European justice and interior ministers agreed yesterday to initiate a plan against human trafficking during the football World Cup. It has long been feared that thousands of women and children will be trafficked into forced prostitution during the world cup which starts on June 9^th. Austria’s Interior Minister Liese Prokop, whose country holds the EU presidency, said “It is very, very important for there to be awareness raising in this area, we cannot turn a blind eye,” There will be an awareness raising campaign and liaison officers who are able to speak different languages will be sent across EU countries to help police stop traffickers. Twenty-four hour hotlines will also be set up during the period of the world cup for people to report incidents of human trafficking.

FBI agents have arrested a man from Etowah, Tennessee as part of its investigation called “Innocence Lost”. Richard Lamar Gordon, and independent lorry driver, is accused of picking up two girls aged 14 and 15 years in Toledo, Ohio and selling them into prostitution in Dexter, Michigan. He is also accused of paying $100 to have sex with on of the children. The FBI claims that he conspired with another man and two other women to organise this child sex trafficking ring. This case highlights that child sex trafficking is not just something which happens across national borders but also happens within countries, even wealthy countries like the US. It also shows that while major organised crime gangs are often involved in human trafficking, it can also be run by smaller scale rings of only a few people, people living in ordinary communities such as Etowah, Tennessee. Gordon is now facing two counts of Sexual Trafficking of children and two counts of interstate transport of minors for prostitution, aiding and abetting. 

The US military issued a communication yesterday stating that it had ordered contractors in Iraq to stop breaking human trafficking laws while supplying staff to its bases and other areas. This follows a report in March which said that it was common practise to remove the passports from labourers to try to keep them in place. The US military employs thousands of people, often from South Asia, to do menial jobs on bases. There have been many complaints that workers had been offered jobs in the Gulf, then when their passports were taken from them they were forced to go to Iraq.
military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said.
“The rights to freedom of movement and quality living standards are serious issues; (the U.S. military in Iraq) takes a zero tolerance approach to any violation,” A military investigation has lead to a dead line being given to contractors to return passports by May 5^th. The US military has not stated whether contactors who have trafficked human beings will now be prosecuted. It is necessary to see such prosecutions to send a clear message to traffickers around the world. 

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime published today its first global report on human trafficking, with the conclusion that this is a global problem leaving virtually no country untouched.
“It is extremely difficult to establish how many victims there are world-wide as the level of reporting varies considerably, but the number certainly runs into millions,” said UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa. “It is difficult to name a country that is not affected in some way.”
The report lists 127 countries of origin, 98 transit countries and 137 destination countries for victims of human trafficking, although some countries will act in more than one role, such as Nigeria which is a destination, transit and origin country, as well as a target for internal trafficking.
The UNODC said that lack of data on the crime was a major problem in developing adequate strategies to fight human trafficking.
“Our experience in compiling this report has been that some countries of destination have great difficulty in acknowledging the level of trafficking within and across their borders,” Mr Costa said.
“Efforts to counter trafficking have so far been uncoordinated and inefficient. The lack of systematic reporting by authorities is a real problem. Governments need to try harder.”
The UNODC challenged governments to reduce demand for trafficked people, to prosecute the traffickers and to protect the victims.

The Senate in the US State of Florida has passed new measures to toughen penalties against human traffickers who force people into slavery situations in industries ranging from agriculture to prostitution. The new laws are recognition of the growing problem of human trafficking in the state of Florida.
“Human trafficking has been one of the fastest-growing international crimes, and Florida is near the top here in the United States,” said Rep. Anne Gannon, D-Delray Beach, sponsor of the House version of this bill.
The bill aims to add racketeering to the list of human trafficking offences which would make it a first degree felony with a maximum prison sentence of 30 years, fines, forfeiture of property and the possibility of victims suing their traffickers for compensation. There will also be training for local law enforcement officers helping them to recognise the signs of human trafficking.
“The law has to be severe so people won’t do it,” said Margaret Romo of the Farmworkers Self-Help, a farm advocacy group based in Dade City. “People do it now because they can and they get away with it. You need to make the penalty so bad that they will never see sunlight again.”