'Human trafficking is a $32 billion worldwide business'

[Doondoo]

Afsana Khatun, a 15-year-old Muslim girl from Kolkata's Kidderpore area, has never met 13-year-old Rakesh who works for 18 hours in a Punjab village like a slave after he was trafficked from his native village in Bihar. But on Sunday, Afsana will march with thousands of others from Kolkata so that Rakesh and other boys and girls of his age who are trafficked every day are not enslaved in a stone quarry or a red light area forever.

'I will walk because of other children of my age who are forced into hard labour or prostitution. Even in my area I work to stop trafficking. I will raise my voice against this evil,' said Afsana, who works with Apne Aap Women's Worldwide here.

'Trafficking is a $32 billion business worldwide, especially of women forced into prostitution. Of this about $12 to $14 billion is a turnover from child trafficking,' said Kailash Satyarthi, chairperson of Global March Against Child Labour and founder of the BBA (Bachpan Bachao Andolan), organisers of the South Asian March Against Child Trafficking.

Organised by BBA and a host of other non-government organisations, the march will end in New Delhi March 22 after nearly a 25-day-long campaign to sensitise people about child trafficking, especially of girls who are forced into prostitution.

.......

'The march is important because as we live smug in our own world boys and girls are being trafficked. There has to be a mental and attitudinal shift in all of us about the issue of trafficking. My public domain may be acting but that is only one-third of me. We all have to chip in with our bit by either writing or talking about it or stopping in our homes,' said actor and social activist Nandita Das.

'It is an extremely connected issue. I was watching a news report on TV the other day where a small girl was being forced to marry while the media person was filming the whole thing. I was shocked. We cannot live in islands and have to think about these and do something,' Nandita told IANS.


http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/33918.html

[Missy M]

1. Yet this is the country so many US companies are outsourcing...

our jobs to. Why is Bush not rallying against these practices?

[ohio2007]

2. India is "raising girls on farms" like chickens.

Orphaned girls are being harvested from the public and placed in "orphanages".

Gives a whole new meaning to "Child Labor"

[Trillo]

3. Apparantly, U.S. citizens are also exploited for their labor.

Their future labor is borrowed against by the government, it starts with a certificte of birth, which goes to the commerce department, then is used as collateral to borrow from the Federal Reserve.

Citizens don't see one dime from the proceeds, they are "owned" by some private entity somewhere. The certificate of birth reportedly brings 600K - $1 Million.

The child labor and prostitution spoken of in the Original Post are perhaps less hidden types of ownership.

[sam sarrha]

4. Slavery is addressed in the Koran, how to treat slaves. There are open slave markets in Senigal that

sell children..

Google: Islam and slavery

[rman]

7. Also addressed in the Bible

Exodus 21:7
Leviticus 25:44

[sam sarrha]

10. the Christians are not actually still owning, acquiring and selling them

[oblivious]

11. Yet the main destination countries for trafficked persons are non-Muslim (except Turkey)

The worst in West Europe are Belgium, Germany, Greece, Holland and Italy.

The worst in Western Asia are Israel and Turkey.

The worst in Eastern Asia is Japan.

The worst in SE Asia is Thailand.

The worst in the Americas is the US.

page 63: Trafficking in people: Global patterns (UN Office on Drugs and Crime)
http://www.unodc.org/pdf/traffickinginpersons_report_2006ver2.pdf

Japan among worst human trafficking offenders: rights group
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0XPQ/is_2002_June_10/ai_87057074


'Israel among worst human traffickers'
Apr. 25, 2006 23:47 | Updated Apr. 26, 2006 5:54
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.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961226614&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. I wouldn't consider myself a violent person, however, I do believe

that death by stoning is appropriate wherever anyone takes young children and with the intention of prostituting them.

[hogwyld]

6. I shudder to think what will happen

When China's 30+ million single men come of age. And people claim we are a "civilized" species....

[ohio2007]

8. But the cultural revolution of the 1960's was 40 years ago

And the one child family is already in their 20'30's... some may even be entering mid life crises.

Make s you wonder if North Korean women will no longer be looked down upon as "dirty and inferior" if they could start flooding into China.

[hogwyld]

9. Sure the Cultural revolution was 40 years ago

But the one child policy didn't come into effect until 1979 and continues to this day. With the preference for male children, the imbalance will get even worse.