Tag: Human Trafficking

Conflict, climate, corruption drive Southeast Asia people trafficking: UN | Human Trafficking News

Latest report comes amid a surge in mostly Muslim Rohingya making dangerous sea journeys in search of safety.

Conflict, climate and the demand for low-paid labour in countries such as Thailand and Malaysia, with corruption as a “major enabler”, are driving the growth of the people smuggling trade in Southeast Asia, according to a new report from the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Tens of thousands of people from Myanmar as well as from other parts of Southeast Asia and from outside the region are smuggled to, through and from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand every year, the UNODC said in its report Migrant Smuggling in Southeast Asia, which was published on Tuesday.

The report identified three key trends in people smuggling: the demand for workers willing to take on low-wage jobs and the limited channels available for people to fill these jobs legally; the existence of “substantial populations” of people in need of international protection but also with few legal ways to reach safety; and the prevalence of corruption among some public officials.

The report noted that such corruption acted as a “driver and enabler of migrant smuggling, as well as contributing to impunity for perpetrators. Public officials share smuggling profits; are bribed to ensure compliance; and obstruct criminal investigations.”

The UNODC surveyed some 4,785 migrants and refugees in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand for the report, with 83 percent of them saying they were smuggled. An additional 60 migrants and refugees also took part in in-depth qualitative interviews, while 35 key informants were interviewed.

One in four of those smuggled said they had experienced corruption and been forced to bribe officials including immigration officers, police and the military. The UNODC noted that corruption also fed the smuggling trade, because those making the journey felt they needed the smugglers to deal with state authorities, because of the corruption.

Many of those fleeing conflict were from Myanmar, including the mostly Muslim Rohingya, hundreds of thousands of whom fled into neighbouring Bangladesh when the military began a brutal crackdown in 2017, which is now being investigated as genocide.

The report comes amid a surge in the number of Rohingya people risking dangerous sea journeys from Bangladesh and Myanmar in the hope of reaching safety in Southeast Asia.

On Monday, Indonesia ended the search for a boat thought to be carrying about 150 people that capsized off the coast of the northern province of Aceh, tossing dozens of people into the sea. Some 69 people were rescued and three bodies recovered.

The UNODC also found that abuse was rife, with three-quarters of those surveyed saying they had experienced some form of abuse during their journey from the smugglers themselves, the military and police, or criminal gangs. Physical violence was the most reported type of abuse.

In 2015, Thailand and Malaysia discovered mass graves at more than two dozen trafficking camps hidden in the jungle on the Malaysian side of the border at Wang Kelian. Police found 139 graves as well as signs that those held there had been tortured.

Thailand and Malaysia carried out a joint investigation into the camps and Thailand convicted 62 defendants, including nine government officials, over the deaths and trafficking of Rohingya and Bangladeshis to Malaysia via Thailand two years later.

Last June, Malaysia charged four Thai nationals over the camps after they were extradited from Bangkok.

An earlier inquiry found that no Malaysian enforcement officials, public servants or local citizens were involved in trafficking syndicates, but there was “gross negligence” on the part of border patrols who had failed to notice the camps.

As well as conflict and work, the UNODC said climate change had emerged as a factor in people smuggling to Southeast Asia.

The report said one in four of those surveyed had said they felt compelled to migrate because of more extreme weather events including heat waves and flooding, including three out of four Bangladeshis surveyed.

The report found the average price paid to be smuggled to Southeast Asia was $2,380 with men paying slightly more than women.

Afghans being smuggled to Malaysia and Indonesia paid the most – $6,004.

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Bodies of 65 people found in mass grave in Libya: UN migration agency | Refugees News

The IOM believes the people were migrants who died in the process of being smuggled through the desert in Libya.

The bodies of at least 65 people have been discovered in a mass grave in southwest Libya, the United Nations’ migration agency has said.

In a statement on Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) noted that the circumstances of the people’s deaths and nationalities was unknown “but it is believed that they died in the process of being smuggled through the desert”.

The agency stressed that while Libyan authorities had launched an investigation into the deaths, it is important for them to “ensure a dignified recovery, identification and transfer of the remains of the deceased migrants”, and notify and assist their families.

“Each report of a missing migrant or a loss of life represents a grieving family searching for answers about their loved ones or acknowledging the tragedy of the loss,” a spokesperson of the agency said in the statement.

In an unverified message on Facebook on Monday, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ministry of Interior in Tripoli, posted drone footage of a desert area, showing white markings and yellow tape around the remains of bodies with numbers on them, the Reuters news agency reported.

