WUNRN
Yemen - Increase in
Trafficking - Poverty - Women & Girls
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Twenty-one-year-old Aisha clings to her two children as she recounts her tale
of horror. Growing up in the Somali capital
She
braved the hazardous journey with smugglers across the Indian Ocean to
Instead, Aisha now squats with
four other women in the sprawling, cinderblock slum of Basateen, in the eastern
seaport city of
“I just want to go to a safer
place for my children,” Aisha sighs. “In another country.”
Human trafficking networks with
international reach are expanding in
Bleak as Aisha’s future may
look, her fate is better than that of a 17-year-old Ethiopian girl who died
alone in a hospital in Haradh, near the Saudi Arabian border.
Bought and sold within the
trafficking network operating across
“Between 2011 and 2012 there
has been a significant increase in smuggling and trafficking, and of reported
cases of violence and abuse perpetrated against new arrivals,” says Edward
Leposky, an officer with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
In 2011 UNHCR recorded over
103,000 new arrivals in
Female migrants, mostly
Ethiopian and Somali, often flee poverty and violence at home. They fork out
hundreds of dollars to reach transit points in
Their goal is to reach
“The most trafficking we see
happening here is of those coming from the Horn of Africa to
“There is a network,” she says.
“Females can be badly exploited by the traffickers. Women told us they were
providing sex to smugglers along the way.”
Confirmation lies in the grim findings of October’s groundbreaking study, ‘Desperate Choices’ - Conditions, Risks & Protection Failures Affecting Ethiopian Migrants in Yemen, conducted by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and the Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat (RMMS).
Full
60-Page 2012 Report: http://www.drc.dk/fileadmin/uploads/pdf/IA_PDF/Horn_of_Africa_and_Yemen/RMMSbooklet.pdf
“Criminal networks extend
through
Local women fall victim
to trafficking
But not all victims of sex
trafficking in
The brief marriages between
young Yemeni girls and visitors from the
“Girls as young as 15 are
exploited for commercial sex in hotels and clubs in the governorates of Sanaa,
“The majority of child sex
tourists in
A victim of another kind of sex
trafficking, Leila, was 15 years old when she finally found refuge at a secret
women’s shelter, tucked away in a quiet Sanaa neighbourhood.
Beaten by her family, Leila had
run away from home two years before and lived off the streets. An older woman
soon picked her up, bringing her to a neighbourhood brothel.
The girls were photographed
having sex as blackmail to make them stay, given drugs and forced to service
clients at night. The woman pocketed the clients’ cash.
Leila and the female pimp were
arrested just before Leila was to be trafficked to
Through a prison visit by staff
from the Yemeni Women’s Union, Leila found out about the small women’s shelter
– a rarity in
“The Government of Yemen was
unable to provide law enforcement data to contribute to this report, and it did
not institute formal procedures to identify and protect victims of trafficking
or take steps to address trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.”
Nicoletta Giordano, the head of
IOM’s activities in
“If we were to look at border
management in a more holistic way, so that those that require assistance and
protection are referred, and those that might pose a threat are dealt with,
this would be in the interest of all countries concerned.”
*Sex trafficking victims’ names
have been changed to protect their identity.