Skip to main content

Asian Police Join to Combat Trafficking of Sex Slaves

By Phil Mercer
Sydney
27 June 2009



Like slaves on an auction block waiting to be selected, victims of human trafficking have to perform as they are told or risk being beaten (2005 file photo)
Like slaves on an auction block waiting to be selected, victims of human trafficking have to perform as they are told or risk being beaten (2005 file photo)
Police officials from across Asia meeting in Australia have decided to form unprecedented joint operations to combat the trafficking of sex slaves. Law enforcement experts say the trade in young women is far more organized than first thought.

Law enforcement officials from Australia, China, Indonesia other Asian nations have agreed to intensify their efforts to combat human trafficking.

Experts say many of the victims of human trafficking are sex slaves. Security officials meeting in Sydney agreed to launch new joint investigations to tackle this insidious trade.

Australian federal police commander Ramzi Jabbour believes organized criminal gangs are responsible for a large amount of trafficking.

He says he hopes the new spirit of regional cooperation will make a difference.





"By bringing together all the intelligence into a central point, we're able to potentially identify organizers or facilitators that are common amongst a variety of trafficking victims," said Jabbour.

"If we were working in isolation; the Malays working on their own, the Thais working on their own; they may never actually see the fact that one or two organizers are actually behind these criminal syndicates," he added.

Australian police officers have been posted throughout Asia and will increasingly work as liaisons with their regional neighbors.

There is no reliable information about the number of people trafficked into Australia each year, although various estimates put the figure at around 1,000.

Australian authorities have launched more than 270 investigations into alleged human trafficking since 2004, and the vast majority of cases - about 90 percent - have been about sexual slavery.

Human rights activists say many victims are duped or coerced into traveling to Australia to work as domestic servants, farm laborers, or other menial jobs.

Many are effectively held hostage because of the huge debts they often owe to criminal gangs.


source: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-27-voa26.cfm
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

US Stocks Surge to Highest Level of Year on Housing News

By Mil Arcega Washington 24 July 2009 The benchmark Dow Jones industrial average of the top US companies broke the 9,000 point mark Thursday on strong earnings reports and an improving housing picture. Wall Street extended its recent gains Thursday after a new housing report showed sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose at an annual pace of 3.6 percent in June. It was the third straight month of rising home sales. "The markets are reacting to the news today in the context of other things they've been seeing and reading in recent weeks, and that's that the economy does appear to have hit a bottom," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities. Investors reacted positively to earnings reports from Ford, Ebay, AT&T and higher sales of Apple's new iPhone. Resler says the positive earnings give a much needed confidence boost for the struggling U.S. economy. "I think...
Post a Comment
Read more

ASEAN pushes for resumption of N. Korea nuke talks

ASEAN and friends: Foreign Ministers from left, Vietnam's Pham Gia Khiem, South Korea's Kim Sung-hwan, Japan's Takeaki Matsumoto, Indonesia's Marty Natalegawa, and China's Yang Jiechi, hold hands during a group photo at the opening session of ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Thursday. (AP/Dita Alangkara) Associated Press, Nusa Dua | Thu, 07/21/2011 2:19 PM Foreign ministers from 10 Southeast Asian nations are calling for a speedy resumption of talks aimed at convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. China, the US, Japan, South Korea and Russia had been negotiating since 2003 to persuade Pyongyang to dismantle the program in exchange for aid and other concessions. The North pulled out of the talks about two years ago after being censured for launching a long-range rocket. It has indicated a willingness in recent months to return to the table. The 10-member Association of Southeast As...
Post a Comment
Read more