What Is Human Trafficking? I am Jane Doe, Communications Decency Act shields Backpage from liability, Europe Global Hub for Child Abuse Websites

– Europe Overtakes U.S. to Become Global Hub for Child Abuse Websites, Study Finds
– Child trafficking in UK hits record high, figures show

“federal judges were excusing Backpage from all liability,” said Mazzio. “Even alleged criminal activity is shielded by an outdated internet freedom law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

“Almost 21 million people are victims of forced labor”

What Is Human Trafficking? 
Tom Lowery, Contributor 03/26/2017

Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. It’s the exploitation of people and involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.

Contrary to popular misconception, Human Trafficking exists in every country, including the United States. If you think it’s always about foreigners and poor people then it’s imperative for you acquaint yourself with the facts.

Victims can be any age, race, gender or nationality. They can also come from any socioeconomic group. They’re not dirty or sex mad or stupid. They’re victims of a wide network of underground criminals….

It’s estimated that Human Trafficking generates many billions of dollars in profits per year; second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable form of transnational crime.

Award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio (whom I’ve previously written about in my article We Are All Jane Doe), is the producer and director of the film I Am Jane Doe. This documentary followed the heart breaking journey of several middle-school daughters, victims of Sex Trafficking on Backpage.com….

“I was also struck by the fact that federal judges were excusing Backpage from all liability,” said Mazzio. “Even alleged criminal activity is shielded by an outdated internet freedom law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, in a particularly stunning decision, told these Jane Doe children that even if Backpage participated in the federal crime of sex trafficking, the case had to be dismissed. It simply did not make any sense to me that it was legal to host ads for the sale of children here in the United States.” ….

Other types of crimes related to Human Trafficking include Forced Labor and Slave Labor. The International Labor Organization estimates are frightening:

Almost 21 million people are victims of forced labor – 11.4 million women and girls and 9.5 million men and boys.
Almost 19 million victims are exploited by private individuals or enterprises and over 2 million by the state or rebel groups.
Of those exploited by individuals or enterprises, 4.5 million are victims of forced sexual exploitation.
Forced labor in the private economy generates US$ 150 billion in illegal profits per year.
Domestic work, agriculture, construction, manufacturing and entertainment are among the sectors most concerned.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-is-human-trafficking_us_58d85f7ee4b0c0980ac0e789

I AM JANE DOE – TRAILER
Mary Mazzio
I AM JANE DOE chronicles the epic battle that several American mothers are waging on behalf of their middle-school daughters, victims of sex trafficking on Backpage.com, the adult classifieds section that for years was part of the iconic Village Voice.
Narrated by Academy Award-nominee Jessica Chastain, directed by award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio, and produced by Mazzio and Academy-Award nominee, Alec Sokolow, the film is a gut-wrenching human story and fresh look at a social and legal issue that affects every community in America.  For more, please visit IamJaneDoeFilm.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt8jpxA_AY0

Europe Overtakes U.S. to Become Global Hub for Child Abuse Websites, Study Finds 
By Eleanor Ross  4/3/17

Europe is now the global hub of websites hosting child pornography, after a 19 percent jump in content since last year, a new report has found.

The report, conducted by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), found that Europe hosted the greatest number of websites with graphic images and videos of children. The Netherlands has become the country with the most online sexual imagery of children in Europe. (For the purpose of the report, Europe includes Russia and Turkey.)

The IWF is a non-profit, responsible for finding and removing graphic sexual content from the internet.

Until recently, most child sexual abuse images were found in the United States (57 percent), but this has now shifted to Europe, which hosts 60 percent of all material says the report.

Child abuse content has fallen in the United States partly because of work undertaken by the U.S. industry to tackle the problem. Susie Hargreaves, director of the IWF, told the BBC criminals are forced to search harder for host websites where they can upload child pornography. Just 37 percent of abusive images now come from the United States.

“The situation is reversed from previous years. Europe is now the biggest host of child sexual abuse imagery, rather than North America,” Hargreaves told the BBC.  There have been no changes in Europe’s policy that would explain the shift, according to the IWF report….
http://www.newsweek.com/europe-worst-hosts-most-child-abuse-websites-study-finds-578022

Child trafficking in UK hits record high, figures show
Number of child victims referred rise by 30 per cent in a year, with biggest surge among British children and youngsters from countries affected by conflict      May Bulman   April 3, 2017

Child trafficking referrals in the UK have hit a record high after rising by 30 per cent in a year, statistics have revealed.

The number of children referred to the UK Government’s National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which identifies victims of human trafficking, increased to 1,278 in 2016, the highest figure on record, according to the latest figures from the National Crime Agency.

More than a third of all potential victims of trafficking were children aged 18 and under, with a majority of children drawn into exploitative labour, including forced criminality, such as cannabis cultivation. Overall, the NRM identified 3,805 potential victims of trafficking in 2016, a 17 per cent increase on 2015…..

All reported forms of exploitation affecting children – domestic servitude, labour exploitation and sexual exploitation – increased by considerable percentages, indicating a worrying diffusion of the types of abuses suffered by children.

Alarmingly, while numbers of potential victims of trafficking increased, positive conclusive decisions — which enable victims to access support — decreased to the lowest point in NRM history to 635, compared with 1,028 the previous year….
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/child-trafficking-referrals-in-uk-hit-record-high-figures-show-a7665201.html

The Survivorship Ritual Abuse and Mind Control 2017 Conference
May 19 – 21, 2017  Oakland, CA
https://survivorship.org/the-survivorship-ritual-abuse-and-child-abuse-2017-conference/


Articles and Research by Neil Brick
http://neilbrick.com
#Neil_Brick  #NeilBrick

 

Human trafficking is a global crime, preacher Victor Barnard pleads guilty to sexual assault, Force was routine in juvenile centre, Neil Brick advocate and researcher for survivors of child/ritual abuse

Trafficking in America Task Force Mission Statement:
To educate and empower local, state and federal law enforcement and the public with the tools to make a difference in the fight against human trafficking. To advocate for all victims and survivors of human trafficking with a focus on trafficked males….

