Laurie Scott calls for Ontario task force to protect sex slavery victims

These kinds of news stories don't usually make the front news. The general public in the Western world is oblivious to these kinds of stories & thinks that these kinds of things, i.e. sexual violence against vulnerable women & sex slavery only happens in law less countries like Iraq, Syria, Libya, Cambodia, & other African & Latin American countries. And these girls & women who unfortunately fall victims to these are not adults or illegal migrants but born-&-bred Canadians & even as young as 11 years old.

Furthermore, this is happening right here in the largest Canadian city; Toronto. But this is not happening only in Toronto or Canada, but happening all over the Western world; US, UK, & other Western European countries.

People who are involved in the rehabilitation of these victims are saying that this problem is not dying down, but actually exploding in major urban areas of North America & Europe. What the heck is going on?

Well, the problem is borne out of multiple factors:

1. Decreasing role of parents: Western philosophy on family, rightly or wrongly, changed in the last few decades that everyone is responsible for their own lives. Parents can, but actively discouraged, to meddle into their daughters' affairs. Heck, the society even gave that kind of parenting a derogatory name, "helicopter parenting."

Girls were taught from schools to general society that you are your own person & should make your own decision. That's all ok when that young lady is old enough (at least in university) to understand her world around her & see what's going on, but telling that to a teen girl is simply wrong. Mix that "independence" teaching with the love-hate relationship a teen has for his/her parents, & you are only going to get a problem.

2. Broken homes: In the latter half of 20th century, more & more homes start to break up. Every one on their own. Parents, when living separately, got more expenses, & hence, working more & more to bring that extra cash. When single parents are working more & more, & looking less & less after their kids, the kids got the free leash on whatever they can do. Well, from dabbling into drugs to coming into contact with the wrong crowd through those drugs to selling their bodies to get those drugs (when out of money) leads these girls to a life of prostitution & sex slavery.

3. Media's objectification of women: Media is an expert in manipulating social values & thinking. People in 21st century have being programmed for the past few decades that women are sexual objects. Of course, internet & easy accessibility to porn only escalated that problem, but media didn't stop there, too. Men & boys are bombarded day & night that women should be used for sexual purposes & then discarded like used tissues.

Movies & TV shows all show women whimpering after men to take them & use them as they please. Young men are being heavily influenced by latest rap & hip hop music videos & these videos don't exactly show men respecting women. Then, on top of that, we got the Kardashian clan, which, ironically, is the young female generation's idol. That idol is effectively teaching young females to rise to the top of social hierarchy through sex.

4. Female dresses: Yes, inevitably, this topic will be breached. Female dresses is pretty much becoming non-existent in the Western world. Men are wearing more & more clothes, while girls & women are encouraged to take it all off ... in the name of latest fashion. Latest fashion trends from the Kardashians is pretty much showing as much as flesh in the public as a female can. Miley Cyrus is showing young females in the West, & effectively, the whole world, that wearing a few strips of clothes, literally, is enough. Heck, we got stories coming out of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, & New York, US, that women are publicly strolling around in the nude (after all, what's the point of those strips, too?)

So, what we can then expect from young impressionable girls, when they are being taught from a young age that do whatever you what to do & it's your body, & nobody in the home is teaching them any proper morals & values, & their celebrity idols are prancing around on the worldwide stages in the nude, & they are seeing that their celebrity idols got their fame & fortunes by baring it all?

They definitely are not going to learn to study hard, don't do drugs, wear proper clothes to school, make good friends, & of course, have good role models in their lives. They are learning, & hence, then actively practicing, with not very good end results, to get what they want by using their bodies as a collateral.

Of course, these factors is not the comprehensive list of all that is causing this problem of prostitution. There are lot more factors. These are just the tip of iceberg. But what I'm trying to say is that this "exploding" problem of prostitution is not so easily resolved by a special vice squad or the close collaboration of a few law enforcement agencies. It may just take the problem underground, which is even more dangerous for the victims. This problem is just a symptom of several other social problems & unless, & until, those problems are handled effectively, this problem of prostitution will not go away.
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http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/05/18/laurie-scott-urges-ontario-task-force-to-protecting-sex-slavery-victims.html

Ontario is in the grips of homegrown human trafficking, says a veteran Tory MPP, who is calling for the creation of a provincial task force on sex slavery.

Laurie Scott, the member for Haliburton–Kawartha Lakes–Brock, says women & girls as young as 11 years old are being forced into prostitution here & they are not newcomers from the former Eastern Bloc looking for a better life — they are Canadian-born.

“I’ve heard stories of girls being targeted at the mall food court, the parking lot at their high school or a house party they attended with friends,” she told the legislature last week.

“This province is home to the largest number of domestic human trafficking cases, where victims are born & raised right here in Ontario,” said Scott, who presented a non-binding motion calling on the government to form a special team dedicated to rooting out human trafficking.

It would be similar to the existing guns & gangs unit, in which police officers, Crown prosecutors & social workers work together as a team from beginning to end of an investigation.

“Through this combination of expertise, the task force achieves the dual purpose of apprehending criminals & assisting victims,” Scott said in the introduction to her motion, which passed with all-party support.

Asked whether the passage of the non-binding motion meant a task force would be established, a spokeswoman for Community Safety Minister Yasir Naqvi said the government would continue to work with its partners “to combat this very serious issue.”

Scott said it’s also important to co-ordinate support for women & girls escaping exploitation.

“One aspect where a provincial task force would be immeasurable would be its ability to help facilitate the creation of safe houses solely for the purpose of sheltering human trafficking victims,” she said.

MPPs were told how pimps frequently move prostitutes up & down the Highway 401 corridor both to meet demand & to make police detection much more difficult.

“Young women are lured through personal relationships, systemically isolated from the family & friends, psychologically & physically abused by those who they trusted & in some cases loved,” said Scott.

