Tag Archives: WorldNews

A Comeback but No Reckoning

Those affording Mr. Kozinski a public platform now should at the very least consistently acknowledge that he was accused of sexual harassment by many women. Institutions may also want to consider breaking their silence; law schools, legal organizations and the bar could make clear that they will not tolerate harassment from anyone, regardless of his or her status.

To usher Mr. Kozinski back into professional circles without qualification implies a deference that is stunning in light of the circumstances of his retirement. That choice paves the way for a next step — perhaps a speaking engagement on a panel or at a conference or a law school, or an opportunity to consult with a law firm and interact with junior associates. That process may already be in the works; in his radio interview, Mr. Kozinski talked about his plan to teach. Formerly a frequent presence on law school campuses, Mr. Kozinski was specifically accused of thumbing a law student’s breast, among other allegations. Judge Alex Kozinski retired in the wake of sexual harassment allegations against him. He’s now making his way back.

Save the Children Warns Untraceable Minors in Italy May be Trafficked

The redistribution of asylum seekers from Italy and Greece, which are the main landing territories of migrants heading to Europe, was stopped mainly because of opposition to the refugee quotas from some EU member countries. Credit: Ilaria Vechi/IPS.

By Maged Srour
ROME, Aug 2 2018 (IPS)

Thousands of migrant minors placed in reception facilities upon arrival in Italy, as a first step in identification and later relocation into other structures for asylum seekers, are untraceable and feared trafficked.

A report, Tiny invisible slaves 2018, released this week by the non-governmental organisation Save the Children, states that 4,570 minors migrating through Italy are untraceable as of May.

Once they escape the facilities, their vulnerable position—having no money, not knowing the language and being often traumatised after their trip to Italy—places them at the mercy of traffickers and exploiters.

Many of these children end up in networks of sexual exploitation, forced labour and enslavement. Save the Children reported that some girls are forced to perform survival sex—to prostitute themselves in order to pay the ‘passeurs’ to cross the Italian border or to pay for food or a place to sleep.

“I left Nigeria with a friend and once we arrived to Sabha (Libya) we were arrested,” Blessing, one of the victims, told Save the Children.

“I stayed there for three months and then I moved to Tripoli. For eight interminable months I was forced to prostitute myself in exchange for food,” she added.

Blessing then reported that her nightmare continued in Italy where she was sexually exploited by a compatriot. She ultimately was able to enter a protection programme thanks to Save the Children. But her story is a rare case of rescue as many other children find themselves enslaved with no end in sight.

According to testimonies collected by the NGO, minors leave reception facilities because they judge the processes of entering the child protection system as a useless slowing down towards the economic autonomy they aspire to and usually leave the centres a few days after identification.

This has been occurring largely in the southern regions of Italy.

But according to the report, “the flow of minors in transit through Italy to northern Europe is, by its own nature, difficult to quantify.” Though it noted that minors transiting through Italy between January and March, make up between 22 percent and 31 percent out of the total transitioning migrants across the country. The minors are mostly Eritrean (14 percent), Somalis (13 percent), Afghans (10 percent), Egyptians (9 percent) and Tunisians (8 percent).

“The fact that the European Union relocation programme was blocked in September 2017, has contributed in an important way to forcing children in transit to re-entrust themselves to traffickers, or to risk their own lives to cross borders, as well as it continues to happen for those minors who transit through the Italian north frontier with the aim of reaching the countries of northern Europe,” Roberta Petrillo, from the child protection department of Save the Children, Italy, told IPS.

The redistribution of asylum seekers from Italy and Greece, which are the main landing territories of migrants heading to Europe, was stopped mainly because of opposition to the refugee quotas from the EU member countries of Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary.

The EU’s initial plan provided for the relocation of 160,000 refugees from Italy and Greece to other European countries within two years. As of May, 12,690 and 21,999 migrants were relocated from Italy and Greece respectively. To date, the Czech Republic has accepted only 12 refugees, Slovakia 16, with Hungary and Poland having taken no refugees.

According to estimates from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), almost 10 million children and youth across the world were forced into slavery, sold and exploited, mainly for sexual and labour purposes in 2016.

