Archives

by Monica Spain

Washington state has become the first in the nation to require verification of age for online ads that promote sex-related services, such as the escort ads that appear in backpage.com.

The bill, Senate Bill 6251, was among a dozen anti-trafficking bills signed into law by Washington Governor Chris Gregoire today.

“Some of them are leading edge legislation, including the first time in the nation criminalizing those who advertize minors online if they have not done the verification of age,” said Rose Gundersen is co-founder and Executive Director at Washington Engage, a non-profit.

Gundersen was in Seattle attending an anti-trafficking summit put on by the National Association of Attorneys General. Gundersen said under the new law, classified ad companies will be motivated to check the ages of escorts in their ads.

See the full story here

by Drew Mikkelsen / King 5 News

OLYMPIA — Governor Christine Gregoire signed a number of bills Thursday that will make it tougher for pimps to sell underage girls for sex online.
Nacole, who never thought she had to worry about child sex trafficking, is proof it can happen to any family.

“My daughter was a star soccer player and a violinist,” said Nacole who does not want her last name published.
“If this can happen to my daughter, it can happen to your daughter,” Nacole said.

Nacole is proud of her daughter, but she’s afraid of showing her picture because it might put her life at risk.

See the full story here

By Associated Press, Published: March 29

NEW YORK — The son of Norman Mailer joined a protest Thursday against the Village Voice, the New York City weekly his late father co-founded that’s now accused of running ads peddling underage prostitutes.

John Buffalo Mailer, 33, an actor and writer, marched with about 100 protesters from a park to the Voice’s East Village offices on Cooper Square. They want the weekly’s parent company to shut down its Backpage.com adult classified section, which they say includes ads linked to child sex-trafficking.

See the full story here

The top court in Canada’s Ontario province on Monday legalized brothels in an attempt to make prostitution less dangerous for those employed as sex workers.
The landmark decision noted that prostitution is very dangerous and existing laws prevented sex workers from banding together and hiring security guards.
The case will most likely be appealed to Canada’s Supreme Court and a final decision is thought to be at least a year away, according to the Globe and Mail.

See the full story here

By Sara Lin

In one year, Honolulu police made more than 200 prostitution arrests. But only one of those arrests involved a pimp — and he was never charged.

That finding comes from Civil Beat’s investigation into how Honolulu police enforce Hawaii’s prostitution laws. To determine the scope of sex trafficking in Honolulu, Civil Beat tracked prostitution arrests for one year through the daily booking log, a public document that lists basic information about every arrest on Oahu.

The Honolulu Police Department confirmed that it had arrested just one pimp in 2011. The department said it also arrested just one pimp in 2010.

The scope of human trafficking in Hawaii isn’t precisely known. Yet it’s considered serious enough that Honolulu is one of 39 cities with a federally-funded government human trafficking task force. Federal prosecutors here have also filed criminal charges against alleged labor traffickers, including the Global Horizons case, billed as the largest human trafficking case in U.S. history, involving more than 600 Thai workers.

See the full story here

By msnbc.com staff

A year after the Chinese government started targeting human trafficking, the country’s security ministry reported that in the last year police had rescued 24,000 women and children who had been abducted, the Irish Times reported.

Some women had been sent as far as Angola, in Africa, to be prostituted, the BBC reported. One third of those rescued were children; the rest were women. Most were found during police raids of more than 3,000 gangs dedicated to human trafficking.

The black market for children is a growing problem in China, the BBC reported, and critics blame the country’s one-child policy. The preference for boys over girls has led to an increase in the trafficking of young boys, many of whom are sold to couples without children, the Irish Times reported.

See the full story here

By CHIMWEMWE MWALE
ALERT immigration personnel in Livingstone have rescued seven children about to be trafficked to South Africa from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
All the seven children, five of them boys, do not have documentation.
The Immigration Department in Livingstone has since arrested five Congolese who were with the children.
Immigration Department spokesperson Justine Siame said the Congolese nationals comprising two females and three males were picked from Hams Guest House in Livingstone. They have been charged with human trafficking.
Human trafficking is the sale and transportation of human…
See the full story here

Feb 29, 2012 | Age Correspondent | New Delhi

The CBI has rescued a Darjeeling-based girl (14), who had been brought to Delhi on a promise of getting her a job but was allegedly abused and forced into prostitution by an inter-state human trafficking network.
According to sources, the girl was rescued from a house in Munirka. Talking to reporters, a senior official of the agency said, “The girl was missing from Darjeeling since November 2011. Agency’s probe has revealed that the girl was lured to Delhi by a boy she knew of. The boy had promised her a job but after her arrival in the city, she was abused.”
The agency has not made…
See the full story here

AAP, March 12, 2012 3:00PM

MODERN-day slave traders are attracted to Australia by its high dollar and strong economy, federal police say.

Talking ahead of a joint federal and West Australian police forum on human trafficking in Perth, AFP Commander Chris McDevitt told reporters the nation’s resilient economy was providing an incentive for organised sex and slavery rings in the region.

“Australia is very much the lucky country at the moment,” Cmdr McDevitt said.

“The dollar is strong and the opportunities for organised crime are huge.”

While estimates put the number of people trafficked and held illegally against their will at 1.36 million in the immediate Southeast Asian region, Cmdr McDevitt admitted the true extent of the problem in Australia was unknown.

“If we have so many people being moved – and that’s what the statistics are saying to…
See the full story here

CHENNAI, INDIA – A dozen men and women and their children were freed from slavery in a rice mill over the weekend. Local authorities partnered with IJM to rescue the families and restore them to freedom.

One of the men who was rescued said he had not been allowed to leave…
See the full story here