DHS Open Source Enterprise
29 August 2011
• [Update] Amid Allegations Of Human Trafficking, Guatemala To Review Adoptions: Loyda Rodriguez
recalls carrying her groceries into her Guatemala City apartment before turning around to find her two-year-
old daughter Anyeli gone from the patio. … Last week, the Guatemalan government announced that it will
begin reviewing adoption cases that were halted midway after the United States barred all adoptions from
Guatamala in 2007. … The decree marks an initial step toward repairing the nation's battered adoption
system, and follows a court decision reached on August 1 calling for the return of Anyeli, who now goes by
the name "Karen Abigail Monahan." The court decision was based largely on the fact that Anyeli had been
kidnapped, by human traffickers. … Once a highly popular source for adoptions, Guatemala in 2007 sent
4,726 children—the second highest number of children after China—to the United States. [HSEC-3.9; Date:
27 August 2011; Source: http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/notitas-de-noticias/details/amid-
allegations-of-human-trafficking-guatemala-to-review-adoptions/9838/]
• Female Trafficking Soars In Iraq: Prostitution and sex trafficking are epidemic in Iraq, where the violence
of military occupation and sectarian strife have smashed national institutions, impoverished the population
and torn apart families and neighborhoods. … Many virgin teenage girls are sold for around 5,000 dollars,
and trafficked to popular destinations like northern Iraq, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. Non-virgins
are about half that price. Girls who run away to escape domestic violence or forced marriage are the most
vulnerable prey for men working for pimps in bus stations and taxi stands. Some girls are also sold into
marriages by family relatives, only to be handed over to trafficking rings. Most of Iraq's sex traffickers are
predominantly female, running squalid brothels in neighborhoods like the decrepit Al-Battaween district in
central Baghdad. [HSEC-3.6; Date: 26 August 2011; Source: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=104911]
• Human Trafficking Probe - Two Men Appear In Court [Ireland]: A man accused of trafficking eastern
European women into Northern Ireland to work in the sex trade, took up to 80% of their earnings, a court
has heard. Details emerged as two men appeared at Belfast Magistrates' Court on Friday on charges
connected to an investigation into a Europe-wide vice ring. They were arrested after the PSNI raided
properties in the city on Wednesday. Six women alleged to be victims were rescued. One of the suspects,
29-year-old Bronislav Rybensky, a Czech Republic national with an address at College Central Apartments,
King Street, Belfast, is charged with trafficking into and within the UK, controlling prostitution and brothel
keeping. … A detective constable told the court Mr. Rybensky is believed to be the main instigator in a crime
group which trafficked women from eastern Europe into Northern Ireland through Dublin. The officer
claimed the women thought they were coming for modeling work. But on arrival they were allegedly told
they owed money for flights and accommodation and had to repay it through prostitution. The officer
claimed Mr. Rybensky took between 50-80% of their earnings from each client. [HSEC-3.10; Date: 26
August 2011; Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-14677598]
• [Update] $3-Million Home Faces Seizure After Owner Accused Of Human Trafficking [Canada]: The
home of a West Vancouver, B.C., woman who has been charged with human trafficking may soon be the
property of the B.C. government, if the Supreme Court approves a forfeiture claim filed earlier this week.
The province's director of civil forfeiture filed the claim on the grounds that the $3.1-million house belonging
to Mumtaz Ladha was "an instrument of unlawful activity." According to the statement of facts attached to
the application, Ladha originally hired the victim of the alleged trafficking at her family home and salon in
Tanzania. In early 2008, she promised the woman a job at a salon in Canada for a $200 monthly income,
said investigators. But the woman told police that upon her arrival in August of that year, she was made to
work 18 to 22 hours per day…. [HSEC-3.10; Date: 28 August 2011; Source:
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/million+home+faces+seizure+after+owner+accused+human+trafficking
/5319992/story.html#ixzz1WQ9x1cKX]
• Cambodia-Thailand: Men Trafficked Into "Slavery" At Sea: Each year, hundreds of Cambodian men,
many impoverished farmers, are lured from their homes with the promise of better-paying jobs in Thailand,
only to find themselves on Thai fishing boats plying the waters of the South China Sea. … Thousands of
Cambodian men are now believed to be working against their will in exploitative working conditions on long-
haul trawlers well beyond the reach of law enforcement agencies, and often alongside Burmese men. "It's
slavery. There's no other way to describe it," Lim Tith, national project coordinator for the UN Inter-Agency
Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP), told IRIN. … Of the 89,096 Cambodians deported from Thailand in
2009 for illegal migration, more than 20,000 (23 percent) were reportedly trafficked, according to a 2010
UNIAP Human Trafficking Sentinel Surveillance. [HSEC-3.6; Date: 29 August 2011; Source:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93606]
