it takes a  tragic death, like that of Shaniya Davis,  to bring the issue of child trafficking in the United States into the light of mainstream media scrutiny. Evidence has surfaced that perhaps her mother sold her for sex to pay off a drug debt. But the only thing that makes this case truly unique is Shaniya’s age.

“Lois Lee, the founder and president of the non-profit Children of the Night, said drugs are often involved when mothers are found to have sold or traded their children. But the trafficking of a 5-year-old is ‘very rare,’ Lee said. ‘And very rare that they would call it trafficking.’” – ABC News

“While there are no numbers on how many young children are trafficked by their own parents, there are about 100,000 minors trafficked in the United States each year”.  – ABC News

Shaniya is one of 100,000. That number should shock you. It shocks me and it’s not the first time I’ve seen it. So while I applaud Shaquille O’Neal for stepping up to pay for Shaniya’s funeral. More people with means need to attach themselves to the fight against child sex trafficking, the most hideous form of child slavery. And more needs to be done to combat it.

I wish I had some answers. Unfortunately, stories like Shaniya’s leave me with only questions.

And anger.

To mark the International day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25th November 2009 ,the Irish Commission for Justice and Social Affairs (advisory body to the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference) calls on the Government to;

• Create a national vice-squad within An Garda Síochána to track down the traffickers and rescue their victims. Whilst a specialist team exists in Dublin, this should be a national squad to counteract the use of modern technology, such as mobile phones and the internet, which facilitates the anonymity of the perpetrators of this crime, and consequently of its victims.

• Put in place stronger measures, as advocated by Ruhama and the Immigrant Council of Ireland, to address the demand for “sexual services” that drives the trafficking of women and young girls into Ireland for sexual exploitation. Those who purchase “sexual services” should be criminalised, while the women and girls found to be providing such “services” should be offered support and assistance.

• Ratify international legislation, specifically the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000) and the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (2005), that would enshrine our commitment as a nation to providing the highest possible level of protection and support for the victims of trafficking.

• Protect the existing programmes in developing countries, supported by Irish Aid, that address the factors that cause women and girls to fall victims to traffickers. Consideration should also be given to the possibility for further expansion of this work in programmes specifically targeted at the prevention of trafficking.

Further information is available here

Helsinki-Last Saturday, I interviewed three Estonian men that were trafficked to Finland to work in construction.

While I cannot yet write about the information (it will come out in a later blog post) the men were very specific with the names and contact information about the employment agencies that had hired them.

They agreed to talk to me in order to stop trafficking. Their case was just one of many here in Finland, they said.

The government will sponsor a bill later this Knesset session that is expected to put the squeeze on those trafficking in women for the purpose of prostitution, Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich announced.

Aharonovich, addressing his ministry’s plans to combat the phenomenon during a hearing of the Subcommittee on the Trafficking of Women, said that he intends to submit a bill during this Knesset session, sponsored by the government, that would increase penalties for pimping to the same level as those for human trafficking – from seven years to 16 years imprisonment.

In addition, Aharonovich said, his office would reexamine the topic of business licensing to any businesses found to be running a brothel while abusing the business licenses that they were issued – and will try to cancel the licenses.

Subcommittee chairwoman MK Orit Zuaretz (Kadima) complimented the enforcement activities currently underway to curb trafficking, and noted their “significant contribution to reducing the phenomenon of women trafficking.”

But Zuaretz also called upon the enforcement agencies to plan ahead for changes in methods of trafficking and employment of women as prostitutes in light of the fact that, according to Zuaretz, the methods of employing the women have become more advanced.

“The minister’s position is consistent with my perspective throughout all of the subcommittee’s hearings, to make the level of punishment for those convicted of trading in women’s bodies more severe. I call upon the police and the other law enforcement authorities to act to try offenders under the existing law that forbids human trafficking and employment under conditions of slavery for the purpose of sex, which includes a sentence of 16 years,” said Zuarets.

In the course of the meeting, police officers reported that in the past two years, they had noted a significant decline in the phenomenon of organized prostitution in Israel, including a decline in the number of victims of women trafficking.

