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/EastTimor.htm
Timor-Leste is a
destination country for women from Indonesia, Thailand, the People’s Republic
of China, Malaysia, and the Philippines trafficked for the purpose of
commercial sexual exploitation, and a destination for men from Burma
trafficked for the purpose of forced labor. Timor-Leste has a growing
internal trafficking problem, mainly women and children lured to Dili from
rural areas or camps for internally displaced persons with offers of
employment and subsequently forced into prostitution. Transnational
traffickers, who may be members of organized crime syndicates, typically
recruit and control their victims through fraud and psychological coercion. -
U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 Check out a later country report here or a full TIP Report here |
|
|||||||||||
|
CAUTION:
The following links have been culled from the web to
illuminate the situation in East Timor.
Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that
are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt has been made to validate
their authenticity or to verify their content. 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 precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. 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 International Organization for
Migration ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Advancing the
Campaign Against Child Labor: Efforts at the Country Level - Indonesia U.S. Dept of Labor
Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2002 archive.today/D6kf2#selection-1077.1-1077.73 [accessed 11
September 2014] [see footnote 992] Children have been
reported in militia groups that formed in East Timor and in the separatist
region of Aceh and in the Maluku Islands. Reports from the Malukus indicate that children between the ages of 7 and
12 years of age have participated in both sides of the conflict. “Asia
Report: Indonesia and East Timor,” May 2000, 2, 7; According to this source, sources within the churches in the region said at least 200 boys had been forcibly recruited and trained as fighters. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Timor-Leste 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/timor-leste/
[accessed 6 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Forced labor of
adults and children occurred (see section 7.c.) but was not widespread. At
times persons from rural areas who came to Dili in pursuit of better
educational and employment prospects were subjected to domestic servitude.
Family members placed children in bonded household and agricultural labor,
primarily in rural areas, to pay off family debts. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Child labor in the
informal sector was a problem, particularly in agriculture, street vending,
and domestic service. Children in rural areas continued to engage in
dangerous agricultural activities, such as cultivating and processing coffee
in family-run businesses, using dangerous machinery and tools, carrying heavy
loads, and applying harmful pesticides. In rural areas, heavily indebted
parents sometimes put their children to work as indentured servants to settle
debts. If a girl is sent to work as an indentured servant to pay off her
family’s debt, the receiving family could also demand a bride price payment.
Children were also employed in fishing, with some working long hours,
performing physically demanding tasks, and facing dangerous conditions. There were some
reports of commercial sexual exploitation of children (also see Section 6,
Children). Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/timor-leste/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 8 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Timor-Leste is both
a source and destination country for human trafficking. Timorese from rural
areas are vulnerable to human trafficking for sexual exploitation and
domestic servitude, and children are sometimes placed in bonded labor. The
government has increased its efforts to prosecute offenders, including by
promulgating the 2017 Law on Preventing and Combating Human Trafficking.
However, in 2018, the government investigated 65 trafficking cases, compared
to 267 in 2017, and 176 in 2016. Few cases result in convictions. 2017 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child
Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor
Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2018 www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/ChildLaborReport_Book.pdf [accessed 17 April
2019] www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 27 April
2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 952] In Timor-Leste,
some children are trafficked from rural areas to the capital city, Dili, and
subjected to commercial sexual exploitation, domestic work, or forced labor
in the fishing industry. (2; 13; 3; 12; 14) Other children are trafficked
transnationally, including to Indonesia. (2; 15) Preliminary data from the
child labor survey conducted in 2016 indicates that more than 26,000 children
are engaged in “other service activities,” such as domestic work; the survey
also identified 588 children engaged in street work. (16; 2). Timor-Leste:
Tackling human trafficking Integrated Regional
Information Networks (IRIN), 4 February 2009 www.irinnews.org/report/82744/timor-leste-tackling-human-trafficking [accessed 9 March
2015] Since Timor-Leste gained
independence in 2002, local Timorese women have been lured away from their
homes and recruited with promises of work abroad. Francisco Belo, a coordinator for the
counter-trafficking project of the Alola
Foundation, an NGO founded in 2001 to respond to the needs of women in Timor,
told IRIN: "We have heard of almost 100 such cases… Especially near the
border [with West Timor], traffickers have recruited women to work in
Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries in southeast Asia. The families in
Timor haven't heard from those women [again]." TRAFFICKED PEOPLE IN
TIMOR
- Perhaps a bigger problem is the number of people being trafficked into the
country. "Timor has become a destination for human traffickers. We have
found people from Thailand, Indonesia, China and the Philippines - most of
them working in the sex industry and most of them victims of human
trafficking," he said. Belo said
the number of female commercial sex workers in Dili is now probably close to
550. Back in 2004, the prosecutor-general estimated there were 400 Chinese
and 300 Vietnamese construction workers in Dili who were possible victims of
trafficking. East Timor: Old
Migration Challenges in the World's Newest Country Kimberly Hamilton,
Migration Policy Institute, Migration Information Source, May 2004 www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?ID=213 [accessed 2 February
2011] www.migrationpolicy.org/article/east-timor-old-migration-challenges-worlds-newest-country [accessed 1 January
2020] BUILDING AN
IMMIGRATION SYSTEM
- The immigration function currently falls within the domain of the police.