Human trafficking is a global crime hidden in plain sight:
….According to social scientists there are an estimated 27 million victims of human trafficking in the world today. Only a small fraction of those have been found. (U.S. State Department)

The total market value of illicit human trafficking is estimated to be in excess of $32 billion. (United Nations)
According to the United Nations human trafficking generates $9.5 billion yearly in the United States.

….The average jail time served for someone found guilty of buying sex with a child is about 1.5 years. (Shared Hope International’s Demanding Justice Project)

….Responsible for child sex trafficking:
Immediate Family 36%
Boyfriends 27%
Friend of the family 14%
Employers 14%
(Typically labor trafficking)
Strangers 9%
(2015 EMSI Rescue and Restore Regional Conference to Combat Human Trafficking)

UNICEF estimates there are nearly two million children in the commercial sex trade
http://traffickinginamericataskforce.org/

Fugitive preacher Victor Barnard pleads guilty to sexual assault, will serve 30 years
Ex-fugitive gets 30 years under surprise plea deal.
By Jennifer Brooks Star Tribune
October 11, 2016

Fugitive preacher Victor Barnard will spend the next 30 years in prison for raping teenage girls entrusted to his care.

Barnard, who fled halfway across the globe to avoid prosecution, made a surprise confession in a Pine County courtroom Tuesday, accepting a plea agreement on two counts of felony sexual assault against young women he isolated from their families and molested for years.

Barnard, 55, accepted two consecutive 15-year sentences that almost guarantee that the leader of the cultlike River Road Fellowship will spend most or all of his life behind bars….

Barnard used to compare himself to Jesus, sometimes dressing in shepherd’s robes as he moved among his followers. Taking the plea deal, without having to go through the lurid details in court, might also allow him to cast himself in a new role as martyr, Tornambe said. That “is how he sees himself, as an apostle …[as] pretty much Jesus Christ in the flesh,” she said. “So he would take this on to spare the church.”

Tornambe spent years fighting to convince family, friends and Pine County officials that something terrible had happened to her during her years with the secretive River Road Fellowship. As the trial loomed, she had not been afraid of another fight in court….

‘Maidens’ at ages 12 and 13

Barnard had coaxed families in the River Road Fellowship to send their daughters to him, promising that a group of young women he called “maidens” would live lives of prayer and purity. Years later, two of the so-called maidens turned to Pine County authorities for help, saying Barnard began raping them almost as soon as he separated them from their families. They were 12 and 13 at the time.

Barnard left Pine County in 2009 amid rumors of sexual impropriety and financial bankruptcy. When Pine County brought charges against him in 2014, he fled, setting off an international manhunt….
http://www.startribune.com/accused-cult-leader-stands-trial-in-pine-county/396680501/

Child abuse reports written off as ‘unsubstantiated’ with no investigation, NT royal commission hears
Child protection services did not have time to get to reports and use of force was routine in juvenile centre, commission told on first day of hearings   Helen Davidson in Darwin

Tuesday 11 October 2016

Child protections services wrote off reports of possible abuse as “unsubstantiated” because they didn’t have time to get to them and the use of force inside Don Dale was “a matter of normal conduct”, the Northern Territory royal commission has heard.

The royal commission into the protection and detention of children in the Northern Territory began its first public hearing in Darwin’s supreme court on Tuesday….

Earlier, the commission heard from the national commissioner for children, Megan Mitchell, who told the court she had toured a number of detention centres around the country, including Don Dale in May.

“It was clear that isolation was frequently and routinely used and for very long periods of time,” she said, elaborating that some children were held in high-security isolation for 23 hours a day for several weeks.

“It was also clear that the use of force was routinely used as a matter of normal conduct of the business of the organisation, not just … when there was an incident or to overcome an incident.”

She said the poor conditions of the facility were also breaches of human rights….
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/oct/11/child-abuse-reports-written-off-as-unsubstantiated-with-no-investigation-nt-royal-commission-hears

Neil Brick is an advocate and researcher for survivors of child and ritual abuse. He has worked for years to expose child and ritual abuse crimes. Neil Brick has written many research papers on child and ritual abuse issues. Neil Brick runs several Internet lists to help survivors of child abuse as well as expose child abuse crimes and their cover up. https://independent.academia.edu/neilbrick   http://neilbrick.com

How Cues and Programming Work in Mind Control and Propaganda by Neil Brick
https://www.academia.edu/29062863/How_Cues_and_Programming_Work_in_Mind_Control_and_Propaganda

The Battle to Stop Ritual Abuse by Neil Brick
https://www.academia.edu/28972882/The_Battle_to_Stop_Ritual_Abuse

How to Avoid Being Mind Controlled at a Conference by Neil Brick
https://www.academia.edu/28973060/How_to_Avoid_Being_Mind_Controlled_at_a_Conference

Doing the right thing and getting stronger at the same time, a survivor’s path to recovery and helping others by Neil Brick   https://www.academia.edu/28973168/Doing_the_right_thing_and_getting_stronger_at_the_same_time_a_survivor_s_path_to_recovery_and_helping_others