Police representatives did, however, add that with the increase in the number of foreign workers living in Israel – a number that the Immigration Authority places around 200,000 – they have noticed an increase in instances of trafficking of manual laborers. The police officers added that they could not determine whether the incidents were widespread enough to consider them a “phenomenon.” They emphasized that it was still a “rare” occurrence.

The Israel Police said that the number of people working in prostitution in Israel was “a couple thousand,” but NGOs who offer assistance to women involved in prostitution said that they believed the true number to hover around 20,000.

The police also said that at the beginning of the decade, there were estimated to be approximately 3,000 victims of women trafficking in Israel, whereas in 2009, they believed that the number was only a few dozen. The Israel Police attribute the decline to the enforcement efforts by police in the field.

Recent years have also seen a decrease in the number of investigations opened by police into suspected cases of trafficking for prostitution. In 2007, 21 such files were opened by the police whereas in the past two years, a mere 10 investigations have been opened each year.

The data provided by the police was not, however, entirely positive. Although police recorded a decrease in trafficking investigations, there has been an increase in the number of files opened for offenses related to trafficking, including pimping and operating brothels. In the first eight months of 2009, 331 files were opened for trafficking-related offenses – an increase of 84.9% from the overall number of investigations on similar charges in all of 2008.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1257770042872&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Fourteen cities are being targeted in a new campaign aimed at alerting people about human trafficking, federal immigration officials have announced.

The “Hidden in Plain Sight” initiative, sponsored by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, features billboards highlighting “the horrors and the prevalence of human trafficking,” which the agency says is equivalent to “modern-day slavery.”

The words “Hidden in Plain Sight” are displayed on the advertisements with a toll-free number people can call to report situations where they believe people are being sexually exploited or forced to work against their will.

Cities in the new campaign are Atlanta; Boston; Dallas; Detroit; Los Angeles; Miami; Philadelphia; Newark, N.J.; New Orleans; New York; St. Paul, Minn.; San Antonio; San Francisco and Tampa, Fla.

Bruce Foucart, an ICE special agent in charge of New England, said officials hope the billboards persuade residents to report suspected cases to ICE or local law enforcement.

“It’s difficult to identify victims and it’s difficult for them to tell their stories,” said Foucart.

About 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked each year around the world and about 17,500 of them end up in the United States, according to ICE. Immigration officials say the victims are lured from their homes with false promises of well-paying jobs but are trafficked into the commercial sex trade, domestic servitude or forced labor.

Foucart said victims who cooperate with law enforcement are offered temporary status and can later apply to stay in the U.S. permanently.

Jozefina Lantz, director of New Americans services at Lutheran Social Services in Worcester, Mass., welcomed the new campaign and said the public is generally unaware that human trafficking is occurring near their homes.

“Often the victims get mistaken for undocumented immigrants,” said Lantz. “It’s not the same because these people were abducted from their homes and forced into trafficking.”

Lantz said her group has recently helped trafficking victims from Africa and South America.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iUnroC0fwz–PAsQ4CvGNat2ArgQD9BSUO0O2

Shaw Clifton

The general of the US Salvation Army, Shaw Clifton is on a five day trip to Haiti to look into the problem of human trafficking in the Caribbean.  Especially around Haiti to the Dominican Republic but also Belize and Jamaica.  He said that there was forced prostitution going on.

I’ve written on this blog before about the problem of prostitution and the Haitian women in Jamaican go go clubs.    

Yardflex reported last year how an influx of Haitian women in the clubs was causing tension between them and the locals, but I think they’re missing the point about the choices available to these women and the decision to become prostitutes. 

Last year, there was a planned protest by Haitian prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, many of whom were later deported.   Their voice seems to hardly ever be heard.

The extent of the problem of human trafficking, like everywhere else, is not known.  There was some research into it, but it did not throw much light on the problem, but this woman – Sheila Nicholson who was a programme director of an organisation called People’s Action for Community Transformation (PACT), which worked with young Jamaicans at high risk of becoming victims of human trafficking, probably would be a good place to start to find out more.

If you’ve ever been into one of these go go clubs, sometimes they have hotels attached - I stayed one night at one of these hotels (I needed a cheap hotel!) , but Kingston and Jamaica have loads of them, it would not be hard to start uncovering some of the stories behind the darkened glass and flashing lights.

