Human Trafficking in [Myanmar (Burma Street Children in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the first
ten years of the 21st Century -
2000 to 2009
Burma is a source country for women, children, and men
trafficked for the purpose of forced labor and commercial sexual
exploitation. Burmese women and children are trafficked to Thailand, the
People’s Republic of China (PRC), Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, and
South Korea for commercial sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, and
forced labor. Some Burmese migrating abroad for better economic opportunities
wind up in situations of forced or bonded labor or forced prostitution. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2009
[full country
report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Remarks at Swearing-in Ceremony - Mark P. Lagon, Director, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking
in Persons www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/rm/07/88003.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Last week in The isolated 10-acre factory was surrounded by steel walls, 15 feet tall with barbed wire fencing, located in the middle of a coconut plantation far from roads. Workers weren’t allowed to leave and were forbidden phone contact with any one outside. They lived in run-down wooden huts, with hardly enough to eat. Aye Aye is a brave, daring soul. She tried to escape with three other women. But factory guards caught them and dragged them back to the camp. They were punished as an example to others, tied to poles in the middle of the courtyard, and refused food or water. Aye Aye told me how her now beautiful hair was shaved off as another form of punishment, to stigmatize her. And how she was beaten for trying to flee. Beaten. Tortured. Starved. Humiliated. Is this not slavery?? Thai
families partners in child sex trade - Border area's products are drugs and
daughters When Burmese migrant Ngun Chai sold his 13-year-old
daughter into prostitution for $114, his wife, La, had one regret -- they
didn't get a good price for her.
"I should have asked for 10,000 baht ($228)," La Chai said. "He robbed us." She was angry that the agent who bought her
eldest child, Saikun, in 1999 took her to Bangkok,
some 460 miles away, rather than a nearby city as promised. It did not
concern La Chai that Saikun
would be forced to have sex with as many as eight men a day. With prices varying from $114 to
$913 -- the latter figure equal to almost six years' wages for most families
-- parental bonds in impoverished households are easily broken. In fact,
child prostitution is so established that many brothel agents live in the
village, and are often friends or relatives of the family from whom they buy
the children - htcp ***
ARCHIVES *** Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – The
government made limited progress on trafficking in persons during the year.
The government's pervasive security controls, restrictions on the free flow
of information, and lack of transparency prevented a comprehensive assessment
of trafficking in persons activities in the country. While experts agreed
that human trafficking from the country was substantial, no organization,
including the government, was able or willing to estimate the number of
victims. The government did not allow an independent assessment of its
reported efforts to combat the problem. Trafficking of women and girls to Human traffickers appeared to be
primarily free‑lance, small‑scale operators using village
contacts that fed victims to more established trafficking
"brokers". Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 1997 [24] Furthermore, the Committee
expresses its regret that insufficient measures are being taken to address
the problems of child abuse, including sexual abuse, and the sale and
trafficking of children, child prostitution and child pornography. It is
especially concerned by the fact that a significant number of girls, and
sometimes boys, are victims of transnational trafficking for the purpose of
sexual exploitation in brothels across the border. www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/1208-burmese-brides-for-sale.html
Wah Wah was
one of the women that Ma Phyu and her gang had sold
into slavery. Wah
Wah was sold to a Chinese man living in Sandong, near Beijing, at the price tag of Chinese RMB
20,000 (approximately US$ 2,900). A few weeks later, Wah
Wah managed to flee from the clutches of her buyer
and made her way back to Ruili earlier this
month. The hapless young lady had
nowhere else to go but to return back to her perpetrators, and Ma Phyu was happy when her commodity arrived back in her
hands for resale. However, when she tried to sell her to another Chinese man,
Wah Wah vehemently
refused. But the traffickers, having
already struck a deal and received some advance money, tried to force Wah Wah to accept her newest
companion. As dusk fell over Ruili on that fateful day, Wah Wah was taken by taxi along the road to Namkhan, Burma, a few miles away. Accompanying her in the
vehicle were several members of the human trafficker's family. Eventually, they stopped the taxi next to a
paddy field beside the highway in the vicinity of Man Heiro,
still in Burmese territory and about 20 miles from Ruili. "Before leaving Ruili,
they were drunk with beer. She was taken to a paddy field near the highway.
