Amanda Kloer on Sep 05, 2010 09:00AM

The Male Brothel: Fact or Fiction?

The commercial sex industry has been overwhelmingly dominated by men paying for sex with women. But here in the 21st century, will we finally see the reverse: women paying for sex with men? And if so, will the male brothel be a step towards equality, or be subject to the same types of exploitation as female brothels? Is the male brothel fact or faction?

New Zealand (where prostitution is legal and regulated) announced recently it would be opening up its first all-male brothel targeted to female customers. It would be a first not only for New Zealand, but possibly for the world. Men in prostitution and brothels have certainly existed, but the vast majority of them sell sex to other men. Women buying sex from men has been exceedingly rare. But could a men-for-women brothel work? And if so, would it end the exploitation, sex trafficking, and abuses often found in women-for-men brothels?

A handful of women who buy sex in New Zealand and Pam Corkery, the former politician behind the idea, are hopeful that an all-male brothel will appeal to women looking to buy sex. However, critics claim that women won't feel comfortable in a brothel setting with other women, picking men out of a line up for sex. And many have doubted that the female demand for male prostitution will be large enough to support a brothel. Out of the very few men in prostitution in New Zealand, most of them sell to both men and women. While some women do pay for sex, they remain a tiny minority in New Zealand and around the world.

Female buyers can also exploit young men just like male buyers can exploit young women. This phenomenon is most apparent in Jamaica, where many wealthy, older Western women have sex with young Jamaican men and boys in exchange for money, school tuition, shelter, and food. Some of these young men are exploited just as young women women in Thailand are exploited by male sex tourists. Others are trafficked for sex. Changing the gender of the vulnerable teens or the people with financial power doesn't end exploitation, it just shifts it to another group of victims.

The fact is that one male brothel aside, men are still the vast, vast majority of buyers of the commercial sex industry. And while some men and boys are victims of human trafficking and exploitation in that industry, women and girls still are most of the victims. The fiction is that when women buy sex from men, the opportunity for exploitation and abuse ends, and equality is somehow achieved. And the truth is that male brothels aren't the answer to human trafficking.

Photo credit: istolethetv

Tim Newman on Sep 04, 2010 04:00PM

Rights Advocates in Bangladesh Need Urgent Labor Day Solidarity

Meet Kalpona Akter and Babul Akhter. Kalpona and Babul are former child laborers who worked in the garment industry in Bangladesh and now run the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS). At 2 a.m. on August 13, Kalpona and Babul were awakened by 20 police officers and arrested as part of a government crackdown on workers and labor rights advocates who have been working to end exploitation in garment factories. They are both still in prison today despite international outcry. This Labor Day weekend, there are new, easy, and critical ways you can take action to support the rights of the workers who make our clothes.

Last month, I wrote about how Kalpona and Babul's organization had their legal status canceled in June for allegedly "fomenting unrest and agitation in the garment sector." Meanwhile, they had to deal with tapped phone lines, surveillance of their e-mails and searches of their offices. Kalpona and Babul are just two of the many people in Bangladesh who are trying to improve conditions in one of the most exploitative areas for garment workers.

Wages in Bangladesh are among the lowest in the world for this industry. Health and safety conditions in many of the local garment factories are appalling. For example, this past February, 21 workers died in the Garib & Garib factory, which produces for H&M, when they were locked inside the factory as it caught fire for the second time in six months. More recently, workers who have been protesting to demand higher wages, including children, were beaten by Bangladeshi police.

In response to the ongoing exploitation and the specific arrests of Kalpona and Babul, over 800 Change.org readers have taken action to demand an end to the harassment. This week, the International Worker Rights Caucus sent a letter to major apparel companies who source from Bangladesh, including Wal-Mart, JCPenney, Cintas, VF, H&M and Sears/Kmart, calling on them to do more to end the abuse. Also, the International Labor Rights Forum filed new comments detailing the abuse of workers' right to organize in Bangladesh with the U.S. Trade Representative.

All of these actions are definitely turning up the heat on the government of Bangladesh, but we have to do more to stand up for Kalpona, Babul and all of the other people working for justice. Here are some new and easy ways you can show your support.

1. Send this e-mail to Secretary of State Clinton calling on the US government to do more, including holding an immediate hearing about trade benefits that the US offers to Bangladesh;
2. Send this e-mail to Walmart, Sears, JC Penney and H&M calling on them to use their economic muscle as investors to stop the harassment of workers in Bangladesh;
3. Deliver a letter to your local Walmart next Wednesday, September 8th demanding that Walmart do more to protect worker rights in Bangladesh.

What better way to commemorate Labor Day than to continue the fight for worker rights and to defend the people who stand up for workers globally?

Photo credit: International Labor Rights Forum

Amanda Kloer on Sep 04, 2010 09:00AM

Children's Wisdom About Slavery and Freedom

Children can be unintentionally smart and incredibly profound, including while talking about heavy topics like slavery and freedom. Free the Slaves asked several children at the Agape International Spiritual Center their thoughts on slavery and freedom. Their answers might just surprise you. Their adorableness won't.