Det här är min syn på prostitution:

Antingen förbjuder man sexsäljande, eller så legaliserar man även sexköp. För är den prostituerade den ”lyckliga horan” så finns det ingen mening med att moralisera sexköpen sett från ett kundperspektiv (inte mitt perspektiv, jag har aldrig varit med en prostituerad!). Ni ser hur skevt och ojämlikt det blir annars? (Jag avskyr egentligen det begreppet, jag föredrar ett annat – lika rättigheter – och på prostitutionens område, bland många andra, så existerar inte någon konvergens.) Visst, trafficking existerar fortfarande parallellt med ”den lyckliga horan” om hon finns. Men trafficking är slavhandel och ska motverkas genom hårda lagar mot slavhandel (vilket inkluderar hallick-verksamhet). Att tvinga någon att ha sex mot betalning är bara ett sätt att utnyttja slavar! Feministerna försöker hela tiden implicit jämställa sexköpet med traffickingverksamheten. I vilket fall som helst så finns det ingen mening med att använda både hängslen och livrem i juridiska domar, om man nu ska ha förbudet mot sexköp samtidigt. Bättre då att höja straffen simultant och separat, för båda formerna av utnyttjande – trafficking och sexköp. Personligen så vill jag förbjuda sexförsäljning såväl som sexköp, och naturligtvis vill jag ha kvar förbudet mot trafficking.

Roger Klang, Lund Scaniae den 23/11/2009

Like Bigfoot, a pishtaco is a local legend of a creature (usually a white foreigner) who would prey on unsuspecting travelers.  Instead of sucking blood, as vampires are said to, pishtacos suck fat out of their victims and leave them for dead.  Now why would they do this, one might ask?  Apparently, the early versions of this story were targeting Spanish missionaries, who were said to use human fat to grease their church bells.  Or, they turn the fat into lovely soaps and beauty creams.

So guess what the news headline is today?  You might have even heard about it back home because to be perfectly honest, it’s the kind of sensational news that the press loves.

Police in Peru have just arrested a group trafficking in human fat.

Now you’re disgusted too.  Here’s the gross part: apparently they didn’t steal fat from cadavers, they would actually kidnap fat people specifically to kill them and harvest their fat.  Police are now investigating the disappearances of 60 potential victims.  Apparently the fat goes for $15,000 per gallon.  Now what would you do with gallons of human fat, you might ask?  Sell it to cosmetics companies.  Think about that next time you’re buying lipstick.

STOP THE TRAFFIK

From now until March 2010 young people will learn what trafficking is, how it impacts their lives and what they can do to stay safe and help others. They will create their own community presentations – it may be street theatre, a film festival, a dance tour, an art exhibition, a book published, a community photographic project – or anything they can think of. In March 2010 we will host the greatest freedom show on earth, an online showcasing of what the young people have been up to. We want the classroom to be bigger than it has ever been before with young people worldwide being able to connect on line from Bombay to Birmingham.

Half of all trafficking victims are under 18.

We want young people all over the world to:

WATCH
LEARN
ACT to START FREEDOM

source: http://webmail.aol.com/29202/aol-1/en-us/mail/DisplayMessage.aspx?ws_popup=true

Titolo originale: Flickan som lekte med elden

Regia: Daniel Alfredson

Cast:  Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Annika Hallin, Per Oscarsson, Lena Endre, Peter Andersson, Jocob Ericksson, Sofia Ledarp, Yasmine Garbi, Johan Kylén, Paolo Roberto, Georgi Staykov, Hans Christian Thulin

Distribuzione: BIM, Svezia, 2009

Guarda il trailer

Un anno dopo gli eventi narrati in Uomini che odiano le donne, un giovane giornalista free-lance, Dag Andersson (Hans Christian Thulin), sta per pubblicare su Millennium, la rivista diretta da Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), una scottante indagine sul mondo del trafficking, la tratta delle donne dall’Est Europa per scopi di sfruttamento sessuale. Tuttavia, prima della pubblicazione il giovane e la sua fidanzata vengono trovati brutalmente uccisi, così come Nils Bjurman (Peter Andersson) il terribile tutore di Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace). Tutti gli indizi sembrano dimostrare la colpevolezza della ragazza: la polizia si mette alla sua ricerca, ma Mikael, convinto della sua innocenza, inizia un’indagine parallela per giungere alla verità e scagionarla… Il tempo stringe e il passato tornerà inerosabilmente a galla…