They make up 25 percent of the over 40 million people who are trafficked, of which more than seven out of 10 are women and girls. According to the ILO estimates, nearly one million victims of sexual exploitation in 2016 were minors, while between 2012 and 2016, 152 million boys and girls aged between five and 17 were engaged in various forms of child labour. More than half of these activities were particularly dangerous for their own health.

“When we talk about data of this kind we must be very cautious because we are dealing with numbers that only concern the emergence of the phenomenon, without keeping track of the submerged data,” Petrillo added.

There were 30,146 registered victims of trafficking and exploitation in 2016 in the 28 EU countries with 1,000 of them minors.

However, according to 2016 figures from the ILO, 3.6 million people across Europe were reportedly modern day slaves.

According to the Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force, human trafficking is the second-largest criminal industry in the world, second only to the illegal drug trade. It is estimated to be an industry worth USD32 billion annually.

The most targeted

Nigerian and Romanian girls are amongst the most targeted by the trafficking networks.

According to Save the Children, for the journey that will take them to Italy, the Nigerian girls contract a debt between 20,000 and 50,000 euros that they can only hope to repay by undergoing forced prostitution.

Like their peers from Romania, they enter a mechanism of sexual exploitation from which they cannot get free easily.

While Nigerians escape mainly for security issues and political instability, Romanian girls flee their country because of a total lack of opportunities and economic autonomy there. Their deep economic deprivation makes them highly vulnerable and easy targets for traffickers, who deceive or coerce them to enter into networks of sexual exploitation. 

According to the Save the Children Report, in 2017 there were a total of 200 minor victims of trafficking and exploitation who were put into protection programmes. The vast majority of these, 196, were girls with about  93.5 percent Nigerian girls aged between 16 and 17 years.

In addition, almost half of the minors were sexually exploited 

Riccardo Noury, spokesperson for Amnesty International Italy,  told IPS that migrant men were welcomed with open arms because they were useful for working under exploited conditions.

However, migrant women were welcome only because they were used for prostitution.

“By not guaranteeing legal and safe paths for those fleeing wars and persecution, by not organising and recognising the presence of migrant workers, we just do a favour to the criminal groups, who build real fortunes on trafficking in human beings,” Noury told IPS.

While Petrillo said that “the Italian and the EU legal framework is solid and a good one,” she cautioned that  “what is needed, instead, is a unitary intervention that closely links the issue of anti-trafficking reality with that of minors in transit. And we must be able to guarantee universal protection for the victims.”

The post Save the Children Warns Untraceable Minors in Italy May be Trafficked appeared first on Inter Press Service.

She Got Her Baby Back From Immigration Foster Care. Now, What?

It had been 103 days since Ferrera’s 1-year-old daughter Liah landed in foster care for immigrant children, separated under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy after crossing the border with her uncle. Ferrera had left Honduras months earlier, when Liah was too small to travel. Ferrera made it into the U.S. undetected, and the plan was for her brother to do the same with Liah, but he was caught and deported. Then the Department of Health and Human Services had to be convinced to give the baby back to Ferrera.

by Kavitha Surana

HOUSTON — Sendy Karina Ferrera Amaya clutched a stuffed unicorn outside the airport arrival gate Saturday morning, as her fiancé Juan Barrera Bucio paced back and forth.

He spotted the baby first.

“There’s someone coming with a little girl,” he said. “Yes, it’s her.”

It had been 103 days since Ferrera’s 1-year-old daughter Liah landed in foster care for immigrant children, separated under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy after crossing the border with her uncle. Ferrera had left Honduras months earlier, when Liah was too small to travel. Ferrera made it into the U.S. undetected, and the plan was for her brother to do the same with Liah, but he was caught and deported. Then the Department of Health and Human Services had to be convinced to give the baby back to Ferrera.

The department has argued that stringent vetting is necessary to ensure children vulnerable to human trafficking are kept safe. But for Ferrera, the process felt opaque, full of never-ending questions. After a background check that included two home studies and a DNA test — and anguish about whether this day would come at all — Ferrera got word on Friday:

She needed to pay for two plane tickets, one for her daughter, who was living at an undisclosed location in Texas, and one for a caretaker who would accompany her to Houston. Ferrera’s fiancé raced to wire the $895. Then, just after 3 a.m. the following morning, they began the drive from their trailer home in Sulphur, Louisiana, to the George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Four hours later, there Liah was, wrapped in a pink blanket, dozing in her caretaker’s arms. The baby stirred only for a moment when her tearful mother swept her up and kissed her, inhaling deeply. Then, Liah’s eyes rolled shut, and she melted into Ferrera’s shoulder, fast asleep.

