Pakistan has always been a major source of illegal migration to Western countries, and it has seen a spike in recent times thanks to the burgeoning economic crisis in the country. Similarly, it is a major hub for human trafficking as hundreds of thousands of Pakistani, especially, women and children are trafficked across international borders. It is not just Pakistanis but refugees from southern and south- east Asia too are smuggled to the west by Pakistan-based mafias and criminal gangs.

These activities now have posed security threats to the US and several European countries. The generosity shown by these countries in providing shelter appears to be turning against them now. Illegal Pakistani migrants have been found responsible for spreading religious extremism and carrying out terror activities in the West. Major terror attacks such as the 9/11, London bombing, Madrid train attack, Barcelona attack, and the fatal attack at Charlie Hebdo in France were carried out by people who migrated from Pakistan.

According to National Legal Incubation Centre, which is supported by US Mission Pakistan, around 30,000 to 40,000 Pakistanis attempt to entre Europe illegally every year. France has witnessed illegal migration by hundreds of Pakistani. In 2019, French authorities arrested 19 Pakistanis, who were hiding inside a truck.France and other European countries have expressed concerns over illegal Pakistani migrants thanks to the religious extremism being shown by them. In 2021, Spanish police busted a human smuggling racket that was sending Pakistani people to different Europe countries illegally.

There are around 120,000 Pakistanis living in Italy at present. Mixed Migration Centre, a Europe-based research group, revealed that 88 percent of Pakistani people who arrived in Italy recently used a smuggler to cross borders. European Parliament Member Dominique Bilde said Pakistan was involved in the sale of European Union passports and visas to people with criminal backgrounds, which posed a serious security. “We have seen, Pakistan is the leader in fake passports and fake documents,” said Bilde, further slamming Pakistan for utilising international aid for fomenting terror.

Religious extremism, military high-handedness, political instability, natural disasters, food shortage, rising unemployment, conflict and violence have forced millions of Pakistanis to flee the country and find shelter in prosperous Western countries. They resorted to whichever options were available to migrate, mostly, through illegal means. United Nations has called Pakistan a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking and smuggling in persons.

The Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) said human trafficking in Pakistan was widespread. “Pakistan’s human smuggling market is also flourishing, as many Pakistanis seek the services of smugglers in order to travel to Western countries,” it said. Human trafficking is operated by mafia-style groups and criminal networks such as People’s Aman Committee, D-Company, Altaf Khanani, who have links with corrupt government officials and political parties.American authorities found hundreds of Pakistanis were entering the country from the southern border illegally, and it was operated by a Pakistan-based human smuggling organization. Citing it as a “threat to the national security”, they designated Pakistani citizen Abid Ali Khan, who operated a transnational human smuggling network. “Abid Ali Khan is alleged to have organized and led an international organization that, in exchange for monetary payment, facilitated the illegal smuggling of individuals through various countries to the United States,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid.

Khan carried out human smuggling operations from Pakistan’s Nowshera, which is known for violent Islamic militancy and terror activities. US government announced USD 2 million award for information that leads to the arrest of Khan. There is deep involvement of Pakistani officials in the human trafficking business. This is a major reason why these syndicates work fearlessly. Pakistan government had to accept that the employees of the state-run airliner PIA were involved in human smuggling to Europe and other parts of the world.

Despite requests and warnings from Western countries, the Pakistani government appeared to have failed in dismantling the human trafficking run by Pakistani-based syndicates. Now, European Union has threatened tighter visa restrictions if Pakistandid not take the illegal migrant back.Now the EU is getting the Pakistani government to come up with plans to stop the “smuggling of migrants and trafficking in human beings”.

L'articolo Pakistan plays crucial role in illegal migration and human trafficking to West proviene da InsideOver.

Reportage / Women 13.10.2020

A Second Chance

Piedmont is one of the Italian regions with the highest number of Nigerian women forced into prostitution on the streets. Every woman represents a source of income between 35,000 and 50,000 Euros for the criminal organization managing them. It is…

Alessio Paduano

Piedmont is one of the Italian regions with the highest number of Nigerian women forced into prostitution on the streets. Every woman represents a source of income between 35,000 and 50,000 Euros for the criminal organization managing them. It is an enormous business of international proportions, as was proven last year  by the operation carried out by the Italian police which culminated in the arrest of 32 people. Those arrested were operating on behalf of the Supreme Eiye Confraternity and Supreme Vikings Confraternity, the main Nigerian mafia clans in Italy.