So che non si tratta di un’ultima uscita, visto che la pellicola è nelle sale dal 25 settembre, ma purtroppo sono riuscita a vederla solo questa sera in rassegna, e non potevo non recensirla. 
Cambio alla regia per il secondo capitolo della trilogia tratta dai romanzi di Stieg Larsson. L’esordiente Daniel Alfredson sostituisce Niels Arden Oplev e la differenza si nota indubbiamente. Questa seconda pellicola della trilogia Millennium vede un’unica grande protagonista Lisbeth Salander, interpretata magistralmente da Noomi Rapace, davvero perfetta nel ruolo. La vediamo braccata dalla polizia, incastrata da gente senza scrupoli, decisa a salvarsi e a giungere alla verità come sempre da sola e senza ricorrere all’aiuto di nessuno, agendo come suo solito da guerriera solitaria. Rifiuta di chiedere aiuto anche a Mikael Blomqvist, l’unica persona che tiene davvero a lei e che non riesce a dimenticarla. Anche quando gli indizi puntano tutti contro di lei, lui è convinto della sua innocenza e inizierà una corsa contro in tempo per salvarla dalla polizia, dai reali assassini e, in un certo senso, anche da se stessa.

Lisbeth si mostra indistruttibile e combattiva, ma allo stesso tempo più fragile e più “umana”, svelando un lato di sè che nel primo capitolo non era venuto fuori e rivelando anche una serie di eventi e di particolari che riguardano il suo passato e che fanno comprendere meglio allo spettatore cosa si celi dietro quegli occhi così perennemente torvi e in guerra con il mondo. Al suo fianco ancora una volta Mikael, interpretato da Michael Nyqvist, meno presente rispetto all’indagine precedente e forse con meno mordente, ma sempre determinante, molto più della polizia, per la risoluzione del caso.

Il terzo e ultimo capitolo della trilogia, La regina dei castelli di carta, uscirà nelle sale nella primavera del 2010.

In definitiva una pellicola godibile, anche se sicuramente molto meno esplosiva e intensa del libro, così come della prima  pellicola della trilogia.

Conclusione: Consigliato.

Voto: 7

Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejercito del Pueblo, better known as the FARC-EP or FARC, has been pushed back from its areas of expansion in the 1990s to its historic zones, where the group was started and first began to grow. The armed group, though, has in no way disappeared. In fact, counting on about 9,000 fighters, the group has shown an immense ability to survive in very tough conditions. Given that thousands upon thousands have demobilized, been captured or killed in combat, the fact that the group has only dropped from 18,000 fighters 6 or 7 years ago to 9,000 today shows an amazing ability to recruit fighters and maintain organizational discipline in the upper echelons of the group. 

The group still has suffered serious setbacks. Starting at the end of the 1990s with the AUC paramilitary offensive, the FARC found itself being pushed out of many strategic zones. Followed then by the Uribe government’s offensives, the group has been weakened greatly military, although still maintains strong influence in remote areas. This year, though, the FARC seems to be making somewhat of a return, IF one accepts that the group ever really went away. This is a good question given that although the Uribe government claims to be winning the war, the FARC seem to receive the blame from the government for just about anything and everything. (In January 2008, the then-Minister of Defense claimed the FARC, regarding drug trafficking, could only charge a tax on coca paste due to government pressure, basically putting them farthest down the drug chain of any group. In November 2008, another member of the government said the FARC were the biggest drug trafficking group in the country.) Yet, regardless of one’s opinion, the FARC seem to be military on the rise again.

According to information from the Security and Democracy Foundation, FARC attacks against the Armed Forces are up 75% to 117 attacks in the first six months of 2009 from the same time period in 2008. Oddly enough, combats initiated by the Armed Forces against the FARC  in the same time periods are down from 403 to 199. This could mean that while the intensity in the first 6 months of 2009 has dropped, the FARC have started to take the offensive or initiative again. We are seeing small increases in attacks against fixed Police and Army installations as well, but mainly the increases are occurring with ambushes, up 119% from 26 to 57, and attacks on towns, up 65% from 37 to 61. All of this data corresponds to the first six months of the year. 

