About a month ago, the International Justice Mission rescued six sex trafficking victims from a village in the Philippines. The International Justice Mission is a human rights agency which investigates international cases of abuse and violent forms of oppression such as sexual exploitation and slavery, working with the local government to provide relief for the victims, bring justice to the perpetrators, and work with the community to help reduce the occurrence of violent crimes in the future. They currently have 14 field offices located all over the world in countries such as Bolivia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Zambia, actively seeking to uphold and protect people’s basic human rights by personally bringing to an end gross violations of those rights. One of their more recent cases involved a city in the Philippines and a disco bar which was found to be a front for prostitution. A family of a young girl contacted the IJM staff, pleading with them to investigate their case and rescue their daughter who had been entrapped by sex traffickers while under the assumption she was to work in a canteen in Laoag City in the Philippines. IJM investigated the case and was able to rescue the family’s daughter along with five other sex trafficking victims from the bar, while also arresting three of the bar’s employees for their involvement in the crime.
This story can be found on the International Justice Mission website: http://www.ijm.org/newsfromthefield/sixtraffickingvictimsrescuedinphilippinesoperation
If you are at all interested in this organization, I urge you to look through the rest of their website. There are many other stories regarding their work, both past and present, and they provide a much better overview of their organization, their purpose, and their work on their website.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
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If you're interested in human trafficking, and if you spend much time on Twitter, I recommend following Vigilo. You'll get all sort of information on human rights, but especially on trafficking. Go to http://www.twitter.com/vigilo and follow for updates.
ReplyDeleteI have watched a documentary on sex trafficking in the Philippines and it was very eye opening. One of the main points that the documentary addressed was that sometimes there would be a 'leak' within the local police department that would tip off the location of all the details; including what girl, time, and any other plans of the raid. They also briefly showed the kinds of hiding places with the location for the girls to hide if a raid occurred. It also displayed the thoughts of the girls in the sex trafficking world and some of them were to scared to leave or simply did not want to. One family in particular had sold their daughter to them as a way to increase income. Strongly shows the idea that human rights are not everywhere and are not given to everyone. Thank for the post!
ReplyDeleteIf you are interested in activism related to trafficking, there is a group on UNL's campus you can connect with. Some information is provided at http://conferences.unl.edu/trafficking/University_of_Nebraska_Human_Trafficking_Team.pdf (this lists faculty participants in the group). You can also email Donna Akers at dakers2@unl.edu for meeting times. Another contact on campus that is always willing to discuss trafficking is Joy (Anchalee) Panigabutra-Roberts in Love Library and her email is aroberts4@unl.edu. Joy's blog also has a lot of really good information related to trafficking: http://joy2ern.wordpress.com/.
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