Isaac's+Page

My page about the UN's stories related to Human Trafficking

[|International drug trafficking poses biggest threat to Sierra Leone, UN warns] > >  "Illicit drug trafficking, a new phenomenon with huge potential for disrupting the security and socio-economic stability of the country, and indeed the region, has to be addressed before it takes root and poses even greater dangers,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in the report to the Security Council, noting the increasing use of Sierra Leone for transhipment of drugs from South America to Europe. > >  On the plus side, he notes that the Government has made the fight against corruption a key element of its reform plan, with the help of the UN Development Programme ([|UNDP]) and that infant, child and maternal mortality rates have declined sharply, with support from the UN World Health Organization ([|WHO]), the UN Children’s Fund ([|UNICEF]) and the UN Population Fund ([|UNFPA]).
 * According to a UN Report released February 3rd 2009, Sierra Leone continues to progress the strengthening of peace six years after a large scale civil war, however more is needed to be done to change the incidents that occurred throughout the war. International Drug Trafficking still poses a large threat to the stability in African Regions, specifically the West.

[|British police attempt to smash South-East Asian sex trafficking ring – UN report]

> > The UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP) reported that 528 suspects were arrested during the investigation, code-named Operation Pentameter 2 (UKP2), after UK police raided 157 massage parlours and saunas, and 582 residential premises across the country. > The operation attacked suspects’ finances and assets as a strategy to cause maximum disruption to their criminal activities. Through UKP2 investigations over £500,000 (about $750,000) in cash has been seized and more than £3 million in further assets was initially restrained pending further investigation, but this figure may increase. > >  UNIAP was established to facilitate a stronger and more coordinated response to human trafficking, in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), comprising Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam. > [|Slavery, though legally abolished, remains widespread in current forms, UN reports]
 * Police raids on several hundred buildings in the United Kingdom have recovered dozens of sex trafficking victims, mostly from East and South-East Asia, and led to legal charges against dozens of suspects, according to a United Nations report released November 18th 2008.

> >  “If slavery has been legally prohibited, but its more heinous characteristics have continued under a variety of different designations, or through numerous illicit activities, on what grounds can we say that slavery has effectively come to an end?” the report Entitled Unfinished Business, asks, calling for strengthened sanctions and an end to impunity.
 * Slavery may have been legally abolished around the world, but it remains “a widespread and deeply rooted component of contemporary life,” ranging from human trafficking to child labour to sexual servitude to bonded service

[|Migrant workers in the Middle East often exploited, UN reports at human trafficking conference] > >  The report ILO is presenting, “Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East”, was based on more than 650 interviews conducted over a two-year period in Jordan Lebanon, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) about how the workers are ‘tricked and trapped’ into forced labour and sexual exploitation, and the constraints that prevent them from leaving. > > >  The Middle East hosts millions of migrant workers, who in some cases exceed the number of national workers substantially. > > [|Returning from Balkans, UN official urges greater efforts in countering illicit drugs]
 *  An estimated 600,000 migrant workers are tricked and trapped into forced labour across the Middle East, the United Nations International Labour Organization ([|ILO]) on April 9th, 2013 reported at the first regional conference on human trafficking, highlighting in particular the visa sponsorship system between in-country employers and workers.

> > <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">UNODC’s work in the Balkans is coordinated by its Regional Programme for South-eastern Europe, launched by Mr. Fedotov in May 2012 at the request of the Governments in the region, in an effort to counter the growing threat posed by opiates trafficked from Afghanistan to lucrative markets in western Europe via the so-called Balkan route. > > <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">According to the UN agency’s estimates, around 60 tons of heroin, worth around $13 billion, moves along the Balkan route from the opium fields of Afghanistan to destinations in west and central Europe. In 2011, authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina – which is a transit point for illicit drugs – reported seizures of 10.2 kilograms of heroin, 444 kilograms of marijuana, and almost 10 kilograms of amphetamines.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ([|UNODC]) on March 22nd 2013 underscored the need to ramp up efforts in combating drug demand, supply and trafficking, while urging Member States to intensify prevention strategies, particularly in the Balkans, where the main European trafficking routes for illicit drugs continue to operate.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">[|Illicit drugs represent roadblock to rule of law and democracy, says UN official]

> > <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">“In so many ways, illicit drugs and crime and development are bound to each other. If countries are denied the rule of law and justice, development is jeopardized, and societies weakened by the lack of sustainable development can become the staging areas for the criminal networks,” said the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes ([|UNODC]), Yury Fedotov, at the opening of the 56th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna. > > <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Fedotov noted that, in recent decades, the production and consumption of cocaine has declined and the majority of opium cultivation and production is localized mainly in Afghanistan. However, he added that these trends were offset by the rise of synthetic drugs, as well as new psychoactive substances.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Illicit drugs and crime are roadblocks to the rule of law and democracy, a United Nations official said today, urging countries to collaborate to address this threat to stability and development.

//**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">OUTLINE **//
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Interesting Thing One: 600,000 Migrant Workers in Middle East

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Interesting Thing Two: British Police try and stop Sex Trafficking Ring in UK <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Interesting Thing Three:Slavery is still widespread, although technically abolosihed
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Many migrants that emigrated from the conflict areas are tricked into the human & sex trafficking.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">International Labour Organization is presenting a book that recalls the events of 650 different people in the Middle East over the course of 2 years that were tricked into slavery or sexual trade.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Migrant workers outnumber the amount of national workers in some cases
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Due to the strong amount of people coming in from surrounding countries that are in political conflict. (e.g. Syria)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The Kafala (sponsorship system) make it hard for those people trying to leave the country, because they need a visa permitted by the government and that gives the unequal power between the employer and the worker.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> UK Police raided several houses with victims of trafficking
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> More than $750,000 has been seized.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Trafficking everything from Human labour to sex slaves and narcotics.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Even if it is prohibited, its still going to occur