Medellin’s daily paper El Colombiano stated that combats have increased this year – despite statistics showing otherwise. The paper says that combates have increased from 78 to 148. Given the proximity to the statistics of attacks against the public forces by the FARC, I suppose in this case “combat” means combats initiated by the FARC or attacks by the FARC. Also interesting is that deaths in combat/attacks by both sides are fairly equal according to the article. The Army has lost 259 combatants and the FARC 289. This is the first time in a long time that I have seen statistics regarding deaths in combat having such parody.

So why is this the case? Some analysts say that the Army has cut down on the offensive due to lack in moral, given to the pressure of false positives. This, to me, is a weak explanation. First off, taking the offensive is a military strategy and a decision. Also, false positives in the first semester of 2009 dropped to two. So are they worried about investigations? Maybe. But this should not affect the decision of a commander on how to combat the FARC – only in that killing civilians should not occur. Taking the offensive is another decision. 

It could be that Cano has consolidated his role as leader and has decided to go on the offensive. Of course, one can only go on the offensive when possible. If constantly being attacked and put on the defensive is the reality, an offensive will be quite tough.  The seeming drop in the offensive by the Armed Forces is giving the space to the FARC to take the offensive.

It would seem that a certain dynamic is occurring. First, the FARC have been pushed back to their zones of historic influence. These areas tend to be, but are not always, more remote making the guerrilla harder to find and thus attack. Also, in these zones, the FARC still have control over and/or support from the population who have lived under guerrilla control for decades. This is, of course, in spite of the guerrillas violent actions against the civilian population. This allows the guerrilla time to plan, rest and increase morale. At the same time, they are able to access the information necessary to carry out attacks due to the varying level of support in the civilian population. 

Being in more remote areas, the Army may just find it harder to find the guerrillas. Simply put, this is guerrilla territory – the Army does not know it well or may find what they do know to be too old or insufficient. Hence, if they are on the offensive it’s not working as planned. Or they could accept this situation and look to hold territory. I’m guessing that patrols are the name of the game, as usual and are having less success. Given this situation, the FARC are simply able to plan and attack better. Whether they will be able to expand again towards their previous levels of territorial control is another question. 

This is most likely the case in Cauca. Various guerrilla groups, including the FARC, have had presence there for over 40 years. The mountains of Cauca and Tolima are the birthplace of the FARC. They seem to be high up in the mountains, and according to some demobilized combatants, the FARC have a better reputation than the public forces in these zones. Their militia fighters are present in the city centers and thus can easily pass essential information to the guerrillas.

Simpy put, the public forces in the zone haven’t been able to hit the FARC as hard as they want on the ground, and thus the guerrillas can plan and attack. In northern Cauca, it seems to be working well for the guerrillas. Even with the 2,500 troops sent to the zone recently, the guerrillas were able to ambush some the other night, killing one and injuring another and seemingly taking no casualties. The large attack in Corinto last week involved over 200 guerrillas at once. Groupings like that were thought to be a thing of the past. Clearly, the guerrilla has not been under a lot of pressure in Cauca, but time will tell if this dynamic changes, and in favor of which side.

Prostitusjonsmarkedet i Oslo er på full vei tilbake. Likevel vurderer byrådet å stenge Pro-senterets varmestue, kvinnenes viktigste møteplass.

Hvorfor kan vi ikke få prostitusjonen inn i lovlige former? Et bordell hvor kvinnene kan bo og selge sine varer. Hvor menn som ønsker det faktisk kan kjøpe en vare det fortsatt er lov til å selge uten å bli kriminalisert.  Nå ender de opp med store bøter om de skulle bli tatt på fersken. De får den store gleden av å betale inn til fellesskapet, Staten.  Dette er galskap og det er ingen logikk i denne loven. Enten får det være et forbud mot både kjøp og salg – eller la begge deler være lovlig.

Jeg forstår at det er trafficking de vil til livs – men er det realistisk at dette blir borte med et forbud? Går de ikke bare ”under jorden” og hvilken mulighet har de unge jentene og kvinnene da? Ifølge Pro-senteret har minst 307 nye kvinner kommet til Norge i 2009, 111 av dem fra Nigeria.