We often think human trafficking and modern-day slavery are topics that are too challenging or too complex for children. As adults, we struggle with conceptualizing and understanding these issues. Modern-day slavery as an issue is all at once historical, political, moral, economic, and social. When we discuss it, we often end up having loaded and controversial conversations about race, sex, gender, equality, poverty, globalization, violence, and other forces which surround human trafficking. That makes it all the more refreshing when kids can step in and remind us what slavery and freedom are really about, and why fighting for freedom around the world is so important.

Check out some children's wisdom about slavery and freedom.

When we get bogged down in the politics of fighting human trafficking, it is not just helpful but therapeutic to remember that slavery really is about people thinking they have the right to use and sell other people, and freedom means no one owns you. And of course, that when people get out of slavery, they will have the best day of their lives. Working toward that first day of freedom after anywhere from one hour to 50 years of bondage is what the abolitionist movement should be all about. It's what we adults too often lose sight of and struggle to get back. And it's what a wise child knows intuitively, and never has to remind herself of.

Photo/Video Credit: Free the Slaves

Amanda Kloer on Sep 03, 2010 02:00PM

FBI Denies Facilitating Child Sex Trafficking to Nab Mob

Federal prosecutors in New York City are fighting allegations that they allowed a 15-year-old girl to be forced into prostitution while they investigated the Gambino crime family's human trafficking activities. A defense lawyer for the Gambinos, however, claims the government allowed the teen to be exploited in order to make their case. Did the FBI allow child sex trafficking?

A few months ago, the infamous Gambino crime family was caught pimping kids on Craigslist, a move that many considered a low point, even for them. The bust was the result of a long government investigation, which included the participation of a cooperating witness who worked for the Gambinos. According to the witness, he began working with the government in 2008. But for most of 2009, while collaborating with the FBI, he acted as a pimp for a 15-year-old girl.

The government claims they broke up the ring as soon as they discovered a minor was involved. However, they apparently learned about and halted the ring in August 2009, but didn't hand out indictments until 2010, despite the fact that all of the women sold by the Gambinos were under 20. Why the delay? The FBI has stated categorically that they did not and would not authorize the continuation of criminal activity or sexual exploitation involving a minor. But would they care if adult women were being trafficked against their will?

The informant told the FBI that the Gambinos were trafficking women for sex in June 2009, and the FBI let that trafficking continue for two whole months, until they learned a minor was involved. For two months, they let women be forced into prostitution by the mafia while they investigated. That sounds like an awfully long time. A judge on the case likened the situation to Winston Churchill failing to stop the bombing of Coventry because to do so would have revealed to the Germans the Allies had broken their codes. Sometimes, he said, the government has to sacrifice the few for the greater good.

But I wonder if Churchill ever had to look the families of Coventry in the eye, after his tough decision, and tell them he made the right choice. And I wonder if the FBI can look at a 15-year-old girl and a number of other women and say the same.

Photo credit: cliff1066

Angela Longerbeam on Sep 03, 2010 09:09AM

A Sex Tourist's "Made Up" Defense

What?s a tourist to do when accused of repeatedly buying a 13-year-old for sex? Why, ?make up? an excuse, of course. Forty-year-old Atsushi Kato of Japan is in court for purchasing a young girl several times in a Cambodian brothel. But because the girl was wearing makeup, he says, he really had no idea she was a child. The makeup made her look 18, at least.

Arrested in September 2009 after visiting the rehabilitation center where the girl was then staying, Kato is now being charged for human trafficking and sexual exploitation, with 7 to 15 years of prison time in his future if found guilty. Additionally, he would owe the victim herself $6,000 and face deportation after serving his sentence.

Aside from the sheer stupidity of visiting the rehabilitation center and falling straight into the hands of law enforcement, Kato?s makeup defense is super-lame ? and all too easy. ?I thought that the girl?s age must be 18,? he told the court, ?because she wore cute makeup at nighttime, and she agreed to have to have sex with me voluntarily without forcing.? I suppose cosmetics companies will have us believe their products are truly magical in their transformative powers, but making a 13-year-old appear unequivocally 18? Doubtful. Do child beauty pageant contestants look older, or just plain creepy?

Better question: Do sex tourists generally mull the ethics of purchasing a girl who is either over or under age 18? Do they visit a brothel and back out of the transaction once a child appears?

As for the girl having sex ?voluntarily without forcing,? again one has to wonder how much water this argument really holds. In a brothel, if a girl struggles, there are often seriously negative consequences for causing trouble, in the form of physical punishment and increased debt to the brothel owner. Lack of resistance might be the only way to make internment less unbearable.