The CID said the bodies were found in al-Jahriya Valley in Al-Shuwairf town, about 421km (262 miles) south of Tripoli.

The department added that after taking DNA samples, all the bodies were buried in a cemetery on instructions from the attorney general of the appeals chamber in Gharyan town.

More than a decade of violent instability since the 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising, has helped turn Libya into a fertile ground for human traffickers, who have long been accused of abusing migrants and refugees.

The country, which is host to an estimated 600,000 migrants and refugees, is also a transit route for people seeking refuge in Europe across the Mediterranean.

Large groups of people are often put into boats that are not big enough to safely move them across the treacherous route.

Some are escaping conflict or persecution, while others dream of better opportunities in Europe. They usually land in Italy before trying to make their way to other countries, particularly in Western Europe.

According to the IOM, at least 3,129 deaths and disappearances of migrants were recorded in 2023 along the Mediterranean route, which it described as “the deadliest migratory route”.

“Without regular pathways that provide opportunities for legal migration, such tragedies will continue to be a feature along this route,” the UN agency said.

Italy and other European Union governments are trying to quell the number of migrants crossing from North Africa, providing money and resources to countries like Libya and Tunisia to help stop the departures from their shores.

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South African mother charged with trafficking her missing 6-year-old | Human Trafficking

NewsFeed

There were angry scenes outside a court in South Africa where a mother was charged with kidnapping and trafficking her own 6-year-old daughter, whose disappearance has made headlines across the country.

Published On 14 Mar 2024

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Jeffrey Epstein list: Whose names are on the newly unsealed documents? | Courts News

About 950 pages of court documents identifying associates of financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were made public on Wednesday.

What is the Jeffrey Epstein list?

Included in the unsealed papers are the names of about 150 Epstein associates. The documents were filed as part of Virginia Giuffre’s 2015 defamation lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s co-conspirator in his sexual abuse scheme. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting sex trafficking charges.

Giuffre is one of the women who sued Epstein for abusing them at his homes in Florida, New York, the United States Virgin Islands and New Mexico. She said she was pressured into having sex with men in Epstein’s social orbit.

Other documents were unsealed by the court from 2019 to 2022.

Last month, a judge listed in a 50-page document about 180 people – under pseudonyms – ordering that their identities be made public within 14 days of the order. Some individuals have objected to the disclosure of their identities in the case.

The inclusion of a name on the list does not indicate there are any allegations against the individual.

Here is a closer look at some of the names in the recent documents:

Prince Andrew

The documents unsealed on Wednesday have revealed sexual assault allegations against the British royal.

Johanna Sjoberg, who is one of the many women who have accused Epstein of sexual abuse, said Andrew put his hand on her breast in Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in 2001.

This was while he was taking a photo with Sjoberg and Giuffre. Maxwell and Epstein were present while this photo was taken. Sjoberg said the photo also included a puppet that said “Prince Andrew” on it.

The incident, which has been previously reported by other media outlets and which Andrew has denied, was in an initial trove of previously redacted documents that otherwise revealed few new details about the extent of Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking activities.

Sjoberg was recruited to work for Epstein by Maxwell, who had been his girlfriend in the early 1990s before they became professional collaborators and accomplices in sex crimes for almost three decades.

While Sjoberg was hired as an assistant when she was a 20-year-old college student, she was quickly turned into a massage therapist and was sexually coerced while she worked for Maxwell and Epstein from 2001 to 2006.

Giuffre, now 38, accused Andrew of sexually abusing her two decades ago when she was 17, an allegation the prince called baseless. The case was settled in 2022.

According to the documents, Sjoberg said she witnessed Giuffre, then 17, in Epstein’s New York mansion with Andrew, Epstein and Maxwell. She also said she believes what Giuffre has said about Andrew and Epstein sexually abusing her.

Alan Dershowitz

Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz is well-known for his work in US criminal law. The documents pertaining to him include allegations made by an unnamed woman, Jane Doe #3.

Jane Doe #3 said Epstein “required” her to have sexual relations with Dershowitz on multiple occasions when she was a minor.

Dershowitz also played a significant role in negotiating an agreement that provided immunity from federal prosecution in the Southern District of Florida not only for Epstein but also for “any potential co-conspirators of Epstein”, the documents say.

Epstein’s housekeeper Juan Alessi testified that Dershowitz would often visit Epstein’s Florida mansion to get massages.