In  Asti, an Italian town in the Piedmont region with just over 75,000 inhabitants, there is a non-profit organization which aims to rescue foreign women forced into prostitution. It is called Piam (Integration Project for the Reception of Migrants), an organization founded in 1999 following the encounter between Princess Inyang Okokon, a former victim of human trafficking, with Alberto Mossino, an Italian man who subsequently became her husband.  

Princess entered Italy illegally in 1998 and thanks to the help of a priest of and  Alberto she was able to pay off the debt of 45,000 Euros to her madam, report her exploiters and put an end to that chapter. From 1999 to the present day Piam has saved some 200 women who travelled to Italy with the illusion of finding a job but instead ended up selling their bodies on the streets .

For twenty years Princess and her collaborators have been monitoring the streets of Asti in an attempt to provide women who have fallen into the prostitution trap a second chance. The first approach is vital. It takes sensitivity to slowly win over the acceptance of the women who are mistrustful and often frightened.

“We start by handing out condoms and information pamphlets,” says Princess, “then when the women understand that they have nothing to fear we try to explain to them that a different future is always possible and that they can count on us. It is not a simple job, but if there are women out there  who want to change their lives we welcome them onto our premises, we help them obtain a residence permit, we provide psychological support and we assist them in becoming integrated into Italian society.” 

L'articolo A Second Chance proviene da InsideOver.

60 miles off the Tripoli coast. It`s almost 6 pm and the sun begins to set obscuring the view from the “Ras Al-Jider” Libyan coastguard patrol boat. The sailors watch from the deck, observing the horizon when they spot far away from their quarry: a rubber dinghy with around 90 migrants aboard – a black dot in the middle of nothing. The captain Mustafa and his crew set sail from the naval base five hours ago the moment they received an SOS from the Maltese Air Force giving the coordinates of the dinghy.

The Maltese aircraft flies over the “Zodiac” dinghy once again to assure itself that the Libyans have intercepted it, then turns north and leaves the coastguard to fulfil the duty required of it by the European Union: to gather the migrants and take them back to Libya and the detention centres. A contradictory mission, and sanctioned also by the Italian government, which has provided vessels and logistics.

The closer the patrol boat gets towards the dinghy, the more lively the sailors become. Preparing the rescue operation, they shout “Bye-bye Italy” or “If you don`t like Libya, go back to where you came from”. When finally the dinghy is just a few tens of metres off, the migrants appear, desperate, huddled together in the middle or sitting perilously on the gunwales, the women and children hidden forward.

As soon as the migrants distinguish the flag flown by the patrol boat, the dinghy changes course, trying to escape. But it`s hopeless, the dinghy`s speed is too low and fuel is by now exhausted. Not to add to that, with no point of reference whatsoever, they`ve completely lost their bearings. They begin to shout, argue with the Libyans, displaying resistance “If you want to continue, go on – but you may die”, Captain Mustafa shouts. “Give us your women and children, and die” another sailor shouts.

But a Libyan is already in the water with a rope, which he ties around the dinghy`s motor. It`s all over, the migrants will jump on board the “Ras Al-Jider” and take the route back to Tripoli, that port considered safe by Europe but which has become a torture for sub-Saharan migrants doomed to endure all kinds of privations, not only in the many and dreadful detention centres, there to suffer mistreatment and torture, but also outside, where they have become nothing less than the victims of a migrant hunt, a mechanism created ad hoc by authorities, militias and a part of civil society in order to fleece these unlucky adventurers, threatening them with beatings. Chaos reigns in Libya.

The plywood platform dinghy is brought astern, where disembarkation operations begin. The stench is insufferable as the first migrants come on board, broken and sad, faces angry. They maybe haven`t washed for days, weeks, months, have been confined in some house, expecting to embark. A woman, Sarah, refuses to board. She threatens to throw herself into the water, abandoning her son Amir, only five years old, to his fate. She`s stopped in time by a sailor who has jumped onto the dinghy to expedite the disembarkation. Some of her travelling companions try to calm her. “Better to drown in the sea than return to Libya” she cries repeatedly when the patrol boat is already en route for its Tripoli base. Sarah is a Sudanese refugee, from Khartoum. Amir her son has known nothing but detention centres and flight in his young life. He has never been to school. But Sarah knows for sure that they will not stay another minute in what she calls “the Libyan Hell”. She wants Europe.

