Woman accused of abusing, forcing Nigerian women to work for free
Woman accused of abusing, forcing Nigerian women to work for free
A Nigerian woman is accused of human trafficking after federal agents said she threatened, abused and forced two women to clean her house and care for her daughter without pay.
Ms. Bidemi Bello, 41, formerly of Buford, was arraigned Monday in Atlanta’s federal court following an indictment for two counts of forced labor, two counts of trafficking with respect to forced labor, two counts of document servitude and alien harboring, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Human Trafficking is a global problem, said Mr. Brian D. Lamkin, special agent in charge, of the FBI Atlanta Field Office. Still, due to the hidden and illegal nature of human trafficking, no one can truly ascertain the depth of the problem, officials said.
Still, it’s believed that an estimated 12.3 million people are victims of forced labor worldwide with 2.4 million resulting from human trafficking —the second largest source of illegal income exceeded only by drugs trafficking, according to http://www.stopthetraffik.org/humantrafficking/problem.aspx.
These victims are often brought into the country by abduction, false agreement with parents, and some are sold by parents. Others are runaways traveling with family or orphans sold from the street or institutions.
It’s unclear under what conditions the Nigerian women came to Georgia and how officers found out about them.
Shimbiro, Somalia. November 2007
Standing in choppy shoulder deep water, Somali refugees look back anxiously from the sea as they try to locate friends and relatives left behind on Shimbiro Beach. Preparing to board one of three smuggler’s boats that will depart simultaneously for Yemen, many of the passengers have become separated from those that they had hoped to make this high-risk journey with. As the crew hauls passengers from the water, each is already soaking wet as they step onboard. Before they even depart, the one hundred and twenty eight Somalis and Ethiopians tied down inside the tiny boat begin to shiver as strong winds blow in for the sea. Their fate is now sealed. Only eleven of the people who took this boat were to ever reach Yemen alive
United Nations: Argentine poor legislation and corruption promote trafficking of persons
Argentine poor legislation and corruption promote trafficking of persons, says UN
United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking of persons Joy Ngozi Ezeilo advised Argentine authorities that “an ‘urgent’ reform of the governing law for this crime, whose victims do not have protection or access to justice, is urgently needed”.
Joy Ezeilo this week ended her official visit to Argentina, very concerned about “increasing human trafficking in the country, which undoubtedly became a destination country for victims of this crime.”
She was also overwhelmed about the “impunity with which human trafficking takes place and the horrific abuse to the victims of this crime”, which in her view “has become a modern day case of slavery that brings enormous benefits to many undertakings”
In a press conference, Nigerian born Ezeilo exposed “the limitations of Argentine’s legislation in this area, the poor coordination of anti-trafficking of persons’ activities persons and the few resources for this work.”
She also warned about the “inadequate protection in Argentina for victims from the institutions involved in offering assistance and support to them”.
The UN official expressed her “particular concern about child trafficking in Argentina, especially for debt bondage and forced prostitution”.
(Rest of the story at the link above).
Doctor first person in the UK to be charged with modern-day slavery
Victim ‘trafficked in first modern case’
A doctor has become the first person in the UK to be charged with modern-day slavery.
Saeeda Khan, 68, is accused of smuggling a Tanzanian woman into the country and making her work for nothing at her £500,000 home.
The 50-year-old victim was allegedly forced to sleep on a mattress on the medic’s kitchen floor.
Khan and her late husband Zahid, also a doctor, at first paid the suspected slave just £10 a month - but the payments later stopped, police said.
Scotland Yard was tipped off to the woman’s situation by an anti-slavery charity. Detectives from the Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command, known as SCD9, swooped earlier this year at Khan’s home in Harrow, North West London.
She will appear before City of Westminster Magistrates next Monday, charged with trafficking people for exploitation. Trading in slaves was made a criminal offence in the 19th century.
Human rights groups believe more than 1,000 people - including maids, fruit pickers and factory workers - are forced to work as slaves in the UK.
Sex slavery in Northern Ireland
Sex slavery: the Northern Ireland connection
The lid is slowly being lifted on the seedy underworld of sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
Just days ago a Belfast court heard a crime gang had spent more than £50,000 seeking clients for young women trafficked illegally into Northern Ireland.
The raids on 13 suspected brothels here is merely the tip of the iceberg, as the PSNI have described trafficking and the sex trade as “emerging organised crime issues”.
Thousands of women and men are being trafficked all over the world for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation is a multi-billion dollar industry. Victims are trapped, intimidated, often raped, tortured and then forced to engage in sexual activity with upwards of 15 men a day. The traffickers frequently move their captives from house to house to avoid detection.
In response to the problem of sexual exploitation, the Belfast Feminist Network and Amnesty QUB held a discussion evening on Tuesday with a panel of experts to gain an insight into the sex industry in Northern Ireland.
Kenyan Maid in Saudi
Runaway Kenyan maid describes Saudi ordeal: “I worked day and night and was never paid”
In Saudi Arabia, many Asian and/or African maids work in terrible conditions. Their most fundamental rights are violated: they are held against their will, humiliated, sometimes even tortured. A young Kenyan woman, who has fled her Saudi employers and is now in hiding, told us her story.
The account of a Sri Lankan maid who was tortured by her Saudi employers is far from being an isolated case. Some 1.5 million foreigners work as housemaids in Saudi Arabia. According to the Damman police spokesman, 20,000 of them fled the homes where they were employed after being mistreated.
(Read the rest of the story at the link above).
Surviving modern-day slavery
Surviving modern-day slavery (Listen to this BBC interview at the link)
Mende Nazer is from the Nuba mountains of Sudan. As a child in the early 1990s, she watched as unidentified men on horseback set fire to her village, raping and slaughtering as they went.
This was a period of immense instability, and the Nuba mountain region, between the north and south Sudan, was frequently raided.
Mende was abducted and sold as a slave in an auction. After seven years as the property of a wealthy family in Khartoum, she was sent to London as a ‘gift’ to a diplomat.
After six months, she managed to escape but her application for asylum was turned down. With the help of a journalist Mende then wrote a book about her experience.
She was allowed to stay in the UK when authorities realised that the publicity around the book could put her life in danger. Mende now lives in London as a free woman and continues to raise awareness about domestic slavery.
10 Human Trafficking Films to Watch
Film, as a medium, is unique in its power to change us, educate us, and most of all, open our minds and eyes to other worlds - to the layers of life that surround us, including that of our own. From End Human Trafficking on Change.org, one of the most quickly expanding sites out there for positive change in the world, comes a list of 10 human trafficking films to watch.
Several have been highlighted on this blog before - namely Holly and Slumdog Millionare - and of course it’s not an exhaustive list, but it is an excellent place to start. It includes everything from documentaries to short films to feature films. This is a way to learn about trafficking the easy way.
(via revolutionofourtime)
Author Sheryl Wudunn in a Ted Talk on trafficking of girls and women.
Human trafficking, exploitation is on the rise in Michigan
Human trafficking, exploitation is on the rise in Michigan
Theresa Flores will have knots in her stomach when she comes to Grand Rapids later this week.
“It’s hard to come back to Michigan,” she says from her home in Ohio, where the carpet cleaning company runs its whirring machine and her teen daughter rings in from her cell phone.
Flores was a 15-year-old living in the Detroit suburb of Birmingham when she was held captive in a nightmarish sex slave operation for two years.
She lived in a nice house and went to school every day, where she was a member of the track team.
Almost every night, a black Trans Am picked her up, and she was taken to the basements of houses, where groups of men would rape and torture her while her family slept. They threatened her and her family if she told.
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