Government action on human trafficking demanded

A LOCAL TD recently sought assistance from Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, in dealing with a human trafficking case in North Dublin.
Dublin North East Tommy Broughan (Lab) told Northside People the case involved a woman trafficked into domestic labour for seven days a week.
“The work was commencing at 6.30am for six of those days until 11pm at night for e120 per week,” said Deputy Broughan who was shocked by the case presented to him.
Disturbing new figures have revealed that 97 per cent of the 1,000 women involved in indoor prostitution in Ireland at any given time are migrants.
Deputy Broughan said that even one woman trafficked for sexual exploitation into this country was one case too many.
He has called for immediate action following the publication of the Immigrant Council of Ireland 2009 report that highlighted the problem.
“Ireland is not immune from this racketeering in human beings,” Deputy Broughan stated.
“Those trafficked are mainly young vulnerable women fleeing poverty in their own countries of origin or deceived into seeking a better life on the false undertakings of the criminal networks involved in trafficking.
“We know that sex trafficking, which involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to transport an unwilling victim into sexual exploitation is a lucrative racket dominated by international crime networks.”
Denise Charlton, chief executive of the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI), believes the most effective way to combat sex trafficking, and to end the exploitation of migrant women is for Ireland to adopt legislation similar to Sweden, Norway and Iceland.
The ICI welcomed a Fine Gael motion in the Dail last week urging members to take stock of the reality of this crime in Ireland where a minimum of 102 women and girls have been clearly identified in a recent report as sex trafficked in 2007 and 2008.
Eleven of those trafficked were children when they arrived in Ireland and none knew they were destined for the Irish sex trade.
“According to Fine Gael, the Government needs to respond to this crime by treating those who experience it as victims and not as illegal immigrants,” Ms Charlton said.
“A strong recommendation has been proposed to end the policy of placing victims of human trafficking in asylum centres and introduce safe accommodation, support and protection services.
“The ICI has been lobbying for protection for victims of trafficking as this legislation has been debated through the house and would echo this recommendation.”
Ms Charlton added that the ICI was encouraged by the introduction of this motion and hopes that these issues will now be addressed.

source: http://www.dublinpeople.com/content/view/2646/57/

Group rallies to bring attention to child prostitution

Chants broke out on Las Vegas Boulevard late Saturday as community members gathered to raise awareness and money to help stop child prostitution.

Stop Child Trafficking Now organizers walked through residential areas carrying signs with slogans like “Real Men Don’t Buy Sex” and “Stop Buying Our Girls.”

Joseph South, local community organizer for Stop Child Trafficking Now, said the goal of the walk was to raise awareness and thank investigators working to save children from trafficking operations. Stop Child Trafficking Now is a national group that has organized walks in other major cities.

Andrea Pitcher, who walked with the group, said the “24/7″ atmosphere of Las Vegas means teenagers can go unsupervised. She said parents work late hours and aren’t always around their children — a factor that can push them in the direction of prostitution, she said.

“This is a very fast economy,” she said of prostitution. “It’s also very money-driven.”

She said lack of supervision allows children to get on the Internet and look for modeling jobs that aren’t always as they appear. Terri Miller, who walked with the group Saturday, said she lost her niece after she responded to a fake modeling job.

“My niece was trafficked from here to Japan,” Miller said. “Luckily, her family made contact with her and got her back home.”

According to Regulated Management, a Las Vegas-based group that says its mission is to “evaluate the problems and effects of the criminal enterprise of illegal prostitution on Las Vegas society,” about 1,500 children from 40 states were victims of sex trafficking in Las Vegas over a 13-year period.

“Las Vegas has a reason why it’s called Sin City,” said Bob Fischer, communications director of Regulated Management. “There are all different forms of prostitution, and there’s a great deal of apathy in this city.”

Jackie Capasso, of Christians Against Sexual Slavery, said while child and adult prostitution are separate issues, many women got into prostitution a young age.

UNLV researcher and assistant professor Alexis Kennedy said homeless children exposed to prostitution are taken to jail instead of receiving counseling.

“We’ve drawn them here with our bright lights and now we have to take care of them,” she said. “An 11-year-old is a child, and we had a 13-year-old arrested last weekend.”

Kennedy urged residents to speak to their legislators about the need for a safe house in Las Vegas.

