According to CNN, traffickers are taking advantage of the current instability in Haiti to take children and organs out of the country. Many children have been orphaned and the massive displacement of people, in makeshift dwellings, make them extremely vulnerable:

Haiti is trying to locate displaced children and register them so they can either be reunited with other family members or put up for adoption, Bellerive said.
But, he said, illegal child trafficking is “one of the biggest problems that we have.”
Many groups appear to be legitimate, “but a lot of organizations — they come and they say there were children on the streets. They’re going to bring them to the [United] States,” he said.

(source: CNN.com and @STOPTHETRAFFIK, photo: United Nations)

The Guardian reports on the current state of life in Southern Sudan. While the SPLA are said to be disarming, peace is threatened from all sides by poverty, disease, interference from neighbouring territories, and the arrival of Uganda’s LRA. People are displaced and children are stolen and traded as commodities:

“We were coming home from school when some men came out of the bushes in torn clothes. They were calling and offering us soda. We were very scared so we ran,” said Susan Achan, 12.
Last month two of her friends were not so lucky. “We were picking mangoes,” said Sebit Quintino, 13. “We saw the men, they were Murle tribe, and we shouted to each other and ran, but three were playing in the water and didn’t hear. One of the boys turned up days later after managing to escape; the other two have never been seen again.”
The boys are traded for cattle and made to work, and the girls are also sold off for a dowry of cows.

(Source: The Guardian Online. Image: Finbarr O’Reilly/Reuters)

A recent report released by the US State Department reports an increase in Trafficking in Persons that correlates with the global financial crisis. It states that:

“A striking global demand for labor and a growing supply of workers willing to take ever greater risks for economic opportunities seem a recipe for increased forced labor cases of migrant workers and women in prostitution”

(Source: CNN)

As part of their recently launched Exit Campaign, MTV have released a documentary about Human Trafficking entitled “Inhuman Traffic” and narrated by Angelina Jolie. Here’s part 1:

The rest can be viewed here.

(Source: MTV Exit)

The South African Government has recently published a bill that will form the foundations of future legislation on Human Trafficking. Until now there has been no legislation specifically dealing with trafficking:

“human traffickers could only be charged with kidnapping, or, when relevant, assault and murder. Women and children are most vulnerable, most often being used in prostitution rackets… The bill provides for the prosecution of traffickers and appropriate sentences, the prevention of trafficking and the protection and assistance of victims. Courts will be given the power to order traffickers to pay compensation to their victims.”

The bill will be open for public comment until the 15th June. Click here (pdf) to download the bill and have your say…

(source: Independent Online, photo: Zoriah.net)

Six weeks after Stop the Traffik organized their March on Mars, the chocolate giant has committed to make incremental changes towards producing chocolate without slave labour. According to a recent update, Mars’ global range will be free from human trafficking by 2020:

As a first step, one of Mars’ leading brands, Galaxy bars, in the UK and Ireland, will be certified ‘from early 2010, through the Rainforest Alliance as, ‘free from trafficked and exploited labour’.

2020 seems a long way off, but this is still great news. Lets hope that more of these chocolate giants (Nestle, Kraft Foods) will join in this tide of change…

A select committee report released today insists that the UK Government, Judges and Police begin to take Trafficking in Persons more seriously:

“[law] enforcement is patchy, prosecution rates are low and there is little protection for victims. What we have is in effect a resurgence of a type of slave trade, yet we have no good information on the scale of the problem”

(via The Guardian, photo: Maurice)

She wakes at 4am and works until 7pm making rope at the side of the road in the fierce south Indian sun. She has no illusions about her situation. Her parents owe 35,000 rupees (£480), a debt that stretches back to before Vinothini was born and for which she has been offered as collateral.

He has been beaten badly by his boss four or five times in the past two years. He was traded for a loan of 5,000 rupees — about £70. “My father used the money to help build a house and to buy a TV,” he said.

(via The Times and @stopthetraffik, photo: Dhilung Kirat)

The vast flow of people across the Zimbabwe-South Africa border has reportedly increased the ease with which child trafficking gangs move their victims between the two countries. It is thought that these children are subjected to forced labor and sexual exploitation.

In mid-April 2009, during a spot check, police found two unaccompanied minors – boys aged about four and five – in a car en route to Johannesburg. “The woman at first said they were her children, but when I interviewed the children separately they said they did not know who she was”

(via The Zimbabwean Metro, photo: Sokwanele )

Ethical superstars Radiohead have donated a song to MTV’s Exit campaign, which attempts to address the issue of human trafficking. The video tells the story of two boys in different parts of the world, one slave, one free, and shows how their lives overlap.

(via B-Listed)