Human trafficking was recently front & centre at a legislative select committee on sexual violence & harassment against women. Scott is a member of that committee.

Among those that appeared before the committee was Katarina MacLeod, a former prostitute whose agency, Rising Angels, deals with women trying to escape that life. She said modern-day slavery is out of control.

“From what I see working on the front lines it is getting worse … it is really exploding,” MacLeod told the Star, adding many of the women she sees are under 18.

She said she is hearing of more & more women moving from hotel to hotel, in many cases not even knowing what city they are in.

MacLeod agreed a specialized team in the justice system “fighting for these girls” is needed.

Several police services across the province have vice squads that deal with human trafficking & informally share information.

York Regional Police is recognized for its progressive work on human smuggling, especially in dealing with sex trade workers. Det. Sgt. Peter Casey said the force has not arrested a woman on solicitation charges in the past 7 years — but it does throw pimps in jail.

The people behind the smuggling range from organized crime to teenage boys pimping out girls in their schools because there is “huge” money to be made, said Casey.

“Let’s put it this way, if you are a drug dealer … you can only sell that kilo of cocaine once, but if you are a pimp & have a number of young vulnerable women you are exploiting, you can exploit them over & over & over again, day after day.”

Experts said a woman working in the sex trade can generate revenues of $280,000 a year. And that often goes straight into a pimp’s pocket.
...

The Ministry of Community Safety & Correctional Services says it has provided about $1.4 million in funding since 2003 to 11 projects under the Proceeds of Crime–Front Line Policing Grant, to help police combat human trafficking in Ontario.

Animal-sex tourism banned in Denmark

Speechless after reading this news. What humans are becoming. Question to evolutionists: can we call this de-evolution?

I was surprised to read that there are actually organized animal sex shows & clubs in Denmark. Bestiality is still legal in Romania, Finland, & Hungary. So, this ban will only drive more traffic to those countries.

Next, Pride's slogan of "marriage equality for all," will be used by bestiality aficionados for themselves. Thinking logically, "marriage equality for all," should include them & their carnal desires to marry their dogs, cats, cattle & whatever other animal come across their way. But then where is the social boundary, if at all?

That's why, Islam recommended Muslims to marry so they have each other for their own sexual satisfaction. It provided relationship boundaries among Muslims who is legal for whom & when. Islam used months like Ramadan & fasting to train Muslims in controlling their physical urges for food, water, & sex.

I simply can't fathom where is the human race is heading. Are we really so much hungry for sex that anything & anyone will do, be it a little kid, a sex slave forced into this prostitution trade, or even an animal? Are we humans not worse than any other animal, which at least, satisfies itself only with its own species?
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http://rt.com/news/252065-denmark-bans-animal-sex/

Denmark has approved a law banning bestiality, in a move to tackle animal-sex tourism. Those found guilty of engaging in sexual relations with an animal will now face fines & prison terms.

Those in favor of the legislation said Denmark did not want to remain the last northern European country where bestiality was legal, as this was attracting animal-sex tourists.

"There are frequent reports of the occurrence of organized animal sex shows, clubs & animal brothels in Denmark," the Danish Ethical Council for Animals, an independent advisory board under the food & agriculture ministry, said in a report, as quoted by Reuters.

A 2011 Justice Ministry report found that 17% of veterinarians surveyed suspected an animal they treated had previously been subjected to intercourse with a human.

Farm Minister Dan Jorgensen didn't believe the current law was adequate & sought to strengthen animal welfare & protection in the country.

"The current legislation does not protect the animals enough. It's hard to prove that an animal suffers when a human has sexual intercourse with it, & that is why we must give the animal the benefit of the doubt,” he wrote in an opinion piece.

He also said earlier this month that offenders “must be made aware that we find maltreatment of animals absolutely unacceptable."

Animal rights campaigners, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), also petitioned Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt & Jorgensen to amend the existing legislation.

But members of the Liberal Alliance, a libertarian party, have expressed opposition to the new law.

“Best case, this is a superficial law. Worst case, it is political populism & moralism,” Liberal Alliance's Joachim Olsen said in February, as quoted by Mashable.

Once the law goes into effect on July 1, anyone found guilty of having sex with an animal will face fines & time in prison.

Hungary, Finland, & Romania are now the only EU countries where bestiality is legal.

Global drug market approaching scale of $4 Trillion oil & gas industry

Thanks to US & its allies' activities in further destabilizing sensitive areas of the world, not only we have groups now, conducting physical violence, we also have a booming drugs trade. What did US & NATO achieve in Afghanistan when Taliban are back there & apparently, 80% of heroin is being produced there? What did US achieve with its covert war tactics against Colombia & Nicaragua where, apparently, 100% of cocaine being produced there?

It seems to me that all those billions of $$$, which the world was led to believe that that money would be spent on war & reconstruction efforts, went into pockets of defense department's top generals & contractors.

Ironically, the losers are American general public because they are increasingly turning into drug addicts because of lack of spending on welfare, healthcare, education, infrastructure, job creation etc. Sort of like a double whammy for the general American public.

Adding further insults to injuries is that not only criminal organizations are earning trillions of $$$ through their drugs trade, but they also help fuel more crime, e.g. due to a lack of jobs & increasingly expensive post-secondary education, youths turn towards dealing drugs, human trafficking, prostitution, arms smuggling, & terrorism etc. to make a living. Authorities can't turn them towards non-criminal activities, since those activities don't provide the kind of lifestyle criminal activities do.

So, essentially, all those wars US & its allies initiated in foreign lands are, & will, increasingly raise their ugly heads in North America & Western Europe. And rich business & political elites, who are the ones starting, & profiting, from the wars will not feel the effects but the poor general public will be adversely affected by those crimes.
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http://rt.com/business/252057-global-drug-market-size/

The dark underworld of drug trafficking will soon be bigger than the world’s $3.7 trillion oil & gas market, & is already bigger than the global auto industry, the director of Russia’s drug control agency said.