The caretaker had Ferrera sign forms. She handed over two envelopes full of records, a black gym bag and a diaper bag. It all took five minutes.

Ferrera had so many questions — about where her daughter had spent the past three months and what would happen next.

As the little family turned to collect themselves, they realized the caseworker was gone.


Liah slept for the entire two-hour ride back to Sulphur, awaking just as they rolled up to their trailer. “This is your house,” Ferrera told her. “You’re home.” Liah toddled inside and began to explore, opening cabinets and looking in the trash can. Soon, the living room was scattered with all the toys Ferrera had gathered in the months of waiting.

Ferrera tried to piece together what she could about her daughter’s time in foster care. She didn’t know what kind of diapers Liah wore or when she slept or how she spent her days. She plopped the bags down and began to go through them.

She found the beat-up white sandals Liah had worn on the smuggler’s journey in April; they looked too small for her now.

Along with diapers and a pile of new clothes were jars of baby food, applesauce, containers of soy milk, a Nutri-Grain bar — a hint of what Liah liked to eat. Another bag contained Tylenol and Benadryl.

Ferrera looks through medical records and documents from her daughter’s time at a shelter for unaccompanied immigrant children.
(Spike Johnson for ProPublica)

She paged through the documents from the envelopes, which included intake forms and medical records. “I don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s in English.”

Border Patrol agents had conducted a medical screening when they first processed Liah, finding her “mentally alert” and exhibiting “appropriate conduct.” Reports chronicled seven doctor visits; the first noted Liah had arrived at the shelter with tick bites behind her ears. Over the months, she’d also had a bad case of diaper rash, a cold and diarrhea. She’d gotten nine vaccines. But Ferrera wouldn’t understand any of it until her fiancé could translate for her.

Ferrera made note of the ways her daughter had grown. She had 9 teeth, 5 more than when she left Honduras. Her toenails were long, so she pulled out the clippers. Liah was also more active than Ferrera had seen in the 20-minute video calls the shelter allowed once a week. She loved to flutter her lips, give high-fives and dance, and could touch her nose when prompted.

The only time she fussed was when Ferrera left a room without her.

That night, after Liah was tucked into her crib, Ferrera curled up on a mattress in the nursery and went to sleep beside her.


The next day, Ferrera and her fiancé strapped Liah into her car seat and headed out for a drive.

Their minds were on the challenges ahead.

“We’ll need to get a lawyer,” Barrera said.

In Liah’s file, there was a Warrant for Arrest and a Notice to Appear. “You are an alien present in the United States without being admitted or paroled,” said the notice addressed to the baby. Liah’s first court date was coming up, and Ferrera would need to get it moved from Texas to Louisiana. In an envelope, the case workers had included a list of pro-bono lawyers.

Top: Ferrera and her fiancé Juan Bucio Barrera welcome Liah to their home. Bottom: Ferrera changes Liah’s clothes on her first day home.
(Spike Johnson for ProPublica)

Ferrera thought things would work out.

Barrera wasn’t so sure. Liah would probably need to file an asylum claim, and he knew the administration was making it harder to get accepted. “I read a lot of news, and they say they are rejecting 90 percent of all the cases,” he said.

“But Juan, that’s not until she goes to court,” Ferrera interrupted. Her friends had told her that it could take years to get a final decision from immigration court. Surely by then, they could find a solution to keep Liah in the country legally.

“I know, I know,” Barrera sighed, “but now, Donald Trump is making it so that everything happens faster.”

Then, there was the question of Ferrera’s status.

She was undocumented, and the government knew it. As ProPublica has reported, Immigration and Customs Enforcement can now access the information family members submit for the purpose of retrieving kids from the foster system and use it to deport people.

Ferrera shops for food and clothes for her daughter at Walmart the day after Liah’s return.
(Spike Johnson for ProPublica)

A friend had joked that he wouldn’t come to their house to meet Liah because they were on ICE’s radar. He had been staying with them back in April, but as soon as Liah and her uncle were caught, he packed up and stayed at a hotel.