Another one of Epstein’s household employees, Alfredo Rodriquez, said the lawyer would be present at Epstein’s residence without his family and in the presence of girls.

Dershowitz said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday that Jane Doe #3 misidentified him, and he denied ever meeting her. He suggested he was the victim of the MeToo movement’s “hypocrisy”, accusing “radical feminists” of focusing on Epstein and his associates while not “condemning Hamas”, the Palestinian armed group.

Jean-Luc Brunel

Jean-Luc Brunel was a French model scout who was awaiting trial on charges that he raped underage girls when he died by suicide in a Paris jail in 2022.

Giuffre was among the women who had accused Brunel of sexual abuse. She said Maxwell sent her to many places to have sex with Brunel. The documents also say Brunel would exploit underage girls from disadvantaged backgrounds by offering them modelling jobs but would then bring them to the US and “farm them out to his friends, especially Epstein”.

According to the documents, Jane Doe #3 accused Epstein of trafficking her to Brunel, who was Epstein’s close travel companion. She said she was also forced to watch Brunel, Maxwell and Epstein sexually assaulting underage girls.

Rolling Stone magazine published a report on Tuesday about a recent Los Angeles lawsuit in which a new woman accused Brunel of holding her hostage at a Canadian estate so she could be sexually abused by multiple men when she was 18.

David Copperfield

Sjoberg testified to meeting American magician David Copperfield at one of Epstein’s houses. She added that she observed him to be a friend of Epstein’s. She also recalled a girl at that dinner who she thought looked like she was of high-school age.

Sjoberg said Copperfield asked her if she knew that “girls were getting paid to find other girls”, referring to the recruitment of women by Epstein and Maxwell as “massage therapists”.

Bill Clinton

Former US President Bill Clinton is also mentioned in the court documents.

While Sjoberg said she did not meet Clinton, she testified that Epstein said to her: “Clinton likes them young,” apparently referring to girls. While Giuffre had mentioned earlier that Clinton and Epstein had a close relationship, she did not accuse him of any illegal action.

Clinton has repeatedly rejected all allegations that he was involved in anything unlawful and has said he had no interactions with Epstein for several years prior to the financier’s arrest.

Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump is also mentioned in the documents but not accused.

Sjoberg mentioned an incident when she left with Epstein, Giuffre and a few others on a plane from Palm Beach, Florida, in 2001.

When the plane was unable to land in New York due to a storm, they had to land in Atlantic City and went to one of Trump’s casinos. Since Giuffre was underage at the time, Sjoberg was asked if she was allowed into the casino.

“I did not know anything about how old you had to be to gamble legally. I just knew she could not get in because of an ID issue, so she and I did not gamble,” Sjoberg answered.

Stephen Hawking

The late physicist’s name was mentioned in an email sent by Epstein to Maxwell in January 2015. In this email, Epstein told Maxwell to “issue a reward” to any of Giuffre’s friends, family and acquaintances to come forward and disprove Giuffre’s allegations, including against Hawking.

“the strongest is the clinton dinner, and the new version in the virgin isalnds that stven hawking partica-ted in an underage orgy,” the email said.

Michael Jackson

Sjoberg said she saw the late singer at Epstein’s residence. When she was asked if she gave him a massage, she said no.

More names to come

Not all the documents have been unsealed. The judge hasn’t set a target for when all of the documents should be made public, but more documents are expected to come out in the next few days. Lawyers for one individual, Doe 107, wrote to the judge, arguing they could face victimisation in their home country and requested time to submit grounds for their name to remain sealed.

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Indians sent back by France over trafficking concerns: What we know | Human Trafficking News

EXPLAINER

A makeshift courtroom was set up in a French airport to investigate human trafficking concerns.

A plane carrying suspected victims of human trafficking was rerouted to India while on its way to Nicaragua after being detained in France. It has now landed in Mumbai.

While no evidence of trafficking was found, the inquiry gave way to concerns of undocumented immigration that are still being investigated by French authorities.

Here is what we know about the flight’s tumultuous journey over the past few days.

What happened to the plane suspected of human trafficking in France?

