Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Facility Question and Answers

OFF topic thread.. Human trafficking.

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Che Gookin:
See now that wasn't so bad was it?

I told you in PM about what I saw in China. In Guangzhou I saw numerous white couples with Chinese babies. Someone told me later that China is one of the world's largest sources for adopted babies. I wonder how often these babies are given up voluntarily by their parents. Given the amount of money involved I tend to doubt that it is all that voluntary. A baby easily goes for over 45,000 dollars and I bet that even the best of circumstances the mother will ever see a nickle of that money.

TheWho:
China and Russia I think are the largest adoption pools.  The mothers gets zero money.  They turn the child over to the baby house in return for a guarantee the baby will be fed and treated well and end up with a good western family.  It is becoming more and more important that these countries set up a program to track these children that are being adopted and require 6 and 12 month reports from the parents on how the child is doing along with photographs and visits from local agencies, which many do now.  But like you probably know, TSW, if you know someone in country you don’t need an agencies and the boarders are not that secure.
If you have a biological son or daughter who needs a new kidney or heart transplant $30,000 to 45,000 doesn’t seem like a lot of money…..  beats being put on a 3 -5 year waiting list right?

Che Gookin:
Most of Asia comes to mind when you bring that up, but what have you specifically seen yourself? I've thrown out a few personal examples. I discussed another one in the "ban" box as you call it with Froderick.

As far as the adoption deal with China goes I have my suspicions that these are done on the up and up. Given that so much money is trading hands to make it happens the potential for corruption is way to obvious for me. On top of this it is Asia we are talking about. Asia practically wrote the book on corruption. Back when we were running around Europe trying to use both hands to find our Arses the Chinese had an established government system a good 2000 years or more before we even did. With that they had corruption on epidemic levels.

With the loose borders, money, and remote villages with poor communications I see the real obvious likelyhood that babies are being stolen right out of their cribs.

In fact I saw an article about that exact same thing happening down in south america.

Ursus:
Associated Press
Prosecutors: Afghan girl enslaved in Seattle area
By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
Fri Oct 17, 2008

SEATTLE – Five Seattle-area immigrants from Afghanistan enslaved a teenage girl they brought to the U.S., with some forcing her to do chores and one — her 37-year-old husband — beating and sexually assaulting her, according to a federal indictment unsealed this week.

The girl is from an impoverished single-parent home in Afghanistan, and she was informally adopted by another family there that forced her to marry at age 13 in 2005, Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office, said Thursday. The girl's husband is Mohammad Atahee, a friend of the adoptive family; U.S. officials don't recognize the marriage.

Atahee and three of the family's members were already living in the south Seattle suburbs when the girl's adoptive mother, Nasima Yousuf, 70, brought her to the United States in 2006, as part of what prosecutors say was a plot to enslave her. Yousuf's husband, Mohammad, 84, had filed an immigration petition to bring the girl to the U.S., claiming his wife was her biological mother.

Once in the country, the indictment said, the girl, identified only as JV1, was forced to live with Atahee, who beat her and sexually assaulted her. She was forced to spend at least three days a week at the Auburn home of Maruf Yousufi, 42, and his wife, Nahid, 29 — caring for their children, doing laundry, cooking and cleaning. Maruf Yousufi is Mohammad Yousuf's son.

The girl escaped after some good Samaritans helped her report Atahee to the police in January 2008 for sexual assault, prosecutors said. Since then, she's been at a safe house, but they won't say where.

She also called police in August 2006 to report her case, but Nahid Yousufi threatened her and persuaded her to recant the allegations, the indictment said.

All five defendants are charged in U.S. District Court with one count of conspiracy to engage in forced labor, and the Yousufs also face a visa fraud charge for allegedly lying on immigration applications.

Atahee and Mohammad Yousuf pleaded not guilty, while the others did not enter pleas during their initial court appearances Wednesday. Atahee and the Yousufis were detained pending further hearings, while the Yousufs were released pending trial, set for Dec. 23.

Several of their lawyers did not return calls Thursday or said they could not comment. Ralph Hurvitz, who represents Mohammad Yousuf, said he didn't know anything about the case beyond what the indictment said, and that his client doesn't speak English.

All the defendants have legal status in the U.S., Langlie said. The girl, however, does not, because of the Yousufs' alleged lies on immigration applications. She could stay in the country by obtaining a visa for victims of human trafficking.

Ursus:
This from Scott Henson's great Texas Justice blog, Grits for Breakfast:

—•?|•?•0•?•|?•— —•?|•?•0•?•|?•— —•?|•?•0•?•|?•—

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2008
Human trafficking is fallout from failed immigration policies

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and State Senator Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio) held a press conference this week (see the video) to unveil a new AG office report on the subject of "human trafficking" (link here - pdf).

In Texas' context, human trafficking is mostly an unintended consequence of pointlessly restrictive immigration policies that forbid workers from entering the United States legally to work. When wannabe immigrants can't obtain official approval or else pay the ever increasing fees charged by coyotes (immigrant smugglers), not infrequently they'll agree to what's basically a form of indentured servitude or debt peonage to pay off the fee that, once they get to the United States, can morph into what the AG's report referred to as "modern day slavery." According to the report:

Texas is considered a major hub for human trafficking into the U.S. According to recent estimates, one out of every five U.S. trafficking victims travels through Texas along Interstate 10. Nearly 20 percent of human trafficking victims found nationwide have been in Texas. The DOJ Report on Activities to Combat Human Trafficking, Fiscal Years 2001-2005 included El Paso and Houston in its list of “most intense trafficking jurisdictions in the country.”
Sen. Van de Putte said that international agencies now consider human trafficking the second largest global criminal enterprise behind drug smuggling, tied with illegal arms smuggling. Moreover, she said, of the three it's the fastest growing.

Most of the recommendations in the report involve more training for police and others in the justice system and more data gathering and analysis, but they also suggested a couple of expansions of new criminal statutes passed last session, in particular making "commercial sexual exploitation of a person less than 18 years of age as a per se violation of the human trafficking statute," and also to "Define and criminalize child sex tourism.'” (That last one's a headscratcher ... was anybody out there claiming "child sex tourism" is legal?)

In addition to the AG's report, the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee had an interim charge on human trafficking, but they held that hearing outside of Austin and no video or audio was ever made available online. We'll get a sense of their analysis, and whether it differs from General Abbott, when they release their interim report sometime before the legislative session begins.

See MSM coverage here, here, here, and here, and a related blog post from the national ACLU. Sen. Van de Putte's bill on the subject is SB 89, for those interested the details of her proposals.

Posted by Gritsforbreakfast at 4:13 PM
Labels: Attorney General, Immigration, Prostitution, Texas Legislature

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