Human Trafficking in [Iraq Street Children in [Iraq] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Iraq] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Iraq [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] Scope and
Magnitude. Iraq is a source and destination country for men and women
trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude.
Iraqi children are trafficked within the country and abroad for commercial
sexual exploitation; criminal gangs may have targeted young boys, and staff
of private orphanages may have trafficked young girls for forced
prostitution. Iraqi women are trafficked within Iraq, as well as to Syria,
Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Iran for the purpose
of commercial sexual exploitation. Iraq is also a destination for men and
women trafficked from Georgia, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nepal,
Philippines, and Sri Lanka for involuntary servitude as construction workers,
cleaners, and handymen. Women from the Philippines and Indonesia are
trafficked into the Kurdish territory for involuntary servitude as domestic
servants. Some of these workers are offered fraudulent jobs in Kuwait or
Jordan, but are then tricked or forced into involuntary servitude in Iraq
instead; others go to Iraq voluntarily, but are still subjected to conditions
of involuntary servitude after arrival. Although the governments of India,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the Philippines have official bans
prohibiting their nationals from working in Iraq, workers from these
countries are coerced into positions in Iraq with threats of abandonment in
Kuwait or Jordan, starvation, or force. Iraq did not take any meaningful
action to address trafficking in persons over the reporting period. Although
it has a functioning judiciary, the government neither prosecuted any
trafficking cases this year nor convicted any traffickers. Furthermore, the
government offers no protection services to victims of trafficking, reported
no efforts to prevent trafficking in persons, and does not acknowledge
trafficking to be a problem in the country. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2008 [full country report] 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 A 16-year-old boy has started a desperate
new life since being forced into the sex trade in ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S. Dept
of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs 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 Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 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) - 1998 [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. U.S.
Investigates Firm Building Embassy in Iraq Federal prosecutors are investigating
the Kuwaiti company building the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, probing allegations
that foreign employees were brought to work on the massive project against
their will and prevented from leaving the country. 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 Iraq Bases Gen. George W. Casey Jr. ordered
that contractors be required by May 1 to return passports that have been
illegally confiscated from laborers on U.S. bases after determining that such
practices violated U.S. laws against trafficking for forced or coerced labor.
Human brokers and subcontractors from South Asia to the Middle East have
worked together to import thousands of laborers into Iraq from impoverished
countries. Focus
on Boys Trapped in Commercial Sex Trade A 16-year-old boy has started a
desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in "Freedom" has become a
cruel joke. Saddam's regime was
brutal, but it was secular, and women in Freedom Or
Theocracy?: Constitutionalism in Afghanistan and Iraq ¶ 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 Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide U.S. Library of Congress
- Country Study Eleven-year-old Mahmoud al-Obaidi
walks seven km every morning to get to work at a carpentry factory in Baghdad
so he can save his bus fares.
Al-Obaidi is the only male in his family of four, as his father
disappeared five years ago and he works to support his family. On average he
spends nearly 10 hours a day in the factory earning a living. "I didn't have a choice. Work was the
only option. I cannot deny that I would like to be at a school, learning like
other children. But I know the responsibility that I have to carry,"
al-Obaidi told IRIN, as he walked to work.
He boy is only one of thousands of Iraqi children forced by poverty to
work at an early age. 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 Iraq trafficking claims Indian press reports said that
Indian nationals in Jordan and Kuwait were recruited for jobs in U.S.
military camps in Iraq as cooks, butchers, laundry workers and handymen. Some of the Indians charge they signed up
through Indian employment companies to work in Kuwait, but ended up in Iraq
working for low pay and were refused permission to leave the country. Forced
Labor added to charges of U.S. crimes in Iraq Four Muslim Indian citizens say
they and about 20 others were abducted by US military personnel in Kuwait and
forced to engage in menial labor for troops at an unspecified base in Iraq.
They said they were paid $200 a month while forcibly held, enduring countless
assaults on the base by Iraqi insurgents in addition to forced labor. After
months of captivity, sixteen of the men managed to escape and make their way
home to India. One of the men said he was beaten by American personnel when
he demanded to be allowed to leave the base. The men said soldiers told them
the military had paid a Kuwaiti firm $1000 a head for the laborers and, thus,
they would not be allowed to leave. Combating
Prostitution, Human Trafficking In Iraq 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 U.S.
contractors do not participate in prostitution or human trafficking-related
activities in Iraq or elsewhere, citing similar problems in the OSCE region. The letter inquires about the
Administration’s efforts to fight the emergence of prostitution and human
trafficking industries in post-conflict Iraq spurred by an influx of
international personnel from the United States and other countries. UNICEF
wary of post-war child trafficking in Iraq In the chaos of the post-war
environment, in Iraq normal community networks that protect children are not
fully functioning. That can leave children exposed to exploitation. Hundreds
of thousands of children are trafficked each year around the world for brutal
child labour and sexual abuse. 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 material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Iraq Street Children in [Iraq] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Iraq] [other countries]