| 1. Council of Europe Convention completed
The Council of Europe Convention
on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings was adopted
by the Committee of Ministers on 3 May 2005. It was opened for
signature at the Summit in Warsaw on 16-17 May 2005.
The treaty identifies trafficking as a violation of human rights,
covers both transnational and internal trafficking, contains
minimum standards for the protection of the rights of trafficked
people (including a reflection period of 30 days) and sets out
provisions related to the
prevention and criminalisation of trafficking. It also establishes
an independent body of experts (GRETA) to monitor the implementation
of the treaty by those states that have ratified it.
To date, the following 14 European countries have signed the
Convention: Armenia, Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Iceland, Luxembourg,
Malta, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and
Montenegro, and Sweden.
Anti-Slavery International, Amnesty International and other
organisations are calling on all European countries to ratify
the Convention. See the joint
press release for the full text of the Convention and other
information.
2. ILO issues global forced labour report
On 11 May the International Labour Organization launched its
report A
Global Alliance Against Forced Labour. The report estimates
that at least 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour
worldwide. Of these, 9.8 million are exploited by private agents,
including more than 2.4 million in forced labour as a result
of human trafficking. The ILO estimates that the profits derived
each year from trafficked people are over US $31 billion. The
report finds that most trafficked people are in the Asia and
Pacific region. It also states that 32 per cent of trafficked
people are used for forced economic exploitation and 43 per
cent for forced commercial sexual exploitation. The remainder
are trafficked for a mixture of the above.
3. Trafficking and migration from North
Korea
Anti-Slavery International is concerned that some migrants
seeking to escape the food crisis in North Korea by crossing
into the People's Republic of China are falling prey to traffickers.
Furthermore, those irregular North Korean migrants who are detected
by the Chinese authorities are being forcibly repatriated to
North Korea where they are detained in poor conditions and subjected
to
forced labour. The situation for forcibly returned North Koreans
is so bad that, in his 2005 report, the UN Special Rapporteur
on Human Rights in North Korea recognised that North Koreans
in China are refugees sur place. For
more information on trafficking and migration from North Korea.
4. Hundreds of children unaccounted for
in the UK
Hundreds of African boys have disappeared from London schools,
according to police investigating the murder of a boy whose
torso was left in the Thames. This raised concerns that some
of the missing boys may have been trafficked. For
more information go to the BBC website.
5. Migration resources
The Migration Information Source, a project of the Migration
Policy Institute, has two updated country profiles which may
be of interest, one of the United
Kingdom and one of Norway.
The International Organization for Migration has produced a
report on Millennium Development Goals and Migration (2005).
This paper discusses the linkages between migration and the
Millennium Development Goals, with specific focus on poverty
alleviation, gender, health, environmental sustainability and
global partnerships.
The 44-page report argues that the impact of migration on development
can be both positive and negative and, if properly engaged,
migrants can be a supporting factor towards the achievement
of development targets. The report can be bought for US$16.
For more information go to http://www.iom.int
or e-mail mailto:publications@iom.int
6. Trafficking information and vacancy
Trafficking
Alert has produced its May 2005 international edition which
includes a feature on the link between government corruption
and human trafficking and other trafficking related articles.
Anti-Slavery International is seeking a Trafficking
Programme Officer to play a leading role in planning, developing
and implementing Anti-Slavery International's work to end the
trafficking of people and to promote the human rights of trafficked
people and migrants. Closing date for applications is 10 June.
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