The outcome of this case, while yet to be determined, will speak to whether it?s okay for sex tourists to fabricate the excuse that they didn?t know how old the girl was, and should therefore be given a free pass. In my book, that?s about as sad as a rapist arguing consent where there was none. And if sex tourists can play that card and win, then we have to ask ourselves who we are actually protecting.

Photo credit: pumpkincat210

Amanda Kloer on Sep 02, 2010 04:00PM

Spain Busts Rare Male and Transgender Sex Trafficking Ring

Spanish police busted a massive sex trafficking ring this week and were surprised at what they found: 64 men and transgender persons trafficked into commercial sex. And if you've ever doubted that a man can be raped or forced to engage in sex acts against his will, then this case proves an important point.

The men and transgender people were brought to Spain from Brazil by way of Luxembourg. A few of them knew they were traveling to Spain to work in the commercial sex industry, but thought they would be controlling their conditions. Most of the men, however, had agreed to take jobs as waiters or dancers. When they arrived in Spain, traffickers told them their travel had racked up debts of several thousand dollars, and they would have to pay that debt off through prostitution. The men were forced to be available for sex acts 24 hours a day. They were given Viagra and cocaine so they could perform sexually, well past the point of exhaustion. Their lodging was a tiny, cramped house where they slept up to six to a bed. And if they complained about any of this, the traffickers threatened to kill them.

The men and transgender people in this sex trafficking ring were raped by the men who bought them. They were force-fed sexual stimulants and threatened with death if they tried to leave. If 64 women had been in the same situation, there would be no question as to the nature of their abuse. But there is still a social stigma against the idea of men being victims of sexual abuse or in this case, sex trafficking. These men were forced into prostitution against their will, and it's impossible to describe what happened to them as anything other than repeated rape.

Despite the severity of this case, male sex trafficking rings are still exceedingly rare, and female victims make up the vast majority of sex trafficked people. When men and male-identifying transgender people are victimized in the sex industry, they are often minor boys. For such a large group of men, all of whom were reported to be over 20, to be trafficked for sex is actually unheard of. But that rarity doesn't diminish the experiences of the victims, which are outrageous no matter their gender.

Photo credit: urban_data

Maia Blume on Sep 02, 2010 11:00AM

Southern Sudan: Free All Child Soldiers

The Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) has just made an announcement of massive proportion: they have pledged to fight the heavy use of child soldiers in southern Sudan by promising to free all child soldiers within their ranks by November 2010. To fulfill their promise, the SPLA has established a special unit to ensure success, and so far, more than 20,000 children that were estimated to serve in the SPLA's ranks have been freed since a peace agreement was signed in 2005. Approximately 900 still serve, according to U.N. estimates, but the SPLA estimates that it still holds onto a few thousand.

Since the start of Sudan's civil war, the SPLA has recruited young children by force and exploited them heavily as soldiers and providers of the rebel movement seeking self-determination in the southern region of Sudan. Like most other child soldiers around the world, young children were threatened and beaten and forced to fight in the war, and in some cases, they were recruited by junior officers with the promise of an education. Despite signing a peace agreement back in 2005 and vowing to free child soldiers from their armed forced, the SPLA continued to recruit and force young kids into battle. Their recruitment breached southern Sudan's own laws that were outlined in its interim constitution that was adopted in December 2005, as well as the the peace agreement that was implemented between the north and the south that same year.

But recently, the SPLA has been gradually freeing child soldiers and claims to have ceased recruitment. These statements have even been verified by the U.N., and their new pledge is actively supported by UNICEF.  Now, with the establishment of a special unit to ensure the liberation of the remaining soldiers, perhaps the SPLA is living up to their promises as the government prepares for the 2011 referendum on self determination. So does this action and the U.N.'s backing validate their promises? I guess only time will tell.

This seems to be the victory of all victories, if successful. Many thousands of children, both boys and girls, remain actively involved in conflicts throughout Africa and in Southeast Asia, and it seems as if their presence is never-ending. If the SPLA and southern Sudan successfully and completely purges children from their ranks, the outcome could be monumental: one of the world's most conflicted regions free of the exploitation of children in conflict? It would be positively shocking.

Photo credit: bixentro

Amanda Kloer on Sep 02, 2010 07:00AM

Tell Village Voice Media to Stop Child Sex Trafficking on Backpage.com

Craigslist may be the most famous facilitator of online child sex trafficking these days, but Backpage.com, owned by Village Voice Media, is working to catch up. In the past week alone, two human trafficking operations were busted for selling teens on Backpage.com. It's time to tell Village Voice Media and Backpage.com that facilitating and profiting from child sex trafficking is not acceptable.

Earlier this week a Georgia man was arrested for pimping two 17-year-old girls around the Nashville area. Detectives responded to a suspicious ad on Backpage and drove to a motel. There, they found the teens and their 37-year-old pimp, as well as a laptop computer, likely used to post the online advertising. Just four days prior to that, four people in Denver were arrested for forcing a teen girl into prostitution. They also advertised her sexual services, including semi-nude pictures, on Backpage. And last year, a South Dakota couple was arrested for selling underage girls for sex on .... wait for it ... Backpage.com yet again. Sorry Village Voice, but it looks like child sex trafficking on one of your websites is a disturbing trend.