Går miljøet ”under jorden” vil ikke samfunnet ha noen som helst kontroll og kvinnen vil kunne bli behandlet verre enn dyr.

Helsemessig er det heller ingen gevinst ved loven. Hvis det er hallikvirksomheten de vil til livs, så må de få prostitusjonen inn i lovlige former. Der kan kvinnene få tilsyn av lege, helsesjekk, sykedager og andre sosiale rettigheter.

Dette med omsorgen er noe Pro-senteret har tatt seg av. Dette er den eneste omsorgen som er blitt vist til de som praktiserer verdens eldste yrke.

- Jeg ble gravid. Dette det eneste stedet jeg kunne komme til. Her fikk jeg hjelp, sier Anna (25), som oppgir å komme fra et land i Øst-Europa.

Ifølge Pro-senteret er det umulig å opprettholde varmestue-tilbudet dersom midlene kuttes. Det er en arena for motivasjon, egenomsorg, endring og til å finne alternativer til prostitusjon

Selv sier kvinnene:

- Dette er Oslo. Jentene kommer utenfra. Det er ingen som kan erstatte dette stedet. Ikke alle har et nettverk utenfor. Nettverket er her. Når vi får vite at det kanskje blir nedlagt blir vi veldig redde. Det er ingen som har en oversikt over miljøet slik som Pro-senteret har, sier de.

I am getting asked which countries I will focus this project in and why… While I would like to say that the project is still very young,  these are the places I am considering…in each place I would like to spend six weeks…they are not all definite, but are chosen with the aim to show the global nature and scope of trafficking…all these countries are destination…transit…and origin points for trafficking…this is simply a list…additional details and reasons for choosing each location can be obtained by contacting justin@justinvela.com

India/Nepal: The Terai region. I have already done two stories in the Terai, a plain region at the foot of the Himalayas. One of stories was on human trafficking and will be published in December 2009. The area is extremely poor and underdeveloped and thousands of people are trafficked from here every year.

Colombia: This country’s 40 year civil war has long caused people to be trafficked.

Finland: A place many would not consider trafficking to exist. An outdated legal system allows authorities to ignore  trafficking.

Italy: This western European country is a destination point for a large number of agriculture and sex workers. Many people from Eastern Europe and the Balkans are trafficked the Adriatic Sea under dangerous conditions.

The Balkans/Ukraine: Every year thousands of women are trafficked from these countries for work, most feeling they have no other means to change their current situation other than sex work.

I will also choose one or possibly two additional countries in Central/East Asia to focus on. Though I am currently researching different options, the need to obtain a visa to work there causes me to refrain from mentioning them by name at this time.

Justin Vela is a freelance multimedia journalist. Since August 2009 he has been working on a long term project on human trafficking around the world. The end result for this project will be an interactive website, exhibition, and book. If you would like to become involved or donate contact justin@justinvela.com or +358 44 956 527 (Finland). www.justinvela.com

Now is an important moment to focus attention on human trafficking in Finland.

Next year legislation regarding immigration and asylum seekers will be reexamined in the Finnish parliament.

One of the main reasons trafficking is not focused on more in Finland is the extremely narrow legislative definition of what human trafficking is.

Social workers often cannot define a person that they know has been trafficked as a victim of human trafficking because they do not meet the standards of the Finnish government’s definition of trafficking.

Organizations and NGOs will push for the legal definition to be expanded so more victims of trafficking can be helped.

The drafting process of this legislation may take until summer 2010, but from tomorrow a “guidance group” is reviewing the laws regarding asylum seekers. The legislation regarding human trafficking will also be addressed.

Finland is a country with low immigration. Compared to the surrounding countries, Finland is often the last resort of many immigrants to seek asylum within Europe. Others decide to come here after hearing that the country has more liberal immigration policies, because they have family already  living in Finland, or are attracted by the possibility of strong social benefits.

The low immigration means that Finland is years behind many other countries with regards to the necessary laws to protect and assist asylum seekers. In researching human trafficking in Finland, the very lack of knowledge and information available makes clear that Finland still thinks of itself as a largely homogeneous society. Though the country is involved with many international NGOs abroad, immigrants and the marginalized and victimized within Finland are not often thought of within the Finnish national psyche.