Then Kyaw Swa started
raping her. After that, Bo Bo stabbed her
repeatedly. She died from five stab wounds. Then her corpse was left in the
nearby drainage," recalls a source from the Chinese police investigation
team of the incident. KWAT:
Women enslaved due to economic hardships www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4-inside-burma/864-kwat-women-enslaved-due-to-economic-hardships
Economic hardship and poverty have
caused several young women in Burma, particularly in regions where ethnic
minorities are residing, to be an easy prey of human trafficking, an ethnic Kachin women group said in a new report. The Thailand based Kachin
Women's Association of Thailand (KWAT) in a new report release today reveal
that several young women from northern Burma's Kachin
state are being sold by traffickers to Chinese men, who forcibly marry them
or use them as maids and slaves. The
report titled 'Eastward Bound', which is based on interviews with 163 human
trafficking victims from 2004 to 2007, said nearly 37 per cent of the
trafficked women ended up as wives of Chinese men, while about 4 percent are
sold as housemaids or to the sex industry. mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/21029/84/
The report suggests that Malaysian
authorities are in cohorts with human traffickers in Southern
Thailand: “Burmese migrants are reportedly taken by Malaysian
Government personnel from detention facilities to the Malaysia-Thailand
border for deportation. Upon arrival at the Malaysia-Thailand border, human
traffickers reportedly take possession of the migrants and issue ransom
demands on an individual basis. Migrants state that freedom is possible only
once money demands are met. Specific payment procedures are outlined, which
reportedly include bank accounts in Kuala Lumpur to which money should be
transferred. The committee was informed that on some occasions, the
‘‘attendance’’ list reviewed by traffickers along the border was identical to
the attendance list read prior to departure from the Malaysian detention
facilities. Migrants state that those
unable to pay are turned over to human peddlers in Human Traffickers
Get Free Rein with Burmese Migrants in Malaysia Burmese migrant workers in
Malaysia live at the mercy of international human-trafficking gangs who sell
them back and forth as slave labor with the full knowledge of Malaysian and Thai
immigration officials, RFA's Burmese service
reports. Thousands and perhaps
hundreds of thousands of Burmese find themselves stuck in a human rights
no-man’s-land after losing their legal status, often because employers
withhold passports or refuse to pay their return airfares. Several secret jails or
deportation camps exist around the country to hold foreign nationals found
without papers. From there, officials take them to the Thai border, where
trafficking gangs have close ties to Malaysian officials and have been tipped
off to their arrival. Economic
Crisis Fueling Child Labor, Trafficking The economic crisis and
instability in Burma is driving waves of Burmese children into hard labor,
begging and the sex trade, claims exiled Burmese rights groups. Meanwhile, the results of child
trafficking has had a huge impact on the education of many Burmese migrant
children, forcing the children into hard labor in factories, sweat shops and
even into the sex trade, according to Burmese migrant education groups. Many victims under the age of 18 have
become street beggars and sex workers instead of studying at school, said Paw
Ray, the chairperson of the BMWEC, which operates nearly 50 schools for children
of Burmese migrant workers in Mae Sot. China
claims progress fighting human trafficking There has been a rise in
trafficking cases involving Myanmar women in China in particular in recent
years. The women are mostly smuggled
through the porous border into the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan and then taken to central and north China, where
poverty and a skewed sex ratio means many farmers cannot find wives. Late last year, China jailed six Myanmar
nationals for selling 23 Myanmar girls to Chinese peasants as wives. Governing Justly and Combating Human Trafficking: The
Linkages www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/rm/07/96171.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
The Burmese people represent a
case study of repression at home and then vulnerability abroad. Facing a
cruel regime, bleak economic conditions and the prospect of forced labor at
home, millions of Burmese have had to flee. Among these most vulnerable are
girls and women from Burma's ethnic minorities. Rape is widespread in Burma.