Because Timor-Leste shares a 142-mile (228km) long border with Indonesia, and
has several Indonesian islands near its coastline, there are enormous
security concerns. The border is porous and difficult to monitor. Current
steep border crossing charges ($2 for native Timorese) encourage unauthorized
crossings. Trafficking of women and girls from countries such as Thailand and
Indonesia has also emerged as a problem in the country. Familiarizing the
police force with the provisions of a new immigration law, tracking visas,
and enforcing the law within a framework of human rights and due process
remain important tasks as the country works to secure its border and to track
and manage immigration. Seven Asian Nations
Sign Pact to Limit Sex Trade Marie Tessier, WEnews, January 8, 2002 [accessed 2 February
2011] Human rights groups
and UNICEF also have documented the special threats of sexual exploitation
spawned by war and armed conflict. Desperation often compels women and
children to offer sex in exchange for food, shelter, vital documents or safe
passage through a war zone. In East Timor,
women were abducted, traded, raped and forced to do household chores. BACK DOOR
Newsletter on East Timor BACK DOOR Newsletter
on East Timor, June 2001 members.pcug.org.au/~wildwood/01junchild.htm [accessed 2 February
2011] New legislation
being adopted for an independent East Timor will set 18 as the minimum age
for recruitment. The reintegration of child soldiers, some as young as 12,
who were used by both government and opposition forces during the conflict
still presents a major challenge. The abduction and recruitment of children
by anti-independence militia for the purposes of indoctrination has been
reported. - COALITION
TO STOP THE USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS Human Rights
Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide [accessed 2 February
2011] ***
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/eap/277123.htm
[accessed 21 March
2019] www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/timor-leste/ [accessed 26 June
2019] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Forced labor and
trafficking of adults and children occurred (see section 7.c.), but was not
widespread. Timorese women, girls, and occasionally young men and boys from
rural areas who came to Dili in pursuit of better educational and employment
prospects were in some instances subjected to sex trafficking or domestic
servitude. Timorese family members placed children in bonded household and
agricultural labor, primarily in domestic rural areas, to pay off family
debts. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Children in rural
areas continued to engage in dangerous agricultural activities, such as
cultivating and processing coffee in family-run businesses, using dangerous
machinery and tools, carrying heavy loads, and applying harmful pesticides.
In rural areas, heavily indebted parents sometimes put their children to work
as indentured servants to settle debts. If the child is a girl, the receiving
family could also demand any bride price payment normally owed to the girl’s parents.
Children were also employed in fishing, with some working long hours,
performing physically demanding tasks, and facing dangerous conditions. There were some reports of commercial
sexual exploitation of children. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61607.htm [accessed 8 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– The law prohibits trafficking in women and children, whether for
prostitution or for forced labor; however, there have been several reports of
women and girls trafficked into the country for prostitution in recent years.
In 2004 a local NGO conducted a baseline study of human trafficking and the
sex industry and estimated that as many 115 foreign sex workers in the
capital might be victims of trafficking. Several establishments in the
capital were known commercial sex operations and were suspected of also being
involved in trafficking. UN officials and
local NGO leaders cited several instances in which foreign women, usually of
Chinese, Indonesian, or Thai origin, reported that they had been trafficked
to the country and were being held against their will. For example, in 2004
two Indonesian women interviewed by a local NGO stated that they had been
hired by a businessman in Jakarta to work as housekeepers in a Dili hotel.
When they arrived in Dili, the man confiscated their passports and confined
the women to his house, telling them that they had to work as prostitutes to
pay back their travel expenses. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day
Slavery - Timor-Leste (East Timor)",
http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/EastTimor.htm, [accessed <date>] |
||||||||||||
