Human Trafficking and Hattieville - interesting

[viviantrill]

Thank you for allowing me a chance to be part of your world.

Okay the Hattieville question may be not clear.
The point is the Prison is paid as stated for each prisoner a daily fee. Which we have discussed. This is public record.

The ATM comment relates to $12 time 1700 prisoners per day. Or 7.4 million a year.
Plus the prison makes money on everything they make and sell.

Now guards are paid nothing, the food as I stated well BAD.
The old tango units as we have been told through interviews had no toilets, just buckets in the cells.
The bath area was a pipe with brakish water. So, what happens to the money???
Foundations are to report income. Ask Woods to disclose and you find a very closed lipped person.
Now Musa sold this deal off to Kolbe because they Musa and company could not make money.

Has the prison improved? Over our 5 years of interviews into those having the pleasure of a visit I would say yes.
What still exists corruption with the cell block boss's, lots of drugs supplied by the guards.

In order to deal with human trafficking one has to set stage such as the Hattieville Story.

You have a women who came from Honduras, a promise of work and means to send money home to a family.
She finds herself far from home and stuck in a bar. Her papers are taken for claimed work visa's or fees she must work off.

Immigration raids the bar, she is grabbed, no one cares. Immigration knows she is trafficked. WHO has her papers the bar owner.
Law number one broken, the bar owner has lied to this women about claimed working papers filed, law number two.
Belize law states that every person is entitled to legal representation. Never happens.
She is left and goes through this court system.
Fine is set she is off to the Ville.

For the next 90 days she is sold off day at a time. By who the guards. Fact from 72 interviews of women over a 4 year period.

VIV

[Miss Kenni]

The old tango units as we have been told through interviews had no toilets, just buckets in the cells.
VIV

This must be where my female friend was held; her complaint was not about having to use a bucket, but that the buckets tended to disappear altogether for hours at a time, leaving no place at all to "go."

Keep in mind, these were pre-trial detainees, not convicted of any crime at all, and they did have proper IDs and paperwork to establish their legal presence in Belize.

[Zelda]

all those COMPLAINTS that have been filed. looks like someone's taking NOTICE...

CAYO BUSINESSWOMAN CHARGED WITH HUMAN TRAFFICKING

July 14, 2010

Businesswoman Narcisa Orellana of Santa Elena Town has been charged for two counts of trafficking in persons. An 18-year-old domestic reported to police that between March first and May 10 she was working as an unpaid waitress for the businesswoman. She said Orellana forced her to work and have sexual intercourse with male clients against her will. As a result of the report Orellano was arrested and charged.

And while on the subject of human trafficking, it is important to note that just last Friday, July 9th the Organization for Responsible Tourism, ORT, filed formal complaints with international human rights bodies, registering petitions on behalf of the Campaign to Stop Human Trafficking in Belize. The organization has filed complaints with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Organization of American States; and the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The ORT is asking government for three specific actions including enforcing Belize’s quote, “own human trafficking laws; tighten border protocols to stop traffickers bringing victims into Belize; and strengthen and enforce liquor licensing laws so that bar owners cannot profit from forced prostitution of human trafficking victims”. The ORT has also offered partnership with Prime Minister Dean Barrow to negotiate the ORT recommended actions with the US so as to help avoid the Tier three status for Belize and its potential economic sanctions.

http://www.lovefm.com/ndisplay.php?nid=12345

[viviantrill]

Hi from Vivian:

Yes this women is a well known trafficker, she has been charged a few times this year...follow the story she will walk away...
Yes attention is growing and we hope to make some headway of meaning in the next few weeks.

Sadly for Dean Barrow to appoint Pitts as the Attorney General...well bad mistake...this man has left more young men and women sitting in Prison after he took their money and when they ran out left them.

He was or is the top attorney of record in the country.
Not a person I would have around me...his daughter it much better....

I was in Belize the last four days...more documenting facts...we took a lot of pictures...not good for tourism but facts...
Be on my blog in a few days...we took 11 girls our of San Pedro and back to Honduras...

Viv

[Zelda]

last night, we watched "Trade" a heartbreaking story about human trafficking centered in Mexico City.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399095/

the statistics listed at the close of the film were disturbing.

The International Labor Organization, (the UN agency charged with addressing labor standards, employment, and social protection issues), estimates that 12.3 million people worldwide are enslaved in forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, sexual servitude, and involuntary servitude at any given time

* * *

Belize - current situation: Belize is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor; the most common form of trafficking in Belize is the internal sex trafficking of minors; some Central American men, women, and children, particularly from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, migrate voluntarily to Belize in search of work but are subsequently subjected to conditions of forced labor or forced prostitution
tier rating: Belize is placed on Tier 2 Watch List because it does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; despite efforts to raise public awareness of human trafficking and provide protection services for trafficking victims, the government did not show evidence of progress in convicting and sentencing trafficking offenders last year (2009)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publication ... /2196.html

[catdance62]

We watched that a few months back. That was a good movie, but heartbreaking yes. People that perpetuate that slave trade ought to be exterminated.

[woodsman]

We watched that a few months back. That was a good movie, but heartbreaking yes. People that perpetuate that slave trade ought to be exterminated.

Not so fast. This is a medieval crime that requires medieval measures for a satisfactory redemption.

I'd start with torture, not really medieval - something like exposing a nerve in every tooth and stimulating it . Then promise them no pain for one day if they rape repeatedly one of their slave-trader buddies.

