Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Belgium.htm
Belgium is a destination and transit country for men,
women, and girls trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial
sexual exploitation. Women and girls are trafficked to Belgium for sexual
exploitation primarily from Nigeria, Russia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, the
People’s Republic of China (PRC), and through Belgium to other European
countries, such as the United Kingdom. Male victims are trafficked to Belgium
for labor exploitation in restaurants, bars, sweatshops, horticulture, fruit
farms, and construction sites. - U.S.
State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June,
2009 Check out a later country report here or a full
TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of
particular interest to you. Would you
like to write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include possible precursors of trafficking such as poverty. There is a lot to the subject
of Trafficking. Scan other countries
as well. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. HELP for Victims For
Bruxelles : 02/511.64.64 ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Squalid road that
leads to Andrew Osborne in www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/jun/24/andrewosborn.theobserver [accessed 22 January
2011] It may be the
spiritual capital of the grand European project but, according to a damning
new report, ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Belgium U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/belgium/
[accessed 11 May
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Instances of forced
and compulsory labor included men who were forced to work in restaurants,
bars, sweatshops, horticulture, fruit farms, construction, cleaning
businesses, and retail shops. Men and women were subjected to forced domestic
service, including in the diplomatic community. Forced begging continued,
particularly in the Romani community. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR
AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT There are laws and
policies to protect children from exploitation in the workplace. The
government generally enforced these laws with adequate resources and
inspections; such practices reportedly occurred mainly in restaurants.
Persons found in violation of child labor laws could face penalties that were
commensurate with those for other serious crimes, such as kidnapping. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/belgium/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 8 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Despite government
efforts to combat the problem, Belgium remains a destination country for
human trafficking, particularly for sexual exploitation and domestic labor;
victims generally originate in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. In October
2019, police rescued 12 migrants in the back of a refrigerated truck in a
highway parking area in northern Belgium. Officials began coordinating with
British authorities to investigate a human trafficking ring, after British
police found 39 bodies in the back of a truck crossing into the United
Kingdom from Belgium. Research based on case studies of victims of trafficking in human beings in 3 EU Member States, i.e. Belgium, Italy and The Netherlands [PDF] Commission of the
European Communities, DG Justice & Home Affairs, Hippokrates
JAI/2001/HIP/023 Bruno Moens, Country Isabella Orfano, et.al., Country Ruth Hopkins and Jan
Nijboer. Country Report, The www.childtrafficking.com/Docs/payoke_on_the_road_de_rode_.pdf [accessed 22 January
2011] biblio.ugent.be/publication/216832 [accessed 28 May
2017] [page 397] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - This project was
carried out in Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands concerning trafficking for
the purposes of sexual and/or labour exploitation
in countries other than the origin as well as victims of smuggling. The
outset of the project was: to identify the practices and mechanisms of
transnational crime related to trafficking, to contribute towards
recommendations policy and to defines durable solutions for preventing and
combating THB. General
recommendations are provided in 14 clusters. However, in each country report,
the researchers offer an assessment of national laws and policies on THB as
well as their assistance programs. National Projects -
Studies www.childfocus.be/en/activities_4_1.php#2 [access date
unavailable] THE DISAPPEARANCE OF UNACCOMPANIED MINORS VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING IN
HUMAN BEINGS
[ed.
Note: DE PAUW, H., Brussels, Child Focus, April 2002, 108 p.] - A first study
published by Child Focus concerns the disappearance of unaccompanied minors
and minors who are victims of trafficking in human beings. Child Focus has
observed in effect that there are many questions and uncertainties in the
field with regard to this problem. The disappearance of these young people is
extremely worrying as these victims do not have anyone in Belgium to whom
they can turn to when they find themselves in difficulties. These youngsters
do not understand the language, are in a country that they barely know and
often are also seriously traumatised by what they
experienced on their journey to Belgium. Ideal “prey” to fall (again) into
the hands of traffickers and smugglers of human beings. Sex Trafficking In
Belgium Expatica.com, April
2003 www.genderberg.com/phpNuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=12 [accessed 22 January
2011] The trafficking of
adults and minors for sexual exploitation has been of growing concern to WHY BELGIUM? - “Most of those destined for prostitution are young women between the ages of 21 and 30 and teenage girls under the age of 18.” According to a report by the Centre for Equal Opportunities, out of about 150 who testified as having escaped some form of exploitation in Belgium, 88 had been forced into prostitution. The reported victims were from Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Liberia, Nigeria, Sudan, China and Thailand. NADIA'S STORY - Nadia has been working as a prostitute on Avenue
Louise for three months. She was brought to Belgium by a family friend who
had promised her bar work which would pay more than in her native
Ukraine. Upon her arrival, she was
dropped off at a brothel on the French-Belgian border where, at one stage,
she had 30 clients a day and was not let out for periods of up to four weeks.
She ‘escaped'. “The landlady said I
owed her money to stay there so I had to work. The police don't mind brothels
but they don't know what goes on in them. You're freer on the streets, it's better.” Concluding Observations
of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 7 June 2002 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/belgium2002.html [accessed 22 January
2011] [27] The Committee
reiterates its satisfaction for the numerous measures taken by the State
party to combat the sexual exploitation and trafficking of children. It is
nevertheless concerned that trafficking for the purposes of sexual or other
exploitation is still a problem. Human Rights
Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide www.hrw.org/europecentral-asia/belgium [accessed 22 January
2011] The Protection
Project - The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/belgium.doc [accessed 2009] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Women and
children are trafficked to Belgian and foreign
children are sexually exploited in Belgium.
Foreign minors are exploited in sweatshops, Turkish bakeries, and
Moroccan shops. They are also used as domestic servants in diplomats’ homes.
Sports agents exploit young soccer players from Africa and South
America. Reportedly, gangs organize
begging rings involving minors or people with disabilities. Such gangs
operate in large cities and involve mostly adults or children from Romania. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** 2017 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 20 April 2018 www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2017/eur/277145.htm
[accessed 17 March
2019] www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/belgium/ [accessed 24 June
2019] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Forced and
compulsory labor included male victims forced to work in restaurants, bars,
sweatshops, agriculture, construction, cleaning, and retail sites. Foreign
victims were subjected to forced domestic service. Forced begging continued,
particularly in the Romani community. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61639.htm [accessed 7 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Trafficking victims continued to come primarily from sub-Saharan Africa
(particularly There appeared to
be a decreasing number of trafficking cases that were the work of organized
gangs from Central and Eastern Europe, particularly All
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