Shan, Karen, Chin, Mon and other ethnic minority women and girls live in
daily fear of sexual violence by their military oppressors. After
successfully escaping slavery in Burma, another cruel fate awaits too many
Burmese. They are preyed upon by traffickers and exploitative employers. They
are pushed into the sex trade or into highly predatory economic sectors in
neighboring countries. Fleeing literal enslavement at home, they face extreme
exploitation in neighboring countries—these women, migrants and refugees are
regularly dehumanized. Myanmar
rebel group denies child soldier claims In a statement released Friday, UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that both the
military government and rebel groups continued to violate children's rights
by recruiting underage soldiers.
Citing a recent UN report, he said that the government was picking up
street children or those without national identity cards and offering them
the choice of arrest or joining the army. Myanmar's military government
officially denies using child soldiers and has passed a law to outlaw the
practice. But human rights groups say
child soldiers in Myanmar remain alarmingly common, with boys as young as 12
recruited to fight the ethnic rebel armies in the country's border regions. - htsc The
Burmese Junta's Hidden Victims Burma's ruling generals
systematically employ forced labor to maintain their repressive grip on the
country. The regime forces men, women and children to work for its benefit --
providing rice to feed the huge parasitic military force, constructing roads
and buildings, and serving as porters for military convoys and human mine
sweepers in the battlefields in the border regions. As the regime continues
its gross mismanagement of the country and economic and social conditions
deteriorate further, the number of victims of trafficking can only be
expected to grow. Facing bleak economic conditions
and the prospect of forced labor at home, millions of Burmese have had to
flee their homes and villages, usually without legal documents, making them even
more vulnerable to human trafficking and the predations of corrupt officials. Human
trafficking helps spread HIV/AIDS in Asia: UN "Trafficking ... contributes
to the spread of HIV by significantly increasing the vulnerability of
trafficked persons to infection," said Caitlin Wiesen-Antin,
HIV/AIDS regional coordinator, Asia and Pacific, for the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP). "Both human trafficking and HIV greatly
threaten human development and security." Major human trafficking routes run
between Nepal and India and between Thailand and neighbors like Laos,
Cambodia and Myanmar. Many of the
victims are young teenage girls who end up in prostitution. "The link between human trafficking
and HIV/AIDS has only been identified fairly recently," Wiesen-Antin told the International Congress on AIDS in
Asia and the Pacific. Remarks at Swearing-in Ceremony - Mark P. Lagon, Director, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking
in Persons www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/rm/07/88003.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Last week in The isolated 10-acre factory was
surrounded by steel walls, 15 feet tall with barbed wire fencing, located in
the middle of a coconut plantation far from roads. Workers weren’t allowed to
leave and were forbidden phone contact with any one outside. They lived in
run-down wooden huts, with hardly enough to eat. Aye Aye is a
brave, daring soul. She tried to escape with three other women. But factory
guards caught them and dragged them back to the camp. They were punished as
an example to others, tied to poles in the middle of the courtyard, and
refused food or water. Aye Aye told me how her now
beautiful hair was shaved off as another form of punishment, to stigmatize
her. And how she was beaten for trying to flee. Beaten. Tortured. Starved. Humiliated. Is
this not slavery?? Myanmar
sentences 33 human traffickers to life imprisonment According to the report, the human
traffickers deceived 49 young Myanmar women to work in a neighboring country,
promising them that they will be well paid.
