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/France.htm
France is a
destination country for women and girls trafficked for the purposes of sexual
exploitation from Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Nigeria, Sierra Leone,
Cameroon, and Malaysia and other Asian countries. Men, women and children
continued to be trafficked for the purposes of forced labor, including
domestic servitude, many from Africa. Often their “employers” are diplomats
who enjoy diplomatic immunity. - 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 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 Ac. Sé
(NGO) ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Romanian Premier
Interviewed in 'Le Monde' Radio Free
Europe/Radio www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/2002/02-08-05.rferl.html#69 [accessed 5 February
2011] [69] ROMANIAN
PREMIER INTERVIEWED IN 'LE MONDE' - Prime Minister Adrian Nastase said in an interview to the French daily "Le
Monde" on 2 August that Romania finds itself in an "extremely
delicate and difficult situation" as a result of the Romany criminal
networks allegedly engaging in human trafficking and forcing handicapped
children into begging in France. UN expert urges
France, Xinhua News Agency, mathaba.net/news/?x=569919 [accessed 5 February
2011] www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/10/30/chad.france/index.html [accessed 3 February
2019] Some members of the
French NGO, named Arche de Zoe, were arrested in Chad on Oct. 25, following
its alleged attempt to abduct and transfer 103 children to ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: France 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/france/
[accessed 6 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Men, women, and
children, mainly from Eastern Europe, West Africa, and Asia, were subjected
to forced labor, including domestic servitude (also see section 7.c.). There
were no government estimates of the extent of forced labor among domestic
workers. In 2019 the NGO Committee against Modern Slavery assisted 200
victims of forced labor, 74 percent of whom were women. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT The government
effectively enforced labor laws, although some children were exploited in the
worst forms of child labor, including child sex trafficking (also see section
6, Children) and labor trafficking through forced criminal activity.
Inspectors from the Ministry of Labor investigated workplaces to enforce
compliance with all labor statutes. To prohibit violations of child labor
statutes, inspectors may place employers under observation or refer them for
criminal prosecution. Penalties for the use of child labor were commensurate
with those for other analogous serious crimes. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/france/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 8 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Sex trafficking of
children remained a problem in 2019, and the government was ineffective in
addressing it. The first and only sex-trafficking conviction in Fiji’s history
occurred in December, despite the most recent US Trafficking in Persons
report citing it as a major issue that has persisted over the course of many
years. Safety standards at workplaces are not always adequately enforced.
Long work hours are common in some jobs, including transportation and
shipping. Police arrest 15 in
Bosnia-France human trafficking ring Agence France-Presse AFP, Sarajevo, 23 June 2015 news.yahoo.com/police-arrest-15-bosnia-france-human-trafficking-ring-151556309.html [accessed 23 June
2015] Bosnian and French
police arrested Tuesday 15 members of a human trafficking ring that forced
women and children to beg and steal in cities across France, Bosnian
authorities said. Seven suspects were
arrested in Bosnia and eight in France, the police said. The women and
children involved were subject to blackmail, threats and physical and
psychological abuse, police said in a statement. "Once there, they were forced to
steal in the street and give up the money. In some cases, children were also
victims," police said. Investigators
estimate that the traffickers made more than two million euros on the
operation ($2.2 million), and laundered the proceeds through property and
luxury car purchases in Bosnia. Conference puts
focus on human trafficking, fastest growing criminal industry United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees - UNHCR, [accessed 5 February
2011] Government
officials, judiciary members, police officers and humanitarian aid workers
have expressed concern, during a conference in northern The UN refugee
agency, which co-organized last Thursday's gathering in "We are
particularly worried about the unaccompanied children who find themselves in
this situation and who are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. It is
very difficult to keep track of them and we don't know what happens to them
once they leave Police arrest ten
Bulgarians for human trafficking to France Agence France-Presse AFP, April 20 2007 www.asser.nl/default.aspx?site_id=8&level1=10790&level2=10850&level3=&textid=29558 [accessed 31 August
2011] Ten Bulgarians
involved in trafficking women to Between 2002 and
2005, the group transferred at least 105 Bulgarian girls to France and forced
them to work as prostitutes, Ivanova said. Bulgaria, France
Crash Human Trafficking Channel FACE2FACE At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 5
September 2011] A channel for traffic
in people to Police in
Bulgaria's Russe and French Marseille acted in
close cooperation in crushing the channel. Six people were questioned in the
Bulgarian city and 5 homes were searched. A total of 20 cell phones, many
personal belongings as well as bank transfers documents were confiscated
during the search. 65 convicted in
French child abuse trial Jon Henley in www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jul/28/france.jonhenley [accessed 5 February
