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Dec. 1, 2005 -- Earlier this year, Toronto police took an extraordinary step in their search for a little girl who was being subjected to the worst kind of abuse imaginable. She was the subject of pictures that had been showing up in the hands of pedophiles. They showed her tied up and raped repeatedly, and police could see her growing older in the photos. They feared the abuse was still going on.

Illegal Immigration, Human Trafficking, and Organized Crime Raimo Väyrynen* Abstract It is important to make a careful distinction between illegal immigration, human smuggling, and human trafficking which are nested, but yet different concepts. This distinction is relevant because these different categories of the illegal movement of people across borders have quite different legal and political consequences. Human smuggling and trafficking have become a world-wide industry that ‘employs’ every year millions of people and leads to the annual turnover of billions of dollars. Many of the routes and enclaves used by the smugglers have become institutionalized; for instance, from Mexico and...

Hidden below a shelf in the corridor of a run-down motel, a sharp-eyed police officer spots what appears to be a trap-door. When he and his colleagues go down the concrete steps, shining their torches into the dark, damp cellar, they are scarcely able to believe what they encounter. A police video shows girls emerging from a dank cellar Cowering against a crumbling wall are eight terrified young women. Strewn on the bare floor are stained mattresses, a pile of discarded clothes and a few empty boxes. There is no heating, no light. The women, aged 18 to 24, are...

Young women are being imprisoned as sex slaves in secret underground bunkers before being trafficked to Britain, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal. Our investigation uncovered shocking evidence in eastern Europe, including video footage, of groups of women locked in squalid cellars below motels. A police video shows young girls being released from a cellar The victims - found by police in a series of raids - were allowed out of the cramped bunkers only to "service" clients in nearby rooms before being taken straight back underground. The "cellar girls" were among thousands of young women lured to Macedonia from their...

BUCHAREST -- In a back street in central Bucharest at 3 a.m., a surly Romanian orders a young woman to open her coat and twirl around. "You see, she is beautiful," he says in a cold monotone. "Health good, skin good -- no marks. We get doctor's papers. You want see body?" "No, it's okay," I reply. "I can see she is in good condition." She is slim, dark-haired and attractive but is cowed and passive in front of her dead-eyed controllers -- two men in their twenties wearing designer jackets. The next day in a smoky cafe, we agree...

EIGHT SALVADORANS ARRESTED AND CHARGED WITH CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT SEX TRAFFICKING Dozens of Central and South American females forced to work as “bargirls” HOUSTON, Texas — United States Attorney Chuck Rosenberg and Assistant Attorney General Wan Kim, Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, today announced the unsealing of criminal charges against eight persons for their roles in an organization allegedly involved in the sex trafficking of Central and South American females for Houston area bars and restaurants through force, fraud and coercion. The federal criminal complaint, filed under seal on Sun. Nov. 13, alleges that the eight defendants,...

PHOENIX - A couple held a runaway teen captive in a hollow bed frame for weeks and forced her to have sex for money with people they found on the Internet, police said. The 15-year-old girl managed to call family members for help while 18-year-old Matthew Gray and 19-year-old Janelle Butler were sleeping Monday night, authorities said. The two were arrested Tuesday. The girl ran away from her El Mirage home in September and met the couple through a friend about three hours after she disappeared, police Sgt. Andy Hill said. They took her to a park, bound her and...

SAN JOSE – Five Chinese nationals from the South Bay are in custody this afternoon facing federal charges following the execution of search warrants yesterday targeting 10 unlicensed massage parlors that were allegedly being operated as brothels in San Jose, San Mateo, and Santa Clara. The suspects, who are expected to make their initial appearance in federal court here this afternoon, are charged in a criminal complaint with conspiring to conceal and harbor illegal aliens for financial gain. The arrests and searches are the result of a year-long undercover investigation called “Operation Bad Neighbor” that involved U.S. Immigration and Customs...

“Slave traffickers around the world have rediscovered how profitable it is to buy and sell people. Women are lured into modern-day slavery, hoping for a better life. They could all be your sister, or your best friend, or . . . your daughter. . . . Modern slavery exists only because we choose to ignore it.” Now, that probably sounds to you like a quote from Ambassador Miller, who is the director of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons—but he is not the one who said it. Oscar-winning actress Mira Sorvino did. This isn’t another...

SIX-YEAR-OLD Aisha loves the orange blouse and jeans given to her by the kind woman who rescued her from the chaos of the Kashmir earthquake. She snuggles up to the woman, trying to forget the devastation of her village home and the deaths of her parents 16 days ago. What Aisha does not know is that the woman, Kausar, is a prostitute who has bought her from relatives for 50,000 rupees ($1500) and plans to put her to work in the sex trade as soon as she reaches puberty. Aisha is not alone. According to welfare agencies, many of...

Six-year-old Aisha loves the orange blouse and jeans given to her by the kind woman who rescued her from the chaos of the Kashmir earthquake. She snuggles up to her, trying to forget the devastation of her village home and the deaths of her parents 15 days ago. What Aisha does not know is that the woman, Kausar, is a prostitute who has bought her from relatives for 50,000 rupees (£500) and plans to put her to work in the sex trade as soon as she reaches puberty. Aisha is not alone. According to welfare agencies, many of the hundreds...