Ferrera tried to push those thoughts from her mind as she talked about the firsts she couldn’t wait to experience: Liah’s first trip to the beach, to the pool, to the parks around Lake Charles. But she couldn’t deny the possibility that the time to execute this American bucket list could end. “I hope they don’t separate us from her,” she said.

On this Sunday, they would settle for a modest agenda:

Head to Walmart to buy groceries and clothes.

Take Liah to Chuck E. Cheese.

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Shaun King Says Anonymous Troll Has ‘Weaponized’ NYC Dept Of Child Services Against Him

Shaun King Says Anonymous Troll Has 'Weaponized' NYC Dept Of Child Services Against Him

Shaun King, civil rights activist and columnist at The Intercept, says someone called Child Services on his family. King said he was about to watch his daughter perform in a musical when his building’s doorman called to inform him that “a woman is here and she wants to talk to you about childcare for your kids.” King asked the doorman to put her on the phone, and had the following exchange: [ more › ]

NY Times Defends Hiring Writer With History Of Inflammatory Tweets

Right wing racist trolls on the attack! – accusing everyone else of being racist NY Times Defends Hiring Writer With History Of Inflammatory Tweets

On Wednesday, the NY Times announced that it had hired Verge senior writer Sarah Jeong to join its editorial board to write about technology. By Thursday morning, old Tweets from Jeong—including “Are white people genetically predisposed to burn faster in the sun, thus logically being only fit to live underground like groveling goblins”—circulated, prompting headlines like “Newest Member of NYT Editorial Board Has History of Racist Tweets.” [ more › ]

Reddit user data compromised in sophisticated hack

Oops!

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Hackers access usernames, passwords and email addresses in breach of one of world’s biggest websites

Reddit has suffered a data breach compromising usernames, passwords and email addresses of groups of users, the site has confirmed.

While the size of the breach has yet to be clarified, Reddit said two data sets had been accessed by hackers, including one from 2007 containing account details and all public and private posts between 2005 and May 2007.

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Matteo Salvini not welcome in Mallorca over anti-immigrant stance

Viva Espana!

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Spanish island declares Italy’s far-right interior minister persona non grata

The Spanish island of Mallorca has declared Italy’s far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, persona non grata as a result of his vitriolic stance against immigrants and the Roma community.

The motion, presented by the leftwing Podemos, the Balearic Islands branch of the Socialist party (PSIB) and the Més Per Mallorca coalition, was approved by authorities on the popular holiday island.

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What the Womad visa fiasco tells us about live music in Brexit Britain

Racist ruling in Tory England!

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This isn’t the first time esteemed overseas artists have been refused entry to the UK for a festival. The Home Office is killing our world music scene – and it’s going to get worse

The UK has long been a leading destination for discovering sounds from far-flung corners of the globe, whether it is Malian songbird Oumou Sangaré’s set at Glastonbury, or the shadowy South African electro of DJ Lag in a sticky-floored club in London. But last weekend, that reputation was thrown into disarray following comments by Womad organiser Chris Smith, who lambasted the UK’s oppressive visa restrictions on world music artists. Three of the acts scheduled for the festival – Sabry Mosbah from Tunisia, Wazimbo from Mozambique and some of the members of Niger’s Tal National – were denied entry to the UK and either had to cancel their festival appearance or perform stripped-down sets. Indian duo Hashmat Sultana passed through border control 24 hours after they were due to go on stage. Smith said that an increasing number of performers were now declining invitations to the event because they deemed the Home Office’s iron-fisted process humiliating.

Questions have been raised about what this means for the future of world music in the UK. The festival’s co-founder, Peter Gabriel, this week released a statement calling the situation “alarming” and asked: “Do we really want a white-breaded, Brexited flatland? A country that is losing the will to welcome the world?” Channel 4 News’s Jon Snow, meanwhile, tweeted: “The ‘hostile environment’ took its toll at Womad … a number of events were seriously affected by visa refusals. By definition, a festival of world music requires visas for many bands. What on Earth is the Home Office doing refusing them? Is music the new enemy?”

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