“We see that drug trade is a significant part of the global economy. Unfortunately we have to state today that the drug traffic market is bigger than the automotive industry & its volume is approaching that of the oil & gas sector,” Viktor Ivanov said during a ministry meeting with BRICS countries to discuss the war on drugs.
 
Ivanov singled out Afghanistan & South America as major drug production hubs, noting that more than 80% of heroin is produced in Afghanistan & 100% of cocaine in South America, by his estimates.

“Unfortunately, production has once again started to increase in the so-called Golden Triangle of Thailand, Myanmar & Laos,” said Ivanov.
 
Before, Ivanov estimated that underground drug dealers in the informal sector inject $1 trillion into the global financial system per annum. Many of these drug revenues end up being funneled to criminal organizations, & often terrorism.
 
Sales of autos in the US alone was $1.1 trillion in 2014. Revenues from the top 10 car retailers already surpassed $1 trillion in revenue, not even counting some of the smaller players like Kia, Chrysler, Renault or Mazda. The global oil& gas market in 2015 will see more than $4 trillion in revenue, according to IBIS World’s Global Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Market Research Report released in March 2015.
 
It is difficult to precisely quantify the exact figure of the illegal drug market, as most transactions are kept off the books due to their illicit nature.

A journey with migrants willing to risk everything

As you may have come across several stories like these of migrants from Africa & Middle East trying to enter illegally in Europe nowadays, & I read stories like these & then reflect upon my life. Regardless of what & how many problems I might be having right now, those seem miniscule by comparison to the problems thousands of people around the world are enduring on a daily basis.

Stories like these give a human face to the harsh problems people are facing; be it the local Yemeni population being mercilessly bombarded by a Saudi coalition, or Rohingya Muslims being stranded on boats in the sea, or migrants trying to run from chaos & destruction in their own countries (which, btw, caused by European & American coalition in the first place) to find refuge in the developed countries.

As the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that always compare your life with the person below you, so you will see that your life is still better than his/hers, & you will feel contentment. Otherwise, if you compare your life with the person above you, then you will never feel happy & always want more.
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http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/apr/06/fear-fatigue-separation-migrants-western-balkans-west-africans-eu-back-door

After a 10-day trek over 150km, Sandrine Koffi’s dream of a new life in Europe ended & her nightmare of losing her infant daughter in the Macedonian night began.
 
As police wielding clubs closed in, the 31-year-old woman from Ivory Coast couldn’t keep up with her fellow migrants. Not after more than a week of treacherous hikes through mud & bone-chilling rain; of leaky tents, stolen food & fitful sleep; of loads too heavy to bear.
 
Koffi had given her 10-month-old daughter, Kendra, to a stronger person to carry as the 40-member group of west Africans walked with trepidation into Veles, Macedonia. They hoped, because it was pitch dark & miserably cold, that no one would see them & raise the alarm. But their luck ran out.
 
Officers captured Koffi & deported her with most of the group back to Greece. Others who escaped carried Kendra all the way to the Serbian border. That was more than 2 weeks ago. Now, Koffi cannot stop crying for her distant daughter – or wondering why they can’t travel like “normal” people.

“I feel like I’m not a human being,” says Koffi from the migrants’ safe house in Greece, where she & her daughter had arrived last month with the hope of being escorted through the Balkans to Hungary &, eventually, to relatives in Paris. “Why is it necessary to separate a mother from her child? Why is all of this necessary?”

Each month, a tide of humanity pours through the hills of Greece, Macedonia & Serbia in hope of entering the heart of the EU through its vulnerable back door in the Balkans. This is the newest of a half-dozen land & sea routes that Arab, Asian & African smugglers use to funnel migrants illegally from war zones & economic woes to opportunities in the west.
 
Most don’t make it on their first attempt. Nor their third or fifth. Many, it seems, just keep trying – & failing – again & again.
 
Journalists followed a group of migrants to document the challenges of the western Balkans route, witnessing key events on the journey: the confrontations between police & locals, disagreements with the smuggler leading them, dissent among themselves, & other difficulties.
 
The flow of migrants along this route has grown from a trickle in 2012 to become the second-most popular path for illegal immigration into Europe. Only the more dangerous option of sailing from north Africa to Italy is more widely used.
 
Frontex, the EU agency that helps governments police the bloc’s leaky borders, says it seems nothing will deter migrants from embarking on the long walk that starts in northern Greece. Their monitors have detected more than 43,000 illegal crossings on the western Balkans route in 2014, more than double the year before. And 2015 already looks set for a record number, with 22,000 arrivals in Hungary in the first 2 months.
 
A pivotal point for the route is Turkey, which is a magnet for refugees of wars in Syria, Iraq & Afghanistan because the Turks provide easy travel visas to residents of most of Asia & Africa.
 
Another is Greece, where migrants can claim asylum & usually, after a short detention, are permitted to travel freely within the country. But few intend to stay in Greece because of its economic crisis – & locals’ antipathy to the migrants.

“Europe has not faced a situation like this since the second world war, with so many conflicts happening so near to home, with [failed] states from Libya to Syria & unrelenting conflict in Iraq & Afghanistan,” says Frontex spokeswoman Ewa Moncure. “And it’s a lot easier to take a boat from Turkey to Greece than to cross the open Mediterranean. Thousands drown taking the other route.”
 
“Never in my life was I even on a boat,” says Jean Paul Apetey, a 34-year-old Ivorian who has a reputation as a sharp-witted opportunist. And so, when smugglers ask him if he wants to pilot the vessel to Greece in exchange for a free ticket, he goes straight to the stern engine of the rigid inflatable boat, overloaded with 47 migrants, & acts as if he knows what he is doing.
 
