'Israel among worst human traffickers'

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"A report released this week by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has cited Israel as among the top destinations in the trafficking of human beings, either for sexual exploitation or forced labor.

Entitled "Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns," the report claims that, "virtually every country in the world is affected by the crime of human trafficking." However, Israel, along with nine countries, was named as the worst offenders of illegal trade in human beings.

"The fact that this form of slavery still exists in the 21st century shames us all," announced UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa on the organization's Web site. "Governments need to get serious about identifying the full extent of the problem so they can get serious about eliminating it."

In Israel, Haifa feminist center Isha L'Isha, one of the human rights organizations active in the fight against the trafficking of women, welcomed the report's findings and was hopeful that it would force the government and relevant authorities to take more action against this crime."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961226614&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Sad

This story is sad on two levels: that such a problem still exists in today's world and that this article is titled poorly. I understand that an Israeli paper would want to focus on its role in this human disaster, but the way the article starts off is deceptive and will be fodder for anti-Israeli propaganda.

The report itself is chilling!! It is also VERY long. For those whom are interested, here is the report.

For a better "overview," read, UNODC calls for more efforts to stop human trafficking.

[Stockholm]

3. Looks to me the title is correct

"However, Israel, along with nine countries, was named as the worst offenders of illegal trade in human beings. "

[Behind the Aegis]

4. No...it's not...

But it will be used as anti-Israeli propaganda. The title is misleading. If you actually read the repost, you will see that the title is not correct. Israel is not one of the worst offenders, it is one of the nine worst recipients of the illegal trade.

BTW...can you name another of the "worst offenders of illegal trade in human beings?"

[Stockholm]

5. Ahh I see

A country's shame of being a modern slave importing country is less than being an exporter. Your logic amounts to blaming the victims...

The other recipient countries labeled as very high risk are:

Belgium
Germany
Greece
Italy
The Netherlands
Israel
Turkey
Japan
Thailand
United States of America

They should all be ashamed. Anyhow it makes sense that the Israeli newspaper JP focuses on how Israel came out in the study, it gives JP credit and publicity is the only way to raise awareness on the issue.

Link to report http://www.unodc.org/pdf/traffickinginpersons_report_2006-04.pdf

[Behind the Aegis]

12. No, you don't see...

A country's shame of being a modern slave importing country is less than being an exporter. Your logic amounts to blaming the victims...

I didn't say, or even imply that, "...being a modern slave importing country is less (shameful) than being an exporter." Saying a person who is a creator of child pornography is worse than a person who views it, would not be blaming the children! However, since I never said being a recipient is less bad than being an exporter, your logic was flawed and you reached an incorrect conclusion because of it.

By stating the fact that Israel is one of the worst recipients of human trafficking is more accurate than saying it is one of the "worst among human trafficking." Using the title of the piece, logic would dictate that all three categories be included and in that case, where would Israel really rank? Personally, I find the "worst" countries to be those that rank highest in BOTH importing AND exporting!

They should all be ashamed. Anyhow it makes sense that the Israeli newspaper JP focuses on how Israel came out in the study, it gives JP credit and publicity is the only way to raise awareness on the issue.

I completely agree with the first statement. As for your second assertion, well, I already said: "I understand that an Israeli paper would want to focus on its role in this human disaster..."

[madeline_con]

21. This is rich....

By stating the fact that Israel is one of the worst recipients of human trafficking is more accurate than saying it is one of the "worst among human trafficking."

That's absurd! Are the victims just being dropped off at the train station? Someone in Israel receives the "goods" when they arrive.

[Behind the Aegis]

24. .

:eyes:

[Stockholm]

26. Child porn?

I didn't say, or even imply that, "...being a modern slave importing country is less (shameful) than being an exporter." Saying a person who is a creator of child pornography is worse than a person who views it, would not be blaming the children! However, since I never said being a recipient is less bad than being an exporter, your logic was flawed and you reached an incorrect conclusion because of it."

I think there are problems with your analogy. First, I can´t see how child pornography and trafficking can be compared at all and comparing being poor or originating from a poor country to being a child is just degrading.

For now I have to stand by my statement that your kind of reasoning leads to blaming the victims. Being poor which is one of the main factors driving trafficking from the supply side should not be viewed as some sort of crime connected with guilt, not from an individual or an country perspective. Comparing or worse equating guilt for the supply side and the demand side, which you suggest when you say that all three categories should be put together, does not make any sense to me.

It is probably correct that development countries are underrepresented in the statistics as recipient countries but in my view the advantages with being a developed country like Israel or Germany and being able to have organisations/authorities keeping tabs at trafficking brings with it certain obligations to react to it. In my view none of the nine have lived up to that obligation.

[Coastie for Truth]

27. Not quite right

...to protect and to serve ... Semper Paratus...

You posted

First, I can´t see how child pornography and trafficking can be compared at all ...

