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

Iranian Clerics Protest Election Results

By VOA News 05 July 2009 A group of leading Iranian clerics has criticized the results of the country's disputed presidential election. In a statement released Sunday, clerics from the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom said Iran's official electoral watchdog, the Guardian Council, failed to adequately investigate claims of vote rigging by the opposition. The pro-reform group questioned whether the Council's validation is enough to legitimize the vote. Last week, the 12-member Council upheld the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I ranian reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi during a press conference after polls closed in Tehran, 12 June 2009 Defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has criticized the outcome. In a 24-page report posted to his Web site Saturday, Mr. Mousavi accuses supporters of Mr. Ahmadinejad of handing out cash to voters in the run-up to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Military chief promotes 35 generals

Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Djoko Santoso has promoted 35 generals, consisting of 16 army generals, 11 navy admirals and 8 air force marshals. “It is expected that this time promotion will further enhance and improve the military performance so that we could give out the best output,” he said on Friday. Among those generals who receive the promotion is Rear Adm. Gunadi who is now posted as inspector general at the Defense Ministry, Maj. Gen. Langgeng Sulistyono, who is now posted as Diponegoro Military Commander and Rear Marshal Agus Dwi Putranto, who is installed as Abdulrahman Saleh Air Force Base Commander.
Post a Comment
Read more

Chinese

Identifying someone in Indonesia as a member of the Chinese ( orang Tionghoa ) ethnic group is not an easy matter, because physical characteristics, language, name, geographical location, and life-style of Chinese Indonesians are not always distinct from those of the rest of the population. Census figures do not record Chinese as a special group, and there are no simple racial criteria for membership in this group. There are some people who are considered Chinese by themselves and others, despite generations of intermarriage with the local population, resulting in offspring who are less than one-quarter Chinese in ancestry. On the other hand, there are some people who by ancestry could be considered halfChinese or more, but who regard themselves as fully Indonesian. Furthermore, many people who identify themselves as Chinese Indonesians cannot read or write the Chinese language. Alth...
Post a Comment
Read more