Smugglers rarely ride on one-way journeys, since they face prison if they are caught. Instead, they charge €1,000 ($1,100) or more per passenger, rich compensation for the sacrifice of a boat. The smugglers point Apetey to a Greek island in the distance – he doesn’t know if it’s Kos, Samos or Lesbos because he has no map – but he boasts of reaching the target in 17 minutes flat.
 
The walls are sweating in the safe house in Thessaloniki, Greece, a windowless basement apartment with no furniture, 2 bedrooms & a camp-style cooker on the floor. It’s the end of February, & an African smuggler has brought 45 clients to this base camp to escort them on off-road paths through Macedonia to Serbia. Among the group are 11 women, including 2 with 10-month-old children.
 
The smuggler, a former soldier, agreed to allow a journalist to accompany them on condition he was not identified, because what he was doing is illegal.
 
He goes from migrant to migrant, checking their readiness for the journey to Serbia. By car, it would take less than 5 hours. On foot, the same journey takes about 10 days. When some giggle at his questions, he sets a stern tone: “Shut up. This isn’t a joke once you’re out there. If you think it’s funny, I’ll send you back to Athens.”

He’s taken 3 other groups on the route, & charges those on this trip a wide range of prices, averaging about $500 (£337), depending on their ability to pay. Discounts apply if they help him to keep others supplied & disciplined. Kids go free.
 
Most are French speakers from Ivory Coast, Mali, Cameroon & Burkina Faso. Only a few speak English. One – a Congolese man whose communist parents named him Fidel Castro – speaks both. All are hungry, so a Malian woman named Aicha “Baby” Teinturiere boils macaroni on the camp stove. The smuggler sends others to stock up on sleeping bags, socks & gloves for those who haven’t brought the necessities.
 
Some are confident of reaching Germany or France. Sekou Yara is not. The 28-year-old Malian has failed 3 times to breach EU immigration checks at airports, costing him at least €3,000 (£2,200). This is his first attempt on foot, & he has mixed feelings.

“I left many people whom I love so much. I left my wife & our four-year-old child,” says Yara, frustrated at sacrificing so much only to be stuck in Greece, where he says migrants can’t find jobs & sometimes must look for food in the rubbish. “It is shameful to live like this. I just want a normal life.”

Yara’s trip doesn’t last long. The next morning, he & another Malian are arrested after the 45 arrive at the Thessaloniki bus station. Unlike the others, the pair have no ID papers.
 
The smuggler keeps his distance at the station, communicating by phone to reduce chances of being spotted as a trafficker. Tell police you’re going to Athens, not the border, he instructs them. Don’t all sit together; spread out.
 
In every direction there are migrants from Syria, Afghanistan & Eritrea, all looking suspicious. Some hide in toilet cubicles as the police check documents. At least 20 people from other groups are taken to a police station.
 
Fear of arrest keeps the west Africans from boarding their intended bus north to the border town of Polikastro. It’s not illegal for documented asylum seekers to board a domestic bus in Greece, so nerves settle, and all 43 get on four later buses: Greeks in front, Arabs in the middle, & Africans in the back.
 
They’re a half-day behind schedule as the last members arrive in Polikastro. The hatred of some locals toward the Africans is clear near the town square as women prepare to boil water for the babies’ formula milk. A motorist drives over their bags, smashing the milk powder & cooking gear as he curses them. The easy part of the trip has ended.
 
The first day’s hike from Polikastro takes the group along a railway line, & they must navigate a rickety wooden bridge, hoping no train comes. Within the first hour, both women carrying infants become weary.

“This is my souvenir!” jokes Apetey as he agrees to carry Sandrine Koffi’s daughter, Kendra. Another man takes Christian, the 10-month-old son of a Cameroonian woman, Mireille Djeukam. Kendra was born in Turkey, Christian in Greece. Both have relatives in Paris.
 
After 10 hours, the 43 migrants reach the border with Macedonia before midnight. They don’t bother with tents, preferring sleeping bags in the open air.
 
The smuggler doesn’t want the full group to cross the border in daylight, but they’re already short of supplies – & the cheapest local shop is on the Macedonian side. So he leads 3 men on a reconnaissance trip through the trees. A border patrol vehicle sits on a hilltop but doesn’t move.
 
The 3 others crouch down in the woods as he heads alone into the supermarket. Inside, a cashier warns the smuggler to hide because police are shopping in another aisle. After a tense wait, he emerges with six bags of bread, canned sardines, juice & water.
 
That night, the group crosses the border & a highway. Each approaching set of headlights is feared to be police. The chill means it’s time to sleep in the 10 tents they’ve brought. At the campsite, Hilarion Charlemagne illustrates his journey with a collection of cellphone sim cards.

“This one is from Togo, where I was a refugee for one year & eight months,” the 45-year-old Ivorian teacher says, identifying others from Mali, Mauritania & Algeria. He tells of being turned back at the Moroccan border because he lacked €500; of working as a tutor for an Algerian family for a month; of trying to reach Europe by boat 5 times & managing to reach Greece on the sixth attempt.
 
Charlemagne & others have another way to remember the countries they’ve visited: recounting the racial epithets hurled at them in several languages.
 
The group is startled by a Macedonian shepherd & his snarling dog. Tents are hurriedly packed. But in the rush, one of the smuggler’s helpers has lost his cellphone. Angry accusations are levied, & everyone is searched, without success.
 
The trek resumes at night. They scramble over an exposed ridge & sprint across a road junction, hiding in long reeds. They catch their breath under a full moon.
 
A Malian woman, 34-year-old Miriam Toure, falls with a cramp. Two young soccer players in the group offer her a sports massage as she howls in pain. A man with a chronic leg injury, Mohamed “Mo-Mo” Konate, applies some ointment he uses for himself.
 
