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/Iceland.htm
Iceland is primarily
a destination country and, to a lesser extent, a transit country for men and
women from the Baltic states, Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, Equatorial Guinea,
Brazil, and China trafficked to and through Iceland to Western European
states for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor in
the restaurant and construction industries. - 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 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. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** In Gudrún Jónsdóttir, Women's www.womensmediacenter.com/blog/entry/in-iceland-our-long-sought-victory-in-battling-human-trafficking [accessed 17 April 2012] [accessed 30 January 2018] On April 17, the last day before Iceland’s parliament adjourned to
prepare for elections on April 25, members passed a bill criminalizing the
act of buying individuals for purposes of prostitution. Patterned on the
Swedish law that addresses the demand fueling the commercial sex industry,
the action was hailed as an historic moment in the international struggle
against human trafficking. The entire women´s
movement in ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Iceland 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/iceland/
[accessed 9 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Some instances of
forced labor occurred. Traffickers subjected men and women to forced labor in
construction, tourism, and restaurants. Foreign “posted workers” were at
particular risk of forced labor because traffickers paid them in their home
countries and contracted them to work for up to 183 days in the country under
the guise of avoiding taxes and union fees, limiting tax authorities’ and
union officials’ ability to monitor their work conditions and pay. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT The government
effectively enforced applicable laws. Penalties were commensurate with those
for similar crimes. Inspection capacity was sufficient to enforce compliance.
Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/iceland/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 8 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Citizens generally
enjoy fair access to economic opportunity. However, the systematic
exploitation of migrant workers, including underpaying employees and denying
overtime, has become a significant problem in recent years, especially in the
tourism industry. Employers who exploit workers have largely acted with
impunity due to an inadequate government response. Wage theft is not
punishable by law. There are reports of forced labor, primarily involving
migrants, in the construction and service industries, and of forced sex work
in nightclubs. Iceland
criminalized human trafficking in 2009. In its 2019 Trafficking in Persons
Report, the US State Department reported that law enforcement efforts to
combat trafficking remained weak, and that no one
has been prosecuted or convicted of human trafficking since 2010. Woman Arrested for
Human Trafficking in Iceland www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=21123&ew_0_a_id=320433 [accessed 9 February 2011] www.icelandreview.com/news/woman-arrested-human-trafficking-iceland/ [accessed 9 February 2019] A woman, who is
suspected of human trafficking, having organized prostitution in Iceland and
profited from it, was arrested at Keflavík
International Airport last week and has been taken into custody until Friday.
Red Cross Reacts to
Human Trafficking in www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=21123&ew_0_a_id=300165 [accessed 9 February 2011] icelandreview.com/news/2008/02/04/red-cross-reacts-human-trafficking-iceland [accessed 30 January 2018] Margrét Steinarsdóttir, a lawyer at Ahús who has assisted victims of human trafficking, said it has different forms but what all victims have in common is that they are in a desperate situation which criminals take advantage of. They may come to Actions Against
Human Trafficking www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=21123&ew_0_a_id=307522 [accessed 9 February
2011] icelandreview.com/news/2008/06/11/actions-against-human-trafficking [accessed 30 January
2018] The Icelandic
government is preparing a plan on how to act on human trafficking. The plan
will be ready in the fall. Current
Icelandic laws include no clauses on how to protect the victims of human
trafficking. Those who have been sold to slavery cannot file for residence or
work permits on the grounds of human trafficking. Morgunbladid
reports. The Icelandic police are
also not equipment to deal with those circumstances. According to Hildur Jónsdóttir, a member of
the task force which is creating the plan, there is a huge task to be
done. The police must be capable of recognizing
human trafficking and make those involved in it stand trial. The welfare
system must also be fit enough to receive the victims. The operation plan
calls for co-operation between the police, the welfare system as well as
health institutes and organizations that work for human rights. The
Protection Project - Iceland [DOC] The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/iceland.doc [accessed 2009] FORMS
OF TRAFFICKING
– In February 2002, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women expressed concern that ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights Reports
» 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/eur/119084.htm [accessed 9 February 2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Cases fell into several categories, none of which included more than a few
documented victims: undocumented Asian and eastern European workers in
construction and manufacturing who were underpaid and forced to live in
substandard employer-provided housing; "mail-order" or
"Internet" brides from eastern Europe and Asia trapped with abusive
husbands, with some reports of forced prostitution; and underpaid or mistreated
prostitutes and workers in nightclubs and massage parlors. In March labor
authorities and union representatives reported that a Chinese restaurant in 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 - |
