Tag Archive for: Trafficking

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Peru sex slavery: Police free 300 women, including minors, in Amazon

[Source BBC News Oct. 4, 2011]


More than 400 police took part in the three-day operation

Police in Peru say they have rescued nearly 300 women from sexual exploitation in a raid in the country’s Amazon region.

At least four people were arrested in Puerto Maldonado on suspicion of human trafficking.

Among those rescued from about 50 brothels were at least 10 minors – the youngest was a 13-year-old girl.

More than 400 police took part in the three-day operation in the region, known for its illegal gold mining.

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On Missing Children’s Day, Murray Pledges Trafficking Bill Passage

By Colleen Quinn

State House News Service

Cambridge- Senate President Therese Murray promised advocates of missing children Monday that lawmakers would pass legislation targeting human trafficking.Cambridge —

The Plymouth Democrat made her commitment as Magi and John Bish, whose daughter Molly went missing in 2000, gathered with a group of parents at the State House to mark something no parent ever wants to make note of – their missing children.

The Bishes returned to the state capitol Monday for the 11th annual Massachusetts Missing Children’s Day. They come every year to bring attention to abductions and to missing children never found. Currently, 38 children are missing in the state, according to the Molly Bish Foundation.

Attorney General Martha Coakley thanked the Bishes for reminding law enforcement about “all the people who are touched by a missing child.” Coakley is pushing for Massachusetts to pass legislation that would establish state crimes of human trafficking in labor and sex. She wants to create a task force to study human trafficking, and increase the penalties for “Johns” to target the demand side of trafficking in prostitution. Massachusetts is one of four states in the nation that does not have human trafficking laws.

“We have this problem right in our own backyard,” Coakley said.

The Bish Foundation presented Murray with a legislative award and Murray said it was important to hold the event annually as a reminder of all the missing children.

“The devastation, I can’t imagine losing your child, and not knowing what happened or where, and that they won’t come back. I can’t imagine it,” Murray said.

Speaking to the trafficking bill, Murray said, “God we will pass that human trafficking” bill.

Magi Bish said she comes year after year and relives the horror she went through when her daughter was abducted and murdered because she wants lawmakers and law enforcement officials to recognize the dangers that exist for children. Bish said she would tell every parent to make sure their children know there are people who could hurt them, and teach them how to protect themselves.

“You need to have your child have awareness, to be smart,” she said. “We need to give them the tools to be safe.”

During the summer of 2000 Molly Bish was taken from Comins Pond in Warren where she was working as a lifeguard. Her mother had just dropped her off for work. Her body was found three years later, but her killer was never caught.

“Eleven years ago we decided we needed to do something. We need to work with the Legislature to make sure our children are safe,” said Bish, who launched the Molly Bish Foundation to advocate for tougher laws surrounding child abduction and child abuse.

Another parent of an abducted child, Bob Curley, said his son was taken from his East Cambridge home and murdered in 1997. Jeffrey Curley was a 10-year-old boy who was sexually assaulted and murdered by two men who promised him a new bike if he went with them. His body was found days later in a river in southern Maine. The two men were convicted and sent to jail. Curley said he felt “more fortunate” than other parents of abducted children because his son’s body was found, and he was able to “bring him home.”

In the fall of 1997, Curley’s murder ignited an emotionally-charged debate to reinstate the death penalty in Massachusetts, which came one vote shy of passing. The Senate had approved a bill that would have allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty in 15 categories of first-degree murder. But the House doomed the capital punishment bill in a tied 80-80 vote. Former Rep. John Slattery (D-Peabody) flipped his vote at the last minute, and prevented the measure from passing. At the time, Gov. Paul Cellucci slammed Slattery after discovering the death penalty lacked one vote of support.

During Monday’s Missing Children’s Day, one particularly emotional moment came during the event when the mother of a young girl kidnapped 10 years ago collapsed on the floor crying. She was helped to her feet by Gov. Deval Patrick, who tried to comfort her.

After a short pause in the ceremony, Bish told those assembled, “Our hearts are quite broken. They never quite heal. Keep us in your prayers.” Patrick then hugged Bish for several moments before he left the event.

A few minutes earlier, Patrick relayed a story from his own life when one of his daughters, Sarah, disappeared for a few minutes when she was 4 years old. They were waiting for a relative at Logan Airport when he turned around for a minute, and when he turned back she was gone, Patrick said.

“It was 10 minutes, maybe 15. I had no idea where this little girl was,” Patrick said, adding he found her sitting under a security desk, where a security guard told her to wait while they looked for her father.

“That 10 or 15 minutes left an incredible hold in my heart and my soul. I cannot even imagine what it is like to carry that around for months, for years,” Patrick said. “That ache has got to be just as fresh after a long period of time as it was in that first 10 or 15 minutes.”

Patrick called the Missing Children’s Day a “sober” but important occasion and promised the families that lawmakers would do whatever they could to make sure children are safe.

