A call for Action!

I am sending this out today to ask for help. World Vision has advised numerous agencies about the fact that the Child Protection Compact Act was removed from the agenda without any type of justification. The reason why I am so outraged over this is the fact that so many Americans are behind the exploitation of children all over the world. Unfortunately our country fuels the demand of child slavery in other countries and some of our men travel to different countries to sexually exploit children from around the world. This is an issue that needs to stop. No child deserves to be enslaved! Please help by calling our state senators and asking why an important bill such as this one, was removed from the agenda. Let’s urge our senators to do the right thing and add this back onto the agenda.

World Vision, a nonprofit organization, working for humanitarian causes around the world, says that Child Protection Compact Act was removed from the agenda of the upcoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting. The Child Protection Compact Act, if implemented, would help enforce anti-human trafficking laws by providing “technical assistance and training to several countries that are willing to address the issue but lacks the resources” and capacity to do so according to the World Vision website. What’s more, the bill was removed from the agenda without any explanation of why it was taken off prior to the removal. More on the Child Protection Compact Act (S 3184) The bill was created to fight against child trafficking for sexual exploitation, child labor, child pornography as well as child prostitution around the world. As the bill states, Unicef estimates over 158,000,000 children in the age between 5 and 14 are engaged in child labor. Also, International Labor Organization estimates over 1,800,000 children are globally exploited each year through prostitution and pornography. Child Protection Compact Act, therefore, is aimed at assisting countries that are willing to address the child trafficking in their own soils but has neither resources nor capacity to countermeasure the challenges. The bill further allows the U.S. government to assist programs or initiatives in following areas: (A) Evaluation of legal standards and practices and recommendations for improvements that will increase the likelihood of successful prosecutions. (B) Training anti-trafficking police and investigators. (C) Building the capacity of domestic non-governmental organizations to educate vulnerable populations about the danger of trafficking and to work with law enforcement to identify and rescue victims. (D) Creation of victim-friendly courts. (E) Development of appropriate after-care facilities for rescued victims. (F) Development and maintenance of data collection systems. (G) Development of regional cooperative plans with neighboring countries to prevent cross-border trafficking of children and child sex tourism. World Vision urges all child advocates and humanitarians to call their senates World Vision therefore urges all child advocates and anti-human trafficking advocates to call their state senates to to list the Compact Act on the upcoming agenda list. The website further list the name and the phone number of each state senator’s office as follows: LeMieux, George S. – (R – FL) Class III (202) 224-3041 Web Form: lemieux.senate.gov/public/?p=EmailSenatorLeMieux Nelson, Bill – (D – FL) Class I (202) 224-5274 Web Form: billnelson.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm Barbara Boxer (CA) – 202-224-3553 Christopher Dodd (CT) – 202-224-2823 Ted Kaufman (DE) – 202-224-5042 Johnny Isakson (GA) – 202-224-3643 Jim Risch (ID) – 202-224-2752 Richard Lugar (IN) – 202-224-4814 John F. Kerry (MA) – 202-224-2742 Benjamin Cardin (MD) – 202-224-4524 Roger Wicker (MS) – 202-224-6253 Jeanne Shaheen (NH) – 202-224-2841 Robert Menendez (NJ) – 202-224-4744 James Inhofe (OK) – 202-224-3643 Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) – 202-224-4451 Robert Casey (PA) – 202-224-6324 Jim DeM I am sending this out today to ask for help. World Vision has advised numerous agencies about the fact that the Child Protection Compact Act was removed from the agenda without any type of justification. The reason why I am so outraged over this is the fact that so many Americans are behind the exploitation of children all over the world. Unfortunately our country fuels the demand of child slavery in other countries and some of our men travel to different countries to sexually exploit children from around the world. This is an issue that needs to stop. No child deserves to be enslaved! Please help by calling our state senators and asking why an important bill such as this one, was removed from the agenda. Let’s urge our senators to do the right thing and add this back onto the agenda. World Vision, a nonprofit organization, working for humanitarian causes around the world, says that Child Protection Compact Act was removed from the agenda of the upcoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting. The Child Protection Compact Act, if implemented, would help enforce anti-human trafficking laws by providing “technical assistance and training to several countries that are willing to address the issue but lacks the resources” and capacity to do so according to the World Vision website. What’s more, the bill was removed from the agenda without any explanation of why it was taken off prior to the removal. More on the Child Protection Compact Act (S 3184) The bill was created to fight against child trafficking for sexual exploitation, child labor, child pornography as well as child prostitution around the world. As the bill states, Unicef estimates over 158,000,000 children in the age between 5 and 14 are engaged in child labor. Also, International Labor Organization estimates over 1,800,000 children are globally exploited each year through prostitution and pornography. Child Protection Compact Act, therefore, is aimed at assisting countries that are willing to address the child trafficking in their own soils but has neither resources nor capacity to countermeasure the challenges. The bill further allows the U.S. government to assist programs or initiatives in following areas: (A) Evaluation of legal standards and practices and recommendations for improvements that will increase the likelihood of successful prosecutions. (B) Training anti-trafficking police and investigators. (C) Building the capacity of domestic non-governmental organizations to educate vulnerable populations about the danger of trafficking and to work with law enforcement to identify and rescue victims. (D) Creation of victim-friendly courts. (E) Development of appropriate after-care facilities for rescued victims. (F) Development and maintenance of data collection systems. (G) Development of regional cooperative plans with neighboring countries to prevent cross-border trafficking of children and child sex tourism. World Vision urges all child advocates and humanitarians to call their senates World Vision therefore urges all child advocates and anti-human trafficking advocates to call their state senates to to list the Compact Act on the upcoming agenda list. The website further list the name and the phone number of each state senator’s office as follows: LeMieux, George S. – (R – FL) Class III (202) 224-3041 Web Form: lemieux.senate.gov/public/?p=EmailSenatorLeMieux Nelson, Bill – (D – FL) Class I (202) 224-5274 Web Form: billnelson.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm Barbara Boxer (CA) – 202-224-3553 Christopher Dodd (CT) – 202-224-2823 Ted Kaufman (DE) – 202-224-5042 Johnny Isakson (GA) – 202-224-3643 Jim Risch (ID) – 202-224-2752 Richard Lugar (IN) – 202-224-4814 John F. Kerry (MA) – 202-224-2742 Benjamin Cardin (MD) – 202-224-4524 Roger Wicker (MS) – 202-224-6253 Jeanne Shaheen (NH) – 202-224-2841 Robert Menendez (NJ) – 202-224-4744 James Inhofe (OK) – 202-224-3643 Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) – 202-224-4451 Robert Casey (PA) – 202-224-6324 Jim DeMint (SC) – 202-224-6121 Bob Corker (TN) – 202-224-3344 Jim Webb (VA) – 202-224-4024 Russ Feingold (WI) – 202-224-5323 John Barrasso (WY) – 202-224-6441 int (SC) – 202-224-6121 Bob Corker (TN) – 202-224-3344 Jim Webb (VA) – 202-224-4024 Russ Feingold (WI) – 202-224-5323 John Barrasso (WY) – 202-224-6441