In lasts September, Myanmar authorities also nabbed a 30-member human
trafficking gang on the Myanmar-China border in cooperation with the Chinese
police force for trafficking 180 Myanmar young women to Ruili
in southwest China's Yunnan Province by means of
forced marriage and fake marriage, according to the Home Ministry. Myanmar court sentences woman to 12 years for human
trafficking www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/28/asia/AS_GEN_Myanmar_Human_Trafficking.php At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
A Myanmar government gives highest priority to better tackling issue of trade in people [scroll down] INTERNATIONAL RELATION - SENIOR OFFICIALS
MEETING FOR THE COORDINATED MEKONG MINISTERIAL INITIATIVE AGAINST TRAFFICKING
(COMMIT) OPENS - In Myanmar, we have, as of last year, formed a Specialist
Anti-trafficking Police Unit and Anti-trafficking Task Forces around the
border and other hot spot areas. At the same time, we are of course aware, of
the absolute need to provide psycho-social support to the victims of
trafficking, undertake and improve repatriation and reintegration systems,
and provide rehabilitation services for the victims of trafficking and
vulnerable groups. Myanmar
exposes 748 human trafficking cases in past four years Myanmar authorities have exposed
748 human trafficking cases since the work committee for human trafficking
prevention was formed in July 2002 to June 2006, according to Saturday's
official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar. During the period, subordinate
committees at different levels in 14 states and divisions were able to expose
and arrest 1,484 persons -- 815 males and 669 females, and also rescued in
time 3, 694 persons -- 1,904 males and 1,790 females, the paper disclosed. Three
Women Arrested in Muse for Human Trafficking According to confirmed sources,
some human trafficking syndicates have been dispatching young women from
Burma to China, where they are sold for large sums of money. Myanmar
rejects U.S. report on anti-human trafficking Noting that Myanmar passed an
anti-trafficking in persons law in September 2005 that covers sexual
exploitation, forced labor, slavery, servitude and debt bondage, the release
said during the year, the government prosecuted 426 traffickers in 203 cases
under the new law and identified 844 victims. Mekong
region govts to co-op against human trafficking Since the signing of the historic
COMMIT Memorandum of Understanding in Yangon, Myanmar in October 2004, by
Ministers of the six countries, the Governments have been active in laying
the foundation for a network of cooperation to stop traffickers and prosecute
them, protect victims of trafficking and assist them return safely home, and
launch efforts to prevent others from sharing the same fate. Rice
Names 'Outposts of Tyranny' Condoleezza Rice named Diminished ILO
Visit Spells Trouble When the high-level delegation cut
short its visit and left Rangoon a week ago, it left the regime with a
four-point plan of action: the issuance of clear instructions to the army,
and publicity for a campaign, to stop the use of forced labor; a renewed
commitment to the previously agreed plan of action on forced labor, after the
regime has dragged its feet over the past year; the granting of freedom of
movement to the ILO liaison officer in Rangoon, which has been curtailed
significantly for some time; and the extension of an amnesty to the third of
three people convicted of high treason essentially for having contact with
the ILO. 18.
Allegations On Exercising Forced Labor in Myanmar [PDF] This allegation has been widely
and conveniently used against the Government of Myanmar by certain quarters
to disseminate disinformation in the attempt to portray her as a cruel and
wicked regime. U.N.: Myanmar Must Stop Forced Labor "For years we've had a
contradictory message," she said following a meeting of the ILO's governing body. "There is always a promise to
do something, a few little steps, then a terrible backlash." Sex
Trafficking Growing In S.E.Asia Girls from the villages of 4
Myanmar Officials Get Jail Over Forced Labor Four local officials in Travel Guides and the Burma Debate The Burmese democracy movement,
led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has asked that
tourists not visit Big
Business Keeps Eye on Historic Human Rights Case One of the plaintiffs, Jane Doe,
has testified that her husband was shot when attempting to flee forced labor
on the pipeline, and that her baby was killed when thrown into a fire in
retaliation for his attempted escape. All 12 plaintiffs remain anonymous for
fear of repercussions against them and their family members. The Protection Project - Myanmar [DOC] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Women and children are
trafficked from Myanmar to Thailand primarily for the purpose of
prostitution. Most of the victims are kept in Thai brothels. An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Myanmar women
and girls are prostituted in Thailand; however, in 2002, it was estimated
that 10,000 women and children from Myanmar enter into prostitution in
Thailand every year alone. In fact, women and children from Myanmar
constitute the largest number of migrants forced or lured into prostitution
in Thailand. Reportedly, Myanmar women and
girls are commonly sold to Chinese men as mail-order brides and for the
purpose of forced marriage. More than 100 Myanmar women are reported to be
