Fact: Many Trafficked Women from Eastern Europe Have at least a High School Education

It is a common practice for many activists to promote access to education as the one certain way to pull vulnerable groups -such as women and young girls- from the constraints of repressive environments.  Education serves as an empowerment mechanism and provides needed skills and knowledge to climb out of poverty, suffering and inequality.However, it could only be effective if enough employment opportunities exist for the educated population to take advantage of.

As surprising as it might be for many, a large number of trafficked women from former socialist states in Eastern Europe have at least a high school education, and many even have college and university degrees or some kind of vocational training. Lack of education is not what makes them vulnerable; what increases the likelihood they will be exposed to the tactics of opportunistic traffickers are the economic decline and the high unemployment rate that have plagued their native countries following the break up of the Soviet Union. Unable to find channels for the acquired education and skills, many, especially women, make the difficult decision to leave family and friends behind to search salvation in foreign nations. Often, these women are aware of the risks associated with responding to various job advertisements promising easy money, but with no other options, they fall into the trap set by an elaborate system of recruiters and traffickers.  

Modern Slavery News Round-Up

Activist video targeting LRA's Kony goes viral
A 30-minute video called "KONY 2012" produced by activist group Invisible Children documenting the human rights abuses of Uganda's Joseph Kony has gone viral, racking up more than 50 million views in a week. The campaign to urge the arrest of the fugitive leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, a splinter group that is widely reviled for abducting children and forcing them to serve as soldiers, has attracted the interest of teenagers around the world and is getting attention on Facebook and Twitter.

LEBANON: Tussle over gender violence law
Proposed amendments to a draft law on gender violence in Lebanon have sparked demands from civil society organizations that parliament uphold an original draft criminalizing “honor crimes”, marital rape and other abuses. The original draft has been prepared since 2007 by a coalition of over 40 civil society organizations, and primarily aims to protect women from mental, physical and economic violence.

Man Behind Robot Camel Jockey's Turn Towards Child Education
Cases of child trafficking and abuse have dogged the sport of camel racing for years. As a result of this and the successful development of the robot jockey, the UAE banned the use of child labour in 2002. Suhail Al Zarooni, the 39-year-old Emirati behind the invention of the robot jockey, says "This is what I have always been against - child labour - and like I keep mentioning, the most important thing is education. I am sorry to say that a lot of countries misuse children...there were many stories of people taking kids from their families and of them falling from camels and getting badly injured or killed. This is wrong."

 

 

Modern Slavery News Round-Up

The business of human trafficking
Companies often use complex global procurement systems to deny their part in human trafficking but what can responsible businesses do to address the issue? Seven years ago, David Arkless took a call from the first lady of an African state. She wanted to know what his company was doing about human trafficking. His answer was blunt: "What human trafficking?" The question prompted him to investigate. The figures proved startling. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, more than 2.4 million people are being exploited by traffickers at any one time. Some campaign groups suggest the annual number of victims could be as high as 27 million.

Put an End to Blood Minerals
Imagine your 15-year-old daughter walking to the corner store to get a carton of milk. She has walked along this street nearly every day growing up. But this afternoon on the way home, a group of men pull her into the bushes. Each man takes a turn raping her, the last one with the barrel of his AK-47. Left bleeding and unable to walk, she takes shelter in the nearby forest. Why doesn’t she go home, you ask? She can’t. The rape is considered her fault. She is now disowned by her family. After surviving weeks on berries and sugar cane she is discovered by a man who thought he smelled a rotting corpse. But the stench is the result of a rape so brutal that the passageway between her vagina and anus broke down, becoming one gaping wound.

MYANMAR-THAILAND: Undocumented workers exploited post-floods
BANGKOK, 8 November 2011 (IRIN) - While the Burmese government has re-opened a key border checkpoint between Thailand and Myanmar to accommodate thousands of migrants fleeing Thailand's flooded factories, undocumented - and now unemployed - migrants face extortion and abuse as they try to return home, according to migrants and activists.

Zimbabwean girls struggle to access education
One-third of primary-school-aged girls and 67% of those at the secondary school level are unable to access education in Zimbabwe, according to a study from Plan International. Poverty, sexual abuse and child marriage are among the major factors adversely affecting school attendance for girls.

11,000 girls are recruited to promote India gender equality
Red Cross societies across the Indian state of Haryana are gearing up to train more than 11,000 predominately female college students to persuade parents not to abort fetuses shown to be girls. “These students will turn into parents in coming years, and we hope that they won’t forget the importance of girls. As parents, they will be in a position to make a change by deciding against gender bias,” said Syham Sunder, secretary of the Red Cross Society in the district of Yamunanagar.