Before departing, Captain Mustafa watches while one of his men scuttles the dinghy, lancing it with a knife and throwing the dry bread in the sea, the only food given to the migrants by the human traffickers. The only thing taken on board is the motor: “By seizing the motor we stop the traffickers using it again.” But Sarah knows the truth is the opposite: “They`ll sell that motor for thousands of dollars to the traffickers and make a killing. That`s how everything in Libya works.”

The women, including Sarah, are left astern. They fall asleep despite the horrendous noise of the nearby motor, while the men are brought to the bow deck. They look to the horizon, imagining the horrors that await them from the moment they disembark.

“We`ll give them everything we`ve got. Water, food, even our uniforms if necessary” Captain Mustafa says. It`s not up to me to decide if Libya is or is not a safe port. I limit myself to saving human lives. Mustafa is young. He seems humane and kind, contrary to some members of his crew, rude, hostile. One of them takes water to the dehydrating children, who fall in a scrum to get a sip. “Behave properly, or you`ll be sorry” says a Libyan. The presence of two journalists certainly calms them: they have heard that migrants who have already attempted the crossing say that other times the coast guards beat and mistreated them. Many of the migrants are in a state of collapse from fatigue, while others dry their clothes in the wind or gaze blankly at the horizon.

“When we arrive at Tripoli they`ll put electric wires on our testicles. Understand? Our testicles”, says Afaim, a Senegalese migrant who has already attempted the crossing five times. “They`ll ask us for 500 Euros to get out of the detention centre” adds Kona George. “Blacks are a means of exchange. For the Libyans we`re bargaining chips. They get organised, kidnap us, flog us, then ask for your parents` number to force us to pay. That`s how the houses get built. That`s why we escape from Libya. It`s dangerous and not everyone wants to do it, but we have no choice. Kona tells how they ended up in their present position. “We didn`t have a pilot. We took turns at the helm. It was difficult because we`d run out of water and couldn`t swallow the dry bread the traffickers gave us to eat. They told us to sail in a certain direction for six hours and then to steer with a compass and then continue for another six hours. We sailed for 18 hours, it was better to die in the sea than return to Libya. Europe or death”.

It`s already night, the tide is rising. Water floods the deck and the migrants try to shelter where the swell arrives less violently. The lights of the Libyan capital and its skyscrapers are visible. There’s not a sound. The “Ras Al-Jider” enters the port, everyone gets up. It berths in a deathly hush. The emergency services are not there, only two functionaries of the International Organisation for Migration, partner of the European Union, who observe and count the present migrants, who have been disembarked and lined-up, squatting, in four rows. For lighting, the headlights of the buses come to take them to the detention centres are directed on their faces. The busses` destination, “Tajoura”, written in Arabic, is a detention centre bombed only a few days ago with more than 50 people killed. While the migrants are being put on the busses, two try to escape, rushing blindly into the dark. A police car speeds after them. Sarah too, hiding behind a vehicle with the other women, whispers something and tries to escape, holding Amir by the hand. She`s easy prey for the guards, who stop her and, seeing her tenacity in resisting and protesting, take the terrified Amir howling “Mamma!” hostage. Sarah too must surrender.

All depart for the detention centre, where they will have to pay to get out, avoid torture, and try again to earn enough money to buy another nightmare voyage to escape the Libyan Hell. But it may take years of suffering.

Translation by John Lanigan

L'articolo Voyage of Escape From the Libyan Hell proviene da InsideOver.

Seven pregnant girls and women on their way to a baby factory in Lagos State, Nigeria, were rescued earlier this month, along with a two-year-old child.

The girls and women, aged between 13 and 27, were stranded at a bus stop, waiting to be picked up and transported to the factory house. When they were unable to get in touch with the man who would pick them up, residents grew suspicious and reported the case to the police.

Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer said: “On October 2, 2019, at about 1:00 am, Isolo Police Station received an Information that seven pregnant young girls were seen stranded at Cele Bus Stop … Lagos.”

The women and girls, all from Southeast Nigeria, were handed to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).

A week before, nineteen pregnant girls and women aged 15-28 were also rescued in another baby factory in Lagos. Two women, aged forty and fifty-four, suspected of working in the factory, were arrested.

