Torture in [Timor-Leste] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Timor-Leste] [other countries]Street Children in [Timor-Leste] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Timor-Leste] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early years
of the 21st Century 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 [full country report] |
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CAUTION:
The following links have been culled from the web to
illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Advancing the Campaign Against Child Labor:
Efforts at the Country Level - 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 *** 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] 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. Advancing the Campaign Against Child Labor:
Efforts at the Country Level - 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. 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 BACK DOOR Newsletter on members.pcug.org.au/~wildwood/01junchild.htm [accessed 2 February 2011] New legislation
being adopted for an independent Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61607.htm [accessed 2 February 2011] 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 Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 3 Civil Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/east-timor [accessed 26 June 2012] Human Rights
Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide [accessed 2 February 2011] 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 ( |
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Torture in [Timor-Leste] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Timor-Leste] [other countries]Street Children in [Timor-Leste] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Timor-Leste] [other countries]