Thousands of young Nigerian women are still being trafficked to Italy and other European countries. They are promised jobs abroad, but after being forced to undergo ceremonies at traditional shrines, which make them believe they will die or go mad if they escape, they are trafficked into prostitution. After paying around US$150 for illegal travel papers, they are then taken by traffickers to Europe. When they arrive they are told they have to pay back as much as US$50,000 and the only way to do this is by prostitution. If they do eventually buy their freedom, they are often denounced to the immigration authorities and deported since they are now no longer of use to the organised crime syndicates which are involved in the trafficking.
Henrietta Agun, chair of the anti-trafficking civil society coalition in Benin City, a city which has long been recognised as the centre of trafficking activities in Nigeria, admitted that there was a huge problem, but also said “Something must be done in the demand countries. If they didn’t ask for our girls, they wouldn’t sacrifice their lives.”
To read more on this and related subjects, please visit the International Herald Tribune by clicking here.

Bangka Belitung province in Indonesia has been named as a major destination for women being trafficked from other parts of the country. The province is the world’s biggest tin producing region, and has many opportunities for people from poorer regions to find work, but this also makes women vulnerable to being lured by false promises of employment and then forced into prostitution.
Head of the social affairs at the Pangkalpinang city administration, Radmidha Dawam said “People from different areas in Indonesia who fell victims of human trafficking were initially offered good jobs with good salaries but in the end they were forced into prostitution in pubs or red-light districts,”
Although permits have not been given to brothels in the city, there is a growing sex tade which is allegedly buying women from traffickers.
For more on this and related subjects, please visit Antara News by clicking here.

The High Court in Mumbai (Bombay), India,  has criticised the police for “inaction in curbing human trafficking and prostitution”. Justices J N Patel and R S Dalvi insisted that action had to be taken at police station level to make sure that girls were not being forced into prostitution. Justice Patel said “The court fails to understand why the police commissioner has not been monitoring the problem of human trafficking,”
The court was hearing a plea brought by an NGO asking for the reinvestigation of a case where nine girls rescued from forced prostitution in 2002 had disappeared.
The court instructed the Indian Central Bureau of Intelligence to submit an action plan for the enforcement of the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act.
To read more about this and related issues, please visit Indlaw.com by clicking here.

With the approach of the cricket world cup in Barbados in 2007, there are fears that there might be an upsurge in human trafficking in the country. Acting Director of the Bureau of Gender Affairs, John Hollingsworth, said that they were working to raise awareness of the issue, but at present had no research which documented the level of human trafficking which exists in the country. Hollingsworth said;

“We hear of instances that may be reported in the Press, (and) based on the circumstances that may be outlined, we could say that this seems like an incidence of trafficking. But to say an agency of Government or an NGO for that matter is to go out there and actually document cases of trafficking, that does not currently occur in Barbados. So we cannot even say what the numbers are, that we anticipate an increase or even categorically that there is human trafficking in Barbados”

It is extremely important that a clear picture of trafficking in Barbados is established if it is to be effectively combated during the cricket world cup. For more on this and related subjects, please visit The Barbados Advocate by clicking here.

Police have broken up an alleged human trafficking ring in American Samoa, a territory of the US. The ring is suspected of  promising jobs in a shop to young Chinese women who were then forced into prostitution in a nightclub in the town of Pago Pago. It is also alleged that the women were given forged visas to allow them to stay in the territory illegally. Two Chinese men have been arrested on suspicion of leading the gang, which may also be linked to Samoa and Fiji.
This is not the first major investigation into human trafficking in American Samoa. In June 2005 a garment factory owner in the territory was convicted of enslaving, starving and beating his employees. He was ordered to pay $1.8 million in restitution and sentenced to 40 years in jail.
Since then government reports have indicated that in both Samoa and American Samoa, airline and immigration officials might be colluding with traffickers.
For more on this and related subjects, please visit Radio New Zealand by clicking here.