How Cues and Programming Work in Mind Control and Propaganda by Neil Brick
https://www.academia.edu/29062863/How_Cues_and_Programming_Work_in_Mind_Control_and_Propaganda

stopritualabuse – Google+
https://plus.google.com/+stopritualabusetoday
child abuse, ritual abuse and mind control research – Information on ritual abuse, satanic ritual abuse, clergy abuse, cult abuse, child abuse

 

Hastert Protected by Child Abuse Law, Truth about Thalidomide, Thailand-U.S. sex trafficking ring, Urban Legends of Those Attacking Ritual Abuse Theories

– Victim Says Hastert ‘A Monster’ Protected by Child Abuse Law
– Film explores Harold Evans’s work to expose the truth about thalidomide
– Arrests made in Thailand-U.S. sex trafficking ring

Victim Says Hastert ‘A Monster’ Protected by Child Abuse Law
By Ivan Moreno, Associated Press
CHICAGO — Oct 4, 2016
A man who said Dennis Hastert sexually abused him decades ago told Illinois lawmakers Tuesday the former U.S. House speaker was “a monster” who was protected by the statute of limitations and wasn’t appropriately punished.

The comments from 54-year-old Scott Cross came as lawmakers are considering joining 37 other states that don’t have a statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases. Hastert was sentenced in April to 15 months in prison for violating banking laws while trying to silence one of four victims identified by prosecutors, but Illinois’ statute of limitations meant he couldn’t be charged with sexual abuse, which could’ve sent Hastert to prison for decades.

“This topic, while difficult for me to discuss, is one that cannot be swept under the rug,” said Cross, his voice at times shaking as he urged a panel of lawmakers to change the limits of current law.

Lawmakers have four similar proposals pending that would eliminate Illinois’ statute of limitations for sexually abusing children….
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/hastert-illinois-pushes-change-child-abuse-law-42547014

Film explores Harold Evans’s work to expose the truth about thalidomide
Marsha Lederman
The Globe and Mail
Friday, Apr. 17, 2015

The film connects the dots between Hitler and thalidomide. One of the inventors of sarin gas was ordered by Hitler to develop an antidote to the nerve gas. Otto Ambros (the “A” in sarin), a Nazi official involved in Auschwitz, convicted at Nuremberg but later freed, went on to work at Chemie Gruenenthal – the German company that developed thalidomide. In the film, the Thalidomide Trust presents convincing (although still circumstantial) evidence that the drug may have been tested on concentration camp inmates. “My God, I never thought I’d see the likes of that again,” said the uncle of a thalidomide baby when he first met him. He was one of the soldiers who liberated Bergen-Belsen, where he saw small children who looked a lot like his new nephew….

Thalidomide, as the film documents, was developed by Chemie Gruenenthal, and marketed as a miracle drug for pregnant women suffering from morning sickness, beginning in 1957. The results were devastating: Thousands of babies were born with severe birth defects (one father recounts seeing his newborn daughter who could “only be described as a torso with sort of little flowers where the arms and legs should be,” he says in the film). Many babies were stillborn – or left to die, the film explains in one of its many heartbreaking details….

The children who did survive were often shunned by society (and sometimes by their abandoning fathers) and they presented terrific challenges for loving but desperate parents, including mothers who were also dealing with a tremendous (if completely unfounded) guilt. By 1962, widespread bans were implemented. In Britain, to Evans’s astonishment, no inquiry was called, no compensation offered. The families, frantic for help, were left to sue. But once the case was before the courts, newspapers were prevented from reporting on the issue until every case was settled.

At the Sunday Times, Evans sicced the paper’s investigative Insight team on the injustice. Risking jail time, Evans launched what he called a moral campaign in his paper, which eventually produced significant results: a debate over compensation in the House of Commons, which opened the door for other media to report on the story. The company manufacturing the drug in Britain, Distillers (which no longer exists), reeled – consumers boycotted its alcohol products; share prices plummeted. Distillers finally agreed to pay the £20-million in compensation Evans had been calling for….
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/film-explores-harold-evans-work-to-expose-the-truth-about-thalidomide/article24009573/

Watch the trailer for Attacking the Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/video/video-watch-the-trailer-for-attacking-the-devil/article24105902/

Arrests made in Thailand-U.S. sex trafficking ring
Amy Forliti, Associated Press · Minneapolis · Oct 4, 2016

About a dozen people were arrested in cities across the U.S. on Tuesday for running what authorities called a sophisticated sex trafficking operation in which hundreds of women were brought from Thailand to America under fraudulent visas and forced to work as prostitutes to pay off tens of thousands of dollars in bondage debts.

The women — including one who was forced to have sex with strangers for 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week — were not allowed to move about freely and were “effectively modern day sex slaves,” according to a redacted indictment unsealed Tuesday.

The arrests, along with the recent arrest of the organization’s boss in Belgium, will effectively dismantle the operation, said Alex Khu, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Minneapolis….

Tuesday’s indictment charges 17 people with various counts, including conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit forced labor, conspiracy to engage in money laundering and conspiracy to commit visa fraud. About a dozen people were arrested in the Minneapolis area, Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Khu said his office began investigating a sex trafficking case in the Twin Cities in January 2014 and discovered it was part of an international ring and “a very sophisticated, complex network operating throughout the United States … where women are really placed on a circuit, traveling from one city to the next.”

