February 2012
53 posts
THAILAND: Mother jailed for forcing underage...
BANGKOK, Thailand by The Nation (2/28/12) — A Thai Court on Tuesday sentenced a 50-year-old mother to 42 years in jail for forcing her daughter and two other girls, all of them minors, into prostitution.
A Briton, Stuart Hargreaves Lloyd, 45, was also sentenced to 21 years in jail after being found guilty of raping minors.
The Court was told that Tim Wongsiri had taught and forced her...
USA: South Florida a "Perfect Storm" For Human...
MIAMI, Florida, USA by Sharon Lawson of NBC Miami (9/17/11) — In Miami, a dirty secret lies beneath the cosmopolitan veneer.
“When you look at South Florida,” said Carmen Pino of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “we are like the perfect storm…for human trafficking.
“And now you have organized crime that’s taken hold of things and...
USA: Bill to combat human trafficking, focusing on...
OLYMPIA, Washington, USA by Washington State Legislators (2/27/12) — The Washington State House of Representatives passed a bipartisan anti-trafficking bill to keep minors from being exploited through online ads for escort services such as Backpage.com. Having already passed the Senate, the bill now goes to the governor for her signature.
Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles (Democrat-Seattle), prime...
“In the 19th century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the 20th...”
– NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF (1959-present): American journalist, author of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, Opinion-Editor columnist for New York Times since 2001, and a winner of two Pulitzer Prizes
USA: Letter-Human Trafficking Hits the Super Bowl
NORWALK, Connecticut, USA by Carly Cordovano of The Daily Easton (1/30/12) –- The number of human-trafficking cases increases significantly in cities that host major sporting events such as the World Cup and the Olympics, according to children’s rights advocates and law enforcement officials. In the weeks leading up to the 2010 World Cup, 40,000 sex workers were taken to South Africa, and...
KENYA: Tackling underage sex work in Nyanza's gold...
NYATIKE, Kenya by IRIN of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2/7/12) — Inside a smoky makeshift kiosk, Julie*, 16, can hardly cope with the demand from her clients for a cup of tea and a snack - the men are parched from their work as gold miners in the western Kenyan district of Nyatike. The money Julie makes from the kiosk is not sufficient, so she supplements it by...
USA: Texas Officials Remove 11 Children from Home...
HOUSTON, Texas, USA by Molly Hennessey-Fiske of Los Angeles Times (2/22/12)— Texas authorities have removed 11 children from the home of a registered sex offender after they found many confined, some tied to their beds.
At least 10 adults were living in the one-story, 1,700-square-foot home in the rural ranch and rice farming town of Dayton, about 30 miles northeast of Houston,...
USA: Sex And The Super Bowl: Indianapolis Puts...
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, USA by Meghan Casserly of Forbes (2/2/12) — Over 1,000 listings were posted this week on Backpage.com in Indianapolis, advertising “young,” “curvy” women and girls for in-calls and out-calls, “un-rushed” body rubs and “total” satisfaction. Of that number nearly a quarter reference the Super Bowl.
“Welcome football fans! Brown eyed cutie at your service!” they cry....
FRANCE: Strauss-Kahn questioned over suspected...
LILLE, France by Los Angeles Times via Associated Press (2/21/12) — Police are probing a suspected prostitution ring in France and neighboring Belgium that has implicated police and other officials. They have questioned prostitutes who said they had sex with Strauss-Kahn during 2010 and 2011.
Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is being questioned Tuesday by...
“The first time he had taken the massa to one of these “high-falutin’...”
– ALEX HALEY (1921-1992): American author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and The Autobiography of Malcolm X
USA: 'Pimp in action' is out of action — gets...
SEATTLE, Washington, USA by Sara Jean Green of The Seattle Times (4/28/11) — King County Superior Court Judge Beth Andrus had just handed down a 20-year prison sentence Thursday for convicted pimp Anthony “Mack” Terry when the courtroom phone rang.
On the line was the teenage victim Terry had pimped out and later asked to lie for him in a series of recorded phone calls he made...
“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye...”
– THEODORE PARKER (1810-1860): Minister, scholar, and socially active transcendentalist
USA: Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore Launch 'Real...
USA by Lucas Kavner of The Huffington Post (4/11/11) — The Demi and Ashton Foundation (DNA), founded by Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, launches its “Real Men Don’t Buy Girls” interactive video campaign this week, aiming to educate the public about child sex slavery in the United States.
Kutcher became interested in the issue after stumbling across a “Dateline”...
“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of...”
– ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1809-1865), USA’s 16th President, led victory in American Civil War + signed historic Emancipation Proclamation
CANADA: Third in human trafficking ring pleads...
HAMILTON, Ontario, Canada by Nicole O’Reilly of The Hamilton Spectator (2/17/12) — At least three victims of a Hungary to Hamilton human trafficking ring could have been spared had police and immigration officials prevented a wanted criminal from staying in Canada, says the case’s lead prosecutor.
“This was completely preventable if authorities had done what they were supposed to do,” said...
“I strongly believe that love is the answer and that it can mend even the deepest...”
– SOMALY MAM (born 1970 or ‘71): Cambodian sex trafficking survivor, human rights advocate + author of The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine
USA: Seattle Teen missing 2+ years now after...
SEATTLE, Washington, USA by Susan Kelleher of The Seattle Times (12/20/10) — Kelsey Collins was 16 when she fell silly in love with a loser.
It was bound to happen. For all of her street toughness, Kelsey was naive, the kind of kid who would accept a ride from a stranger with only a vague sense that bad things could happen.
Being young, she fell for an older boy who was plenty nice at...
“You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.”
– BOOKER T. WASHINGTON (1856-1915): African-American ex-slave, educator, author, orator + political leader