Backpage's terms of use, of course, prohibit advertising for illegal commercial sex acts or exploiting minors, but both are happening anyway in Nashville, Denver, and Sioux City. And like Craigslist, Backpage and their parent company Village Voice Media are doing little to prevent the sale of children or trafficked adults on their site. Village Voice Media has a duty to ensure that young girls aren't being abused in the commercial sex industry with help from their website, and that they aren't facilitating human trafficking.

Online classified sites like Backpage.com, Craigslist, and others are quickly becoming some of the most common places children are sold for sex. These companies have tremendous power to prevent the sexual exploitation of minors online. However, vast amounts of money are to be made in the adult services advertising industry, giving companies few incentives to tighten controls and safeguards against pimps selling kids. That's where you come in. Pressure from online classified users can motivate companies like Village Voice Media to clean up their online classified and take critical steps to protecting children. So take one minute, write a letter to Village Voice Media, and take a stand for exploited children.

Photo credit: Saemel Trip

Amanda Kloer on Sep 01, 2010 03:00PM

U.K. "Opts Out" of E.U. Anti-Trafficking Efforts

Apparently the U.K. just isn't that interested in fighting human trafficking and modern-day slavery in their country. They've told the rest of Europe "no thanks" when it comes to joining a coalition to combat human trafficking across the continent. It's a move that not only might alienate their neighbors, but act as an open invitation to pimps and traffickers to move to the U.K.

The British have a special right within the E.U. to opt in or out of specific measures decided on by the whole of Europe. Sadly, they've chosen to exercise this "opt out" right to avoid being part of a coalition that could take great strides toward reducing human trafficking. Among other things, the coalition would create a common European definition for the crime of human trafficking and make it easier to prosecute traffickers who move victims through multiple European countries. Without U.K. participation, however, the coalition will have a gaping hole that can serve as a safe haven for modern-day slavers.

But the refusal to participate in the E.U. initiative is not the only indication the U.K. isn't interested in combating human trafficking. Despite a recent report which estimated there are at least 2600 trafficked women and 9600 at-risk women in England's the commercial sex industry alone, only five people have been convicted of the crime in 2010. That represents a significant decrease in convictions from previous years. Interestingly, however, the prosecution rate has remained steady. You'd think a nation struggling to get human traffickers off the streets would want all the help they could get from their neighbors.

Why isn't the U.K. interested in combating human trafficking? Is it because they like to believe that modern-day slavery is a problem for the rest of Europe, but not for them? Because human trafficking happens in your backyard just like it happens in mine. Or is it just a question of political laziness? Yes, modern-day slavery is a challenging, elusive, and sometimes controversial issue, but that doesn't make the abuses of victims any less real or their need for freedom any less immediate.

What gives, Great Britain? Why are you so intent on ignoring human trafficking in your country?

Photo credit: antony_mayfield

Tim Newman on Sep 01, 2010 11:00AM

The Silk Road of Exploitation

Many of us have heard about the fabled silk road that dates back to B.C. and connected trade routes across Asia to Europe and Northern Africa. In Uzbekistan, farmers who produce silk have followed a long road of exploitation that continues today.

Similar to the country's lucrative cotton industry, the trade in Uzbek silk is controlled by the state. The government dictates what farmers will grow and buys directly from farmers to export their crops. Farmers are required to meet production quotas for their silk or they could face fines, loss of their land leases, or even violence. Payment is often delayed and the wages are too low for families to make a fair living -- even while the state companies that export the silk earn eight times as much as the farmers. The type of production mostly widely used in Uzbekistan is the old-fashioned method of using silkworms, which is an extremely exacting and labor-intensive process. As a result of the painstaking work and the high quotas, farmers are forced to use the labor of their children.

While the government of Uzbekistan denies the use of child labor in the production of its silk, the Associated Press identified children as young as nine involved in this work and noted that many children miss school during the silk harvest.

It is hard for farmers and labor rights advocates to identify and speak out against the abuses when the government continuously cracks down on civil society. For example, one activist interviewed by the Associated Press was jailed for five years on trumped-up charges after speaking with journalists.

Child and forced labor in Uzbekistan's silk industry has been overshadowed by the attention focused on the country's cotton sector, since silk is a much smaller export earner in comparison. But the recent reports of exploitation reveal that the government of Uzbekistan continues to use its control of land and export companies to trap farmers in a cycle of poverty and dependence that leads to the widespread abuse of worker rights. Despite Uzbekistan's decision to ratify the international conventions related to eradicating the worst forms of child labor, the government's policies continue to facilitate egregious labor rights abuses while officials simultaneously deny the exploitation.