living in the Chinese province of Anhwei alone,
where they are exploited by their Chinese husbands sexually and forced to
work on farms and as housemaids. Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 7 Civil Liberties: 7 Status: Not Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide Harsh Policy
Towards Burmese Refugees The Thai government made this
decision, despite the fact that the horrendous conditions in Burma have not
ceased. Burmese continue to flee abuses such as forced labor, persecution of
dissidents, conscription of child soldiers, rape of ethnic minority women and
children by government troops, and forced relocation. Conscripts
- Soldiers of misfortune For years, sein
win's job in the burmese army was to guard citizens
who had been forced into hard labor, building the nation's roads, railways,
helipads and barracks. "We threatened them with guns to make them
work," says Sein Win, now 20, who recently
deserted from the military. "No soldier would dare be kind to the
villagers because the officers would beat us if we showed them any
mercy." Now
Program on Burma and the Alien Torts Claims Act Last week on NOW with Bill Moyers, there was a segment that dealt with this issue
and the specific case in Burma in which several Burmese citizens are suing
the oil company, Unocal over allegations of complicity with slave labor that
the Burmese military (which provided security for a oil pipeline that Unocal
was building). Oral intervention delivered by Anti-Slavery International
on 6 April 2004 www.antislavery.org/archive/submission/submission2004-CHRchild.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Restrictions of freedom of
movement, as Rohingya children and their parents
are virtually confined to their village tracts. The need to obtain travel
passes limits their access to health, education and employment, thus severely
affecting the livelihood of the family. In the field of health and
education, they are particularly neglected. Sixty per cent of the Muslim
children of Northern Rakhine State are said to
suffer from malnutrition and the level of illiteracy is extremely high. Restriction of access to food
through a series of constraints, including arbitrary taxation and extortion,
is the main strategy of the regime to encourage departure, and a major root
cause of the ongoing exodus to Bangladesh. Increasingly, measures are being
imposed to control birth and to limit expansion of the Rohingya
population. Unlike other people of Burma, the Rohingyas
must apply for permission to get married, which is only granted in exchange
for high bribes and can take up to several years to obtain. To register their
children's birth, parents are charged fees that significantly increased in
2003. Moreover, building a new house or repairing or extending an existing
dwelling also require authorisation, resulting in
overcrowded and precarious living conditions, affecting women and children. Many Rohingya
children are subject to forced labour. Cultural practices
in the Rohingya community prevent women from
participating in activities outside of their homes. As male adults are busy
earning the daily wage to feed the family, the burden of carrying out forced labour duties often falls on children. Solar Health Clinics in Burma wire0.ises.org/wire/CurrentAffairs/RENews.nsf/0/e7c0f9a3c3f75452c1256e99003625d2?OpenDocument At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
BACKGROUND - The Eastern area of US
House of Reps. Extends Burma Sanctions in Landslide The regime's brutality is well-documented. According to credible nongovernmental organizations, it has imprisoned over 1,500 political prisoners, conscripted up to 70,000 child soldiers, carries out a modern form of slavery, and uses rape as a weapon of war. Case
Study: Corvée (Forced) Labour FOCUS (4): MYANMAR (BURMA) TODAY - Forced labour
in Myanmar/Burma involves large numbers of children and women as well as
adult males. In 1998, the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human
Rights "specifically addressed the issue of women victims of forced labour. ... He noted that increasing numbers of women,
including young girls and the elderly, had reportedly been forced to work,
without receiving remuneration or being provided with food, on infrastructure
projects and to act as porters in war zones, even when they were pregnant or
nursing their infants. ... They had been reported to have been used not only
as porters, but also as human shields and had been sexually abused by
soldiers" (para. 190). Frequently, women,
along with children of both sexes, are conscripted into corvée
labour when male heads of household must work to
provide the family income: in most cases, the military insists that one or
more persons from a household be turned over for forced labour,
but places no restrictions on gender or age. An exception to the general
willingness to draft female labour is the corvée imposed upon the Rohingya
people from the Rakhine State in northern Myanmar,
one of the ethnic groups most extensively targeted for the practice. Among
the Rohingya, "the burden of forced labour ... fell entirely on the male members of the
household." "Trading Women" Filmmaker Shatters Myths about Human Trafficking malaysia.usembassy.gov/wf/wf0911_womentrade.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM IN ASIA - "One thing our research
showed, for a highland girl in "If you look at where the key
problem of trafficking is (in this area of Southeast Asia), it is in Burma.