For now, Las Vegas has Safe Place, a nationwide project that helps children who have been sexually or domestically abused get back on their feet. Safe Place spokesman Larry Lovelett said Safe Place, which has a drop-off center, is a service open around the clock for young people when they need help.

Lovelett said children need counselors who can talk to them about their victimization.

“Pimps have PhDs in human nature,” Lovelett said. “They are playing a psychological game with these kids.”

For more information about Stop Child Trafficking Now, visit www.sctnow.org.

source: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/sep/27/group-rallies-bring-attention-child-prostitution/

Two men plead guilty in sex trafficking case

Both face up to 10 years in jail when they are sentenced

SAN DIEGO —- Two men accused of helping to run a prostitution ring that served migrant camps in North County pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court.

The men, Eduardo Aguila-Tecuapacho and Carlos Tzompantzi-Serrano, stood expressionless in a federal courtroom as Judge Louisa Porter read the charge back to them. Both men said in Spanish that they were guilty of harboring illegal immigrants for the purposes of prostitution.

Each man faces up to 10 years in prison. They are expected to be sentenced in January. Both are illegal immigrants from Mexico and will likely be deported once they have completed their sentences, Porter said.

A third man involved in the case, Adrian Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez, is facing several charges that he brought women across the U.S.-Mexico border to use them in the sex trade. His trial is set to begin next month.

Aguila-Tecuapacho helped Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez by renting an apartment in Vista where one of the prostitutes lived, according to court documents. Aguila-Tecuapacho also allowed Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez, who is his cousin, to use his name for cell phone accounts and vehicle registrations for cars that were used to transport the women.

Tzompantzi-Serrano acted as a driver taking the women to various North County spots where the women allegedly worked in outdoor brothels, according to federal prosecutors.

Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez allegedly befriended at least two women and then forced them into lives of prostitution.

In May 2008, Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez allegedly paid a smuggler to bring Anabel de la Cruz-Ramirez, one of the prostitutes, illegally into the U.S. His relatives sheltered her in an apartment on West Los Angeles Drive in Vista. She later relocated to a nearby home at 311 Weston Circle.

Once in North County, Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez allegedly took de la Cruz-Ramirez to meet clients in ranches, canyons and apartments, according to court records. He paid her rent, cell phone bills and bought her supplies, such as condoms.

Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez, de la Cruz-Ramirez and another woman were arrested on Nov. 20, 2008, when sheriff’s deputies stopped the vehicle they were in, in a rural area of Valley Center known as Couzer Canyon, a place authorities say is often used by sex traffickers to set up makeshift prostitution camps.

Activists say prostitution is common in North County’s migrant camps, where men live in makeshift shanties while working as farm hands and day laborers throughout the region.

In recent years, authorities have busted several prostitution rings in the area, but officials say the cases are often difficult to prosecute because the women are often too scared to testify against their pimps.

source: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sdcounty/article_d7aebe4f-7af5-54e5-a257-f999be1002ae.html

Enslaved hooker’s dead baby found during bust of sex trafficking ring

Authorities remove container filled with cement and body of infant in sunset park brothel raid.

A bust of a sex trafficking ring in Brooklyn led to a ghastly find – an enslaved hooker’s baby entombed in concrete.

Feds and cops raided a Sunset Park flophouse late Tuesday and arrested the brothel’s ringleaders and found a 10-gallon Rubbermaid container filled with cement.

X-rays revealed the body of a two-month-old boy sealed inside, officials said.

Domingo Salazar, 33, and Norma Mendez, 32, appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court last night on sex trafficking charges and could face additional counts, law enforcement sources said.

The couple, illegal immigrants from Mexico, forced a young woman into prostitution, viciously abused her and barred her from getting medical care for the infant when he fell ill last January, investigators said.

When the baby died, Salazar and Mendez allegedly forced the mom to dispose of the body in the container, which sat in the 40th St. apartment until yesterday.

“It’s horrific,” said Carmen Burgos, 45. who works nearby. “I can’t have kids and I can’t believe they did this to a baby. They couldn’t be in their right minds.”

The duo launched the prostitution ring out of their 40th St. apartment in April 2007, according to a federal affidavit.

Two months earlier, Salazar met the young woman in Mexico, got her pregnant, and smuggled her into the United States – telling her galpal Mendez was his sister, sources said.