One of the rescued women said: “My friend who left [the Southeast] last year, called me to say that someone was looking for house help. I borrowed money to come to Lagos. One woman came to pick me at the park and brought me here. The next day, I was summoned by our madam, who told me that I would not leave the premises until next year.

“Being a newcomer, my customers only came at night to have sex with me. So far, I have slept with seven different men before I discovered I was pregnant. I was told after delivery, I would be paid handsomely and that if I decided to leave after then, I could. My pregnancy is in its second trimester.”

“My telephone was collected from me and [I was] given a non-android phone,” the rescued woman continued, explaining why she could not contact her family at home.

After delivery, the babies were transported to three different homes in the city and sold for between ₦300,000 ($820) and ₦500,000 ($1,400), with girl babies on the lower end of the spectrum. The two suspects arrested received ₦15,000 ($41) and ₦20,000 ($55) per delivery, while the men who raped the victims were also paid by the factory.

The governor of Lagos vowed to bring to justice the illegal operators of the baby factory.

Human trafficking is the third most prevalent crime in Nigeria, behind financial fraud and drug trafficking. Baby factories and child trafficking are a prevalent practice in Southeast Nigeria. Married women, unable to have children, buy these babies at a high price, sometimes as high as ₦2 million ($5,500). In a country where married women without children are considered failures, baby buyers mimic a pregnant state for nine months, before presenting the trafficked babies as theirs.

Baby factories are an international business, with black women from Europe also travelling to Nigeria to buy babies. NAPTITP said that these baby factories are often disguised as maternity clinics, foster homes, orphanages or shelters for homeless girls and women.

Mr Gbenga Omotosho, the Commissioner for Information for the Lagos State Governor said: “There are rules guiding the setting up of such maternity homes. Of course, the state government is not in support of any illegality. Unregistered homes will not be given any chance to operate and when they are caught they will be taken to court and will never be covered.”

L'articolo Raping Women and Trafficking Babies in Nigeria’s Baby Factories proviene da InsideOver.

Since 2017, the UNHCR estimates that more than 2,700 people have died or gone missing while trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean sea. In 2016, around 362,000 migrants and refugees took the risk of crossing the Mediterranean, and while these numbers have declined in recent years, at least 63,311 people have taken a similar risk so far in 2019.

The fact that large numbers of people from Africa are playing Russian roulette with their own lives is no secret. However, what’s less widely known is that Europe (and NATO) have been indirectly complicit in one of the most shameful features of the current migrant crisis: human trafficking.

What’s most startling about the current wave of people smuggling is that in Libya at least, traffickers have infiltrated coastguards and other public authorities. Not only that, but evidence suggests that certain NGOs have been cooperating with smugglers, who have even benefitted from EU-funded training. And more generally, they’ve been able to exist and operate not just because of the instability created by the 2011 overthrow of Gadaffi, but because of EU policy, which has stubbornly refused to open more European ports and to take a more decisive approach to the crisis.

For example, Avvenire reported last week that Abd al-Rahman Milad, the notorious leader of a trafficking gang, had attended talks in 2017 between Italian intelligence officials and the Libyan coastguard. The meeting was focused on migrant-crossing policy, following a memorandum signed in February 2017 between Italy and the UN-recognised Libyan government.

That al-Rahman Milad was included as a representative of the Libyan coastguard is testament to how far criminal gangs and people smugglers have penetrated Libya’s official structures, with al-Rahman’s Milad’s most heinous offences involving the deliberate “sinking of migrant boats using firearms.” But more importantly, it’s a testament to the vacuum of responsibility that has opened up in Libya and in the context of the migrant crisis, as the EU fails to confront the problem as fully as necessary.

Nicknamed “Bija,” al-Rahman Milad had reportedly asked Italian authorities during the 2017 meeting for funds. It’s not certain whether his request was accepted, but other reports suggest that certain other Libyan people smugglers have received EU finances. Back in February, Politico published leaked documents from the European External Action Service, which reported that some members of the Libyan coastguard trained and funded by the EU had been collaborating with traffickers. This is backed up by other reports, with a 2017 investigative feature in New Internationalist detailing how traffickers had likely benefitted from an EU training program worth millions of euros.

Just as alarmingly, a December 2016 report by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency – Frontex – observed that even NGOs had allegedly been collaborating with smugglers. The report suggested that contact (knowing or not) between smugglers and NGOs was such that individuals rescued by NGO boats were “not willing to co-operate with debriefing experts at all,” while some of them revealed, “that they were warned not to co-operate with Italian law enforcement or Frontex.”

