Crusader for Spain's dictator-era baby abductions finds biological family
A woman who became a crusader for babies abducted during Spain's 20th-century dictatorship said Thursday that she has found her biological family and learned that her mother gave her up voluntarily. Ines Madrigal said that thanks to an American DNA bank she has found four ...
With Olympics on way, activist group's next campaign targets human trafficking in Tokyo
As the next Olympic host, Japan has become the focus of a global campaign against child prostitution and exploitation linked to sports, with activists working to shed light on "hidden crimes" they say have a symbiotic relationship with mega-events. Major sporting events attract troves of ...
Sold into marriage, Pakistani women endure rape in China
At first, in her desperate calls home to her mother in Pakistan, Natasha Masih couldn't bring herself to say what they were doing to her. All the 19-year-old would say was that her new husband — a Chinese man her family sold her off to ...
U.S. State Department keeps Japan on top tier of human trafficking list for second year
Japan remained in a group of countries the United States judges to fully meet minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking, according to a State Department report released Thursday. The department placed Japan in Tier 1, the highest classification on the four-tier list, for ...
U.S. human trafficking report drops child separation warning and demotes Cuba and Saudi Arabia
The U.S. State Department's annual human trafficking report released on Thursday demoted Saudi Arabia and Cuba to countries that failed to meet minimum U.S. anti-trafficking standards. The report www.state.gov/reports/2019-trafficking-in-persons-report also dropped a warning from the 2018 issue that traffickers prey on children separated from their ...
Mexico's government on Monday highlighted the weekend "rescue" of nearly 800 migrants packed into semi-trailers, calling the operation a message that authorities are getting serious about combating human smuggling. Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said more than 150 of the 785 migrants found inside the ...
Thailand charges crew of stranded Rohingya boat with aiding illegal immigration
Thai authorities have charged the captain and crew of a boat carrying 65 Rohingya Muslims with assisting illegal immigration after the group was found stranded on a southern Thai island, police said on Wednesday. The 29 men, 31 women and five children were discovered on ...
Mexico City to decriminalize sex work and aim to cut trafficking
Mexico City lawmakers have given the green light to decriminalize sex work in the capital, hoping it will be a first step to a crackdown on sex trafficking that traps thousands of Mexican women and children. Lawmakers in Mexico City's Congress on Friday voted 38-0, ...
Bangladesh picks up 58 Malaysia-bound Rohingya at sea and collars two suspected traffickers
Bangladesh coast guard elements on Thursday stopped 58 Rohingya refugees from making a potentially dangerous journey to Malaysia by sea and arrested two suspected traffickers, an official said. Acting on a tip-off, a patrol ship challenged a fishing boat near Saint Martin's, a small Bangladesh ...
U.S. state prosecutors struggle with human trafficking cases despite laws on the books
Laws cracking down on human trafficking are on the books in all 50 states, but convictions are notoriously elusive, and state prosecutors haven't come close to matching the success their federal counterparts have had in winning cases. States need to add resources into support trafficking ...
Number of human trafficking victims rescued in 2018 fell to 27, most of them Japanese
Twenty-seven people were rescued from human trafficking in Japan in 2018, of whom two-thirds were Japanese, with the figure falling from 46 the previous year, a government report showed Friday. Eighteen of the victims were Japanese, while five were Filipinos and four were Thais. Only ...
Poor Christian Pakistani girls trafficked to China in new, allegedly abusive 'bride market'
Muqadas Ashraf was just 16 when her parents married her off to a Chinese man who had come to Pakistan looking for a bride. Less than five months later, Muqadas is back in her home country, pregnant and seeking a divorce from a husband ...