According to the indictment, since 2009, hundreds of women were brought from Bangkok, Thailand, to several U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Washington and Dallas. The women were from poor backgrounds, spoke little English and were lured with promises of a better life….
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/10/04/thailand-us-sex-trafficking-ring-arrests-made


Exposing Doug Mesner/Lucien Greaves – co-founder of the Satanic Temple and Grey Faction presenter
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/exposing-doug-mesnerlucien-greaves-co-founder-of-the-satanic-temple-and-grey-faction-presenter/

The Urban Legends of Those Attacking Ritual Abuse Theories
https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2016-conference/the-urban-legends-of-those-attacking-ritual-abuse-theories/  Satanic Temple, Grey Faction, Doug Mesner/Lucien Greaves

Petition to Stop Attacks Against Child Abuse and Ritual Abuse Survivors and Neil Brick
https://www.change.org/p/protect-child-abuse-survivors-petition-to-stop-attacks-against-child-abuse-and-ritual-abuse-survivors-and-neil-brick

Treaties against human trafficking key to fighting scourge, supporting victims, ASEAN convention against human trafficking, Americans fight human trafficking of child sex workers overseas

– Treaties against human trafficking key to fighting scourge, supporting victims – UN anti-crime official
– Indonesia to ratify ASEAN convention against human trafficking
– Americans fight human trafficking of child sex workers overseas

Treaties against human trafficking key to fighting scourge, supporting victims – UN anti-crime official

29 September 2016 – With current armed conflicts and humanitarian crises driving massive population movements – and not just in Europe, though the continent has been heavily challenged – an upcoming United Nations report will confirm the troubling fact that human trafficking generally follows the overall migratory flows, a senior UN anti-crime official said today, urging States to back the Trafficking in Persons Protocol and other international tools to address the evolving and complex situation….

“The forthcoming biennial 2016 UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, which will be released in November, confirms that human trafficking flows generally follow the overall migratory flows, he said, adding that the majority of trafficking victims detected globally by Member States (around 60 per cent) are foreigners in the country of detection, most of them migrants….

Further, EU data confirms that child trafficking is exacerbated by the ongoing migration crisis, during which the number of children arriving in the EU has risen exponentially. A significant amount of these children are travelling unaccompanied, making them preferred targets for traffickers….
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=55165

Indonesia to ratify ASEAN convention against human trafficking
Bambang Nurbianto  The Jakarta Post Jakarta | Thu, September 29 2016
Indonesia plans to ratify the ASEAN Convention against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (ACTIP), an official has confirmed….
Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore have ratified the ACTIP, which was adopted by ASEAN in 2015. …
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/09/29/indonesia-to-ratify-asean-convention-against-human-trafficking-1475161284.html

Americans fight human trafficking of child sex workers overseas
By Tom Jackman The Washington Post  September 23, 2016

The American men walked into the darkened brothel in Bangkok and were soon offered a variety of prostitutes, young and old, male and female. “You go in and try to look like a john as much as possible,” one of the Americans said later of his undercover role. “Try to act like them, talk like them….

The men moved from brothel to brothel, each “packed with foreigners,” the American said. “You’re sitting next to these perverts, not only having to interact with them but become one of them. It’s common to go shop around. You sit there, get a price,” he said..,.

The most widely accepted analysis of human trafficking worldwide, by the International Labour Organization in 2012, estimated that 4.5 million people are being forced to work in the sex trade, out of 20.9 million in all manner of forced labor. The State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report for 2016 said there had been nearly 19,000 prosecutions worldwide for human trafficking last year, an 88 percent increase from the previous year….
http://www.pressherald.com/2016/09/23/americans-fight-human-trafficking-of-child-sex-workers-overseas/


Hypnosis in MPD: Ritual Abuse, Greenbaum Speech, Mind Control Programming
http://childabusedata.blogspot.com/2016/09/hypnosis-in-mpd-ritual-abuse-greenbaum.html


How to Avoid Being Mind Controlled at a Conference by Neil Brick – Presentation at the 2016 Annual Ritual Abuse, Secretive Organizations and Mind Control Conference – August 2016
The information in this article was written with the help and research of several survivors and well-known, well-published therapists in the child abuse, ritual abuse and mind control fields over almost a twenty year period.  Participants of several ritual abuse conferences helped research the information in this article.
https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/2016-conference/how-to-avoid-being-mind-controlled-at-a-conference/

Self-Esteem Loosens Mind Control by Wendy Hoffman – Survivorship Conference 2016
https://survivorship.org/self-esteem-loosens-mind-control-by-wendy-hoffman-survivorship-conference-2016/

Internal Keys to Safety by Alison Miller – Survivorship Conference 2016
https://survivorship.org/internal-keys-to-safety-by-alison-miller-survivorship-conference-2016/

Seeing and Breaking the Chains: Steps for Recognizing On-Going Abuse and How to Break Free by Arauna Morgan – Survivorship Conference 2013  https://survivorship.org/seeing-and-breaking-the-chains-steps-for-recognizing-on-going-abuse-and-how-to-break-free-by-arauna-morgan-survivorship-conference-2013/

Senate probe faults gov’t for migrant child abuse, UN finds more cases of child abuse by European troops in CAR

UN finds more cases of child abuse by European troops in CAR
Up to six more cases of alleged sexual abuse, including girl of 7 and boy of 9, by EU and French soldiers in Central African Republic, says human rights chief

Associated Press in Geneva  Friday 29 January 2016

The UN human rights office says it has turned up six more cases of alleged sexual abuse against children by European troops in Central African Republic, including a 7-year-old girl who said she had to perform sexual acts on soldiers in exchange for water and cookies.

A UN team recently interviewed five girls and a boy who claimed their abusers were part of French and European Union military operations in the troubled African country, the office of Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the high commissioner for human rights, said.

The sexual abuse allegedly took place in 2014 in or near a camp for displaced people near M’Poko airport in CAR’s capital, Bangui, but only came to light in recent weeks in the latest in a string of similar allegations.