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency estimates that 50,000 people are trafficked into or transited through the U.S.A. annually as sex slaves, domestics, garment, and agricultural slaves [iAbolish Fact Sheet] UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT EFFORTS [US State Dept Trafficking in Persons Reports, June 2005] The U.S. Government condemns trafficking in persons and remains firmly committed to fighting this scourge and protecting victims who fall prey to traffickers. Our commitment to eradicate trafficking includes: * Vigorously enforcing U.S. laws against those who traffic in persons; * Raising awareness about human trafficking and how it can be eradicated; * Identifying,...

ICE investigation beginning in Atlanta leads to Minnesota Department of Homeland Security, ICE MINNEAPOLIS—As a result of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents and local law enforcement agencies, a Burnsville man made an initial appearance in federal court today after being criminally charged for allegedly using prepubescent girls to produce child pornography in his basement. ICE special agents, assisted by Burnsville Police officers, arrested Bruce W. Betcher, 51, of Burnsville, Minn., yesterday morning. He was later charged by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Minnesota with using a minor to produce sexually explicit...

President Bush decided Wednesday to waive any financial sanctions on Saudi Arabia, Washington's closest Arab ally in the war on terrorism, for failing to do enough to stop the modern-day slave trade in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers. In June, the State Department listed 14 countries as failing to adequately address trafficking problems, subjecting them all to possible sanctions if they did not crack down. Of those 14, Bush concluded that Bolivia, Jamaica, Qatar, Sudan, Togo and the United Arab Emirates had made enough improvements to avoid any cut in U.S. aid or, in the case of countries...

MADRID — Spain is hoping to sign an agreement with other countries to allow gay couples to adopt children abroad. The move will follow the legalisation of gay marriage in a new law which will also give homosexual couples the right to adopt children. The Spanish secretary of state for social services, Amparo Valcarce, said in an interview with the state television channel TVE, Spain will aim to sign a new deal with countries with which it presently has adoption agreements. She explained Spain will "follow good practice" when dealing with countries where gay marriage or adoption is not legal....

So the breakdown of society in New Orleans was a one-off? Think again: it could happen in many US cities YOU CANNOT SAY the city of New Orleans was unprepared for tragedy. Only last year, when Hurricane Ivan threatened to strike, a Louisiana official admitted the state had prepared in advance: 10,000 body bags were stored and ready to go. Benign neglect is the political term for this pragmatism, coined by Pat Moynihan, the New York Democrat senator. With no idea how to improve a situation, government, instead of assuming responsibility for resolving it, turns a blind eye. In Moynihan’s...

Page 1 EQUALITY NOW New York: 250 West 57 Street, #1527, New York, NY 10107, USA ▪ Tel:+1 212-586-0906 • Fax:+1 212-586-1611 • Email: info@equalitynow.org London: 6 Buckingham Street, London WC2N 6BU, UK • Phone:+44 (0) 20-7839-5456 • Fax:+44 (0) 20-7839-4012 • Email: ukinfo@equalitynow.org Nairobi: PO Box 2018 KNH 00202, Nairobi, Kenya • Tel: +254 20-2719-832 • Fax: +254 20-2719-868 • Email: equalitynow@kenyaweb.com Sex Tourism: Addressing the Demand for Trafficking Testimony by Jessica Neuwirth, President of Equality Now Thank you for this opportunity to testify before you, and thank you for your interest in and support for efforts to...

A judge has dismissed charges against two New York men accused by state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer of promoting prostitution through "sex tourism" in Asia. Douglas Allen, 59, and Norman Barabash, 58, were indicted last year on felony and misdemeanor counts of promoting prostitution in the operation of Big Apple Oriental Tours. Spitzer accused them of using their tour business -- run from Allen's Poughkeepsie home and Barabash's Queens home -- to solicit customers for prostitution rings operating in the Philippines and Thailand. Dutchess County Court Judge Gerald Hayes dismissed the charges, finding prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence that...

A year after a law change designed to get prostitutes off the street, a price war driven by teenage sex workers has flared up on the streets of South Auckland. Market forces appear to be driving street prostitution as teenagers, some as young as 12, compete alongside seasoned sex workers - with tumbling prices the result. Rather than pushing sex workers into legalised brothels, a Weekend Herald inquiry has found the new legislation has done little to discourage street prostitution. This is especially true in pockets of South Auckland, where the Manukau City Council has been forced to shelve plans...

<p>ALBANY, N.Y. — Two operators of a New York travel agency have been indicted for organizing "sex tours" to Southeast Asia, the first such case involving a United States-based company, the state attorney general said Monday.</p> <p>Douglas Allen, 59, and Norman Barabash, 58, were charged with felony and misdemeanor counts of promoting prostitution in their operation of Big Apple Oriental Tours (search), Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (search) said.</p>