Modern Slavery News Round-up

9 Investigates teenager sex trafficking
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Channel 9 has done several stories about central Florida’s growing human sex trafficking problem. A recent study showed one out of every 12 teens who was given the assessment was a victim of human trafficking. DCF told Welch that local teens of every race and background are being recruited. The experts said parents need to monitor who their children talk to online. They should also be on the lookout for suspicious tattoos because pimps often brand their girls with tattoos.

Number of children being sex trafficked soars
The number of British children being trafficked for sexual exploitation has more than doubled over the last year, according to official figures. Police forces, charities and immigration officials identified 50 young British girls and 6 boys being trafficked in order to be abused as part of the sex industry. The figures represent a 155 per cent increase on the previous year but are thought to be just the tip of the iceberg as much of the problem remains desperately under reported.

Florida ranks 3rd in calls to human trafficking hotline
Jacksonville University professor Nathan Rousseau and local attorney Crystal Freed, are organizing a series of events with Jacksonville University, Artworks For Freedom and other organizations to be held around the area, which aim to bring awareness to the issue. Rousseau said millions of people are caught in the trap of human trafficking -- often kids and women held against their will, sometimes only freed by their own deaths. According to the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking, about 2.5 million people are enslaved at any given time by human trafficking and more than 9 out of 10 people suffer from physical or sexual violence.

Artist in residence explores human trafficking in U.S.
Albion College’s Artist in Residence Lea Bult sets the record straight about human trafficking in the U.S. Her “Out of Sight” exhibition promotes public awareness of the horrific prevalence of such modern-day slavery. The gallery features unassuming landscapes such as parking lots, factories and even a massage parlor. Bult often includes a truck or van in these images
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Rights group: Egypt turns blind eye to human trafficking in Sinai
CAIRO -- Scarred, terrified and systematically tortured, the victims of human traffickers in the Sinai peninsula have been largely abandoned to their fate by Egyptian authorities, a leading human rights group alleged in a report released Tuesday. The report by New York-based Human Rights Watch details a brutal extortion racket in which victims, most of them would-be migrants from Eritrea in the Horn of Africa, are beaten, burned and mutilated by smugglers while their anguished relatives – contacted by mobile phone – are forced to listen to their screams.

Modern Slavery News Round-Up

WWII-era "comfort women" seek apology
Filipina women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during World War II, otherwise known as "comfort women," are seeking an apology from the Japanese government and a place in the history books of Japan and the Philippines. "Many lost their minds, many died, and many did not recover from fear," said Lita Vinuya, 81. "Look how well Japan has recovered since the war. Surley, they can afford to spare us a little bit of compensation."

India to punish employment of children under 14
Proposed changes to India's child labor laws would mate out prison terms of up to three years, in addition to substantial fines, to anyone who employs children under 14. About 28 million children under 14 are working, chiefly in agriculture, according to UNICEF. the government has "recognized that the long term benefits of education are far more consequential than the short-term gains of child labor," said A.K. Shiva Kumar, an economist with the National Advisory Council.

 Human Trafficking: a misunderstood global scourge

 Sex trafficking has become an American cause célèbre. But does it divert attention from the broader human trafficking issue of modern-day slavery? During a diplomatic visit to Calcutta, India, in may, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stopped at a shelter for young women and girls. It was not an ordinary shelter, but one with a specific mission - a mission Ms. Clinton wanted reporters to broadcast to Americans back home. It was a shelter established to help human trafficking, an international crime that Clinton and other international players have  called one of the world's largest and most pressing human rights concerns. It was also, primarily, helping girls who'd been trafficked for sex.

People Speak: Victim pushes for stricter human trafficking penalties

"I was constantly at risk of rape or murder," says Leah Albright-Byrd while walking in a public park near Century City in Los Angeles. "I have a friend who was killed as a result of being exploited." When she was in eighth grade, Leah started living on the streets in Sacramento, California. She quickly became a victim of what law enforcement officials now call "human trafficking." "It was a very traumatizing experience," she says. "I ran away from home at the age of 14." Almost immediately, she says, a pimp found her and began selling her for sex on the Internet throughout the state of California.

Rights group  calls on Egypt to combat  human trafficking

In new report, Human Rights Watch calls on President Morsi to combat human trafficking in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, calls Sub-Saharan African migrants main victims. Ina report entitled 'Egypt: End Sinai Nightmare for Migrants,' HRW highlights the plight of African migrants, especially Eritreans who are often detained by human-trafficking networks while on their way to next-door Israel. Human Rights Watch has documented the trafficking of the mostly sub-Saharan migrants and human seekers in Sinai, who are tortured and sexually assaulted to press their relatives for ransom," the report reads.

Four face human trafficking charges

Four men face human trafficking charges after allegedly trying to smuggle an American family Canada. Police say Emmaneal Stanley Omoghan, Felix Omoghan, Seth Lazore and Oren Lazore snuck five people then taken aboard a boat and skipped across the St. Lawrence River. Two adults and three children were said to be on board.

Rampant trafficking of OFWs in Syria uncovered

The government's repatriation program for overseas workers in strife-torn Syria has uncovered rampant cases of human trafficking. The Inter-Agency Council Against (Iacat) said about 80 percent of the 1,800 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) brought home from the MIddle East country as the civil war there heightened were victims of human trafficking. Most of them were from the provinces of Maguinadanao, Basilian and Sulu in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Ruby Ramores, Iacat executive officer, said.

Former MS-13 Leader Pleads Guilty to Sex Trafficking a Teenage Girl

A former clique leader of MS-13 in Maryland pled guilty today for his role in a gang-run juvenile prostitution ring. Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Washington Field Office; and John P. Torres, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Washington made the announcement after the plea was accepted by United States District Judge Anthony J. Trenga.