Nothing works, so men take turns carrying Toure, joking she’s only faking to get a piggy-back ride. After a half-hour, they’re worn out & she’s told to walk or stay behind. She limps barefoot, weeping silently while trying to keep up.
 
As they pass through cabbage fields, some stuff the greens in their backpacks. They jostle to refill bottles when passing a tap bearing an Orthodox sign and the inscription “holy well”. At about 4am, in the rain, they pitch tents – difficult in the dark – under a highway overpass marked by graffiti from Afghan migrants.
 
After sunrise, several members accuse one another of stealing food, drink & bags as they slept. The smuggler threatens to return them to Greece, where Syrian smugglers will charge them triple for the journey. Apologies are demanded & given.
 
That night, the rain turns to snow, & the tents start to collapse. Sheltered campsites on the trail are occupied by other migrant groups, & the crying of the two infants is incessant. Some question whether the children, so cold & hungry, could be at risk of death if they continue.
 
They keep following the Vardar river north, but abandon the 41-year-old “Mo-Mo” near a village; he cannot continue, even with his cane.
 
Food is so scarce that sardines are rationed to one can daily for 3 people. On the sixth day of walking, they reach the town of Nogotino, 2 days behind schedule & lashed by a freezing wind. At 1am, Sandrine Koffi passes out & slides down a muddy embankment. She is revived, & they walk another hour.
 
Mireille Djeukam, the other woman travelling with a child, has tried & failed to pass through EU airports about 10 times already. She finds this trip much harder. “It’s very hard, too hard,” she says. “If I knew it was [going to be ] this difficult, I wouldn’t have done it. I’m not used to this type of walking.”

The youngest & fittest men grumble under their breath that they could have been in Serbia already were it not for the women & children. Laughter amid such suffering seems impossible, but a limping Miriam Toure brings down the house with an exasperated question: “Where is Macedonia?”

As the group reaches Veles, the first major Macedonian town on the route & 145km (87 miles) into their hike, Djeukam cannot go on because of her aching legs. The group leaves her & 10-month-old Christian at an Orthodox church.
 
The 40 remaining migrants try to stick to Veles’s riverside railway, but at about 10pm they are confronted by youths. They run on to a road, startling motorists. Two police arrive, brandishing clubs & beating stragglers. 5 are caught, including Koffi. In the melee, members of the group drop their gear & scatter. A woman breaks an ankle & is hospitalised in the capital, Skopje. By 3am, the smuggler has found only 8 of his clients.
 
The next day, Teinturiere returns to Veles to search for her bags & stumbles into the police. She claims, falsely, to be looking for her baby. The police believe her & agree to help search – in the process discovering & arresting many of her comrades.
 
By the end of the 10th day, all but 13 of the group have been in custody & are put on trucks back to Greece with scores of other people from Syria, Afghanistan & Bangladesh. But Teinturiere is not among them. The police set her free so that she can keep searching for her imaginary child.
 
Two days later, the west Africans reach a smuggler’s safe house in the border town of Lojane, Macedonia. Teinturiere is given responsibility for caring for Kendra until Koffi can complete the trip.
 
Others, mostly the strongest men in their 20s, cross into Serbia, where they meet the next lot of smugglers, who charge €100 each to drive them hidden in trucks to the Hungarian border. 3 weeks into the journey, the first few make it to Hungary & send triumphant messages to friends.
 
The Greek smuggler returns to Thessaloniki with his deported clients. He organises a second trek, combining new migrants with many from the original group – including Koffi & the first person arrested on the previous trip, Sekou Yara. They leave a week later but run into a police ambush south of Veles. All are returned to Greece.
 
Another attempt to complete the 250km journey on foot has begun this week. Joining the smuggler are at least 20 veterans of the previous two failed attempts, including Koffi.
 
Her earlier plan was to reach her husband, mother & other relatives in Paris. Now, she hopes simply to be reunited with her child.

Hundreds forced to work as slaves to catch seafood for global supply

World economy may improve but the conditions of the poor keep declining. People say, this world is a modern world. How is it exactly a modern world, when human trafficking is on the rise, where humans are being considered nothing more than a disposable tissue paper ... use them & throw them.

And then why do we wonder at the dismal state of this world?
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/men-forced-to-work-as-slaves-to-catch-seafood-for-global-supply/article23609283/ 

The Burmese slaves sat on the floor & stared through the rusty bars of their locked cage, hidden on a tiny tropical island thousands of miles from home.
 
Just a few yards away, other workers loaded cargo ships with slave-caught seafood that clouds the supply networks of major supermarkets, restaurants & even pet stores in the US.
 
But the 8 imprisoned men were considered flight risks — labourers who might dare run away. They lived on a few bites of rice & curry a day in a space barely big enough to lie down, stuck until the next trawler forces them back to sea.

“All I did was tell my captain I couldn’t take it anymore, that I wanted to go home,” said Kyaw Naing, his dark eyes pleading into an Associated Press video camera sneaked in by a sympathetic worker. “The next time we docked,” he said nervously out of earshot of a nearby guard, “I was locked up.”

Here, in the Indonesian island village of Benjina & the surrounding waters, hundreds of trapped men represent one of the most desperate links criss-crossing between companies & countries in the seafood industry. This intricate web of connections separates the fish we eat from the men who catch it, & obscures a brutal truth: Your seafood may come from slaves.
 
The men the AP interviewed on Benjina were mostly from Myanmar, also known as Burma, one of the poorest countries in the world. They were brought to Indonesia through Thailand & forced to fish. Their catch was then shipped back to Thailand, where it entered the global stream of commerce.
 
Tainted fish can wind up in the supply chains of some of America’s major grocery stores, such as Kroger, Albertsons & Safeway; the nation’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart; & the biggest food distributor, Sysco. It can find its way into the supply chains of some of the most popular brands of canned pet food, including Fancy Feast, Meow Mix & Iams. It can turn up as calamari at fine dining restaurants, as imitation crab in a California sushi roll or as packages of frozen snapper relabeled with store brands that land on our dinner tables.
 
