U.S. urges Turkey to step up fight against $150 billion illicit human trafficking industry

July 8, 2016 By administrator

Syrian refugee girls walk past past a public toilet as they go to kindergarten at a refugee camp in Osmaniye, Turkey, May 17, 2016 – REUTERS photo

The United States Department of State has released its 2016 report on Trafficking in Persons (TIP),

According to this year’s TIP report, Turkey stood out as a destination and transit country, rather than a source country, for sex trafficking and forced labor where most victims were from Central and South Asia, Eastern Europe, Syria and Morocco. It noted, however, that Turkish women and transgender persons were also vulnerable to trafficking, the latter also suffering from alleged discrimination by state authorities.

“We want to bring to the public’s attention the full nature and scope of the $150 billion illicit human trafficking industry,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in his statement published as part of the report, underlining there was “nothing inevitable about trafficking in human beings.”

The report underlined that displaced persons from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran were particularly vulnerable to trafficking in Turkey, especially as most of them lack legal access to the job market.

“Traffickers increasingly use psychological coercion, threats and debt bondage to compel victims into sex trafficking,” reports both from Turkey’s government and Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) noted, highlighting the importance of issuing work permits to refugees and asylum-seekers while acknowledging a January regulation which established a work permit regime for Syrians under the temporary protection regime.

“An increasing number of Syrian refugee children engage in street begging and also work in restaurants, textile factories, markets, mechanic or blacksmith shops and agriculture, at times acting as the breadwinners for their families; some are vulnerable to forced labor,” the report said, adding Syrian women and girls were vulnerable to sex trafficking, also those run by extremist groups.

“Some Syrian girls have been reportedly sold into marriages with Turkish men, in which they are highly vulnerable to domestic servitude or sex trafficking,” it stated.

According to the report, women who were forcefully married to extremist fighters were later compelled to join the ranks of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria.

Lebanon charges Saudi prince with drug trafficking

November 3, 2015 By administrator

A Saudi prince, who was arrested with two tonnes of amphetamines in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, has been charged with drug trafficking, a judicial source says.

The judicial source told AFP on Monday that Lebanese authorities “charged 10 people, including five arrested individuals — a Saudi prince and four Saudi nationals… with smuggling and selling the drug Captagon.”

The source also noted that the other five individuals are from Lebanon and Saudi Arabia and are still at large.

Saudi prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was arrested with four others at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on October 26, after security officials found two tonnes of pills branded as Captagon, which were due to be loaded onto a private jet.

The drugs were packed in 40 suitcases and the plane was to head to the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The judicial source also said that the case was sent to an investigative judge.

The Lebanese officials said they managed to foil the largest drug smuggling operation in Lebanon’s history.

The confiscated drugs are of the type mainly used by Takfiri militants in Syria.

Some other members of Saudi royal family have also faced legal problems in other countries, though they managed to escape prosecutions.

In September, Saudi prince Majed Abdulaziz Al-Saud was arrested at a compound near Beverly Hills in Los Angles on accusation of trying to force a worker to perform a sex act.

The 28-year-old Saudi prince, however, was freed later on a USD 300,000 bail. The US authorities later said they would not pursue the charge due to a lack of evidence.

Also in September, Saudi diplomat Majed Hassan Ashoor sparked outrage by leaving India without facing justice over alleged sex crimes. He was accused of involvement in the rape, assault, torture and starvation of two Nepalese women held captive for over three months.

In 2013, a Saudi princess was also accused of enslaving a Kenyan woman as a housemaid in her house in Los Angeles. Her charges were later dropped.

Source: presstv

US Ambassador: Armenia may become model in terms of combating trafficking

October 30, 2015 By administrator

YEREVAN. – Armenia may become a model for other countries in terms of the struggle against trafficking in persons, U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills said during the meeting of the council on fight against trafficking.

The meeting was chaired by Vice Prime Minister Vache Gabrielyan with the participation of the government officials, representatives of the international and local NGOs.

Leader of the team on fight against trafficking Vahram Kazhoyan presented the work carried out during the first six months of this year.

It was noted that a program to combat trafficking in 2016-18 will be submitted to the council in the near future. Vahram Kazhoyan noted that Armenia is the only regional country that got Tier I status in the State Department report for the third consecutive year. Similar success is also reflected in the annual report of the Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA)