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Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early years of the 21st Century gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Iraq.htm
Iraq is both a source
and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the
purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude. Iraqi
women and girls, some as young as 11 years old, are trafficked within the
country and abroad to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, UAE, Turkey, Iran, and
possibly Yemen, for forced prostitution and sexual exploitation within
households in these countries. Some victims are sexually exploited in Iraq
before being sold to traffickers who take them abroad. In some cases, women
are lured into sexual exploitation through false promises of work. The more
prevalent means of becoming a victim is through sale or forced marriage.
Family members have trafficked girls and women to escape desperate economic
circumstances, to pay debts, or resolve disputes between families. Some women
and girls are trafficked within CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Focus on Boys
Trapped in Commercial Sex Trade UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, August 8, 2005 www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/167/35567.html [accessed 13 February 2011] A 16-year-old boy
has started a desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Rania Abouzeid, www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1883696,00.html?xid=newsletter-weekly [accessed 13 February 2011] That underworld is
a place where nefarious female pimps hold sway, where impoverished mothers
sell their teenage daughters into a sex market that believes females who
reach the age of 20 are too old to fetch a good price. The youngest victims,
some just 11 and 12, are sold for as much as $30,000, others for as little as
$2,000. "The buying and selling of girls in Iraq, it's like the trade in
cattle," Hinda says. "I've seen mothers
haggle with agents over the price of their daughters." (See pictures of
Iraq since the fall of Saddam.) The trafficking
routes are both local and international, most often to Syria, Jordan and the
Gulf (primarily the United Arab Emirates). The victims are trafficked
illegally on forged passports, or "legally" through forced
marriages. A married female, even one as young as 14, raises few suspicions
if she's travelling with her "husband." The girls are then divorced
upon arrival and put to work. (See Iraq's return to "normalcy".) ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/iraq.htm [accessed 13 February 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Anti-government militias, such as Al-Sadr’s Mahdi
Army, exploit children as young as ten years old as child soldiers. CHILD
LABOR LAWS AND ENFORCEMENT - The Criminal Code, which predates the Iraqi conflict
but remains in effect, prohibits any form of compulsory or forced labor. Order 89 prohibits the worst forms of child
labor, which it defines as all forms of slavery, debt bondage, forced labor,
trafficking of children, compulsory use of children in armed conflict, child
prostitution, illicit activity, including drug trafficking and work likely to
harm the health, safety or morals, among others Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61689.htm [accessed 13 February 2011] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Detection of trafficking was extremely difficult due to lack of information
because of the security situation, existing societal controls of women, and
the closed-tribal culture. There were reports of girls and women trafficked
within the country for sexual exploitation.
Five European countries successfully stymied a criminal network
trafficking Iraqi citizens to Concluding Observations of the Committee on
the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 9
October 1998 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/iraq1998.html [accessed 13 February 2011] [26] The Committee
notes with concern that the economic exploitation of children has increased
dramatically in the past few years and that an increasing number of children
are leaving school, sometimes at an early age, to work to support themselves
and their families. In this regard, the Committee is also concerned about the
existing gap between the age at which compulsory education ends (12 years
old) and the minimum legal age for access to employment (15 years old). The
Committee recommends that research be carried out on the situation with
regard to child labor in the State party, including the involvement of
children in hazardous work, to identify the causes and the extent of the
problem. Rania Abouzeid, www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1883696,00.html?xid=newsletter-weekly [accessed 13 February 2011] That underworld is
a place where nefarious female pimps hold sway, where impoverished mothers
sell their teenage daughters into a sex market that believes females who
reach the age of 20 are too old to fetch a good price. The youngest victims,
some just 11 and 12, are sold for as much as $30,000, others for as little as
$2,000. "The buying and selling of girls in Iraq, it's like the trade in
cattle," Hinda says. "I've seen mothers
haggle with agents over the price of their daughters." (See pictures of
Iraq since the fall of Saddam.) The trafficking
routes are both local and international, most often to Syria, Jordan and the
Gulf (primarily the United Arab Emirates). The victims are trafficked
illegally on forged passports, or "legally" through forced
marriages. A married female, even one as young as 14, raises few suspicions
if she's travelling with her "husband." The girls are then divorced
upon arrival and put to work. (See Iraq's return to "normalcy".) Yochi J. Dreazen, The Wall Street Journal/Business, online.wsj.com/article/SB118118318284127413.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us&apl=y [partially accessed 13 February 2011 -
access restricted] Federal prosecutors
are investigating the Kuwaiti company building the U.S. Embassy in The Department of
Justice launched the probe of First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting
Co. after former employees alleged that workers at the company were told they
were being sent to Dubai, only to wind up in Iraq instead, people familiar
with the matter said. According to the allegations, First Kuwaiti confiscated
the workers' passports, so they were unable to depart Baghdad. Abuses Found in Hiring at Cam Simpson, The Baltimore Sun ( www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0424-04.htm [accessed 13 February 2011] Gen. George W.