In a year-long investigation, the AP talked to more than 40 current & former slaves in Benjina. The AP documented the journey of a single large shipment of slave-caught seafood from the Indonesian village, tracking it by satellite to a gritty Thai harbour. Upon its arrival, AP journalists followed trucks that loaded & drove the seafood over 4 nights to dozens of factories, cold storage plants & the country’s biggest fish market.
 
The tainted seafood mixes in with other fish at a number of sites in Thailand, including processing plants. US Customs records show that several of those Thai factories ship to America. They also sell to Europe & Asia, but the AP traced shipments to the US, where trade records are public.
 
By this time, it is nearly impossible to tell where a specific fish caught by a slave ends up. However, entire supply chains are muddied, & money is trickling down the line to companies that benefit from slave labour.
 
The major corporations contacted would not speak on the record but issued statements that strongly condemned labour abuses. All said they were taking steps to prevent forced labour, such as working with human rights groups to hold subcontractors accountable.
 
Several independent seafood distributors who did comment described the costly & exhaustive steps taken to ensure their supplies are clean. They said the discovery of slaves underscores how hard it is to monitor what goes on halfway around the world.
 
Santa Monica Seafood, a large independent importer that sells to restaurants, markets & direct from its store, has been a leader in improving international fisheries, & sends buyers around the world to inspect vendors.

“The supply chain is quite cloudy, especially when it comes from offshore,” said Logan Kock, vice-president for responsible sourcing, who acknowledged that the industry recognizes and is working to address the problem. “Is it possible a little of this stuff is leaking through? Yeah, it is possible. We are all aware of it.”

The slaves interviewed by the AP had no idea where the fish they caught was headed. They knew only that it was so valuable, they were not allowed to eat it.
 
They said the captains on their fishing boats forced them to drink unclean water & work 20- to 22-hour shifts with no days off. Almost all said they were kicked, whipped with toxic stingray tails or otherwise beaten if they complained or tried to rest. They were paid little or nothing, as they hauled in heavy nets with squid, shrimp, snapper, grouper & other fish.
 
Some shouted for help over the deck of their trawler in the port to reporters, as bright fluorescent lights silhouetted their faces in the darkness.

“I want to go home. We all do,” one man called out in Burmese, a cry repeated by others. The AP is not using the names of some men for their safety. “Our parents haven’t heard from us for a long time. I’m sure they think we are dead.”

Another glanced fearfully over his shoulder toward the captain’s quarters, and then yelled: “It’s torture. When we get beaten, we can’t do anything back. ... I think our lives are in the hands of the Lord of Death.”

In the worst cases, numerous men reported maimings or even deaths on their boats.

“If Americans & Europeans are eating this fish, they should remember us,” said Hlaing Min, 30, a runaway slave from Benjina. “There must be a mountain of bones under the sea. ... The bones of the people could be an island, it’s that many.”
 
———————
For Burmese slaves, Benjina is the end of the world.
 
Roughly 3,500 people live in the town that straddles two small islands separated by a five-minute boat ride. Part of the Maluku chain, formerly known as the Spice Islands, the area is about 400 miles north of Australia, & hosts small kangaroos & rare birds of paradise with dazzling bright feathers.
 
The small harbour is occupied by Pusaka Benjina Resources, whose five-story office compound stands out & includes the cage with the slaves. The company is the only fishing operation on Benjina officially registered in Indonesia, & is listed as the owner of more than 90 trawlers. However, the captains are Thai, & the Indonesian government is reviewing to see if the boats are really Thai-owned. Pusaka Benjina did not respond to phone calls & a letter, & did not speak to a reporter who waited for 2 hours in the company’s Jakarta office.
 
On the dock in Benjina, former slaves unload boats for food & pocket money. Many are men who were abandoned by their captains — sometimes 5, 10 or even 20 years ago — & remain stranded.
 
In the deeply forested island interiors, new runaways forage for food & collect rainwater, living in constant fear of being found by hired slave catchers.
 
And just off a beach covered in sharp coral, a graveyard swallowed by the jungle entombs dozens of fishermen. They are buried under fake Thai names given to them when they were tricked or sold onto their ships, forever covering up evidence of their captors’ abuse, their friends say.

“I always thought if there was an entrance there had to be an exit,” said Tun Lin Maung, a slave abandoned on Benjina, as other men nodded or looked at the ground. “Now I know that’s not true.”

The Arafura Sea provides some of the world’s richest & most diverse fishing grounds, teeming with mackerel, tuna, squid & many other species.
 
Although it is Indonesian territory, it draws many illegal fishing fleets, including from Thailand. The trade that results affects the US & other countries.
 
The US counts Thailand as one of its top seafood suppliers, & buys about 20% of the country’s $7 billion annual exports in the industry. Last year, the State Department blacklisted Thailand for failing to meet minimum standards in fighting human trafficking, placing the country in the ranks of North Korea, Syria & Iran. However, there were no additional sanctions.
 
Thailand’s seafood industry is largely run off the backs of migrant labourers, said Kendra Krieder, a State Department analyst who focuses on supply chains. The treatment of some of these workers falls under the US government’s definition of slavery, which includes forcing people to keep working even if they once signed up for the jobs, or trafficking them into situations where they are exploited.

“In the most extreme cases, you’re talking about someone kidnapped or tricked into working on a boat, physically beaten, chained,” said Krieder. “These situations would be called modern slavery by any measure.”

The Thai government says it is cleaning up the problem. On the bustling floor of North America’s largest seafood show in Boston earlier this month, an official for the Department of Fisheries laid out a plan to address labour abuse, including new laws that mandate wages, sick leave & shifts of no more than 14 hours. However, Kamonpan Awaiwanont stopped short when presented details about the men in Benjina.