Even a world Class Chef can become a trafficker!

I wanted to share this article with you all to show you a couple of different things. The most obvious is that anyone can become a trafficker. Traffickers are not always members of the drug cartel, or the Russian mob or the local gang. Traffickers can be college educated, they can be people of the world, diplomats and the list goes on and on.

The second thing I wanted to point out is that the victims in this case were brought into the U.S under a tourist visa. There is a lot of visa fraud occurring here in the U.S. Hence why visa fraud was added to the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2008. Many people believe that a large portion of the victims are smuggled into the country. As I have mentioned on previous posts, a majority of the victims entering the U.S arrive through our airports and not the borders. Each U.S Embassy office around the world is given 3,000 Visas to use per year. That’s a lot of people who are legally allowed to enter the country.

This case sounds interesting and I will keep an eye out. I will update you all on anything related to this case.

Westchester author busted on human-trafficking charges

By JANON FISHER

Last Updated: 1:21 PM, August 3, 2010

Posted: 11:59 AM, August 3, 2010

A Westchester author facing prosecution for his alleged sexual abuse of women that he lured from Europe to work at his home was indicted today on charges under federal human-trafficking laws in the same case, authorities said.

Joseph Yannai, 66, was taken into custody today on a warrant based on an investigation into state charges first filed last year by Town of Pound Ridge police.