Photo credit: Armin Kübelbeck

Amanda Kloer on Sep 01, 2010 07:00AM

Saudi Employers Torture Maids and Get Away With It

This week, Sri Lankan doctors removed 13 out of 24 nails and five needles from deep within the flesh of LP Ariyawathie, who was working in Saudi Arabia as a domestic worker. She claims they were driven there by her employers in Saudi Arabia, as punishment for not performing tasks up to par. The Saudi government claims she is lying. But Ariyawathie is not the first woman to travel to Saudi Arabia for work and return tortured, nor will she likely be the last.

Ariyawathie traveled from Sri Lanka to Saudi Arabia in March to work for a family as a domestic servant, hoping to earn enough money to help her sick daughter back home. But working in Saudi Arabia turned out to be hell. Every time Ariyawathie had trouble understanding Arabic instructions, and every time she made an mistake in her duties, she was hit by her employers and their children. Then, they began sticking needles and driving nails into her hands, feet, and legs. Eventually, once the nails made it too hard for her to walk, her employers took her back to the agency and they deported her to Sri Lanka. Ariyawathie was an immigrant, making her more vulnerable to human trafficking; the Immigrants Rights blog has another excellent take on this story.

Saudi Arabia has the gaul to claim that this is all one big lie, and that the maid was never abused by her employers. Even if there was little evidence, that would be a cold stance to take given the severity of the allegations. But it's pretty damn hard to fake 24 needles and nails being lodged in your body. And it's  even harder to fake video footage of their removal, below, with more after the jump.

The Saudi government's cries of wolf are even more doubtful since this isn't the first time they've refused to address the torture of a foreign domestic worker by a Saudi family. In 2008, an Indonesian woman had to have several fingers and toes amputated after being tied up and left without food for a month by her Saudi employers. The court awarded her a mere $670 for her pain and dropped all criminal charges against the employer. Another Saudi woman got away with burning a domestic worker with a hot iron and knife after she asked for her salary.The torture of maids in Saudi Arabia is moving quickly from isolated instances to a disturbing pattern.

Human trafficking and brutalization like Ariyawathie experienced is not uncommon among domestic workers, and can be even more difficult to discover because it's so hidden. But Saudi Arabia and other governments of the world need to protect domestic workers from torture like every one else.

Photo credit: barkbd

Amanda Kloer on Aug 31, 2010 01:00PM

Poll: Vegas Voters Reject Legal Brothels

A recent poll of Clark County voters, the county in which Las Vegas sits, shows they don't want to legalize prostitution or marijuana. The pot provision was shot down because of the fear that high tourists might gamble less. But legalized brothels were rejected, in part, because voters thought they would actually hurt the local economy.

The poll, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, found that 64% of residents were opposed to legal brothels in Las Vegas as tools to stimulate tourism. A popular argument for the legalization and regulation of prostitution has long been that the industry would stimulate the local economy. However, University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor Bill Thompson says that just isn't true. He claims that if legal prostitution has the economic impact proponents claim it has, then visitors would be flocking to the towns in Nevada where prostitution is legal, not to Las Vegas, where it isn't. Legal brothels in other parts of Nevada have been subject to the recession as much as other industries, why would they be any different in Las Vegas?

Of course, another consideration is sex trafficking, which evidence has shown grows in areas where prostitution is legal or highly tolerated, as it currently is in Vegas. Child sex trafficking is already a significant problem in the city, with almost 1500 child victims identified so far, most of whom are between 12 and 14 years old. Trafficking of Asian women and girls into brothels that hide behind massage parlor fronts is also a booming industry in Vegas. A popular argument against legalization of prostitution has been that legal markets create a larger sex tourism industry, which increases demand for women and girls. And when that demand outstrips voluntary supply, sex trafficking flourishes.

Given these two arguments, legalizing brothels in Las Vegas is a lose-lose scenario. If legal brothels don't stimulate the economy and aren't immune to recession, as Thompson supposes, then the proposal fails on economic grounds. If legal brothels do stimulate the economy, then they also increase demand which leads to sex trafficking and child prostitution, so the proposal fails on human rights grounds. But the voters of Las Vegas have gone ahead and said it fails on their grounds, no matter the reason.

Photo credit: http2007

Amanda Kloer on Aug 31, 2010 07:00AM

Red Light Special: Nepali Beaded Bag

Are you sick of wasting your money on useless plastic crap made in overseas sweatshops? Do you want to use your money to vote for something you actually support ? a hopeful future for former slaves? Then check out Change.org's weekly Red Light Special. Once a week, I'll be bringing you a product that heals rather than hurts, because the proceeds go to help victims of human trafficking. Shop Red Light Specials to be part of the solution, instead of part of the useless crap problem.

This Week?s Red Light Special ... Nepali Beaded Bag

If you're looking for a way to make a statement at a fancy party, wedding, or other formal event, then check out this awesome beaded bag. Each bag is handmade in Nepal by human trafficking survivors, as part of a program to help teach skills and earn income. Its eye-catching design is sure to strike up a conversation, and supporting survivors of human trafficking goes with any dress. Now, you can get noticed at your big event and do something great for women in need at the same time.