As the internal push for new legislation proves, this is a fact that is rapidly changing. A growing, albeit still small, number of immigrants are making Finland develop new legislation. This new legislation will most likely be drafted in the next year.

In many ways, according to numerous people I have spoken with in Finland, this country is one of the most closed European nations. Examining these immigration policies will go along with a natural opening up that is increasingly happening in Finland, with more foreigners arriving and the generation in their early twenties adopting a very international prospective.

Along the way, legislation on human trafficking will be reexamined.

Justin Vela is a freelance multimedia journalist. Since August 2009 he has been working on a long term project on human trafficking around the world. The end result for this project will be an interactive website, exhibition, and book. If you would like to become involved or donate contact justin@justinvela.com or +358 44 956 527 (Finland). www.justinvela.com

Guardian UK: “Mexico’s attorney general and other senior staff have had computer chips implanted in their arms to serve both as an identity device and a tracking mechanism should they be kidnapped…The primary function of the chip…was to control access to the centre in order to reduce the risk of sensitive information being leaked to criminal gangs.”

Drudge: Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is widely believed to head the Sinaloa Cartel, is ranked number 41 on the Forbes list of “Most Powerful People.”  He is ranked ahead of Dmitry Medvedev, Benjamin Netanyahu, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Hugo Chavez.

According to Forbes, Guzman “is believed to have shipped $6 billion to $19 billion in cocaine to the United States over the past eight years…”

This goes along with what I was told last week about laws in Finland being years behind the laws in other countries.

It is known that trafficking occurs in Finland.

Finland is a country of transit, destination, and origin.

Many victims are not categorized as trafficked however. The Finnish law sets a very high standard for what trafficking is. Essentially, if a person is not abducted, forcibly transported, and kept locked up under the threat of violence…then they are not victims of trafficking.

This is a bit of a simplification, but it is very hard for a victim to be seen as having been trafficked in Finland. This country has high standards. Those high standards include a high standard for what trafficking is.

The majority of people are not trafficked in this way. Most in fact put themselves in the position of being trafficked. Through psychological manipulation, debt bondage, and a fear of the authorities, the victim does not seek help.

Like I discovered with some of the victims of trafficking I interviewed in India for a soon to be published article, there is an added twist.

See images from my story on human trafficking in India.

In some cases, victims of trafficking in Finland actually consider themselves to be in a better position than they were in their home countries. Especially among the people that are trafficked for labor, some are making more money and have seen an improvement in their living conditions, even if they are very poor conditions, perhaps even inhumane, by the standards of the country that they have been trafficked to.

This makes the identification of trafficked people even harder in a country like Finland.

Justin Vela is a freelance multimedia journalist. Since August 2009 he has been working on a long term project on human trafficking around the world. The end result for this project will be an interactive website, exhibition, and book. If you would like to become involved or donate contact justin@justinvela.com or +358 44 956 527 (Finland). www.justinvela.com

I just read some disturbing statistics* on human trafficking:

• Between 4 million and 27 million slaves in the world today
• 50% of slaves are children
• 80% of slaves are women and girls
• 244,000 children at risk of sexual exploitation in the U.S. alone
• 14,500 – 17,500 foreign nationals trafficked into the U.S. every year
• 12-14 average age of first involvement with prostitution in the U.S.
• Since 2003, the FBI has rescued 886 child victims of sex traffickers and secured 510 convictions.

Disturbing because if these statistics have any basis at all, than less 1% of trafficking victims in the U.S. are ever rescued. With only 510 convictions over a 6-year span, I suspect we are catching well below 1% of the perpetrators, as well.

With all the media attention, non-profit fundraising events, movies, television shows, and celebrity advocates, wouldn’t you think we’d be able to catch more bad guys and rescue more victims? Either the stats are screwy, or we lack the resources, or we need a better strategy, or we are not coordinated enough… or perhaps a bit of all the above.

We need to do something, because 1% is not a tolerable. We can, and must, do better.

*Links to statistics: Polaris Project, The Independent, U.S. State Dept 2009 TIP Report