She gave birth to Salazar’s son soon after arriving in New York in November 2007, officials said. He still insisted she repay the $2,500 smuggling fee.

“She was working in a candy store but then she was forced to sell sex,” said Special Agent in Charge James Hayes Jr. of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “She was in bad shape.”

The woman was driven to customers across the city, made to service up to 25 clients a night and forced to turn over all her earnings, officials said.

Salazar and Mendez frequently abused the woman, punching her in the stomach, slashing her in the arm, hitting her in the head with a brick and bashing her in the face with a wooden board, officials said.

After investigators received a tip about the brothel, the woman, whose name was not released, was rescued from the 40th St. home and is now recovering.

“The girl was always in a short skirt and covered in bruises,” said a neighbor. “You’d see different men coming in and out.”

Investigators believe Salazar and Mendez also forced other immigrant women into prostitution but they have not been located. The accused pimps face 15 years to life in prison if convicted.

“The trafficking of human beings and sex slavery are unconscionable in this day and age and will not be tolerated,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell.

source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/11/26/2009-11-26_dead_baby_found_in_brothel_bust_horror.html#ixzz0XxTkgnOl

NY couple charged with forcing woman into sex work

NEW YORK — A young woman from Mexico was smuggled over the border and forced to work as a prostitute for years in Brooklyn, and the remains of an infant were found in concrete at the home where she was held prisoner, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

The woman was beaten so frequently by her captors, sometimes with bricks and wooden boards, that scars and bruises covered her body, according to a federal affidavit.

Domingo Salazar and his wife, Norma Mendez, appeared in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on sex trafficking charges and were being held without bail. Their attorneys had no comment.

Federal officials received information this month on a possible sex trafficking case and located the woman Tuesday night near the home in Brooklyn. According to the affidavit, the woman, who is unnamed, told authorities she met Salazar in Mexico in 2007 through mutual friends. She got pregnant in March of that year, and he suggested they move to the U.S. so the child could have a better life.

The two were smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico on foot. He traveled to New York to set up a place to live, while she waited in Phoenix, where they crossed over. She moved into the apartment in Brooklyn with Mendez and Salazar a few months later, according to the affidavit.

Salazar, 33, told the woman that Mendez, 32, was his sister. The woman, who’s in her 20s, gave birth Nov. 17, 2007, to a boy, and shortly after Salazar said she’d have to work to pay off her smuggling debt. He forced her into prostitution, requiring her to have sex with as many as 15 clients “per shift,” according to the affidavit. She also worked “double shifts” where she’d be forced to have sex with 25 clients, federal prosecutors said.

She gave half the money to her driver, and the other half to Salazar. He started beating her if she didn’t earn enough or arrived home late, sometimes with bricks and wooden boards, according to the affidavit. She eventually discovered Mendez was Salazar’s wife. Mendez also beat her for — among other things — having a baby, the affidavit said.

On Jan. 12, 2008, her 3-month-old son went limp, and Salazar refused to take the child to a hospital, federal prosecutors said. The child died that day, and the woman was forced to conceal the remains in a cement block that was put in a plastic storage bin inside the apartment, according to the affidavit.

On Tuesday, NYPD officials discovered the bin, with the remains of an infant inside. A cause of death was pending an autopsy. No charges have been filed in the death of the baby.

When the woman was interviewed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, she had a broken nose, swollen eye scars from cuts and a disfigured finger from an old break. She doesn’t speak English.

“The trafficking of human beings and sex slavery are unconscionable in this day and age and will not be tolerated,” U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell said.

If convicted, the couple faces life imprisonment.

source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gfAzYhy5bnzQrPen4b4ENfqxBwWgD9C6SK5O0

Sex trafficking: An American problem too

Editor’s note: Professor Bridgette Carr directs the Human Trafficking Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School. The Human Trafficking Clinic provides direct representation to victims of human trafficking and works to identify solutions to combat human trafficking.

“We did not have a right to choose where we lived … freedom of speech, or freedom of actions. The traffickers had keys to our apartment. They controlled all of our movement and travel. They watched us and listened when we called our parents. They didn’t let us make friends or tell anyone anything about ourselves. We couldn’t keep any of the money we earned. We couldn’t ask anyone for help.” — Lena

Lena was an athletic student from Eastern Europe yearning to visit the United States through a study-abroad program at her college. She had visions of learning English and returning home to share her experiences with her family.