Same enforcement agencies and prosecutorial agencies.

Usually the same personnel.

...to protect and to serve ...Semper Paratus ...

[Behind the Aegis]

29. You have simply missed the point.

If you cannot understand the analogy, then I don't know what to tell you. Your logic and conlusion are flawed and false.

[Phx_Dem]

13. read pages 118-121

there are huge reporting errors in this report. Fact is that countries that keep better records (developed countries) are overrepresented, vise versa for developing countries.

[anitar1]

2. I am not surprised. n/t

[Coastie for Truth]

16. Welcome aboard matey

Those of us who have been to sea - military or law enforcement or commercial - aren't surprised. Ever been to Yokohama? Hong Kong? (OK - not in Singapore).

[Scurrilous]

6. Relevant article:

Once we were slaves, now we're slavers

<snip>

"According to a study by the American Civil Liberties Union in Berkeley, California, trafficking for purposes of slavery in households is in second place in terms of the number of people involved, after trafficking for prostitution. After identifying the problem several years ago, the United States enacted legislation to combat it. Until 2004, indictments were handed down against 77 people for coercive employment or commerce in human beings. Convictions were obtained in most of the cases. In 2002, for example, a California court sentenced the common-law wife of the Thai ambassador to Sweden to eight years in prison for having brought with her to the United States a household worker, whose passport she confiscated, then forcing her to work 20 hours a day, six days a week.

However, as befits the world's sheriff, the United States has taken the matter beyond the domestic sphere. In an attempt to eradicate the phenomenon throughout the world, the State Department publishes an annual report that ranks the efforts made by the world's countries to combat human trafficking. Since 2003 the report has referred not only to trafficking for prostitution, but also for bondage. To meet the minimal standards set by the United States for this report, a country must investigate, bring to justice and convict such traffickers and also take preventive measures against the phenomenon, including public education.


Israel, the United States maintains, is not doing enough to combat the phenomenon. After being at the lowest level for one year − i.e., being listed as one of the countries that is not doing anything at all to eradicate human trafficking − Israel has, since 2002, been upgraded to the Tier 2 level of countries that are taking action against it, but not enough. Last year, the report added a "watch list," referring to countries that are about to be downgraded. In September 2005, Gershuni met with representatives of the State Department ahead of the publication of the annual "Trafficking in Persons Report" (available at www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/)

Gershuni: "It was explained to me that a battle had been waged over whether Israel should not be downgraded, because of what was perceived as lack of seriousness in dealing with the foreign workers. I was also told that a Tier 2 country that is placed on the 'special watch list' is liable to find itself at the lowest level, which brings in its wake economic sanctions within a short time."

The 2005 report stated, in condemnation of Israel, that some of the foreign workers in the country suffer from nonpayment of wages, threats, coercion, physical and sexual abuse, debt bondage and restrictions on freedom of movement, including confiscation of passports. The report also noted that Israel does not have legislation against trafficking in persons for purposes of servitude. At the same time, it was noted in Israel's favor that there is a bill pending in the Knesset, which for the first time stipulates that trafficking in persons for purposes of servitude will be an offense, punishable by 16 years' imprisonment."



http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/705920.html

[Coastie for Truth]

7. Every seaport has this tragedy

My experience as a "Port Security" ("Captain of the Port") officer in the United States Coast Guard - in the Port of New Orleans - is that this tragedy is pandemic in every major seaport.

[tatertop]

8. You can bet this would be cleaned up real fast if we cut their free $

real world problems require real world solutions

[Coastie for Truth]

9. Not Just Israel----- try the USA

San Jose Mercury News (CA) - February 16, 2006 - 8B Local

PROSTITUTION CASE YIELDS GUILTY PLEAS, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WORKED AT 10 SITES
Three women and two men have pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in San Jose to charges that they hired illegal immigrants to work in a ring of 10 residential brothels in the South Bay, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.. The five were accused of operating the brothels, disguised as massage parlors, in Santa Clara, San Jose and San Mateo, and of hiring and exploiting Asian women who entered the country illegally.

Note: These were Asian women - illegal immigrants

San Jose Mercury News (CA) - October 29, 2005 - 1B Local

MTN. VIEW SHOCK LED TO SEX SLAVE LAW
It was the shock of it all, really, that did it.. That in the heart of Silicon Valley -- not L.A.'s skid row, not San Francisco's Tenderloin -- but just blocks from where the Mountain View City Council met, Sally Lieber recalled, women were being trafficked in sex slavery. And there was no state law that made it a crime.. ''We had brothels literally hiding women in a 12-inch space inside hidden walls -- in Silicon Valley...



