HIDDEN BEHIND THE HAREM WALLS:
OPULENCE & DECADENCE
A look into human trafficking in the Philippines
Human trafficking, the illegal trade in human beings for forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation, remains a problem in the Philippines.
A report of the United States (US) State Department has placed the Philippines under the “Tier 2 Watch List” category in the Trafficking in Persons.
The Philippines is one of the 58 countries under the “Tier 2 Watch List,” according to the Washington DC-based US Department of State.
Those under the “Tier 2 Watch List” are countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards but are making significant efforts to comply with those standards.
The Philippines is on par with Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Mozambique, Algeria, Lebanon, Yemen, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Kazahkstan, Niger, Tunisia, Guatemala, Panama, Venezuela, China, and Russia, among others.
According to the US State Department, the Philippines is a “source country and to a much lesser extent, a destination and transit country for men, women, and children who are subjected to trafficking, especially forced prostitution and labor.”
In a statement on Thursday, the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) said the government’s 1343 hotline has received over 750 calls from victims of human trafficking (also called as a modern-day form of slavery) and their families.
Anti-trafficking in Persons Act
In 2003, the government enacted a law — the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act — to go after the traffickers and help their victims.
Since its enactment until 2009, a total of 938 trafficking cases were filed, according to the Philippine Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking.
At least 42 convictions have already been rendered by courts as of February 2011, the council noted.
There are three categories of trafficking acts punishable under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act:
- acts of trafficking in persons;
- acts that promote trafficking, and
- qualified trafficking.
The law defined trafficking in persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer or harboring, or receipt of persons” by any means for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude, and debt bondage exploitation.
“When the child is trafficked in person,” “when the crime is committed by a syndicate or in large scale,” or “when the offender is a member of the military or law enforcement agencies,” the crook can be charged with qualified trafficking in persons.
Penalties for trafficking acts
According to the law, the three categories of trafficking acts carry the following penalties:
- for acts of trafficking: 20 years of imprisonment and a fine of P1 million to P2 million;
- for promotion the illegal activity: imprisonment for 15 years and a fine of P500,000 to P1 million, and
- for qualified trafficking: penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of P2 million to P5 million.
The law said trafficking cases may be filed in places where the offense or any of its elements was committed. The unlawful activity’s elements include “acts, means, purpose, and venue.”
Who can file cases
According to the law, those who can file the case may be the trafficked person, the parents, spouse, siblings, children, or legal guardian of the trafficked person, or anyone who has personal knowledge of the commission of any offense under the law.
The law also mandates to provide a Witness Protection Program for the trafficked victims.
Tier Placements
Meanwhile, according to the US State Department’s website cites the following categories:
Tier 1
“Countries whose governments fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards”
Tier 2
“Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards”
Tier 2 Watch List
“Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards AND:
- The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing; or
- There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year; or
- The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year”
Tier 3
“Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so”
Jesse Edep, Bea Cupin, VVP, GMA News
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REMOVING THE CURTAINS OF ARAB HAREMS IXBY
OPAW,
Archive Article
ON SEPTEMBER 1st, 2011
Sexual perversions though prevail in most of the countries it is continuing in the Arab nations mostly behind the thick curtain. We definitely heard the sexual scandal between former American President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky or similar scandal of the French or Russian President, but we definitely never heard how financially disadvantaged women from the Asian and East European nations are brought into Arab countries, to become sexual company of the oil-rich Arab sheikhs or monarchs. Many of the people in the world also are unaware of the dozens of untold stories of unfortunate Asian girls, mostly from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines or the African girls from Tunisia, Egypt, Nigeria, Ethiopia etc, who are brought into harems of the ruling monarchs in the Arab countries, for being “deflowered” by the sex crazy Arabs. Most of the rich and affluent Arab sheikhs as well as members of the ruling royal families “deflower” as many as possible girls, before they marry an Arab girl. This culture is very much in practice in the Arab rich societies, which is considered to be a “test of vigor” of the men, before they marry an Arab female. During each of such “deflowering”, private celebrations are