Two victims of human trafficking have disappeared from a shelter in South West Florida. Officials and NGOs are concerned for the safety of the 13 year old and 23 year old. The woman and child were rescued from forced prostitution when a man noticed one of them crying as they walked down the main street of Immokalee, Florida. They claimed that they had been taken across the border from Mexico and promised a job picking berries, but then had been forced into prostitution. The police would not confirm or deny whether the woman and girl had disappeared, but Anna Rodriguez of founder of the Florida Coalition against Human Trafficking said that she was concerned for the victims;
“My concern is where are the girls? We have a 13-year-old. My concern is are the girls back with the traffickers?” she asked. “If the girls are back with the traffickers, these girls could be tortured or punished.”
Law enforcers must gain victims’ trust so they don’t flee once authorities leave, she said. “Their instinct is to escape. Traffickers are constantly telling victims law enforcement is evil. They have that coaching that comes from the traffickers,” she said. “That’s why it is so important to go to your (nonprofit groups) to make sure when you place them at a shelter, they’re already comfortable with you.”

The United Nations has again emphasised that the problem of human trafficking is getting worse. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, speaking at an Asia-Pacific human rights conference in Beijing said that “By its very nature, it constitutes an acute violation of human rights and reports today suggest that more people are being trafficked than ever before,” The International Labour organisation estimates that more than 2 million people are trafficked every year. “No country or region is immune,” UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman said. “Children are forced into prostitution, begging and soliciting, labour on plantations and in mines, markets, factories and domestic work.”
China has a large scale human trafficking problem with women being kidnapped and sold into forced marriages as well as women and children being sold into prostitution and forced labour. Security was tight around the conference and, when questioned on the Chinese human rights record, Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan kept to the usual line “Every country should choose its own way to protect human rights according to its national situation,”
Human trafficking can only be fought properly when human rights are respected.

According to the Zimbabwe Standard newspaper, since the government’s crackdown on cross border trading, women have been forced to turn instead to cross border prostitution. In the past women have traded groundnuts, sweet potatoes and other items, but since “Operation Murambatswina” tried to end this practise in order to stop foreign exchange leakages, women have been forced into the sex trade. This has coincided with a number of poor harvests which have left traders with little to sell and increasing opposition from the government. Many women have been crossing the border to spend time as prostitutes in Botswana.
”The type of accommodation they use is evidence enough that these people are making a lot of money. They are dealing with businessmen and other well-to-do people,” said one cross border trader.
The problem arises, however, that when women are crossing borders while attempting to avoid the attention of the authorities, they become increasingly vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers. If they are abused they will be unable to turn to government officials to help them, and so they will be forced to keep quiet. In addition to this, if there is an increase in cross border prostitution between Zimbabwe and Botswana it could lead to traffickers capitalising on this and trafficking women into unwilling prostitution

Three women have been arrested on charges of human trafficking in New England, USA. The forced prostitution of a girl who was aged 13 is alleged to have begun in October 2000 and continued until September 2002. The indictment alleges the women “took some or all of the minor’s earnings from prostitution,” for acts that took place in Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. The three accused were aware that the girl was registered missing with the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children and had appeared on one of their posters. The accused even rang the Centre to tell them that she was safe and well, whilst allegedly continuing to prostitute her. If convicted the three women could face up to 20 years in prison.

UNIFEM, which is the United Nations organisation championing women ’s rights, has said that there are inadequate funds to meet the challenges of ending violence against women, despite the rights and welfare of women being key to the success of the 2015 Millennium goals to end extreme poverty. At the moment UNFEM can only fund one out of every fifteen schemes it considers worthy of funding. This includes fighting against human trafficking as women and girls are the main victims of this crime.
The strategic priorities of UNIFEM include giving women full rights to own land and property, providing them decent employment, including in the informal sector, and ending violence which, “already horrific in times of peace, intensifies during armed conflict, with sexual violence now routinely used as a weapon of war.”
UNIFEM has called for more funds to be allocated to this cause which will address many of the root causes of human trafficking.