Note: These were Asian women - illegal immigrants

San Jose Mercury News (CA) - October 28, 2005 - 3B Local

ALLEGED BROTHEL RING BUSTED, 14 SITES OPERATED AS MASSAGE PARLORS
Federal authorities and police in San Jose and San Mateo announced arrests Thursday of five Chinese nationals accused of running a prostitution ring with 14 brothels that posed as massage parlors and that exploited Asian women who entered the United States illegally.. The accused -- two men and two women from San Jose and a Sunnyvale woman -- were arraigned on charges of conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants for financial gain, at a hearing in U.S. District Court in San Jose. None entered...



Note: These were Asian women - illegal immigrants

San Jose Mercury News (CA) - February 5, 2005 - 1B Local

SUSPECTED BROTHEL TARGET OF POLICE RAID
A few blocks from Palo Alto's tony University Avenue shops and across from one of the city's many mansions, police raided a condominium Thursday night that they believe was being used as a brothel.. For about a month, a steady succession of men had been streaming in and out of the condo, at the exquisitely manicured Villa Capri Aire complex on the 700 block of University Avenue, police said. If not for the sharp eyes of 34-year-old neighbor



Note: These were Asian women - illegal immigrants

San Jose Mercury News (CA) - July 28, 2002 - 1A Front

FBI: SUNNYVALE BARS WERE PART OF WIDE WEB OF ILLICIT BUSINESSES
With little fanfare, FBI agents last week cracked down on a nationwide business enterprise involving Asian prostitutes, money laundering and bribery that sprawled from Sunnyvale hostess bars to Knoxville, Tenn., massage parlors.. The individual businesses, pursuing an age-old profession, were strands in a web of owners and operators who collaborated to conceal their illicit operation from law enforcement, agents revealed in the wake of the bust. Members of the network shared information,...




Note: These were Asian women - illegal immigrants

San Jose Mercury News (CA) - December 24, 2001 - 13A California News

, FIVE MEN GET PRISON IN SMUGGLING SCHEME
Five men will serve less than five years each in prison for their participation in a scheme to smuggle Asian women into the United States for prostitution. Each of the five men pleaded guilty in September to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.. Court records indicate that Stanley Chan, 40, Dat Ming Leung, 41, and Yuk Ching Liu, 53, had leadership roles in the conspiracy, which began in March 1998.. The conspirators illegally brought Asian women into the United States,



Note: These were Asian women - illegal immigrants

[Poll_Blind]

10. Hey, not a one of those links works. Can you provide ones that do, pls?

Thanks!

PB

[Coastie for Truth]

14. Fee charged subscription service

Go to http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/, fill out the search request (I used "Asian prostitution") and click on "archives" --- BUT THERE IS A FEE FOR THE FULL ARTICLES.

This is a port area - with a lot of "illegals."

[Englander]

11. End of 2nd paragraph of Jpost article;

--However, Israel, along with nine countries, was named as the worst offenders of illegal trade in human beings.--

~D'oh!!~

[Coastie for Truth]

15. Tell me something new

I have an expired Third Mate License, a current General Radio Operator's License (Maritime and Radar) and served in a maritime law enforcement agency in a major seaport - and I live in a major metropolitan area built around a major sea port.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Englander]

23. Ah, 'stuff happens', eh? Gotcha.

Re the actual, relevant point I was making;

Coastie said -

--Not Just Israel----- try the USA--

Which wasn't necessary, since the article made that clear -

--However, Israel, along with nine countries, was named as the worst offenders of illegal trade in human beings.--

It wasn't clear that that point had been comprehended, since the article, & report, didn't say
that Isreal was the only destination country, did they?

[chevychase]

18. Human trafficking is criminal and needs to be eliminated.

That said, now that we are all aware that all countries are affected by this criminal activity and that Israel is no better than

Belgium
Germany
Greece
Italy
The Netherlands
Turkey
Japan
Thailand

owing perhaps largely to their locations as major seaports and owing somewhat to the more accurate reporting of some countries over others, what's this got to do with I/P?

I sense that this will stay at the top of the I/P chart regardless, since it's making some folks downright giddy.

Oh, well, if it raises awareness of the problem, so be it.

[eyl]

25. Seaports don't necessarily have anything to do with it

At least in the case of Israel, most of the victims are tranported through the Sinai and through the Egyptian (land) border, not by sea.

[Coastie for Truth]

28. In most countries

the trafficking occurs in major seaports.

"Semper Paratus"

[cali]

19. ho hum. The proxy war on I/P continues.....

Pro-Palestinian? Find an article that puts Israel in the worst possible light.
Pro-Israel? Find an article that puts the Palestinians in the worst possible light.

Of course, it's not everyone, but it is ongoing. Doesn't matter if the article in question has anything to do with the I/P conflict. It's just a way of scoring points for your "team".

[Phx_Dem]

20. yea it's very predictable

I sleep better knowing that if there is an incident of domestic violence in Israel or the occupied territories I will be the first in Phoenix to know about it.

Hey, nice job with that post about the Ford dealer--happy to see that DU can make a difference.

[Coastie for Truth]

22. If you are seriously interested in stamping out the sex trade