Sen. Stephen Brewer (D-Barre), who represents the area where Bish was killed, said he was forever changed the day she disappeared.

“It is seared in our memories. It is part of who we are. It is always in our consciousness,” said Brewer, who hosted the group.

Brewer told the parents that lawmakers “are resolute in this building and in Washington D.C.” in trying to better protect children.

Read more: https://www.heraldnews.com/archive/x1303843525/On-missing-childrens-day-Murray-pledges-trafficking-bill-passage#ixzz1NUN0A0nC

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Organizer of child sex ring in Thailand sentenced to 25 years

New York (CNN) — A Canadian man who admitted to running a sex ring involving young boys at his home in Thailand was sentenced by a federal judge in Newark, New Jersey, to 25 years in prison, court officials said Monday.

John Wrenshall pleaded guilty to three counts, including conspiracy to engage in sex tourism, conspiracy to produce child pornography and distribution of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said in a statement.

“John Wrenshall created a place where innocent children were sexually brutalized as a vacation pastime,” Fishman said. “It is fitting that a man who has condemned children to live with unimaginable scars for his pleasure and profit should spend decades of his own life in a prison cell.”

Wrenshall’s attorney could not be immediately reached for comment.

Since January 2000, court authorities said the 64-year-old Canadian arranged illicit trips for Americans and others who paid him to engage in anal sex, oral sex and other sexual acts with Thai boys, according to the statement.

His customers were permitted to videotape and photograph their abuse, the statement said.

Wrenshall also personally victimized the boys in an effort to “train” them for his customers, it added.

Some of the boys were as young as 4.

London’s Metropolitan Police arrested Wrenshall at Heathrow Airport in December 2008.

Three of his clients — Wayne Nelson Corliss, Burgess Lee Burgess and Mitchell Kent Jackson — already have pleaded guilty and were sentenced on sex tourism and related charges, the statement said.

Corliss was sentenced to 20 years in prison in November 2009, while Burgess and Jackson each received 6½-year sentences.

“Criminals who prey on children are committing unspeakable acts, causing irreparable harm and robbing the innocent of their innocence,” said Peter T. Edge, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “(Homeland Security Investigations) will track down these criminals, wherever they think they can hide, arrest them and bring them to justice.”

In 2009, 2,888 people were charged with having sex with children under the age of 15 in Thailand, which has become a destination of choice for sex tourists looking to prey on children.

Their targets are often the thousands of homeless and impoverished migrant children who end up working on Thai streets or in bars every year where they fall prey to traffickers and pedophiles, according to the Human Help Network Foundation Thailand, a nongovernmental organization charged with social and economic development in Thailand.

Find this article at:
https://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/31/new.jersey.sex.ring/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

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Clinton: U.S. to Do More to End Sexual Slavery

To read this article at the Dailyrecord.com, please click here.

SIEM REAP, Cambodia (AP) — Pledging to do more to help end the scourge of sexual slavery, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited a rescue and rehabilitation center for child prostitutes in northern Cambodia on Sunday.

Before touring the famed 12th century Angkor Wat temple complex, Clinton met with a group of about 50 victims of human trafficking at the U.S.-funded facility in Siem Reap and promised them continued American support.

“I am so proud of you,” she told the girls and young women, most of whom are between 17 and 23. They receive an education and vocational training that includes weaving and sewing lessons.

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Afghan Bacha Bazi Action

There is currently an active petition at change.org to prevent the trafficking of Afghan boys into a form of prostitution:
Tell the UN to Stop Child Trafficking via Bacha Bazi in Afghanistan
Targeting: UN Mission to Afghanistan
Started by: Amanda Kloer

The bacha bazi tradition, which literally means “boy play” has deep roots in Afghan culture. For centuries, wealthy men have been buying orphans or boys from poor families, dressing them in women’s clothing, and paying them to sing and dance for entertainment. After the bacha party, the boy is auctioned off to the highest bidder or shared by several men for sex. When the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, they banned the practice, and it remains illegal today. But since the Taliban was ousted, the tradition has been revived and is growing.

Bacha bazi boys are usually teens, but many are as young as 11. Most of them come from very poor families or are orphans from the war. Boys are lured off the street or bought from family members by businessmen. Then, they are usually kept in a house with other boys, trained sing, dance, and play musical instruments. They are also introduced to the commercial sex industry, ususally by being raped by the men who train them or sold for sex out of the backseat of cars.

Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »

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Airlines' role grows in war on U.S. sex trafficking

Sigmund said she alerted the aircrew who radioed ahead to authorities about a possible case of child trafficking. Her quick wits helped her spot what
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Fighting Child Trafficking One Tweet at a Time

Scimone’s 10/10/10 Twitterthon goal is for 10000 people to give $10 each—the $100000 needed to start printing a new child-trafficking awareness book and
www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/display_art.html?ID…

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Namibian Man Employs 4-Year-Old

In addition, the country also ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. Namibia signed the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of
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Trafficking in the U.S.

The estimated number of slaves trafficked into the U.S. each year:

14,500