Casey Jr. ordered that contractors be required by May 1 to return passports
that have been illegally confiscated from laborers on Focus on Boys Trapped
in Commercial Sex Trade UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, August 8, 2005 www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/167/35567.html [accessed 13 February 2011] A 16-year-old boy
has started a desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Cry, the Beloved Iraqi Women www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/17/103717/905 [accessed 13 February 2011] "Freedom"
has become a cruel joke. Saddam's
regime was brutal, but it was secular, and women in Freedom or Theocracy?: Constitutionalism in
www.law.northwestern.edu/journals/jihr/v3/4/ [accessed 13 February 2011] ¶ 113 Women suffered along
with many other Iraqis as a result of the war to oust Saddam. A breakdown of law and order after the fall
of Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 6 Civil Liberties: 6 Status: Not Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/iraq [accessed 26 June 2012] Human Rights
Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/iraq [accessed 13 February 2011] Library of Congress Call Number DS70.6
.I734 1990 lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/iqtoc.html [accessed 13 February 2011] UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=41044 [accessed 13 February 2011] Eleven-year-old
Mahmoud al-Obaidi walks seven km every morning to
get to work at a carpentry factory in More than a million
youngsters work often enduring hazardous conditions, as well as being
vulnerable to sexual abuse and violence, according to a report released at
the end of 2004. The report was based on a nationwide survey in which 19,610
Iraqis participated. Probe into Elise Labott, CNN
State Department Producer, edition.cnn.com/2004/US/05/05/iraq.india.trafficking/ [accessed 13 February 2011] Indian press
reports said that Indian nationals in Forced Labor added to charges of U.S.
crimes in Iraq The NewStandard,
May 5, 2004 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] Four Muslim Indian
citizens say they and about 20 others were abducted by US military personnel in
Indians say they were held against their
will in V.M. Thomas, Associated Press At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] Faisal said the
four men paid $1,750 each to a travel agent, who arranged the Combating Prostitution, Human Trafficking
In Press Release: Commission On Security And Coperation In www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0305/S00297.htm [accessed 13 February 2011] Eight Members of
the United States Helsinki Commission have written to Deputy Secretary of
State Richard L. Armitage requesting information
about State Department efforts to ensure that UNICEF wary of post-war child trafficking
in Iraq UNICEF Press Centre, www.unicef.org/newsline/2003/03nn50iraqtrafficking.htm [accessed 13 February 2011] In the chaos of the
post-war environment, in While well-meaning
people around the world might think that international adoption is a
legitimate way to help some of these children quickly, UNICEF is concerned
that too often unscrupulous child traffickers will try exploiting the chaos
and trying to pass themselves off as legitimate agents of good. - htsc All
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Torture in [Iraq] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Iraq Street Children in [Iraq] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Iraq] [other countries]