“This is still happening now?” he asked. He paused. “We are trying to solve it. This is ongoing.”

The Thai government also promises a new national registry of illegal migrant workers, including more than 100,000 flooding the seafood industry. However, policing has now become even harder because decades of illegal fishing have depleted stocks close to home, pushing the boats farther and deeper into foreign waters.
 
The Indonesian government has called a temporary ban on most fishing, aiming to clear out foreign poachers who take billions of dollars of seafood from the country’s waters. As a result, more than 50 boats are now docked in Benjina, leaving up to 1,000 more slaves stranded onshore & waiting to see what will happen next.
 
Indonesian officials are trying to enforce laws that ban cargo ships from picking up fish from boats at sea. This practice forces men to stay on the water for months or sometimes years at a time, essentially creating floating prisons.
 
Susi Pudjiastuti, the new Fisheries Minister, said she has heard of different fishing companies putting men in cells. She added that she believes the trawlers on Benjina may really have Thai owners, despite the Indonesian paperwork, reflecting a common practice of faking or duplicating licenses.
 
She said she is deeply disturbed about the abuse on Benjina & other islands.

“I’m very sad. I lose my eating appetite. I lose my sleep,” she said. “They are building up an empire on slavery, on stealing, on fish(ing) out, on massive environmental destruction for a plate of seafood.”
—————————

The story of slavery in the Thai seafood industry started decades ago with the same push-and-pull that shapes economic immigration worldwide — the hope of escaping grinding poverty to find a better life somewhere else.
 
In recent years, as the export business has expanded, it has become more difficult to convince young Burmese or Cambodian migrants & impoverished Thais — all of whom were found on Benjina — to accept the dangerous jobs. Agents have become more desperate & ruthless, recruiting children & the disabled, lying about wages & even drugging & kidnapping migrants, according to a former broker who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution.
 
The broker said agents then sell the slaves, usually to Thai captains of fishing boats or the companies that own them. Each slave typically costs around $1,000, according to Patima Tungpuchayakul, manager of the Thai-based non-profit Labor Rights Promotion Network Foundation. The men are later told they have to work off the “debt” with wages that don’t come for months or years, or at all.

“The employers are probably more worried about the fish than the workers’ lives,” she said. “They get a lot of money from this type of business.”

Illegal Thai boats are falsely registered to fish in Indonesia through graft, sometimes with the help of government authorities. Praporn Ekouru, a Thai former member of Parliament, admitted to the AP that he had bribed Indonesian officials to go into their waters, & complained that the Indonesian government’s crackdown is hurting business.

“In the past, we sent Thai boats to fish in Indonesian waters by changing their flags,” said Praporn, who is also chairman of the Songkhla Fisheries Association in southern Thailand. “We had to pay bribes of millions of baht per year, or about 200,000 baht ($6,100) per month. ... The officials are not receiving money anymore because this order came from the government.”

Illegal workers are given false documents, because Thai boats cannot hire undocumented crew. One of the slaves in Benjina, Maung Soe, said he was given a fake seafarer book belonging to a Thai national, accepted in Indonesia as an informal travel permit. He rushed back to his boat to dig up a crinkled copy.

“That’s not my name, not my signature,” he said angrily, pointing at the worn piece of paper. “The only thing on here that is real is my photograph.”

Soe said he had agreed to work on a fishing boat only if it stayed in Thai waters, because he had heard Indonesia was a place from which workers never came back.

“They tricked me,” he said. “They lied to me. ... They created fake papers & put me on the boat, & now here I am in Indonesia.”

The slaves said the level of abuse on the fishing boats depends on individual captains & assistants. Aung Naing Win, who left a wife & 2 children behind in Myanmar 2 years ago, said some fishermen were so depressed that they simply threw themselves into the water. Win, 40, said his most painful task was working without proper clothing in the ship’s giant freezer, where temperatures drop to 39 degrees below zero.

“It was so cold, our hands were burning,” he said. “No one really cared if anyone died.”
————————

The shipment the AP tracked from the port of Benjina carried fish from smaller trawlers; AP journalists talked to slaves on more than a dozen of them.
 
A crane hoisted the seafood onto a refrigerated cargo ship called the Silver Sea Line, with an immense hold as big as 50 semi-trucks. At this point, by UN & US standards, every fish in that hold is considered associated with slavery.
 
The ship belongs to the Silver Sea Reefer Co., which is registered in Thailand & has at least nine refrigerated cargo boats. The company said it is not involved with the fishermen.
“We only carry the shipment & we are hired in general by clients,” said owner Panya Luangsomboon. “We’re separated from the fishing boats.”

The AP followed the Silver Sea Line by satellite over 15 days to Samut Sakhon. When it arrived, workers on the dock packed the seafood over 4 nights onto more than 150 trucks, which then delivered their loads around the city.
 
One truck bore the name & bird logo of Kingfisher Holdings Ltd., which supplies frozen & canned seafood around the world. Another truck went to Mahachai Marine Foods Co., a cold storage business that also supplies to Kingfisher & other exporters, according to Kawin Ngernanek, whose family runs it.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes,” said Kawin, who also serves as spokesman for the Thai Overseas Fisheries Association. “Kingfisher buys several types of products.”

When asked about abusive labour practices, Kingfisher did not answer repeated requests for comment. Mahachai manager Narongdet Prasertsri responded, “I have no idea about it at all.”

Every month, Kingfisher and its subsidiary KF Foods Ltd. sends about 100 metric tons of seafood from Thailand to America, according to US Customs Bills of Lading. These shipments have gone to Santa Monica Seafood, Stavis Seafoods — located on Boston’s historic Fish Pier — & other distributors.
 
Richard Stavis, whose grandfather started the dealership in 1929, shook his head when told about the slaves whose catch may end up at businesses he buys from. He said his company visits processors & fisheries, requires notarized certification of legal practices & uses third-party audits.