But the human traffickers who ensnared her had a different vision for Lena, shipping her to America and exploiting her in the sex industry for profit. They met her at the airport with news that her study abroad placement had been changed. She was given new bus tickets and sent off to Detroit, Michigan. Once there they took her passport and her freedom.

After almost a year of enslavement, Lena risked her life to make a daring escape. She is smart, resilient and funny, and I have been honored to be her attorney through the Human Trafficking Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School.

Unfortunately there are thousands of adults and children like Lena who have not been able to escape their traffickers. These victims, especially the children, are in the same position Lena was: They’re being exploited and can’t ask anyone for help.

The data on human trafficking is sparse, but what is known is terrifying. It’s already the second largest criminal industry in the world — behind only the trade in illegal drugs — and it’s growing fast. The global commercial sex trade exploits one million children annually. At least 100,000 and perhaps as many as 300,000 children in America are victims of sex trafficking each year.

The grim reality of child sex trafficking in the United States is this: Human traffickers are selling sex with children in big cities and small towns throughout America.

Child sex trafficking has been illegal in the United States since 2000 with the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Under this law it is illegal to recruit, harbor, transport, provide or obtain a person under the age of 18 years for the purpose of a commercial sex act. Since the passage of the TVPA many states have passed their own human trafficking laws.

Children who are selling sex in the United States are then, by definition, victims of human trafficking. Despite this, child victims of sex trafficking are frequently viewed as criminals rather than as victims. According to the Department of Justice in 2006, six years after the passage of the TVPA, 1,600 children were arrested for prostitution and commercialized vice.

The children victimized by sex trafficking are often very young. On average, girls are first exploited for commercial sex between the ages of 12 and 14. For boys the average age is even younger — between 11 and 13.

But being a victim of sex trafficking does not have to be a life sentence. Victims can become survivors and build new lives. And while Lena is no longer the young college student she once was and it is too dangerous for her to return home, her speech and actions are now her own. She can choose where she wants to live. She is free.

Through my work with Lena and other clients in the Human Trafficking Clinic we have identified a number of ways to fight sex trafficking.

Raise awareness within your community: One of the biggest barriers to helping victims of sex trafficking is the lack of awareness about the issue. Human traffickers profit when we think human trafficking only happens in foreign countries.

• Human trafficking happens everywhere, and sex trafficking cases involving children have been found in all regions of the country. No community is immune to the horrors of human trafficking.

• Communities must prioritize the fight against human trafficking — including providing enough resources to law enforcement.

Change the conversation: Children who by law are too young to consent to having sex obviously cannot consent to selling sex, so:

• Victims should not be described as entering into prostitution; they are being exploited and should be described as victims of human trafficking.

• Law enforcement officials often arrest and detain child victims of sex trafficking on either prostitution charges or other charges, such as truancy or curfew violations. Law enforcement must be trained about human trafficking.

• Sellers of sex, especially when they are children, should not be guilty of a criminal violation. Buyers and pimps should be the only individuals at risk of criminal penalties. This would ensure that no victims are arrested or jailed.

Reduce demand: The reality of sex trafficking must not be neutralized or glamorized.

• Individuals who travel abroad to purchase sex from children are demonized in the media and identified as sexual predators, yet individuals who stay in the United States and pay to have sex with children are given the anonymous title “john” — and frequently aren’t even charged with a crime.

• Individuals who pay for sex with children in the United States should be punished.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bridgette Carr.

source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/11/25/carr.human.trafficking/

Mexican Government Part of Problem, Not Solution, Writer Says

MADRID – A muckraking Mexican journalist known for exposes of pedophile rings and child prostitution said on Monday that President Felipe Calderon’s bloody campaign against s is “not a battle for justice and social peace.”

Lydia Cacho, who has faced death threats and judicial persecution for her writings, told a press conference in Madrid that Mexico’s justice system is “impregnated with and impunity.”

Accompanied by the head of the Lydia Cacho Foundation, Spanish screenwriter Alicia Luna; and Madrid Press Association President Fernando Gonzalez Urbaneja, the author said the nearly three years since Calderon took office have seen increased “authoritarianism” and harassment of journalists and human rights advocates.

The period has also witnessed “15,000 documented killings,” Cacho said, exceeding the carnage in Colombia at the height of that country’s drug wars.