  • The plane was an Airbus A340 operated by Romania-based Legend Airlines. The aircraft, carrying 303 Indian passengers, departed from Fujairah International Airport in Dubai and was en route to Nicaragua in Central America.
  • On Thursday afternoon, it stopped to refuel at Vatry Airport, about 150km (95 miles) east of Paris. French police used the opportunity to intervene after an anonymous tip that some of its passengers may be victims of trafficking.
  • The aircraft remained grounded in France for four days for legal deliberations. The reception hall at Vatry Airport was transformed into a waiting area. Passengers were given individual beds while they awaited a decision on where they would travel next, local officials in the eastern Marne region of France said on Friday.
  • A French court ruled that authorities did not have the legal authority to detain several of the passengers further, and the plane was cleared to leave by French prosecutors on Sunday.
  • The Airbus A340 then departed with 276 of the Indian passengers on Monday and landed in Mumbai early on Tuesday. It is unclear why the plane diverted to Mumbai instead of resuming its journey to Nicaragua. The remaining 27 passengers on the original flight remained in France.
  • In a post on X, the Indian embassy expressed thanks to French officials for the “quick resolution of the situation enabling Indian passengers to return home”.

Why was the plane detained in France?

A makeshift courtroom was set up at the airport where emergency judicial hearings were carried out for two days into the conditions and purposes of the trip by a unit specializing in organised crime.

Consular officials from the Indian embassy in Paris were also on site.

Twenty-five of the passengers, including five minors, requested asylum in the country while two passengers were detained based on suspicions of trafficking before being released. They have also reportedly requested asylum.

“We cannot keep foreigners in a waiting area for more than 96 hours. Beyond that, it is the liberty and custody judge who must rule on their fate,” Francois Procureur, the head of the Chalons-en-Champagne Bar Association, told local television on Saturday.

Once it received clearance, the plane left Vatry Airport.

What evidence of human trafficking was found?

No concrete evidence was found, but French authorities said they are continuing to investigate potential breaches of immigration laws.

The passengers were likely Indian workers in the United Arab Emirates intending to use Nicaragua as a gateway to the United States or Canada, a source close to the inquiry told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.

Liliana Bakayoko, a lawyer for Legend Airlines, denied that the company had any role in human trafficking or “committed any infraction”.

An unnamed “partner” company was responsible for verifying the identification documents of each passenger, according to Bakayoko.

What do we know about the passengers?

The passengers were Indian and included many children, including 11 unaccompanied minors and a 21-month-old.

They were “frustrated” after spending several nights at the airport, said Patrick Jaloux, the head of civil protection in the Marne region.

The 15 crew members of the Legend Airlines flight were also questioned and released.

Procureur said the hearings were “unprecedented”.

“I’m surprised at how things unfolded in the waiting area,” Procureur told BFM television. “People should have been informed of their rights, and clearly, that was not the case.”

Why Nicaragua and what happens to the passengers now?

The US has designated Nicaragua as a country that has done the least to prevent human trafficking. It is both a source and a major transit route for undocumented people looking to enter the US.

While no human trafficking has been confirmed yet among the passengers on the plane, Genevieve Colas, coordinator at the French nonprofit Secours Catholique-Caritas told AFP the release of the plane had “surprised” her. “What if they really are victims of people trafficking?” she asked. “Then it wouldn’t be right to just let them take off to another country.” Secours Catholique-Caritas works with displaced people and migrants in multiple countries around the world.

In Mumbai, Indian authorities are expected to question the returned passengers about their plans because several elements of the case are still unclear.

From October 2022 to September, nearly 97,000 Indians were stopped while trying to enter the US illegally. That’s a fivefold increase from 2019-2020.

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Plane held in France over trafficking concerns lands in India | Human Trafficking

Airbus A340 carrying 276 Indian passengers arrives in Mumbai early on Tuesday.

A plane carrying hundreds of Indian passengers that was grounded in France for four days amid a probe into possible human trafficking has arrived in India.

The Airbus A340 carrying 276 Indian passengers landed in Mumbai early on Tuesday morning, flight tracking data showed.

The flight, operated by Romania-based Legend Airlines, had been en route from the United Arab Emirates to Nicaragua when it was detained at a regional airport on Thursday following a tip-off that its passengers may be victims of trafficking.

Passengers on the flight were confined at Vatry airport, about 150km east of Paris, while authorities turned the terminal into a makeshift courtroom to carry out emergency hearings.

Among the 303 original passengers who stayed behind in France, 25, including five minors, requested asylum in the country and two others were initially detained as part of the trafficking probe before being released, local authorities said.

The plane’s departure on Monday came after a French court ruled that authorities did not have legal authority to detain several of the passengers further.

French authorities have said they did not find evidence of human trafficking but are continuing to investigate potential breaches of immigration laws.

The Indian Embassy expressed thanks to French officials for the “quick resolution of the situation enabling Indian passengers to return home” in a post on X.

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