You can buy this item here.

Let's face it, you don't need any more stuff in your life, but human trafficking survivors sure need a future. And you can give it to them with just a click of the mouse and a swipe of the credit card. So what are you waiting for?

If you know of an organization or business which you?d like to see financially rewarded for helping trafficking victims, let me know!

Photo credit: Stop Traffick Fashion

Amanda Kloer on Aug 30, 2010 01:00PM

Women Escape Slavery at West Palm Beach Club

Recently, two Honduran sisters traveled to America after being promised jobs as maids for wealthy families in West Palm Beach, Florida. Instead, they were forced to dance in skimpy outfits at clubs in the area. And their story is not unusual. Human trafficking of women and girls at clubs is a serious issue all over the country.

Sisters L.M. and E.M. knew cleaning houses would not be glamorous work, but they hoped to make a decent living at it in America. They each agreed to pay $7000 to be smuggled into the country through Texas by a man named Martinez. Once arrived, however, the sisters were handed skimpy outfits and makeup and told they would have to dance at local clubs. When they initially refused and asked for house cleaning work instead, Martinez threatened their mother back in Honduras. So L.M. and E.M. worked at the club, where they were groped by customers, forced to drink alcohol, forced to sell sex behind the club, and saw every penny of their tips pocketed to repay their smuggling debt. They eventually escaped when one of them got pregnant, and was fired.

While trapped in debt bondage, the sisters where moved from club to club, all of which were owned by Anthony Genovese who owns a number of Latino-themed bars and clubs in the area. He has "hired" dozens of women to dance at those clubs to attract patrons. Giselle Rodriguez of the Florida Coalition Against Trafficking says that means L.M. and E.M. are likely not the only trafficked women to pass through Genovese's clubs ? usually, when one or two trafficked women are used in a club, dozens are. Matrinez is now in jail, but despite the presence of two trafficked women in one of his clubs and evidence indicating the probability of many more, Genovese is still operating bars and clubs, complete with "dancers" around West Palm Beach.

Genovese isn't the only one operating clubs that make money off trafficked women. Strip clubs around the country have been cited for enslaving adult women or girls under the legal age for stripping. I've personally worked on cases of girls who began stripping at 14 and 15. Yet for the most part, the owners and ultimate profit recipients of these clubs rarely go to jail. At most they might pay a fine, but not enough to prevent them from opening another club and stocking it with trafficked women as well. Until the owners of clubs that abuse women are held accountable for their role in human trafficking, the problem will persist.

Photo credit: tedviens

Amanda Kloer on Aug 30, 2010 07:00AM

Harry Potter Star Emma Watson Endorses Fair Trade Fashion

Emma Watson, the 20-year-old British actress who rose to fame as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, is apparently more like her on-screen character than other young starlets these days. In addition to finishing up two films and being a student at Brown, the young actress recently traveled to Bangladesh. Why? She wanted to get some hands-on experience with how her Fair Trade clothing line is being produced.

Watson has used her acting career to launch into the world of fashion, first as a model, then a designer, and now, as an advocate for eco-friendly and Fair Trade fashion. As part of that, she's endorsing a collection from People Tree, a U.K.-based firm that sells Fair Trade fashions produced in developing countries where trafficking and labor abuses in the garment industry are rampant. But slapping her name on some Fair Trade t-shirts wasn't enough for Watson. She recently visited Bangladesh herself last month to see how her clothing was made, and she even learned how to naturally dye fabrics and work one of the textile machines. Her visit doesn't just show that Watson is a woman of substance, but also begs the question of how someone with two other full time jobs has time to check up on her factories when international corporations with staffs of thousands claim they don't.

Watson started working with People Tree to give back to the community, eschewing the binge-drinking, panty-flashing, rehab-hopping patterns of her peers. And doing so has made her look cool in a sea of hot messes. Incidentally, workers' rights was also the chosen platform of Watson's most famous character, Hermione Granger. Granger founded the Society to Promote Elvish Welfare (S.P.E.W.) at Hogwarts to address the lack of fair pay and poor working conditions suffered by the house elves of the wizarding world. It's an admirable stance, and one Emma Watson has obviously taken to heart.

Thank goodness, though, she came up with a better name for her project.

Photo credit: ursulakm

Amanda Kloer on Aug 28, 2010 09:00AM

When Victims Become Traffickers

Burmese police announced this week that out of the hundreds of human traffickers they have arrested over the past several years, at least 100 of them were once victims. Sadly, trafficking victims becoming traffickers is not unusual. But what makes a person go from victim to trafficker?

Most of the 100 victims-turned-traffickers were trafficked from Burma into China and Thailand for forced labor, forced prostitution, or forced marriage. Once discovered, they were shipped back to Burma, sometimes deported, and usually with no compensation. Back in Burma, there were no support services for them, no money for counseling or job training, no help with medical bills or education. The lack of support for victims traps them in a vicious cycle. Some people end up trafficked again and again because they cannot break out of that cycle. Others eventually break the cycle, by becoming traffickers themselves.