The majority of girls who are trafficked come from Burma. For the Shan women,
the way they express their choices are to stay home and get raped by the
Burmese army for free, or come down to Thailand and do sex work for money.
This is not a choice anyone should ever have to make," he said. Thailand
struggles to halt human trafficking Local migrant advocacy groups say the
Chiang Mai raid, like other actions taken against human trafficking, had
netted Burmese women voluntarily engaged in prostitution. Now, they say,
those women may be worse off than before. These groups accuse the US-funded
anti-trafficking task force that led the raid of steamrolling women's rights
and treating all sex workers as victims. "The women didn't feel like
they were rescued because they lost their money.... They felt like they were
trapped," says Hseng Noung,
of the Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN), who interviewed ethnic Shan women
detained in the raid. "Being forced to work physically is one thing, but
these women were forced to work by their situation." Oil-gas giant
faces landmark trial over slavery in Myanmar The soldiers' true role was to
force villagers in the pipeline region to work without pay -- a modern form
of slavery, the 9th Circuit opinion said.
And Unocal knew, both before and after investing in the project, that
the military was enslaving the people, the opinion said. Unocal's own consultant, former
military attache John Haseman,
reported to Unocal in December 1995 that the soldiers were committing
"egregious human rights violations" along the pipeline route. "The most common are forced relocation
without compensation of families from land near/along the pipeline route,
forced labor to work on infrastructure projects supporting the pipeline ...
and imprisonment and/or execution by the army of those opposing such
actions," Haseman told Unocal in a report
quoted in court records. Thai
families partners in child sex trade - Border area's products are drugs and
daughters When Burmese migrant Ngun Chai sold his 13-year-old
daughter into prostitution for $114, his wife, La, had one regret -- they
didn't get a good price for her.
"I should have asked for 10,000 baht ($228)," La Chai said. "He robbed us." She was angry that the agent who bought her
eldest child, Saikun, in 1999 took her to Bangkok,
some 460 miles away, rather than a nearby city as promised. It did not
concern La Chai that Saikun
would be forced to have sex with as many as eight men a day. With prices varying from $114 to
$913 -- the latter figure equal to almost six years' wages for most families
-- parental bonds in impoverished households are easily broken. In fact,
child prostitution is so established that many brothel agents live in the village,
and are often friends or relatives of the family from whom they buy the
children - htcp New Coalition urges UK Government to stop investment in
Burma www.antislavery.org/homepage/news/burma180302.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said:
"Burma's military has put millions of civilians into forced labour, imprisoned hundreds of political prisoners, has
created more child soldiers than any other country in the world, and has
forcibly 'relocated' half a million ethnic people". Millions
Suffer in Sex Slavery archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/4/23/184354.shtml Statistical estimates indicate
300,000 women have been sold into the sex trade in Western Europe in the last
10 years, and since 1990, 80,000 women and children from Myanmar (formerly
Burma), Cambodia, Laos and China have been sold into Thailand's sex industry.
Silver
Cos. needn't look far to find some slave-museum artifacts Last year, the ILO condemned the
Burmese military's "widespread and systematic" use of forced labor
as "a modern form slavery," and called on governments, labor
unions, and employers to take steps to ensure they were not helping to
sustain the Burmese junta's practice of enslaving its citizens. There are a couple of ways that
Burmese imports enrich Burma's slavemasters and
contribute to their ability to continue enslaving people, according to the
Free Burma Coalition. First, Burma's
military dictatorship charges a 5 percent tax on all exports from Burma, and
much of that revenue goes straight to the military. Second, the junta retains
partial ownership of most factories in Burma, with profits going largely to
the military. Moreover, the coalition
says, Burmese imports never even would have made it to places like Central
Park had it not been for roads and other infrastructure back in Burma that
were built with slave labor. ILO
team completes mission to assess forced labor in Myanmar An International Labor Organisation (ILO) team has completed a six-day mission
to Myanmar to assess the junta's efforts to stamp out forced labor, officials
said Friday. "They are not completely
happy with what they have seen so far, and want to see more progress being
made (on ending forced labor)," the source said. "However, there are signs of goodwill
on the part of the Burmese, who were cooperative. The team managed to see
everyone they wanted to see." 2000
Update on Forced Labor and Forced Relocations Since the Department of Labor's
1998 report, there has been little change in the situation with regard to the
use of forced labor in Burma. However, there has been some significant action
by the International Labor Organization (ILO) on this matter. Forced labor
continues to be used with impunity by authorities throughout the country for
infrastructure development projects and to support military operations.