“Specialists are beginning to investigate if those 15,000 killings are linked with intentional social cleansing on the part of the Mexican state,” she said.

Calderon, she noted, “insists on saying that many of those deaths are collateral effects and that the rest are criminals who kill one another.”

“It is a war among the powerful and not a battle for justice and social peace,” she said of the military-led effort against drug cartels, which has drawn widespread criticism for human rights abuses.

Cacho also lamented “self-censorship” in the highly concentrated Mexican media, saying that many outlets color their reporting to avoid trouble with the government and other powerful interests.

A long-time newspaper columnist and crusader for women’s rights, Lydia Cacho became famous thanks to the furor over her 2005 book “Los demonios del Eden” (The Demons of Eden), which exposed wealthy pedophiles and their associates in the Mexican establishment.

In the book, she identified textile magnate Kamel Nacif as a friend and protector of accused pedophile Jean Succar Kuri, who has since been sent back to Mexico from the United States to face charges.

Nacif, whose business is based in the central state of Puebla, accused Cacho of defamation – a criminal offense – in Mexico and arranged to have her arrested for allegedly for ignoring a summons to appear in court for the case.

In February 2006, Mexican dailies published transcripts of intercepted phone conversations in which Nacif was heard conspiring with Puebla Gov. Mario Marin and other state officials to have Cacho taken into custody and then assaulted behind bars.

The transcripts indicated that Nacif, known as the “denim king” for his dominance of the blue-jeans business, engineered the author’s arrest by bribing court personnel not to send her the requisite summonses.

Cacho was subsequently released on bail and the case against her was ultimately dismissed.

source: http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=347884&CategoryId=14091

Child Sex Trafficking Awareness

COLORADO SPRINGS – A Colorado Springs church is joining forces with an international organization to bring attention to the problem of child sex trafficking. The partnership was announced Sunday at the City Auditorium.

“These children are being sold and they’re being beaten, and they’re being raped and they’re locked in rooms for years without seeing the light of the sun,” said Clayton Ross, Pastor of Grass Roots Church.

The statistics are surprising.

“One in three people between the ages of 10 to 13 are going to get sold to sex slavery once they’ve run away from home or they get kicked out of their house,” said Marcus Reid, who attended Thursday’s gathering.

Now, Grass Roots Church is joining forces with an organization called Love 146, to raise awareness and prevent child sex trafficking. “So it was kind of awesome to see two organizations come together and just talk about how we can work together,” said Reid.

Love 146 is an organization with one goal: to end child sex trafficking. The group has established safe houses all over the world for children who have been rescued from prostitution.

Grass Roots Church is also supporting the cause with monetary donations. “As a church body we’re giving ten percent of everything that comes through our doors for them,” said Pastor Ross. “And beyond that, we just want to raise awareness. If it was our son or daughter, we would raise the banner and put up fliers, and would go all out. We would get on the news. We would make things happen. We would make sure that every person knew that our child is missing.”

To get the word out, the unified group will participate in the Parade of Lights on December 5, 2009. They are also working on organizing some concerts that will take place at the City Auditorium next year.

source: http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=11555528

Man, 45, is accused of sex crime with teen

ELKIN — A Wilkes County man was charged last week with statutory sex offense with a 14-year-old boy and another offense, authorities said.

William Frederick Cosby, 45, of State Road also was charged with felony solicitation of a by computer to commit a sex act, Elkin police said in a statement.

The State Bureau of Investigation and Elkin police arrested Cosby on Thursday after the boy was contacted on the Internet and approached by an adult on Nov. 13, police said.

Cosby was released Friday from the Surry County Jail in Dobson on a $100,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 12.

source: http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/nov/24/regional-briefs/

More than 2,000 attend funeral for 5-year-old girl

FAYETTEVILLE — An overflow crowd of more than 2,000 people attended services for a 5-year-old North Carolina girl found dead nearly a week after she was reported missing.

Shaniya Davis’s father on Sunday urged the crowd to help the community’s needy.

Bradley Lockhart said that God has spoken to the gathering through a tragedy.

More than 1,500 people crowded into Manna Church and an additional 500 people watched the service from an adjacent building. Several hundred more waited outside.

White doves were released during a graveside service.

The girl’s mother is charged with trafficking her daughter and child abuse involving prostitution.

A Fayetteville man is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape of a child.

source: http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/nov/24/regional-briefs/