France, CAR’s former colonial ruler, deployed several thousand troops to the country in late 2013 as violence between Christians and Muslims sent thousands fleeing from their homes. An African Union mission that began in April 2014 was taken over by a UN peacekeeping force five months later, while the EU force ended an 11-month mission in March last year.

At a news conference later on Friday in New York, the UN also announced new allegations against UN peacekeepers. Assistant secretary general Anthony Banbury came close to tears as he described four new child sex abuse cases in CAR involving UN troops and police from Bangladesh, Congo, Niger and Senegal.

He also announced an allegation of sexual assault against a minor by a member of Morocco’s military contingent serving with the earlier AU mission.

Banbury said there are likely to be 69 confirmed allegations of sexual abuse or exploitation in the UN’s 16 peacekeeping missions around the world, including 22 in CAR, for all of 2015. That figure is up from 51 in 2014 when there were no reported cases, he said….
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/29/un-finds-more-cases-of-child-abuse-by-european-troops-in-car

Senate probe faults gov’t for migrant child abuse
Friday, January 29, 2016  Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Migrant children in the government’s care were placed in U.S. homes and left vulnerable to human trafficking due to sometimes non-existent screening by the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a congressional report released Thursday.

The investigation says HHS failed to run background checks on the adults in the sponsors’ households, failed to visit sponsors’ homes and failed to realize some sponsors were accumulating multiple unrelated children, which can be a sign of human trafficking.

Lawmakers contend the government weakened its child protection policies as it was overwhelmed by tens of thousands of children crossing the border. A Senate subcommittee held a hearing Thursday to release the report and examine weaknesses in the department’s placement of migrant children.

At the hearing, HHS officials declined to fully answer many of the senators’ questions, at times saying they did not have the legal authority from Congress to follow up on the children.

The investigation by the panel echoes the findings of an Associated Press investigation that found more than two dozen unaccompanied children were sent to homes across the country where they were sexually assaulted, starved or forced to work for little or no pay.

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, the chairman of the panel, says the HHS placement program for migrant children suffers from “serious, systemic defects.”

The congressional investigation and hearing are in response to a case in Portman’s home state of Ohio, where six Guatemalan unaccompanied minors were placed with human traffickers, including sponsors and their associates. Lured to the U.S. with the promise of an education, the teens instead were forced to work up to 12 hours a day on egg farms under threats of death.

The report says the department did not conduct any home visits in the Ohio case and performed visits in less than 5 percent of cases overall from 2013 to 2015….
http://www.tiftongazette.com/news/senate-probe-faults-gov-t-for-migrant-child-abuse/article_c85235c2-c5f4-11e5-a9c0-1303317c1cd2.html

Child Abuse ‘Almost at an Epidemic Level’ in U.S., Human trafficking: The lives bought and sold

– FBI: Child Abuse ‘Almost at an Epidemic Level’ in U.S.
– Sex trafficking: Lifelong struggle of exploited children
– Human trafficking: The lives bought and sold

FBI: Child Abuse ‘Almost at an Epidemic Level’ in U.S. 
Tara John July 30, 2015

The bureau rescued 600 children last year  Tens of thousands of children are being sexually exploited each year in the U.S., according to an investigation by the BBC.  Despite rescuing 600 children last year, the FBI says child sex abuse is at epidemic levels where tens of thousands of children are believed to be sexually exploited in the country each year. “The level of paedophilia is unprecedented right now,” Joseph Campbell of the FBI told the BBC.

Campbell, who works in the Criminal Investigation Division, has seen individuals from all walks of life engaged in both child pornography and child exploitation, calling it a problem “almost at an epidemic level.” Hundreds of American children are also being sold into sex, according to the BBC, where poverty and neglect are thought to be some of the main reasons why young kids are vulnerable to sex trafficking…. http://time.com/3978236/american-children-sold-sex/

Sex trafficking: Lifelong struggle of exploited children  By Ian Pannell BBC News 30 July 2015
In the US, poverty, deprivation and exploitation draw thousands of its own children down into a dark underworld that offers few ways out.   It is a world few Americans are aware of. But tens of thousands of American children are thought to be sexually exploited every year.  It’s believed that every night hundreds are sold for sex.   The FBI says child sex abuse is almost at an epidemic level, despite the agency rescuing 600 children last year….  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33710224

Human trafficking: The lives bought and sold
28 July 2015

Millions of men, women and children around the world are currently victims of human trafficking – bought and sold as commodities into prostitution and forced labour. This trade in people criss-crosses the globe – and it is a lucrative business. The International Labour Office estimates that forced labour generates $150bn (£96bn) in illegal profits every year. Two thirds ($99bn; £63bn) comes from sexual exploitation.

But who are the people behind the numbers?
Kemi and Bilkisu, from Nigeria, Jane from the UK and Gabby from the US describe how they fell prey to traffickers.

Kemi’s story, Nigeria
Thousands of women and girls from West Africa are bought and sold every year – most end up in Europe. The UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime estimates West African trafficking victims, many of whom originate in Nigeria, make up about 10% of those forced into sex work in Western Europe.
Benin City, in Nigeria’s south, is a key player – with networks and infrastructure built around the trade in people….