There’s no indication that the situation has significantly changed in recent months, and while migrant crossing figures are down this year, it’s unlikely that smugglers no longer interact with or play an active role in the Libyan coastguard.

For instance, a Human Rights Watch report published this January stated, “The EU is providing support to the Libyan Coast Guard to enable it to intercept migrants and asylum seekers at sea after which they take them back to Libya to arbitrary detention, where they face inhuman and degrading conditions and the risk of torture, sexual violence, extortion, and forced labor.” This kind of description hardly accords with a law-abiding, well-trained and well-organised coastguard.

Of course, this isn’t meant simply to be an indictment of Libya and its inability to reduce human trafficking. For one, the emergence of people smugglers and militias is a direct consequence of the 2011 NATO-led overthrow of the Muammar Gaddafi regime, which rather than setting Libya on the road to stability, mostly created the opportunity for warring factions and militias to drag the country into chaos.

On top of this, the continued existence of human traffickers and their presence within Libyan authorities is also an indictment of European policy. For several years now, Italy has been calling for ports to be opened in France and Spain, yet these requests have been consistently rejected by various EU member states, while numerous Schengen members reintroduced border controls following the onset of the crisis. In other words, there’s a lack of alternative routes through which migrants could reach Europe, and in conjunction with the closure of the Turkey-Greece route in 2016, it means that too much power is concentrated in Libya and its criminal gangs.

Finally, the EU’s 2017 decision to focus Operation Sofia less on rescuing migrants at sea and more on cracking down on people smuggling has ironically helped to perpetuate the very issue it purportedly aims to solve. Because if a greater emphasis had been placed on actually rescuing people at sea and bringing them to European shores, migrants would feel much less of a need to turn to those who would exploit them.

L'articolo Human Traffickers Infiltrate Libya’s Coastguards During Migrant Crisis proviene da InsideOver.

Human rights are not being upheld for migrants and refugees in Libya, with migrants alleging that they are tortured and kept in unsanitary conditions.

On July 3, airstrikes on the well-known Tajoura Detention Centre in the country’s capital city, Tripoli, killed more than 53 refugees and migrants (including six children) and injured more than 300.

There are currently 800,000 migrants and 50,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers in Libya. 5600 of these migrants are presently being “arbitrarily detained”.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has condemned Libya’s treatment of migrants and refugees – in particular, Libya’s detention of refugees and migrants disembarked on its shores, after being rescued at sea.

In a statement released on July 11, the UNHCR said: “practical alternatives exist [to detention]: people should be allowed to live in the community or in open centres. Semi-open safe centres can be established similar to UNHCR’s Gathering and Departure Facility.”

“Every effort should be taken to prevent people rescued on the Mediterranean from being disembarked in Libya, which cannot be considered a safe port. In the past, European State vessels conducting search and rescue operations saved thousands of lives, including through disembarkations in safe ports,” the statement continued.

The UNHCR concluded the statement by calling for EU countries to offer help to Libya on the sole condition that migrants and refugees rescued are guaranteed human rights, and are not arbitrarily detained.

What Created the Migrant Crisis?

Libya has “the largest flow of modern African migration funnels through a single country.” Migrants and refugees come from the poverty-rife Sub-Sahara, the war-torn East, where citizens are forced into a lifetime of military service and conflict, and the West, rife with despot-led, authoritarian nations.

Human traffickers operate through Libya, offering to cross migrants and refugees from all over Africa and the Middle East into Italy for a large sum of money. Many migrants wait months and years before they are able to pay smugglers for the trip.

At the heart of Libya’s migrant crisis is the problem of colonialism and the postcolonial fear of Western emasculation.

Promising to keep immigrants out in 2008, President Muammar Gaddafi was paid $500 million by the European Union. Before he was toppled, Gaddafi would receive €20 million in EU funding to keep migrants out of the EU, especially Italy.

In 2010, Gaddafi, who had close business and political ties with the Italy’s then-Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, demanded a €5bn per annum fee from the EU to keep migrants out of the continent.

“Europe runs the risk of turning black from illegal immigration,” he said. “It could turn into Africa.”

Migration, although a neutral word, is now imbued with a lot of negative connotations. The migrant is often from a poor, broken, militarised country, and is often seeking to escape to the gold-paved streets of Europe (and the West). Migrants from Europe, on the other hand, often refer to themselves as “ex-pats”, a shortened form of expatriates.

