Human trafficking is a growing problem in Timor-Leste, but despite an increase in the number of potential victims identified, there has not been a single conviction, according to Irin News.
Timorese and foreign nationals are trafficking people for sexual exploitation, forced labour and agricultural work, said Heather Komenda, counter-trafficking programme manager for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
SAMME GAMLE TRICKS
Since Timor-Leste gained independence in 2002, local Timorese women have been lured away from their homes and recruited with promises of work abroad.
Francisco Belo, a coordinator for the counter-trafficking project of the Alola Foundation, an NGO founded in 2001 to respond to the needs of women in Timor, told IRIN:
– We have heard of almost 100 such cases… Especially near the border [with West Timor], traffickers have recruited women to work in Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries in southeast Asia. The families in Timor haven’t heard from those women again.
Traffickers employ a number of strategies. Bogus (falske, red.) NGOs arrive in Timor offering overseas employment.
The population of Timor is 90 percent Catholic and some traffickers even employ people impersonating nuns to recruit people, said Belo.
Kilde: www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82744