Gabby’s story, US
It is a similar story in the United States, where tens of thousands of children are being trafficked into prostitution. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says child exploitation is at “near-epidemic levels”.  Gabby, from Baltimore, says she was abused by her father between the ages of eight and 12 – a relationship that she feels has influenced how she interacts with men. “I learnt very early that you could get things that you wanted or needed through sexual favours,” she says. Gabby says she turned to drugs and fell into a relationship with an addict who, years later, pushed her into prostitution…. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-33592634

Florida man reveals childhood of being ‘trafficked by his FAMILY, who made thousands from clients that choked and raped him’

– Florida man reveals childhood of being ‘trafficked by his FAMILY, who made thousands from clients that choked and raped him’
– Local man tells horrifying tales of child sex slavery
– For victims of child sex trafficking there is no Christmas

‘I was a five-year-old sex slave’: Florida man reveals childhood of being ‘trafficked by his FAMILY, who made thousands from clients that choked and raped him’

Jerome Elam said he was forced into sexual slavery as a young boy
Says he was beaten and abused, and forced to appear in pornography
Described to news station how doctors and lawyers paid to abuse him
Said he is sharing his story to give hope to other abused children

By Kieran Corcoran For Dailymail.com 10 January 2015

A man has revealed his horrifying childhood as a five-year-old sex slave in Florida, where he says a member of his family made thousands forcing him to indulge the pedophile desires of pillars of the local community.

Jerome Elam said that he was taken advantage of by a relative, who kept him in servitude for seven years and made him participate in child pornography and take drugs.

He said that clients of his trafficker would beat, choke and rape him – and punish him severely whenever he tried to escape his life of abuse.

Elam told local station WTLV how he was dragged in and out of school in Jacksonville to fulfill the whims of his relatives’ clients, whom he claims were often doctors and lawyers with a ‘darker side’….

In a first-person account for the Communities Digital News website, Elam told how he was subjected to beatings and rape by each member of a pedophile ring before he was turned over to the clients.

He wrote: ‘My indoctrination to the “group,” as they often referred to themselves in private, consisted of being raped and beaten by each member….

According to child abuse experts, pimps can make as much as $200,000 per year from a single child, and often have as many as six under their control at any given time….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2905025/I-five-year-old-sex-slave-Florida-man-reveals-childhood-trafficked-FAMILY-thousands-clients-choked-raped-him.html

Local man tells horrifying tales of child sex slavery
Heather Crawford, WTLV May 31, 2014
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Human sex trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States according the Department of Justice, and it’s happening right here on the First Coast. Some of the victims are young children forced to have sex dozens of times a day….
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/life/people/2014/05/31/human-trafficking-fbi-jacksonville/9794747/

For victims of child sex trafficking there is no Christmas
by Jerome Elam – Jan 9, 2015

….My mother had married a man who forced me into being a sexual slave as the property of the pedophile ring that he belonged to. My fate had been sealed so long ago as I was ushered into this world and set adrift on a sea of dysfunction, a rudderless ship whose sails rose and fell at the whim of my mother’s addiction to chaos.

While many children were filled with the glow of the holiday spirit and the expectation of dreams fulfilled on Christmas morning, my childhood was filled with hopeless desperation. I had seen violence in my life and most often times been the target, but seeing the bottomless evil that dwelled in the eyes of my traffickers scared me down to the depths of my very soul.

….My stepfather and the pedophile ring he belonged to were on a whole different level. We are often told stories about evil but most of us are oblivious to its presence as it silently moves among us. My indoctrination to the “group,” as they often referred to themselves in private, consisted of being raped and beaten by each member. Many of the members enjoyed inflicting pain on innocent children as they were tied up, but several were as unhinged as a barn door in a tornado. Children were choked unconscious to satisfy the twisted sexual appetites of a select few of the members, and many clients of the trafficking ring also shared this sick practice.

Those who employed the “services” of my traffickers were pillars of society and the type of people who would sit beside you in church. There was a transformation that took place when I was forced into a room with them.

….The Department of Justice estimates that between 100,000 and 300,000 children are at risk of being trafficked in this country right now. Human trafficking is a $9.5 billion a year business in the U.S. according to the United Nations, and within the first forty-eight hours of leaving home a runaway child will be approached by a human trafficker. Human trafficking is second only to the drug trade as the largest criminal enterprise, according to the Justice Department. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) reports that pimps can make from $150,000 to $200,000 per year for each child. The NCMEC also reports a pimp has an average of four children, and the Polaris Project, an anti-trafficking non profit, reports the average victim of sex trafficking is forced to have sex 20-48 times a day.
http://www.commdiginews.com/life/for-victims-of-child-sex-trafficking-there-is-no-christmas-33031/

Human trafficking epidemic 21st century slavery hits close to home, ‘A Culture of Silence’ speaks for Sierra Leone, Sexual Offences Bill to be published next week

Former journalist says human trafficking an epidemic
21st century slavery hits close to home By Maddy Lauria  Nov 13, 2014

Rehoboth Beach — The Sussex County Republican Women’s Club received a harsh reality check when veteran journalist Christine Dolan described a human trafficking case that struck close to home.

“Listen up … you don’t have a clue,” Dolan said as she began to discuss her more than decade-long experiences with human trafficking. “Just like the Industrial Revolution, just like the Victorian era, just like the African slave trade, you are living in the digital age of slavery in the 21st century. It is not just on the street. It is over the internet.”

Dolan, who worked for ABC and CNN in the 1980s, was commissioned by the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children to study child exploitation in 2000….

Dolan said Easton, Md., shows human trafficking occurs close to home. While many attendees raised their hands to say they were familiar with the town, most audience members voiced surprise that a brothel, operated a few doors down from a Mexican restaurant on Dover Street, was busted just a few years ago, leading to sex trafficking convictions in fall 2013….

Now Dolan is on a mission to spread the word that human trafficking crimes are proliferating throughout the world, which she outlined in her “Tots to Trafficking to Terrorism” presentation during the club’s dinner meeting Oct. 22. She said globalization and increased internet access provide ways for everything from child pornography to trafficking for torture to make a mark on international markets.