Victims can turn into traffickers for a number of reasons. For those trafficked as children, there may be no other conceivable industry for them to enter other than the one they were sold into as a child, whether that's commercial sex, brick making, or domestic service. So as an adult, they follow the only career path they've known and recruit other children into the same industry. Others many find that the only model of power in their life is the person who owns and controls them -- their trafficker. When they look around for ways to empower themselves, becoming a subjugater of others is all they see. Still others, as is the case with many of the 100 Burmese nationals, may not even realize what they're engaging in is against the law. They know the trafficking routes, brokers, and bosses from the time they were forced to work. That they should recruit others to do the same thing might feel like the natural extension of their previous "job."

The victim-turned-trafficker paradigm is particularly common among children forced into prostitution. Many of them develop such a close relationship with and dependency on their pimp, that once they're adults they'll help him lure other young girls into prostitution. It's a cycle that can continue uninterrupted for generations, with older women recruiting younger girls because mentally, they're still young and vulnerable themselves.

Of course, even trafficking victims have personal responsibility, and choosing to enslave other people is never acceptable for anyone. But having been a trafficking victim, especially having grown up as one, is a highly mitigating circumstance. People for whom slavery has been a daily norm may not immediately see their life as possible without it. And this cyclical effect of victims becoming traffickers and creating more victims is just one more way the global industry of human trafficking is a nefarious one.

Photo credit: dany13

Amanda Kloer on Aug 27, 2010 03:00PM

In West Africa, Sex Trafficking is a River

In West Africa, a river of women and girls flows freely from Nigeria through places like Benin and Ghana, and eventually into the Cote d'Ivoire. They're as young as 15, and at the end of the river they all end up in the same place: sexual slavery. And the governments of West Africa are struggling to build dams against this flow of human beings into bondage.

According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch, a significant human trafficking path has been carved across West Africa, running from Nigeria to Cote d'Ivoire and including several neighboring countries. The victims are mostly young women and girls, many of them teens, who are lured to Cote d'Ivoire with the promise of jobs as cocktail waitresses and hairdressers. Once there, however, the only job waiting is prostitution. In one small town alone in Cote d'Ivoire, there was one brothel which held around 100 Nigerian women. Investigators determined that most, if not all of those women, were trafficked.

Traffickers keep victims from leaving by holding them in debt bondage. They tell the victims they've incurred huge debts traveling from Nigeria which can only be paid off via prostitution, and that they can leave once the debts are paid. But in reality, the debt never fully goes away. Several women had not paid back their debt of $3000 - $4000 after being enslaved in the sex industry for six years. Despite having sex with 20 to 30 men per night, they were unable to buy back their freedom.

In addition to the debt bondage, traffickers threaten victims' families back in Nigeria. They lock up and deny food or water to women who refuse to have sex. They tell victims that policemen will arrest them and put them in jail for their debt or for being in the country without papers. Once women are trafficked, it's hard for them to ever make it home.

In order to dam up this river of human trafficking, West African governments need to strengthen laws against human trafficking, train police forces to identify human trafficking victims and arrest perpetrators, and improve collaboration between countries. Until West African governments work together and with the rest of the world, this river of sex trafficking will keep on raging.

Photo credit: Marc from Borft

Sarah Parker on Aug 27, 2010 11:34AM

My Search for Fair Trade, Slave-Free Tires

Was slave labor used to make your tires? The tires currently on my car came from Firestone, back in 2007, so slaves were definitely involved. I just didn't know it when I bought them.

Now the world knows that Bridgestone/Firestone used slave labor to get rubber for their products thanks to a lawsuit filed by workers. They won, by the way, but labor practices there are still atrocious. Obviously, I can't buy Firestone's tires again, no matter that they're cheap (surprise surprise) and my budget is super small.

So how can consumers have peace of mind when we put rubber to the road, knowing our tires weren't made by enslaved children or adults? I decided to go the tried and true research route.

My first stop was Call + Response's Chain Store Reaction website, which provides access to hundreds of manufacturers, allowing consumers to request their products be certified slave free. Many manufacturers respond with their labor policies and promises to become/remain slave free. Many don't. Neither Firestone, Michelin, nor Goodyear have given a sufficient response to inquiries, if any response at all. I sent them e-mails and moved on to Plan B: go straight to company websites.

Goodyear has had its share of labor disputes with unions, but states it doesn't support or use slave labor or child labor. I couldn't find any independent data to back it up or refute this. Michelin (parent company of BF Goodrich) states that it doesn't support or use slave labor or child labor and doesn't tolerate the inhumane treatment of its employees. I also couldn't find any independent data to back it up or refute this. Cooper? No mention of labor practices on their site and a handful of internet reports about labor union disputes through the years. Same deal with the not-so-mainstream tire companies I researched.

