In this week’s round-up of slavery news in the U.S. and around the world we have: possibly a new school for Texan Johns; Missouri cracks down hard on traffickers and increases support for victims; Columbia, Italy, and Taiwan receive high praise for their efforts to eradicate trafficking inside their borders; and a new report highlights U.S. as a “hot spot” destination for enslaved people from Argentina. Here are the links:
- Researchers commissioned by the U.S. Department of State recognized Columbia, Italy, and Taiwan as the top three countries that “deserve high recognition for [their] efforts to eliminate cross-border human trafficking.” The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, issued annually by the U.S. Department of State, reported that “Taiwanese authorities took various corrective measures to fight trafficking in 2009, including banning for-profit marriage brokerage firms and implementing the Human Trafficking Prevention and Control Act,” which went into effect in June 2009. Read more at Focus Taiwan.
- Texas may be getting a “John School.” In an attempt to attack the demand side of the equation that creates the market for trafficking women and girls into sex slavery the Texas House has passed a bill which would authorize “the creation of first-offender programs at the local level for eligible first-time prostitution and trafficking offenders.” Read the full story at OpposingViews.com.
- The Missouri legislature is aiming to crack down hard on traffickers in their state. They have passed and sent a bill to the governor that would “give victims a minimum $100,000 award and further assistance through the Department of Public Safety.” The bill was passed unanimously by both houses. Read the full story at CBS St. Louis.
- The Latin American and Caribbean Coalition Against Human Trafficking has released a new report that “suggests that over 80 percent of those trafficked [from Argentina] to the US work as sex workers under false pretenses.” In addition to the U.S., Thailand, Japan, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy are ranked as top destination countries for forced labor and forced prostitution. See PressTV’s coverage here.
If you missed our earlier coverage of slavery in the news, get caught up on all your slavery current event reading by checking out our earlier post. Links: Slavery in the News (May 12).