news summer 2009
Top UK City firm founders linked to slavery
June 27 – New research by University College London has uncovered links between British Investment bank Rothschild and City law firm Freshfields and slavery.
Reported in the Financial Times, documents from the British National Archives reveal that Rothschild founder, Nathan Mayer Rothschild used slaves as collateral in a bank deal with a slave owner and James William Freshfield, founding partner of Freshfields, acted as a trustee in deals involving Caribbean slave plantations.
Both men have been historically portrayed as opponents of slavery, with Mr Rothschild organising the government loan used to compensate slave owners in the 1830s. The £20 million compensation package, which was used to persuade slave owners to finally end slavery, was equal to 40 per cent of state expenditure at the time.
The revelations have been unearthed as part of a three year long research project to look at the legacy of British slave ownership and understand how slavery helped to shape modern Britain. The compensation records also act as a census of the 3,000 to 5,000 slave owners in the British Empire in the 1830s.
Zimbabwe Army using forced labour in diamond fields
26 June - A new report by Human Right Watch has accused the Zimbabwean military of using forced labour in the Marange diamond fields in the east of the country.
The report accuses Zanu-PF controlled soldiers of forcing hundreds of children and adults to mine for diamonds, as well as torturing and beating villagers suspected of supporting illegal miners or not working for the army.
The report also gives details of the alleged massacre of more than 200 people during a brutal three week take over of the diamond fields by the military in October and November 2008.
Human Rights Watch estimate that a properly regulated diamond industry could generate $200 million a month for the cash strapped country.
Taiwan ‘smash’ largest human trafficking ring
June 18 – The Taiwanese authorities have arrested 74 people believed to be involved the country’s largest-ever human trafficking ring.
The arrests are in connection with the trafficking of 50 Chinese girls into the US from Hong Kong. The Chinese girls entered the US by using Taiwanese passports swindled from parents of children from indigenous communities in east Taiwan.
Over 30 Taiwanese women, including former flight attendants, nurses and college lecturers were arrested for their role as chaperones or ‘mommy’ to the Chinese children during the flight to the US. The Taiwanese women were paid up to $1,500 in cash for each trip.
The US authorities strongly believe the Chinese girls will have been trafficked into prostitution.
Taiwan ‘smash’ largest human trafficking ring
June 18 – The Taiwanese authorities have arrested 74 people believed to be involved the country’s largest-ever human trafficking ring.
The arrests are in connection with the trafficking of 50 Chinese girls into the US from Hong Kong. The Chinese girls entered the US by using Taiwanese passports swindled from parents of children from indigenous communities in east Taiwan.
Over 30 Taiwanese women, including former flight attendants, nurses and college lecturers were arrested for their role as chaperones or ‘mommy’ to the Chinese children during the flight to the US. The Taiwanese women were paid up to $1,500 in cash for each trip.
The US authorities strongly believe the Chinese girls will have been trafficked into prostitution.
Spain puts a stop to ‘voodoo’ traffickers
23 May – The BBC reports that Spanish Police have arrested 23 people suspected of trafficking Nigerian women into prostitution under the threat of voodoo curses.
The trafficked women were promised well paid jobs in Europe but instead found themselves forced into prostitution. The police said that all earnings were kept by the gang until the trafficked women had paid back a debt of around $68,000 for making the trip to Spain.
The women are controlled by the gangs because of their fear of the consequences of breaking an oath taken at a voodoo ceremony before leaving Nigeria.
In the BBC report experts explained that during the ceremony clothes and even hair were taken from the women who were then told that they would be cursed if they failed to repay their debt, ran away or spoke to the authorities.
Earlier in May, 11 people went on trail in the Netherlands for trafficking 150 Nigerian women and girls and using voodoo to force them into prostitution across Europe.
Credit crunch fuelling human trade
16 Jun - The US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Person’s (TIP) report has warned that the global financial crisis and in particular rising unemployment is fuelling human trafficking across the world.
Speaking at the launch of the report, US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton said: “Economic pressure, especially in this global crisis, makes more people susceptible to the false promise of traffickers.”
The TIP report gives an assessment of the state of trafficking in 175 countries across the world and ranks them according to their successes and failures to combat the issue.
This year’s report has expanded its focus from sex-trafficking to include a wider-range of forced labour abuses, including those found in the fishing and mining industry.
Though trafficking for forced labour is the most prevalent form of trafficking globally, forced labour convictions account for less than 10 per cent of all convictions.
Secretary Clinton revealed that the US will be evaluated for the first time in next year’s TIP report.