The story of Libya’s migrants is foregrounded in the 1960s. Revolutions and protests in the US, UK and France are often hailed as protests that shook the status quo. This is the story told in the West. In South America, Africa, and the Middle East, however, revolution meant a move from colonialism to postcolonialism.

US and European foreign policy in the decades following World War Two aimed to conquer the rest of the world under Western rule. This began a new era of domination under postcolonialism and neocolonialism. Although the rest of the world gained colonial independence, it found itself still indebted to the West.

Independence from Europe meant that Africa was left with a financial deficit from centuries of brutal colonialism, during which time Europe enriched itself off the work and the resources of the Africans it colonised. Post-independence, Africa remained indebted to Europe, as it struggled to find its feet as a continent moulded, crippled, and then abandoned by Europe. The continent was forced to borrow money from the West to survive.

Decades of war (many caused by the divisions created by European colonisers), corruption from African leaders, poverty, and continued interference by the West has left many areas of the continent destitute

The migrant crisis is a colonial crisis which began when Europe forced the idea of international borders unto Africa. Borders, created to keep people out, are now successfully used by Europe to keep out Africa – but not its wealth. Borders make sure that the wealth of the Empire, hoarded into Europe, does not find its way back to its original owners. Until world leaders adopt humanitarianism over capitalist and political domination, our global economic and political system will continue to create migrant crises.

L'articolo What is the Solution to Libya’s Migrant and Refugee Problem? proviene da InsideOver.

Sreypov Chan is a young woman with an infectious smile and a love of American songs. Yet, locked behind her dark eyes are visions that will forever spring to life in her worst nightmares.

Trafficked at seven years old in Cambodia, she was soon sold to her first client with whom she refused to have sex. As punishment, Sreypov was forced to drink the man’s urine. The abuse escalated over the coming days as she continued to reject clients; she was tied up, burnt, and beaten with an electric cable that left a trail of angry welts all over her body.

She eventually relented and agreed to have sex with a customer, but promptly changed her mind after she saw the grown man. Consumed by fear, she sobbed as the gravity of her demise settled into her little body. Infuriated, her pimp stuffed crushed chillis into her vagina, and then took a hot metal bar and shoved it inside her. Muted by the agony that seared through her, Sreypov experienced her first sexual experience – when the client raped her.

Badly torn, she was then stitched up – completely awake and with no anesthetic – to have her “virginity” sold again and again. For the days she could not service enough men out of fatigue, she was shocked with a wire from an electrical socket.

After attempting to flee, she was hauled into a small room where she was hung up by her arms and beaten into a bloody mess. Chillis were then rubbed into her open wounds. Undeterred, she would keep trying to escape – from the various brothels she was sold to – until one day, at 10-years-old, Sreypov finally managed to escape.

Yet, hundreds of children remain trapped in Cambodia’s disconcerting pedophile’s playground. UNICEF reported that around 35% of Cambodia’s prostitutes are children under the age of 16. Minors transmute into little more than sex slaves; they receive food and accommodation, but no wages. Armed guards are hired by the pimps to ensure that their “property” is unable to flee.

Nor does being rescued from the clutches of the brothels address the problem. Relegated to being little more than commodities, it is easy for traffickers to simply go to a poor village and pluck out the new girl to replace the one they lost.

Nicky Mih first met Sreypov in 2009 while volunteering to work with survivors of sex trafficking in Cambodia. Inspired by Sreypov, Nicky went on to co-found Free To Shine – an organisation that works to prevent the trafficking and exploitation of local girls by strengthening the family and community to bolster the safety and education of their children.

Sierra Arlidge, Communications Officer at Free To Shine explained, “In our experience, traffickers often target the most vulnerable girls and families to find victims, travelling to villages in the remote areas and luring girls from families under extreme economic pressure with offers of job opportunities in the bigger cities.”

Grinding impoverishment and a fractured social substructure also mean many desperately poor families sell their own children into the sex trade. In some of the poorest communities, many live on less than $2 a day – and even that amount might be a struggle to earn. With no other resources for unexpected events such as illness or the death of a spouse, a young girl’s virginity often becomes the only asset the family might have.

