traffickingisnobueno

[traffickingisnobueno]

[traffickingisnobueno]

[traffickingisnobueno]

[traffickingisnobueno]

[traffickingisnobueno]

Child Begging and Peddling Operations: Stop Slavery Now

“On the first day I only earned 20 yuan from begging. They beat me up.” Yang Ping, girl with spinal deformity sold to a begging ring in Beijing Child begging may sound innocuous, but many of these children are subject to extreme abuse including willful mutilation to make them more easily pitied, and thus better potential earners. They may be disfigured by having an eye gouged out, a limb amputated, or being otherwise visibly scarred. Most children are bought or kidnapped, then forced to beg or pick pockets on the streets under threat of beatings and worse. Their keeper takes all their earnings of course. In some parts of the world these operations actually masquerade as charities such as orphanages for whom the victims are ostensibly collecting contributions. Peddling rackets are closely related to begging rings. Even here in New York City there have been cases where street peddlers were working to pay off alleged debts to their traffickers. One ring here in the city was prosecuted for bringing deaf Mexican children into the country illegally for the purpose of setting them to work in the subway system selling cheap trinkets. These operations may employ both children and adults. In both begging and peddling operations, the size of the enterprise may vary widely. A trafficker may “buy” a single deformed child from his impoverished parents and set him out to work. A victim may be set out to peddle a limited output of handcrafts. At the other end of the spectrum are large syndicates that employ scouts, middlemen, transport crews and essentially run schools for beggars not unlike that of the character Fagin, made famous in Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Children are schooled as pickpockets, con-artists, muggers and petty thieves. Infants may be kidnapped for use as props. Police may be bribed. Corruption may reach higher levels. Unscrupulous doctors are employed to disfigure children. This level of inhumane abuse is hard to fathom. Yet it occurs in most major cities where grinding poverty makes simple survival a cruel challenge.

[traffickingisnobueno]

Anyone could be a victim of human trafficking. Even the person sitting besides you could be involved.

[traffickingisnobueno]

It was announced Wednesday, April 20, by the current US Secretary of the Treasure Jacob Lew that former slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson (who may have owned up to 300 slaves throughout his lifetime). Lew also proposed to add civil rights leaders to the $5 and $10 notes. Needless to say that a lot of people are mad, but who cares? #BlackLivesMatter

[traffickingisnobueno]

“They were singing. Obviously, they were having a good time.”

-Hilary Clinton on slavery (via therevdanjones)

[traffickingisnobueno]

There was one of two things I had a right to: liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would take the other, for no man should take me alive. I should fight for liberty as long as my strength lasted.

Harriet Tubman (d. 1913)

[traffickingisnobueno]

[traffickingisnobueno]

[traffickingisnobueno]

Source: unodc.org

[traffickingisnobueno]

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry releases the 2013 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report and honors the 2013 TIP Report Heroes, men and women whose personal efforts have made an extraordinary difference in the global fight against modern slavery, at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on June 19, 2013. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

[traffickingisnobueno]

This year’s Trafficking in Persons Report offers a roadmap for the road ahead as we confront the scourge of trafficking. Whether a concerned citizen, a board member, a government official, or a survivor of trafficking, we each have a responsibility to spot human trafficking, engage our communities, and commit to take action. I invite you to help us turn the page.

Secretary of State John Kerry, Letter from Secretary Kerry on Release of Trafficking in Persons Report 2014, Trafficking in Persons Report 2014  (via exchangealumni)

[traffickingisnobueno]

Ten Years Later: Remembering Senator Paul Wellstone

About the Author: Ambassador-at-Large Luis Cdebaca serves as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State and directs the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Ten years ago, in the federal courthouse in Honolulu, I was among a small group of civil rights prosecutors who had just started trial in the largest slavery prosecution in U.S. history, in which over 300 Chinese and Vietnamese workers had been enslaved in a garment factory in American Samoa. But on the third day of trial, a hammer blow fell on our prosecution team: Paul and Sheila Wellstone’s airplane had gone down in northeastern Minnesota, taking their lives as well as that of their daughter and several aides. Senator Wellstone was not just the conscience of the Senate, a voice for the dispossessed and an inspiration to so many, he was the sponsor of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. He was not only a fellow Midwestern wrestler, but had been… more »

[traffickingisnobueno]

I made this to hand out at the next meeting of our local human trafficking abolition group.  Many people know words like “sweatshops” or “prostitution” or “child abuse,” but don’t know how it relates to human trafficking.

[traffickingisnobueno]

Slave in shackles sitting on the floor. Her modest attire is a bit excessive for a slave: I would keep her bare naked or bottomless with a simple blouse.

(source: http://princeps76.deviantart.com/)