“Terrorism is a transnational, transcriminal network. Trafficking is transcriminal, transnational network,” she said. Dolan said groups like al-Qaida and the group known as the Islamic State are trafficking organizations with a hand in sex and labor trafficking as well as torture rituals.

Dolan outlined the main branches of human trafficking to include sex and labor, sex tourism, child pornography, child soldiers, organ trafficking, skin trafficking and ritual abuse torture. Dolan cited an evidence comparison by Interpol that 89 percent of online incidents affect victims between the age of 6 and 12, while 10 percent include victims age 3 and younger. She said there have been great efforts made since 2000, but the demand for younger victims has increased, with a jump from 3 percent in 2005 to the recently reported 10 percent of young trafficking victims….
http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/p/former-journalist-says-human-trafficking-an-epidemic/1261490

‘A Culture of Silence’ speaks for Sierra Leone
By Peter Keough  Globe Correspondent   November 13, 2014

For most people, the sufferings of African countries such as Sierra Leone, which has endured a hellish civil war only to be confronted with the Ebola epidemic, are regarded as passing news items.

For the documentary filmmaker Raouf J. Jacob, however, Sierra Leone is his beloved homeland. Forced to emigrate to America with his family in 1999 in the midst of the internecine conflict, he returns in “A Culture of Silence” to the place of his birth to see how it has rebounded from its bloody past. He and his partner and fellow filmmaker Lara M. Moreno tour the country with their camera to see how it has confronted its intransigent problems. These include poverty, the exploitation of resources by foreign corporations, cultural misogyny epitomized by the practice of female genital mutilation, and the legacy of war embodied by its most tragic victims — child soldiers kidnapped by warlords and forced to kill….
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/2014/11/13/movie-review-culture-silence-speaks-for-sierra-leone/ypwHqK9NW73pMBJsysudUK/story.html

Sexual Offences Bill to be published next week, says Minister for Justice
Legislation will strengthen laws on grooming, pornography and harassment
New legislation on sexual offences will strengthen laws on grooming, pornography and harassment, Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has said.

Fiona Gartland
Thu, Nov 13, 2014,

….“It will include strengthened provisions on age of consent, grooming and harassment,” Ms Fitzgerald said. “And it will strengthen offences of acquiring pornography online.”

The department received approval from the Cabinet to draft the legislation last December. It had been described as “long overdue” by organisations working in the field and by politicians including Senator Jillian van Turnhout.

The Minister also said yesterday that she would bring forward legislation on victims’ rights and on domestic violence in the new year….

Victims’ rights The new victims’ rights legislation will be introduced in 2015 so that Ireland can comply with its obligations under the EU victims’ directive, which was adopted at European level in 2012.

The directive includes obligations to protect victims from harm and intimidation and provide access to information, services and compensation.

Ms Fitzgerald said the new legislation would be “a very important mark of a change of approach to victims” and would reposition victims so their needs are central to the criminal justice system….
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/sexual-offences-bill-to-be-published-next-week-says-minister-for-justice-1.1998434

Stephen Collins 3rd Sex Abuse Victim, Cuts off friend’s fingers with ax as sacrifice to Satan, Child porn database to speed up police investigations into abuse of minors, Brazil: 55 arrested in child abuse crackdown

– Stephen Collins  Cops Looking to Find 3rd Sexual Abuse Victim
– Czech girl, 15, cuts off friend’s fingers with ax as sacrifice to Satan: cops
– Teenage girl cuts off her playmate’s fingers with an axe for sacrifice to Satan
– Home Office creates child porn database to speed up police investigations into abuse of minors
– Brazil: 55 arrested in child abuse crackdown

Stephen Collins
Cops Looking to Find 3rd Sexual Abuse Victim
10/16/2014 PDT BY TMZ STAFF
The mystery girl who Stephen Collins admitted he sexually abused was a babysitter for the actor’s daughter … and we know cops are on the hunt for her.

TMZ broke the story … Collins confessed on audio that he molested or exposed himself to 3 girls. Two of them have come forward … one has gone to the NYPD and another to the L.A. County Sheriff. NYPD detectives know the 3rd victim was sexually abused in NYC and they now know who she is and are trying to track her down.

TMZ has learned … the woman was around 13 when she babysat Collins’ daughter 18 years ago. Collins’ wife, Faye Grant, told cops Collins admitted to her he would repeatedly drive with the babysitter in the front seat with their 6-year-old daughter in the back seat and expose….
http://www.tmz.com/2014/10/16/stephen-collins-victim-babysitter-molested-sexual-abuse/

Czech girl, 15, cuts off friend’s fingers with ax as sacrifice to Satan: cops
Alena Skrivankova allegedly took Jitka Svehlova, 10, into a wooded area, tied her up and chopped off her digits. She reportedly told the younger girl’s parents they were going out to play.
BY Lee Moran
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, October 13, 2014

A Czech teen sliced off her friend’s fingers with an ax so she could make a sacrifice to Satan, according to reports.

Alena Skrivankova, 15, allegedly took 10-year-old Jitka Svehlova into a wooded area outside the southern city of Brno last week. She told the younger girl’s parents that they were going out to play.

However, once inside the thicket, she allegedly tied her victim to a tree before hacking off her digits with a cleaver that she had hidden in her backpack….
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/czech-girl-15-cuts-friend-fingers-ax-cops-article-1.1972274

Teenage girl cuts off her playmate’s fingers with an axe for sacrifice to Satan
Oct 13, 2014    By Gavin Allen
Alena Skrivankova, 15, from the Czech Republic, took Jitka Svehlova, 10, to a nearby wood after telling the girl’s parents they were going out to play.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/teenage-girl-cuts-playmates-fingers-4428942

Home Office creates child porn database to speed up police investigations into abuse of minors
Oct 16, 2014     By Olivia Solon
The Child Abuse Image Database will help speed up investigations into child sexual exploitation

The UK Home Office has launched a national Child Abuse Image Database to help police share information and speed up the identification of both child victims of sexual abuse and their abusers….

