Latest news with #humanTrafficking
CTV News
19 hours ago
- CTV News
Guelph Police have made at least 25 arrests related to intimate partner violence so far this year
The Guelph Police Service said investments in addressing intimate partner violence and human trafficking are paying off in the Royal City. According to a news release Wednesday, police have received more than 800 calls related to intimate partner violence in the first six months of the year and have made more than 25 arrests since January. In one case, officers travelled to Belleville to make an arrest. As for human trafficking, police said they have responded to more than 30 related calls for service this year. This comes after Mayor Cam Guthrie recommended the police service increase its 2025 budget request by $250,000 to enhance the Intimate Partner Violence and Human Trafficking Unit. 'While we acknowledge there is still much more to be done to address intimate partner violence and human trafficking in our community, the achievements in the first half of this year clearly demonstrate the value of strategic investments,' Police Chief Gord Cobey said. 'We remain resolute in our commitment to ensuring victims and survivors receive the supports required and that offenders are held accountable.'
New York Times
a day ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Britain Moves to Curb Migrant Trafficking, and Ease Anger at Home
British authorities on Wednesday imposed sanctions on more than a dozen people and organizations suspected of smuggling migrants into Britain, cutting them off from the country's financial system and barring them from entering. It was the first use of a new legal authority aimed at disrupting the human-trafficking networks run by gangs and organized-crime syndicates that transport desperate migrants into the country. The migrants' journeys often conclude with the dangerous crossing of the English Channel in small, rickety boats. It was also the latest attempt by Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government to confront growing political anger about the rising number of migrants trying to cross the channel. While overall migration, including foreign students and workers, is down, the number of migrants arriving in small boats has spiked to about 42,000 this year as of June 30 — a 34 percent increase over the same period last year. The British Foreign Office said the 25 people and criminal organizations targeted on Wednesday had been supplying the small boats, producing fake passports and specializing in moving money outside traditional financial networks to facilitate the illegal movement of people. Among them were a person who the government said ran safe houses along the smuggling routes and seven people reported to be involved with the Kavac Gang, a Balkan-based group that it said created fake passports. David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has called the crackdown part of the country's moral duty to stop the crossings. 'From Europe to Asia, we are taking the fight to the people smugglers who enable irregular migration, targeting them wherever they are in the world and making them pay for their actions,' he said in a statement Wednesday morning. 'My message to the gangs who callously risk vulnerable lives for profit is this: We know who you are, and we will work with our partners around the world to hold you to account.' Mr. Starmer's Labour government has been under increasing pressure since he promised during his campaign to reduce the flow of illegal migration. Small boats account for only about 5 percent of overall immigration into Britain, but the images of migrants jumping off the boats onto the beaches have become a potent political issue. Conservative politicians and their supporters have seized on the growing presence of migrants to attack the prime minister. In Epping, a town at the edge of London, several angry protests erupted in recent weeks after an Ethiopian migrant living in a hotel was charged with sexual assault. It was the latest in a series of protests in Britain about hotels catering to migrants. Chris Philp, the member of Parliament who speaks for the Conservative Party on migration issues, called the sanctions an ineffective and insufficient response and said the government should immediately deport anyone arriving in the small boats. 'The truth is you don't stop the channel crossings by freezing a few bank accounts in Baghdad or slapping a travel ban on a dinghy dealer in Damascus,' Mr. Philp said. 'Swaths of young men are arriving daily, in boats bought online, guided by traffickers who laugh at our laws and cash in on our weakness.' Advocates for migrants welcomed the new efforts on trafficking, in part because they target traffickers and not migrants themselves. But they cautioned that the relatively modest sanctions would probably do little to dissuade people desperate to leave their homes. 'The men, women and children risking their lives in small boats are often fleeing places like Sudan, where war has left them with nowhere else to turn,' said Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, a British-based organization that works with refugees and asylum seekers. 'People do not cross the channel,' he said, 'unless what lies behind them is more terrifying than what lies ahead.' British officials said the new sanctions were part of a broader effort to return more migrants to their home countries if they do not qualify for asylum or refugee status. Since Mr. Starmer's election last summer, the British government has returned 35,000 migrants, according to the Foreign Office, an increase of 13 percent over the previous year. This month, Mr. Starmer announced an agreement with President Emmanuel Macron of France to bolster enforcement to prevent the small boats with migrants from leaving French beaches in the first place. But migration experts say all of Mr. Starmer's efforts face significant challenges and may have little impact on the flow of people. Peter Walsh, a senior researcher at the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, said that many smuggling networks operated almost entirely in other countries, outside British jurisdiction, where the sanctions would have little real-world impact. He also said that Mr. Starmer's promise to 'smash' the gangs would be difficult to fulfill because the groups rely heavily on middlemen working in the informal money-transfer network known as Hawala, which operates outside traditional financial systems. Mr. Walsh said many countries, including Pakistan and India, had tried to combat the middlemen without much success. 'The gangs are pretty difficult to smash,' Mr. Walsh said. 'They are highly decentralized. They are highly adaptive.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Chilling video allegedly shows illegal migrant dragging screaming sex trafficking victim back to captivity