2011] Key figures in the
largest child abuse trial ever held in Domestic slavery:
servitude, au pairs and mail-order brides - Report Rapporteur: Mr Giuseppe Gaburro, Italy,
Group of the European People’s Party, Committee on Equal Opportunities for
Women and Men, Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe, Doc. 10144, 19
April 2004 lastradainternational.org/?main=documentation&document=1780 [accessed 16 July
2013] www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-ViewHTML.asp?FileID=10505&lang=EN [accessed 27 April
2020] B. DOMESTIC SLAVERY
AND SERVITUDE 11. In France alone,
the CCEM has taken up the cases of over 400 victims of domestic slavery since
its creation in 1994. RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
- Report submitted by Juan Miguel Petit, Special Rapporteur on the sale of
children, child prostitution and child pornography - Addendum - Mission to
France, 25-29 November 2002 [PDF] UN Economic and
Social Council, E/CN.4/2004/9/Add.1, 14 October 2003 www.refworld.org/docid/4090ffd80.html [accessed 8
September 2014] SUMMARY - The report
focuses on the sale of children in the context of trafficking of children and
child prostitution, and on child pornography and its links with domestic
child sexual abuse. Concerning the
sale of children, trafficking and child prostitution, the report relates
information presented to the Special Rapporteur by the Children’s Ombudsman (Défenseure des enfants), the
police, NGOs, as well as government ministries. According to this information, children are
being trafficked into France primarily from Eastern Europe, notably Romania,
and from West Africa, but also from Asia including such countries as
India and China. Many, if not most, of
these children are under the control of trafficking networks and are forced
into prostitution. The Government of
France is starting to work with the authorities of the countries concerned,
in particular with Romania with which it signed a bilateral agreement in 2001
with respect to returning children. V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 73. Children are entering
or travelling through France for the purposes of theft, begging and
prostitution. Many of them are
trafficked by force while others travel of their own volition - some later
becoming caught up in trafficking networks.
The majority of these children come from Eastern Europe - notably
Romania - and from West Africa. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 30 June 2004 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/france2004.html [accessed 5 February
2011] [52] The Committee
welcomes the legislative and other efforts aimed at providing protection of
children from economic exploitation. However, the Committee is concerned that illegal networks of forced labor continue to operate
and that foreign children fall victims to networks that are not countered
vigorously enough. [54] The Committee
notes that, following the World Congress against Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children in Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org/europecentral-asia/france [accessed 5 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/eur/277165.htm
accessed 22 March
2019] www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/france/ accessed 26 June
2019] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Men, women, and
children, mainly from Eastern Europe, West Africa, and Asia, were subject to
forced labor, including domestic servitude (also see section 7.c.). There
were no government estimates on the extent of forced labor among domestic
workers, many of whom were migrant women and children. In 2016 the NGO
Committee against Modern Slavery assisted 167 victims of forced labor,
including 125 women. The government attempted to address forced labor by
providing financial support to NGOs that assist victims. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT The government
effectively enforced labor laws, although some children were exploited in the
worst forms of child labor, including commercial sexual exploitation and
forced criminal activity. Human Rights Reports
» 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61648.htm [accessed 8 February
2020] CHILDREN
- In
October authorities arrested 15 persons and rescued 7 babies in connection
with the baby trafficking ring discovered in 2004, and five persons were
arrested. A Roma family in TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– In 2003 police arrested 67 adults in a Roma encampment outside Paris and
charged them with organizing sexual enslavement of Roma children who were
kidnapped from Romania, brought to the country, raped to make them obey, and
sent out on the streets of Paris and its suburbs to steal and prostitute
themselves. According to press reports, the children were forced to earn $240
(200 euros) a day or face severe physical punishment. The child‑traffickers
remained in jail awaiting trial at the end of the year. Police estimated
that 90 percent of the 15 thousand to 18 thousand female prostitutes working
in the country were trafficking victims, and that 3 thousand to 8 thousand
children were forced into prostitution and labor, including begging. Traffickers used
various methods to recruit and retain victims including force, fraud,
confiscating the victim's identification papers, isolating him or her
culturally, and abusing him or her physically or psychologically. Some victims
came to the country willing to work as prostitutes, not knowing they were
going to become trafficking victims. Traffickers kidnapped or
"bought" some women and girls and sold them to Balkans-based
prostitution networks, which smuggled the victims into the country. NGOs and
police characterized the bulk of traffickers in the country as
"micro-trafficking networks" that included both citizens and
foreigners. 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 - |
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