Fact: Children Trafficked to Sell Flowers and Beg in Thailand

   
In an impoverished town in Thailand near the border with Myanmar, a trafficker offered a desperate Burmese widow 5,000 baht (US$160) on the spot, followed by an additional 4,000 baht ($120) per month for two of her 10 children to sell flowers in the Thai capital, Bangkok. The rent-a-child deal was to last three months, after which the boys would return home.

     But the deadline passed and the monthly payments stopped. After another three months the older brother, 10-year-old Ongsi, ran away and managed to make his way home to tell his mother they had to return to the capital to rescue 8-year-old Siyathon from a life of late-night flower selling and beatings.
   
Their case is not unusual. Across the city of more than 10 million, little Burmese vendors sell flowers and Cambodian children beg money from motorists, tourists and bar crawlers.

    “Most of these children are not Thai,” said Witanapat Rutanavaleepong, who manages the Stop Child Begging project for the Mirror Foundation, a leading Thai NGO that has become a focal point for child trafficking.

     He estimates there are at least 1,000 child beggars and flower sellers working in cities and tourist spots around the country. Since he began working with the Mirror Foundation two years ago, Witanapat has come across only one case involving three Thai children, although he handles up to 30 cases a month. The problem remains intractable in the capital.

   “Thailand has a problem with child begging that is hard to solve because the authorities do not see it as a problem that affects their [the children’s] future or society,” Witanapat said. “They see them as only child beggars, but the girls and some boys often go on to become sex workers, and the boys often become traffickers themselves.”

Modern Slavery News Round-Up

U.N., U.S. Call for Investigations into Thai Trafficking of Rohingya
Following a Reuters report of Thai involvement in the transport of Myanmar refugees into human trafficking organizations, the United Nations and the United States demand investigations of the situation. The plight of the Rohingya, a Muslim people residing in Myanmar but not recognized as citizens, has remained largely unnoticed by the international community until recently. Clashes between the Rohingya and the ethnic Rakhine Buddhists have placed the former in an extremely vulnerable position and their attempts to flee to a safer location have made them the perfect target for established trafficking rings.

Russia Launches Criminal Inquiry into U.S. Child Exchanges
Russia’s Investigative Committee has indicated that it is looking into whether Russian children adopted by American families were illegally trafficked in the United States. The probe comes in response to a Reuters series that showed how U.S. parents have used Internet bulletin boards on Yahoo and Facebook to offload children they adopted but no longer want.

Human Trafficking Bill Aims to Save More Children
The Strengthening the Child Welfare Response to Human Trafficking Act, sponsored by Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was introduced in the U.S. Senate this past Friday, December 13, and would help develop a uniform treatment toward minors who are victims of human trafficking or at-risk for being targeted by traffickers. The bill would also help officials understand the scope of the problem.

Modern Slavery News Round-Up

Myanmar military releases 42 more child soldiers
Myanmar authorities released 42 more child soldiers from the armed forces [last] Monday, a move to further end recruitment of under-age children in the armed forces, reported Xinhua, citing local media. The 42 children, who are from across the country;s regions and states, were handed over to their parents in the presence of officials of the ministry of social welfare. The move came after an agreement was signed between Myanmar government and the United Nations in late June on prevention of further recruitment and use of under-age children in the armed forces.

Opinion: Anti-slavery law needs saving

With the upcoming elections, you can't turn on the television without seeing a negative campaign ad or heated news segment giving Americans a glimpse of the political divisions that currently exist in out country. While politicians argue over our future government, we lose sight of how the actions of our current government are impacting the lives of real people right now, like the millions of enslaved men, women and children in the U.S. and around the world at risk if Congress fails to pass the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act by the end of the year.

NY taxi drivers get sex trafficking lesson
New York City taxi drivers will soon not just be taking passengers around the city, they're being asked to help spot potential sex trafficking victims. Under a new city law, drivers should be on the lookout for clues that a passenger is a victim of a sex trafficking activity.In a little under three months the law will kick into effect, and drivers will be required to alert authorities if they see suspicious situations in their cabs which may cause them to believe there is a trafficking victim in the backseat. The city plans to run a training course for the drivers of taxis and private cars for hire. A video is planned to teach what to look for.


A Move That Could Help Reduce Child Labor
Campaigners for the abolition of child labor in India welcomed a Cabinet decision Tuesday which would ban the employment of children under the age of 14. The government's ministers called on Parliament to pass an amendment to the Child Labour Act 1986, a law which, until now, has allowed children below 14 to be involved in "non-hazardous" work. The amendment, if passed, would impose a maximum three-year jail term and 50,000-rupee fine for anyone employing a child under the age of 14 in any kind of work or engaging under-18s in hazardous work. The change would be the most significant development in India's child labor laws since the introduction of a partial ban in 1986, according to activists working for an end to the practice.

Fair Food Program helps end the use of slavery in the tomato fields
Since 1997, the Justice Department has prosecutes seven cases of slavery in the Florida agricultural industry - four involving tomato harvesters - freeing more than 1,000 men and women. The stories are a catalogue of horrors: abductions, pistol whippings, confinement at gunpoint, debt bondage and starvation wages. Thankfully, those enslaved workers may be among the last found in Florida's tomato fields. Today, virtually all Florida tomato growers have joined the Fair Food Program, which includes a code of conduct outlawing debt bondage and requiring human conditions of labor and a more livable wage. Shade stations, toilets and drinking water are appearing in the fields, and educators are spreading word about the code to the harvesters.