“The truth is, these are the kind of things that keep you up at night,” he said. “That’s the sort of thing I want to stop. ... There are companies like ours that care & are working as hard as they can.”

Wholesalers like Stavis sell packages of fish, branded & unbranded, that can end up on supermarket shelves with a private label or house brand. Stavis’ customers also include Sysco, the largest food distributor in the US; there is no clear way to know which particular fish was sold to them.
 
Sysco declined an interview, but the company’s code of conduct says it “will not knowingly work with any supplier that uses forced, bonded, indentured or slave labour.”

Gavin Gibbons, a spokesman for National Fisheries Institute, which represents about 75% of the US seafood industry, said the reports of abuse were “disturbing” & “disheartening.” ”But these type of things flourish in the shadows,“ he said.
 
A similar pattern repeats itself with other shipments & other companies, as the supply chain splinters off in many directions in Samut Sakhon. It is in this Thai port that slave-caught seafood starts to lose its history.
 
The AP followed another truck to Niwat Co., which sells to Thai Union Manufacturing Co., according to part owner Prasert Luangsomboon. Weeks later, when confronted about forced labour in their supply chain, Niwat referred several requests for comment to Luangsomboon, who could not be reached for further comment.
 
Thai Union Manufacturing is a subsidiary of Thai Union Frozen Products PCL., the country’s largest seafood corporation, with $3.5 billion in annual sales. This parent company, known simply as Thai Union, owns Chicken of the Sea & is buying Bumble Bee, although the AP did not observe any tuna fisheries. In September, it became the country’s first business to be certified by Dow Jones for sustainable practices, after meeting environmental & social reviews.
 
Thai Union said it condemns human rights violations, but multiple stakeholders must be part of the solution. “We all have to admit that it is difficult to ensure the Thai seafood industry’s supply chain is 100% clean,” CEO Thiraphong Chansiri said in an emailed statement.
 
Thai Union ships thousands of cans of cat food to the US, including household brands like Fancy Feast, Meow Mix & Iams. These end up on shelves of major grocery chains, such as Kroger, Safeway & Albertsons, as well as pet stores; again, however, it’s impossible to tell if a particular can of cat food might have slave-caught fish.
 
Thai Union says its direct clients include Wal-Mart, which declined an interview but said in an email statement: “We care about the men & women in our supply chain, & we are concerned about the ethical recruitment of workers.”

Wal-Mart described its work with several non-profits to end forced labour in Thailand, including Project Issara, & referred the AP to Lisa Rende Taylor, its director. She noted that slave-caught seafood can slip into supply chains undetected at several points, such as when it is traded between boats or mingles with clean fish at processing plants. She also confirmed that seafood sold at the Talay Thai market — to where the AP followed several trucks — can enter international supply chains.

“Transactions throughout Thai seafood supply chains are often not well-documented, making it difficult to estimate exactly how much seafood available on supermarket shelves around the world is tainted by human trafficking & forced labour,” she said.
 
Poj Aramwattananont, president of an industry group that represents Thai Union, Kingfisher & others, said Thais are not “jungle people” & know that human trafficking is wrong. However, he acknowledged that Thai companies cannot always track down the origins of their fish.

“We don’t know where the fish come from when we buy from Indonesia,” said Poj of the Thai Frozen Foods Association. “We have no record. We don’t know if that fish is good or bad.”
——————

The seafood the slaves on Benjina catch may travel around the world, but their own lives often end right here, in this island village.
 
A crude cemetery holds more than graves strangled by tall grasses & jungle vines, where small wooden markers are neatly labelled, some with the falsified names of slaves & boats. Only their friends remember where they were laid to rest.
 
In the past, former slave Hla Phyo said, supervisors on ships simply tossed bodies into the sea to be devoured by sharks. But after authorities & companies started demanding that every man be accounted for on the roster upon return, captains began stowing corpses alongside the fish in ship freezers until they arrived back in Benjina, the slaves said.
 
Lifting his knees as he stepped over the thick brush, Phyo searched for 2 grave markers overrun by weeds — friends he helped bury.
 
It’s been 5 years since he himself escaped the sea & struggled to survive on the island. Every night, his mind drifts back to his mother in Myanmar. He knows she must be getting old now, & he desperately wants to return to her. Standing among so many anonymous tombs stacked on top of each other, hopelessness overwhelms him.

“I’m starting to feel like I will be in Indonesia forever,” he said, wiping a tear away. “I remember thinking when I was digging, the only thing that awaits us here is death.”

400 children rescued in India from child labour

Police say they have rescued some 400 children in a series of raids on leather tanning and plastic factories in Hyderabad over the past 10 days.
 
The children, mainly boys, hail from India's Bihar, Uttar Pradesh & West Bengal states, & have today been returned to their hometowns on special trains.
 
Police say they found the children working long hours in deplorable conditions, despite a nationwide ban on child labour.

 

'We found the children confined to their work place in inhuman conditions,' said V. Satyanarayana, a top police official in Hyderabad.

 

'They were forced to work for nearly 12 hours a day without any respite.'

 

'Many of the children were suffering from skin & other diseases as they were forced to work in unhygienic & unventilated dark rooms,' Satyanarayana said.

 

He said their employers would monitor them with video cameras & any child who stopped working would be beaten.

Police in Hyderabad have arrested 5 men accused of supplying children to the factory owners.

 

India has laws aimed at fighting child labour by making education compulsory up to age 14 & prohibiting their employment in hazardous occupations.

 

Despite the laws, grinding poverty still causes many children to be pushed into work, with factory agents promising their wages to their parents.

 

The 2011 census found that about 4.35 Million children between the ages of 5 & 14 were employed across India.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2940889/Police-rescue-hundreds-child-workers-southern-India.html