New material is usually of particular concern as it suggest new abuse – and police need to focus their attentions on those cases….

The launch comes after reports have revealed that individuals with a sexual interest in children who produce and distribute child abuse material are becoming more entrepreneurial – using hidden services like Tor, private peer-to-peer networks and digital currencies that are difficult to track, such as Bitcoin.

There is also a trend for abuse being carried out remotely on demand and then livestreamed back to paying customer.

These webcam sessions usually allow a paedophile to make requests for certain types of abuse to be carried out on their behalf – the victim can often be thousands of miles away in parts of the world where the law doesn’t protect children as well….
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/home-office-creates-child-porn-4449565

Brazil: 55 arrested in child abuse crackdown
i24news
Published October 16th 2014

Police managed to tap into the ‘Darknet’, following on methods developed by the FBI, Scotland Yard

55 people were arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography in Brazil and 100 further arrest warrants were issued following a year-long operation.

The operation, in which police cyber operatives managed to crack into the “Darknet” – a vast private network isolated from the “regular” Internet, often associated with illegal activities or dissent, followed on methods developed by the United States’ FBI and United Kingdom’s Scotland Yard.

The operation found child pornography produced in Brazil being shared in five other countries and six children were rescued from “abusive situations” across the country.

Earlier this week twelve adults and five children suspected of child sex crimes and human trafficking have been arrested in Colombia.

The suspects are accused of pimping, sex tourism, human trafficking and drug crimes, the Colombian prosecutor’s office said in a statement….
http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/americas/47474-141016-brazil-55-arrested-in-child-abuse-crackdown

Rise in ritual child abuse cases linked to WITCHCRAFT reported to police, Where Are the Victims of Human Trafficking Taken?, Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Child Sex Abuse Cases Bring Religion’s Practices Into Question

– Shocking rise in ritual child abuse cases linked to WITCHCRAFT reported to police
– Rwanda: Where Are the Victims of Human Trafficking Taken?
– Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Child Sex Abuse Cases Bring Religion’s Practices Into Question

Shocking rise in ritual child abuse cases linked to WITCHCRAFT reported to police
MORE cases of ritual child abuse related to the belief in witchcraft are being reported to police.
By: Jane Mathews
Published: Wed, October 8, 2014

Scotland Yard has received 27 allegations in the past year, including two claims of rape, a report of a child being swung around and hit on the head “to drive out the devil”, and other youngsters being dunked in water.

A number of horrific child killings have been linked to these beliefs, including the murder of Kristy Bamu, 15, who was tortured and drowned by his sister and her boyfriend in 2010, and the death of Victoria Climbie.

The number of cases ritualistic or faith-based abuse of children reported to Scotland Yard has increased year-on-year over the past decade.

A total of 24 were passed to the force in 2013, compared with 19 in 2012 and just nine in 2011.

Since 2004, 148 such cases have been referred to the Met….
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/519929/Child-abuse-witchcraft-rise-police-reported

Rwanda: Where Are the Victims of Human Trafficking Taken?
9 October 2014

By Athan Tashobya

Most victims of human trafficking in the country are taken into forced marriage, labour and prostitution, Police said yesterday.

Speaking at a news briefing, ACP Tony Kuramba, the deputy commissioner of Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and director of Interpol-Rwanda, said the majority of the victims were taken to Uganda and Asia.

“In most cases, these victims of human trafficking are taken for forced marriage, prostitution and forced labour, we have heard cases in China, Malaysia, Thailand and Dubai, and we are following them closely,” Kuramba said during a media briefing on the forthcoming national dialogue on human trafficking at Parliament Buildings yesterday.

The dialogue, at which First Lady Jeannette Kagame is expected to officiate, is slated for tomorrow in Kigali.

Kuramba said 153 cases of human trafficking were registered since 2009, with some of them involving traffickers who use Rwanda as a transit route for victims heading to other countries….
http://allafrica.com/stories/201410090843.html

Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Child Sex Abuse Cases Bring Religion’s Practices Into Question
By Sami K. Martin , Christian Post Reporter
October 8, 2014
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have a silent epidemic of child abuse that was recently brought to public attention again after four alleged victims filed lawsuits against the organization.

There are over 7 million Jehovah’s Witnesses across the globe, according to the group’s website. However, there have been numerous accusations and cases brought against elders and leaders of the organization, alleging child abuse of both young men and women, dating back at least 30 years. Four reported victims brought a lawsuit against the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Watchtower Organization in Connecticut….

One particular case in 2012 saw Candace Conti, a victim, receive awarded $28 million in damages after alleging that member Jonathan Kendrick molested her from 1995-1996. The case was filed in Oakley, California and the $28 million award was the largest paid to a single victim….

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have plenty of information on their website about how to keep children safe from predators, but take a unique approach to dealing with cases of accused abuse. When an allegation against a member or elder is made, the organization follows a “two-witness rule,” which requires that there be two victims made. They claim that they follow Biblical principles when it comes to the rule and cite Scripture such as 1 Timothy 5:19 and Deuteronomy 19:15, which speak of having two persons come forward when making an accusation….
http://www.christianpost.com/news/jehovahs-witnesses-child-sex-abuse-cases-bring-religions-practices-into-question-127738/