Europe-wide op targets W. African human trafficking

In Germany, the BKA and 90 local police authorities in 12 German states took part in the raid. Checks were also conducted at German airports.

Authorities in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland joined Germany in conducting checks of brothels, while Spanish and Italian authorities provided support services. The United Kingdom also provided intelligence support and looked further into transit routes.

Europol said that more than 468 West Africans, consisting mainly of women, were checked in the countries involved. The investigation is still ongoing, Europol added.

In its statement, Europol describes an international network of human traffickers, woman forced into prostitution, and people who play supporting roles by laundering money or providing passports or forged documents.

“After being recruited in their home countries, the victims are smuggled to Europe and sent to brothels with forged identity documents,” the statement read. “Perpetrators use voodoo, which is also practiced in West Africa, as a means of exerting pressure on their victims, to intimidate them or break their resistance.”

Source: DW

Central Africa: High Cost of Child Trafficking

Forced child labour remains rampant in Central Africa, where poverty fuels the trafficking of children from poorer countries to oil-rich states such as Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Congo, according to experts.

“Trafficking in children is real,” said Gabon’s social affairs director-general, Mélanie Mbadinga Matsanga. “Gabon, for example, is considered an Eldorado and draws a lot of West African immigrants who traffic children.”

(AllAfrica.com)

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=world/2012/01/17/cfp-intv-sophi-tranchell.cnn

A ‘Divine’ effort

CNN’s Richard Quest talks with Sophi Tranchell of Divine Chocolate about efforts to end slave labor in the cocoa trade.

Freaking love Divine Chocolates, and LOVE how they work WITH farmers and keep things Fair Trade.  Find a Divine source near your (often in fair trade shops) and support the farmers.

(Source: http://i.cdn.turner.com/)

Thousands of Children sold, exchanged and trafficked in West Africa

The report focuses on the countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Togo during the years of 2008-2010.The report focuses on migrant children, and how they are increasingly vulnerable to exploitation and being trafficked.Many of the children may leave their communities because of conflict within the family, or the desire for education, apprenticeships or job opportunities to help their families. Often leaving their homes is motivated by the quest for a better life.Home reasons are not so voluntary. There are reports of children being forced to beg on the streets due to the fact that they have left their homes due to hunger and see begging as the only way to survive.

(SOS Children’s Villages)
Thousands of Children sold, exchanged and trafficked in West Africa

Every year thousands of West Africans migrate to Europe in search of a better life. But for some, that search will end in tragedy as they fall victim to organised crime gangs. In one area of southern Italy, thousands of women from Nigeria are trapped in a nightmare world of prostitution. Many are trafficked illegally by Nigerian criminals, who deceive them with promises of regular jobs. Italy has an estimated 10,000 madams, each controlling an average of two or three girls per year. Once a trafficked girl reaches Europe, she has to pay off debts to her madam of up to $85,000. It will take her at least five years. Madams confiscate the girls’ passports to stop them from escaping and charge them for rent, clothes and food. Threatened with violence if they do not comply, the girls also have to run risks with their clients. (Juliana Ruhfus for Al Jazeera English)

Nigerians lured to Italy to work in sex trade – Africa – Al Jazeera English