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways Chilling surveillance shows the moment an illegal migrant from Honduras carries a screaming Chinese migrant woman back to a Houston trailer home where she was allegedly being held captive for days as a sex slave. The terrifying footage shows illegal migrant Jose Armando Carcamo-Perdomo carrying the hysterical victim off her feet in a bear-hug style grip as she tries to kick and wrangle her way free. Authorities said she was held at the trailer home without food and water inside a closet. In the video, the women can be heard screaming frantically while a dog at a fence barks loudly at them. Police were alerted to the trailer home after a neighbor saw the woman running down the street before a man grabbed her and carried her back screaming. Illegal migrant Jose Perdoma is accused of holding a Chinese migrant captive Texas Woman Arrested For Allegedly Smuggling Illegal Immigrants Hidden Inside Box Truck The Harris County Sheriff's Office said that the woman was transported from New York to Texas on the promise of new masseuse job that paid more cash. But that hope descended into horror when she was instead held tied up for more than five days, had her Chinese passport taken and sexually assaulted several times. "There was a small closet with a piece of wood across the door that was screwed into the frame," Lt. John Klafka, chief of the adult special crimes unit at the Harris County Sheriff's Office told Fox News. "They were able to rip that piece of wood off and open the door. It had been tied up. She had some type of object like a sock or something that was used to bound her hands." Read On The Fox News App Carcamo-Perdomo was arrested on July 14 and has been charged with kidnapping and assault. Alleged Human Smugglers Arrested In Texas After Hiding Migrants Inside Hollowed Hay Bales He entered the country illegally in 2020 from Honduras was given a notice to appear after a traffic stop, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). But in 2023, an immigration judge decided to dismiss the case. "This heinous criminal illegal alien was freely roaming our interior and terrorizing American communities," DHS said in an X response to the incident. "Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Noem, ICE is working day and night to remove the MILLIONS of illegal aliens in our interior. LAW AND ORDER WILL PREVAIL!" The lieutenant in charge of that investigation says he believes this is part of a much larger traffic ring that they're now investigating in Harris County. Klafka told Kprc 2 that the victim is safe in an undisclosed location and is receiving counseling and medical care. In a statement, the migrant's attorney said Carcamo is "shocked by the serious allegations" brought forth against him and "firmly maintains his complete innocence." "We remind the public that under the United States Constitution, every individual is entitled to the presumption of innocence, the right to due process, and a fair trial," the statement reads. "We expect law enforcement, the State of Texas, and the judicial system to honor these fundamental rights without prejudice or assumption. Original article source: Chilling video allegedly shows illegal migrant dragging screaming sex trafficking victim back to captivity
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- South China Morning Post
Ex-Cathay employee arrested in Hong Kong for alleged human trafficking role
A former customer services officer with Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific has been arrested and remanded in custody after spending more than 15 years on the run for allegedly accepting bribes to help a human trafficking syndicate smuggle travellers overseas. Former Cathay employee Tsui Ying-kit, 44, was escorted to West Kowloon Court on Tuesday afternoon to face four counts of conspiracy for an agent to accept advantages. According to a charge sheet, the defendant conspired with two then-colleagues and others to ensure an unspecified number of travellers could check in for their flights and go through security checks in return for financial rewards between September 2008 and August 2009. The document did not provide the nationalities of the travellers concerned. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said in a statement that Tsui had accepted bribes of HK$1,000 (US$127) to HK$2,000 for each request made by the syndicate. Tsui had been placed on the wanted list since failing to report to ICAC in October 2009. He was arrested after returning to Hong Kong on Monday, according to the anti-corruption watchdog.
Associated Press
5 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Libya deports 700 Sudanese migrants in crackdown on trafficking
CAIRO (AP) — Eastern Libyan authorities have sent hundreds of Sudanese back to their war-torn home country, officials said Saturday, in a crackdown on migrants seeking to flee conflict and poverty for Europe by way of the the Mediterranean nation. Seven hundred Sudanese who were detained recently in central and southeastern Libya, were deported Friday by land to Sudan, the Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration in eastern Libya said in a statement. The statement said some of the deportees suffered from infectious diseases including hepatitis and AIDS. Others were deported because of either criminal convictions or 'security reasons,' it said, without elaborating. The deportation was part of an ongoing crackdown campaign on migrant trafficking in eastern Libya, which is controlled by forces of powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter. Last week, the coast guard in eastern Libya said it intercepted a boat carrying 80 Europe-bound migrants off the eastern city of Tobruk. The campaign includes raids on trafficking hubs across eastern and southern Libya. A raid earlier this month freed 104 Sudanese migrants, including women and children, who were held in a trafficking warehouse in the town of Ajdabiya, about 480 miles (800 kilometers) east of the capital, Tripoli, according to town security authorities. Libya has in recent years become a transit point for those fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, and seeking a better life in Europe. Human traffickers have benefited from more than a decade of instability, smuggling migrants across Libya's borders with six nations, including Chad, Niger, Sudan Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia. The North African country was plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Oil-rich Libya has been ruled for most of the past decade by rival governments in eastern and western Libya, each backed by an array of militias and foreign governments. Thousands of Sudanese have fled to Libya since their country plunged into chaos in April 2023 after simmering tensions between the Sudanese military and a powerful paramilitary group exploded into street fighting across the country. They are among the more than 240,000 Sudanese migrants who live in Libya, according to the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration.