[collyk]

Interesting further response from Ms. Trill here http://www.complaintsboard.com/complain ... 58900.html

While I am well aware that trafficking goes on here, as it does rampantly in the UK, where I'm from, I have a few issues with the way Ms. Trill has been campaigning. Firstly, she isn't very clear about her sources. Good researchers can back up their arguments with facts that are verifiable. Secondly, her presentation does not come across professionally. It has the feel of an activist (and I say this having been an activist for many years of my own life) who has a great passion for the issue but who may be willing to use arguments that are not necessarily factual to support a position. This always undermines arguments and usually does more harm than good as people are put off and don't believe any of it. It is very important, when undertaking a campaign involving human or non human animal rights that information is presented in a manner that cannot be picked apart easily by those who wish to do so. Additionally, very few Belizeans have access to the message board, so you are often already preaching to the converted.

I don't think that using local message boards is going to be effective or helpful and may alienate some who might otherwise be sympathetic. These campaigns usually have to have two elements - grass roots organising, which means getting local people (not the very tiny minority of -usually expats on a message board) who have voting power (most expats don't) involved and educated. At the same time, international pressure needs to be brought to bear and maintained. The impression I have of Ms. Trill is that she cares deeply about this issue, which is indeed a good thing, but doesn't really understand how Belize operates. It is an absolutely tiny country and everyone is related to everyone or knows them. People, are afraid to stick their head above the parapet, particularly when there are very nasty people involved and a lot of money. Belize is the wild west and has long been like that. Human trafficking is just one of many very serious issues, this country has to deal with. Gun crime, a corrupt police and judicial system, poverty, poor education, HIV/AIDS, environmental concerns - the list goes on and on..so it is unlikely anyone is going to be prepared to be the standard bearer for this issue and put themselves and their family at risk. She suggests going to the police - well when we go to the police, they don't take reports and they don't often show up. When they do take reports, those often go missing. They are underfunded and undervalued and as a result, easily corruptible.

Belize has many challenges to face and this more a symptom than a unique problem. Without a change in the attitude of a corrupt and shameless government, very few of these issues, including human trafficking, are going to change. I know ex sex workers in Belize who were brought here from other countries under false pretenses. Some of them have done quite well for themselves, but as long as men will pay for women and children, the problem will never go away. Even in so called civilised countries in North America and Europe, human trafficking and child sex exploitation are huge industries, so placing all of her focus on Belize, does make me wonder a little bit about Ms. Trill's agenda.

[Zelda]

ORT Escalates Belize Tourism Boycott Charging Drug Trafficking

Published July 29, 2010 by: vivian trill

Part of the two-stage process that sends drugs, mostly cocaine, to the US, San Pedro, Ambergris Caye welcomed 257 drug boats last year to its island landings. The island and the Town of San Pedro, which are not limited to freight port status on the US-bound drug routes from South America, experiences dangerous spillover of the trade into its community.

"ORT condemns in the strongest possible terms the danger to local residents and tourists resulting from drug-related crime in San Pedro," said Trill. "We are expanding our Belize tourism boycott to include an anti-drug trafficking awareness drive, complementing our founding anti-human trafficking cause. We feel responsible tourists want to know that Belize, and in particular San Pedro, are dangerous double offenders."

The actions of the San Pedro Anti-Drugs Unit do not follow accepted police protocol. Last year the unit, claiming information from a local resident, were tipped off to a 25-kilogram cocaine find with a street value of $500,000 (Belize). Five men were killed in the aftermath; the drugs disappeared along with the money. There has been no follow-up investigation of the drug and money disappearances.

Further spillover of drug-related crime into the San Pedro area involved torture, gunfire and murder for small time operators who got caught by higher-level dealers. To-date, there are no arrests and no convictions related to this case.

Previously red-flagged as tourism no-go human trafficking zone under the ORT Belize tourism boycott, San Pedro Ambergris Caye is a concentration zone of ficha bars that offer human trafficking victims in forced prostitution. The Town of San Pedro, population 12,000, supports 90 ficha bars and is a Central American human trafficking hub.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/articl ... ycott.html

90 bars with prostitutes? REALLY ?? seriously?

[collyk]

Just in case Ms Trill reads this and doesn't believe that the community takes this seriously.

http://www.sanpedrosun.com/news/human-t ... san-pedro/

[collyk]

Huh. San Pedro welcomed 200 odd drug boats to its shores??? I'd love to see the references for that one. I was very sympathetic when I first read these articles, but it seems more and more that Ms. Trill has an agenda and is doing her best to damage a small community that is already suffering. Where on earth does she get some of these figures?

[Zelda]

personally, I lost quite a bit of interest in the story when I saw too many exaggerations...

responsible reportage attempts to stay as factual as possible.

the problem here is, exaggerating DISCREDITS a valid cause, as does overblown rhetoric and inflated numbers.

I know Dave, in person... and if he says he knows the guy who runs Kolbe, and that GOB no longer pays the prisoner per diem (only the guard salaries) then I'd tend to believe that over someone who collects random (undated) information off the web, and claims it's a matter of public record.

all that said, the facts are... trafficking is an evil thing, and Belize is part of the corridor, moving women and children northwards, BUT this kind of "reportage" and red-flagging, and boycotting does more harm than good, by alienating people who would join in.

[collyk]

Here here Miss Zelda. What is so disgraceful is that this is a cause that could gain a lot of support just by using the truth and real facts. All this sort of propaganda does is make people close their ears and turn away.

[collyk]

Well the two local bars, Black & White and Thirsty Tiger are operating as normal it seems. The raids didn't seem to achieve much.

[Stokke]

What is so disgraceful is that this is a cause that could gain a lot of support just by using the truth and real facts. All this sort of propaganda does is make people close their ears and turn away.

Hmmm...It is telling that Trill has made no response to this after half a month. Thank you guys for exposing this sloppy reportage even if it was well intentioned.