The feds claim that between 2003 and 2009, Yannai placed an ad looking for an assistant. Instead, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said he would try to fondle and grope them.

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Yannai, who wrote “The International Who’s Who of Chefs 2004-2005,” also allegedly forbid the women to wear bras and had them watch him take a bath.

“This case is another example of our continuing efforts to aggressively investigate and prosecute individuals who seek to victimize and exploit others to obtain their labor and for criminal sexual purposes,” said Brooklyn US Attorney Loretta Lynch.

Yannai, who has written restaurant guides and a book on famous chefs, said he felt ill after his arrest and was taken to the Northern Westchester Hospital. Yannai will not be arraigned today as a result, although prosecutors believe he faked a stroke.

If convicted, he faces life in prison.

In his emails to women, Yannai “frequently posed as a woman who was supposedly working for Yannai,” according to the feds.

Yannai convinced women to travel to the US to work for him at his home on tourist visas and to falsely tell immigration authorities that they were visiting him for a short time.

Yannai generally had one or two of the women living at his home at any one time, according to the indictment.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/westchester_author_busted_on_human_F7E8y2vi0YWsS9rIJlO7fI#ixzz0vZ9iR7pE

Justice lawyers plan crackdown on sex offenders

I wanted to congratulate Attorney

General Eric Holder and the

Department of Justice for

releasing the first ever

national strategy to combat child

exploitation and abuse this

past Monday. According to the

report this plan will “call for a

crackdown on the most dangerous

sex offenders in the country.”

 

This is wonderful news especially

for any child advocate, as we see

too many of our most precious

members of our society being

exploited on a daily basis. Many

times, the laws that we have do not

necessarily protect our children

the way we all hope they would. I

am happy to see our federal

government re commit themselves

to the fight against child

exploitation. I only hope that this

will open up the doors to our state

lawmakers and agencies to follow

suit.

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice released its first-ever national strategy to combat child exploitation and abuse Monday, which calls for a crackdown on the most dangerous sex offenders in the country.

The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction will assess the threats that children face – including child pornography, online enticement, child sex tourism and commercial sexual exploitation – and outline ways for the federal government to quell abuse.

“Although we’ve made meaningful progress in protecting children across the country, and although we’ve brought a record number of offenders to justice in recent years, it is time to renew our commitment to this work. It is time to intensify our efforts,” Attorney General Eric Holder said.

Part of the strategy calls for the U.S. Marshals Service to launch a nationwide operation to target the 500 most dangerous, noncompliant sex offenders.

“Together, we are sending an important message: that the U.S. government, and our nation’s Department of Justice, has never been more committed to protecting our children and to bringing offenders to justice,” Holder said.

According to federal statistics, a report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds, with almost five children dying every day because of abuse.

The 280-page report outlines the steps the department hopes to take and highlights work by federal and state authorities to crack down on abusers. One of the investigations – Operation Cybersafe – identified more than 200 children who were victimized by a group whose members often competed with one another for access to victims. One of the defendants, unnamed in the report, said he’d had sex with more than 500 children.

“You don’t understand. You have your work, your hobbies and your family. My thoughts are occupied with kids and sex. When I’m at work I’m looking online for kids; when I get off work at 5:00 (p.m.), I’m online looking for kids for sex; when I wake up in the morning, I’m online looking for sex with kids,” the defendant said at a U.S. attorney’s office in Illinois.

The department will create a national database to allow authorities on the federal, state, tribal, local and international levels to share intelligence on dangerous offenders. The report also calls for an additional 38 assistant U.S. attorney positions to work on child exploitation cases.

James Hmurovich, the president and CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America, applauded Holder’s efforts but said he’d like to see more preventive measures in the strategy.

“I think it’s a great enforcement initiative, but what we would like to see, and what we would be willing to help with, is the prevention part,” Hmurovich said. “It would be better if (the abuse) never happened.”

Hmurovich noted that it costs the United States $104 billion a year to rehabilitate victims of abuse and, often, abuse victims go on to commit crimes or fail to finish their primary education.

“We as a nation have to start realizing that when a child is abused, our country is hurt,” he said. “We have to get to a place where there is a national attitude that it is unacceptable to abuse a child.”

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/02/1758274/justice-lawyers-plan-crackdown.html#storylink=fbuser#ixzz0vYpL0hA7