“Sexual exploitation of child trafficking victims occurs everywhere, but can be loosely divided into the categories of sexual exploitation within business establishments such as karaoke bars, brothels, and massage parlours; and sexual exploitation on the street,” Sierra continued.

There has also been a concerning trend of orphanage tourism within Cambodia, which places minors at further risk for exploitation. The correlation between child exploitation and orphanage tourism/volunteerism is becoming increasingly known and the government has taken measured steps within the past year to prioritise family-based care. Tackling trafficking, however, requires increased awareness within the public sector, which has often gravely overlooked.

“As a tourism hotspot, Siem Reap can benefit from raising awareness on these issues within the tourism sector. As a member of the ReThink Orphanages, Free To Shine participates in awareness-raising efforts and encourages responsible tourism practices through our interactive educational experience, A Mile In Serey’s Shoes,” added Sierra.

Cambodia remains a prime source, destination, and transit country for children victims of trafficking. The trafficking occurs both internally and externally with tourist destinations hotspots such as Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville, Siem Reap, Thailand, and Vietnam. With the demand for brides caused by China’s One-Child Policy, trafficking from Cambodia to China for forced marriage is also increasingly being seen as an issue.

Apart from sexual exploitation, children in Cambodia also fall victim to labour exploitation. Vulnerable to trafficking due to breakdowns in family structures, lack of family or social support, and economic pressure, children will be forced to seek out resources on the streets, which in turn increases their vulnerability to exploitation and trafficking.

L'articolo Cambodia’s Shameful Paedophile Ring proviene da InsideOver.

She does not want to reveal her name, but she goes by “N”. When her mother left for Italy in search of work, little “N” was left at home in Romania with an uncle. Her mother would never return. At 8-years-old, the uncle began grooming her for prostitution with the intention of trafficking her to Italy. Beaten daily, bruises and welts – cunningly delivered to places that could be concealed by clothes – marked her small frame. At 12-years-old, “N” was rescued by the charity People Against Poverty and was eventually adopted by a project leader at the organisation. She is now 30-years-old and was happily married last year.

“N” got the fairy-tale ending after all. Yet, thousands of Romanian girls are not as fortunate, and their stories meander into something far darker.

Over the years, Romania has increasingly become Europe’s top sex trafficking location and a large percentage of prostitutes around European cities comprise of Romanian women.

The report, “Behind Closed Doors Organised Sexual Exploitation in England and Wales”, revealed that Romanians made up the biggest percentage of sex workers in the UK alone. Of brothels visited by the police, 86% of prostututes in Leicestershire and 75% of prostitutes in Northumbria were Romanian. And 92% of women caught loitering/soliciting sex on the streets of Redbridge in London were also Romanian.

Since joining the EU, the ease of free movement, soaring poverty, and complicit authorities, have caused countless Romanian women to fall victim to sex traffickers. And according to the “Trafficking in Persons” report, one-third of Romania’s trafficking victims are underage girls.

The Romanian mafia is an intricate network, which spans across Europe, specialising in sex trafficking. One of the main techniques employed by traffickers is known as the “lover boy method”. After singling out his would-be-victim, the trafficker pretends to be smitten with the girl, showering her with attention, affection, and romance. Once the girl has fallen in love with him, he would pretend to encounter financial difficulties and the girl would be coerced into selling her body to help him. Once she is entrapped in ignominy and the seedy web of prostitution, it becomes difficult to escape. Sometimes, the women are blackmailed so that they are too fearful to attempt to break free. Beyond that, it then becomes easy for the girls to be transported to different corners of Europe.

Yet, the traffickers may not necessarily be at the root of the problem. In a society dominated by androcentric values, many officials do not view the epidemic as a serious threat, but rather as a symptom of women with loose morals or as a consequence of certain ethnic groups’ natural gravitation towards prostitution.

Valerie Huxley is the CEO of People against Poverty, an organisation working in the city of Iasi on the Moldovan border, making it the largest area for trafficking in Romania. The children whom they have liaised with often come from the gypsy community and are eking out an existence.

Families live in tumbled-down, rat-ridden ex-communist blocks – barely fit for a dog – with no heating, lighting, sanitation, or running water. Within these flats, they have encountered countless young girls prostituting their services on the streets.