Reports also suggest that people continue to work under very poor conditions
and suffer from human rights abuses. There is little new information with
regard to allegations of forced labor related to the Yadana
Pipeline. Available information suggests that forced relocations are becoming
a growing problem in Burma, and forced labor often goes hand in hand with the
policy of forced relocations. While the circumstances in Burma may not have
improved greatly, the international community has taken an additional action
against the current regime through the ILO's
adoption of an emergency resolution on forced labor in Burma, which resulted
in the exclusion of Burma from almost all participation in the ILO. UK firm
linked to Burma slavery The Burmese have been accused of
using "security" issues in the pipeline area of Tanasserim
to drive ethnic Karen people from the land. There are now 120,000 Karen
living in refugee camps and human rights groups say at least 30,000 Karen
have been killed. The army's tactics include rape and summary executions. The report says the army was
extorting money from local people and using children and forced unpaid labour - described by the special UN rapporteur to Burma
as a modern form of slavery - to build military barracks. "The harsh conditions of those
carrying out the labour, including young children
and the testimony of local people, belies the government claim that such work
is voluntary," said the report. [scroll down]
The country of Burma is lush, rich in natural resources and home to dozens
of peoples and cultures. But due to a
military government of isolationist economic mismanagement, the 45 million
people there live without their human rights and in extreme poverty. The country of Burma has been under
military dictatorship since 1962. The Boston Tea Party Revisited:Massachusetts
Boycotts Burma www.ncsl.org/programs/pubs/599burma.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
Political repression. When the
military government of Burma lost more than 80 percent of the seats in
parliament to the National League for Democracy in 1990, it repudiated the
election and began closing NLD offices and jailing the party’s legislators.
The government has waged war against rural ethnic minorities, who supported
the NLD commitment to create a federal system with regional self-government. Forced labor. Burma is building
its commercial infrastructure with labor forced at the point of a gun. In the
previous decade, more than 5.5 million people have been forced to work on
construction of airport runways, railroads, highways and agricultural irrigation
systems. Seven percent of Burma’s economy is based on this slavery. Rape and brutality. The most
common form of forced labor is military portering.
Even old people, women and teenagers are required to carry military supplies
on their backs. Porters are forced to walk ahead of troops to detonate mines
and act as human shields in combat against Burma’s own ethnic minorities.
Soldiers often beat porters with rifle butts and have forced teenagers to
execute other porters who could no longer work. Women porters are separated
at night from the men and are frequently raped by the soldiers. Displacement of populations in Western Burma (Myanmar) www.antislavery.org/archive/submission/submission1999-01dis.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
In Burma, the widespread
repression of ethnic minorities and the countrywide practice of forced labour as documented in the ILO Commission of Inquiry
report dated 2 July 1998, have led to an unprecedented displacement of
populations. Unwanted and Unprotected:Burmese
Refugees in Thailand www.hrw.org/reports98/thai/Thai989-01.htm#P39_702 At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS - At almost no time since Burmese
asylum seekers started arriving on Thai soil in 1984 has the need for
protection of this group been greater.1
Human rights violations inside MODERN
FORM OF SLAVERY: TRAFFICKING OF BURMESE WOMEN AND GIRLS INTO BROTHELS IN
THAILAND - . Thousands
of Burmese women and girls are trafficked into Thai brothels every year where
they work under conditions tantamount to slavery. Subject to debt bondage, illegal
confinement, various forms of sexual and physical abuse, and exposure to HIV
in the brothels, they then face wrongful arrest as illegal immigrants if they
try to escape or if the brothels are raided by Thai police. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [Myanmar (Burma Street Children in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Myanmar (Burma)] [other countries]