Well okay, Plan C: Research fair trade rubber. Guess what I found -- nothing conclusive. The rubber industry definitely uses slave and child labor, but it's very hard to connect the rubber source with the tire manufacturer unless you're a well-funded super sleuth with lots of free time. The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions will occasionally report on slave labor where it's attempting to unionize workers, but I want a tidy list with big green check marks next to certified slave-free tire companies and big red x's next to those who aren't. No such luck. And none of this changes the fact that I really need new tires and want to be a responsible consumer.

It's enough to drive a girl to public transportation. Too bad Los Angeles is a labyrinth of late buses, half-finished rail routes, and confusing plan-your-trip websites that are harder to decipher than One Eyed Willie's treasure map.

So now I'm turning to you, readers. Do YOU know to find slave-free tires? Have you had any success in your own research? Where else should I look?

Photo credit: GST HBK

Amanda Kloer on Aug 27, 2010 07:00AM

What Killed 72 Migrants Near the U.S. Border?

In a horrific scene this week, Mexican authorities have found 72 dead bodies near the U.S.-Mexico border. They suspect the migrants may have been victims of human trafficking, being smuggled over the border into the U.S. and then forced to sell drugs. But what on earth could kill 72 people, and why?

Mexican police are working to identify the bodies, but have already identified men from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Brazil, making the crime an international one. So far police suspect that the men were recruited by organized crime to become drug mules, bringing drugs into the U.S. and then selling them. But why were these 72 men massacred before making it into the U.S.? Most likely, because they refused to smuggle drugs, resisted their captors, and fought back. And for that, they paid with their lives.

The problem of organized crime syndicates kidnapping and trafficking would-be immigrants as drug mules is not new. Drug gangs often patrol the corridors migrants use to travel through Central America and Mexico, eventually heading for the U.S. The gangs know migrants make easier targets, away from family and friends, and so look for travelers to kidnap for ransom or traffic into the drug trade. Migrants already face significant natural dangers, but now the very human threat of human trafficking is growing.

But despite the widespread kidnapping and trafficking of migrants in Mexico, human rights groups claim the Mexican government is doing little to investigate or prevent these sorts of tragedies. The National Human Rights Commission estimates that nearly 20,000 migrants are kidnapped in Mexico every year. They claim the government is in collusion with the drug cartels, and thus turns the other way when they force migrants into becoming drug mules. They have devoted few resources to fighting human trafficking by organized crime, finding missing persons, or protecting migrants from violence and exploitation.

And that means even more migrants looking for a better like will end up like the 72 found this week, returning home in body bags.

Photo credit: Wonderlane

Amanda Kloer on Aug 26, 2010 11:30AM

Take Action to End Slavery in Corporate Supply Chains

Millions of men, women, and children are enslaved around the world, producing the raw materials that create products we use every day. Slaves pick the cotton that ends up in our t-shirts, mine the tungsten that makes our laptops run, and harvest the cocoa we find so delicious. But two pieces of pending legislation in California could help end the use of slavery in major corporations' supply chains. Will you help make them law?

The proposed legislation would be California state law, but if it passes, the effects will be felt all over the country and all over the world by reducing the market for slave-made goods. The California Supply Chain Transparency Act of 2010 (SB 657) would require retailers and manufacturers doing business in California and having more than $100 million in annual worldwide gross receipts to publicly disclose some basic things about what they're doing to end slavery in their supply chains. That includes whether or not the company uses verification to evaluate and address human trafficking risks in product supply chains including if they used 3^rd party verification, conducts audits of suppliers and whether audits are independent and unannounced, direct supplier certification and what they do to train and maintain internal accountability for employees and contractors failing to meet company standards on slavery and trafficking.With this information, consumers across the country will have better tools to help them make ethical decisions about what they purchase.

Because California is such a large economy, this new law would affect major corporations all over the world, including those who produce some of the biggest supply chain slavery offenders, like consumer electronics, clothing, and food products. Of course, that means the big business interests who would be affected are fighting hard to keep the law from actually requiring them to simply tell us what they do, if anything, to keep slavery out of the products they sell us. Right now, they're hiding behind the skirts of big business association like California Manufacturers and Technology Association and a mountain of cash, but they are fighting. And that's why we need you, wherever you live, to let California know the world is watching their decision.

In addition to the Supply Chain Transparency Act, the Slave and Sweat Free Code of Conduct for goods sold to the State of California (SB 1231) going to the governor for his action. It would expand the definition of prohibited labor, expand the penalty for labor abuses to two years of removal from the State's bidder list, improve the current contractor responsibility program, and use the purchasing power of the state of California to reduce the demand for goods made with slave, forced, or abusive forms of labor.

Together, these two pieces of legislation could go a long way to reducing slavery and exploitation in California and around the world. Please, take a minute to sign.

Photo credit: old_wine