Huxley admitted that Romanian women are some of the most “at-risk” due to economic constraints. She explained: “I really believe that this is due to the poverty problem. These people have literally nothing – they live in makeshift homes of mud and tin. They cannot find work and if they do, it is for daily work making around 50p per day. They see a release from the poverty by prostituting for their next meal.“

The charity has built temporary sanctuary homes that offer relief. Working with families, they address issues such as alcohol, drugs, debt counselling, and get official organisations involved with social workers.

“The Romanian government needs to tackle this problem. These people live amongst ‘normal’ families who have homes – where they can cook, and feed their children. It shouldn’t be this way. They need to work with these people and address their issues. The majority of them have no legal identities. We have a small legal project where we try to address this and provide identity cards and birth certificates for the people we work with,” Huxley added.

Together with Unseen, A UK-based trafficking charity, Huxley said that they run a small programme aimed at young Romanian girls who live in abject poverty.

“They were very shy to begin with, but once they saw what could happen to them and we made them aware of the world around them, they began asking questions. I don’t know if these girls will avoid the trafficking that’s around them, but we do know that we are there for them if they need the help.”

L'articolo Romania: Europe’s Top Sex Trafficking Location proviene da InsideOver.

“When I was in Pakistan, he behaved well. But after arriving here, he started beating me. Look, here I have a scar. He is inviting men here and asks me to have sex with them. I keep crying and refuse, and then he beats me,” 17-year-old Maryam sobbed to her father, Iqbal, on a video chat. She was speaking about her husband, with whom she moved to China after leaving Pakistan earlier in the year.

Horrified, Iqbal became distressed when his daughter told him how her new Chinese husband had beaten and choked her, and was trying to prostitute her to other men. Whenever she pleaded to be returned to Pakistan, her husband would threaten to remove her kidneys and kill her.

Iqbal, a poor labourer explained to RFE/FL how he agreed to the marriage because of dire poverty, but did not disclose how much money he received for the wedding.

“In our community, we have to arrange a dowry, but the Chinese do not ask for a dowry. Your daughter will live a better life and she will be sending you money from China every month. But nothing as such happened.”

Both he and his daughter are illiterate. Iqbal has no documents to prove the wedding took place, nor does he know his son-in-law’s name or where his daughter is living in China. In fact, he only met his son-in-law once – at Maryam’s wedding.

This is the human trafficking epidemic that is currently sweeping through Pakistan, targeting impoverished Christian families. Often recruited via marriage agencies, families are marrying their young daughters off to Chinese men with the premise of moving to China for a better life. Yet, it is a stark contrast to the grim reality that awaits them when they settle into their new country, where they know no one and do not speak the language. They are abused, forced into prostitution and have even had organs removed to be sold.

Despite China stating that it was corroborating with the Pakistani government, it rejected the accusations by shifting the blame to the media, stating:

“It is worth noting that several media reports have fabricated facts and spread rumours. According to investigations by the Ministry of Public Security of China, there is no forced prostitution or sale of human organs for those Pakistani women who stay in China after marriage with Chinese. The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan has clarified the rumours by issuing a statement on 13th April. We hope that the media reports should seek truth from facts, be objective and fair. We hope the people of China and Pakistan do not believe the rumours. We will never allow a few criminals to undermine China-Pakistan friendship and hurt the friendly feelings between two peoples.”

Despite this, China has been known to be involved in bride trafficking from other poor Asian countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Laos. Women are routinely promised better lives and jobs in China, only to arrive and find themselves trapped in a sordid web of human trafficking with little escape. And Pakistan may provide an easy and new access to penniless and susceptible women.

Human Rights Watch reported that in China, “the percentage of women has fallen steadily since 1987. Researchers estimate that China now has 30 to 40 million ‘missing women’, an imbalance caused by a preference for boys and exacerbated by the ‘one-child policy’ in place from 1979 to 2015, and ongoing restrictions on women’s reproductive rights. This gender gap has made it difficult for many Chinese men to find wives and fuelled a demand for trafficked women from abroad.”

It is believed that as many as 1,000 Pakistani women – the majority of whom are Christians – may have been married to Chinese men since the beginning of the year. Christians consist of less than 2% of the population, and are often discriminated against amongst the vast Muslim majority. As such, Christian women can be easy targets, since they tend to come from uneducated and ostracised communities, where parents might be ready to accept hundreds or thousands of dollars for their daughters’ marriages.

L'articolo The Women Being Trafficked After Marrying Chinese Men proviene da InsideOver.

L'articolo From Bosnia to Italy: the Balkan route proviene da InsideOver.