held inside the four-walls of the palaces, to rejoice the vigor of the male member of the privileged families. After the deflowering “ceremony”, these girls may either remain as “sex slave” of her “first man” for few weeks of months, or may be offered to remaining male members of the families, who would continue to abuse the girl for some time, thus finally letting the girl return to her home country with lost of cash in possession. Taking the advantage of tremendous sexual lust of Kuwaiti males, some Filipina women have already established extremely discreet private brothels within various residential and non residential areas in Kuwait city. The matter is no secret, as it has been reported even in Kuwaiti media on a number of occasions. A Filipina national told media that Asian women are being lured and forced into prostitution in Kuwait. She accused the pimps of operating under the loop of an organized crime syndicate. The Filipina, who survived the ordeal, claimed that brothel owners prey on domestic helpers. Most of such brothels are located at Salmiya and Fahaheel areas. A Filipina woman, elderly woman who, is in her early fifties, operated a brothel located in Salmiya’s old souk. The woman was working for a company in The Avenues. Runaway domestic helpers who sought shelter in her house were sold to clients for 25-50 Kuwaiti dinars per night. These women were dressed inappropriately, forced to dance at private parties and engage in sexual acts. A Filipina pimp in Fahaheel, who claimed to take in her custody runaway domestic helpers said, “It is their choice if they want to engage in prostitution or not. I don’t force anyone to it. They came to me asking for help and shelter and I can’t feed them all and provide for their needs. So I merely suggest prostitution as an option should they want to earn and raise money to pay for their needs and work on their release from their employers. However, it is ultimately their decision to give me something from their income.” In recent years, the Indonesian maids in Kuwaiti brothels have become the highest in numbers which is followed by Filipina, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, Nepalese, Indian and Tunisian women migrant workers. Most importantly, rights of housemaids, who are recruiting from many countries to Kuwaiti households, are not protected by local laws. This gives, ‘excellent’ opportunity to the employers in abusing the women in the worst-ever manner. Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury Mary Doreen, a Western nurse, who lived in Saud Arabia for many years, wrote a book on her experiences while working at King Faisal Specialized Hospital and Research Center. Describing the minds of Saudi men, she wrote: “Some Saudis believe that they must have sex five times a day, either before or after prayer. When a woman is menstruating, she is considered ‘unclean’, and it is forbidden for a man to have sexual relations with her. If all his wives are menstruating at the same time, [which frequently happens when several women live together], it is a man’s duty to seek sexual gratification outside of the home. A proud Saudi man wouldn’t defile a Saudi woman, and if a slave or servant or foreign national prostitute is unavailable, he thinks nothing of traveling to Egypt, UAE or Thailand. Sexually transmitted disease is rampant within the country.”
So, does it mean, the members of the Saudi royal family as well as Saudi aristocrats are having slaves, although the Saudi rulers always continue to vehemently deny the existence of any slaves [in 1962, King Faisal abolished slavery in Saudi Arabia by royal decree] in that country. But in reality, women and girls from Third World countries are purchased to serve in aristocratic households throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They come from the Sudan, Tunisia, Thailand, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines. Most of the poor parents or legal guardians of the females sell their girls and women to members of Saudi royals or even Saudi aristocrats, thinking, their children will live in luxury and comfort. A Saudi rich man, who purchases a female slave, believes that he has performed a charitable act by rescuing a family from abject poverty while delivering his slave into a fate worse that death. He brings the young girls into his harem, dump them in the basements. The slave is provided food and little bit of comfort, in exchange, she is regularly raped by her master and other male members of the family, as well tortured and persecuted by mostly female members of the family. This type of cases of slavery is not rare in Arab world, and of course Saudi Arabia is no exception. But on the other hand, such cases mostly get buried into bunch of wrong, false or bullying information packed into various websites. One such site has given series of descriptions on wrong sexuality of the Saudi royals, which will surely be proved as false propaganda of extremely naïve hands.Here is another site which also fails to give any credible information on sexual abuse inside Saudi Palaces and harems of the Saudi sheikhs. For the sake of credibility and accuracy of information, such websites should always be ignored as source of information, for knowing about sexual abuse of women inside Arab harems. It should also be mentioned here that, some of the information in these sites may be even wrongly described or half-truth. The Philippines government, responding to dozens of tragic cases of maltreatment, has warned young women going to work as maids in Saudi Arabia that they will be sexually harassed by Saudi men and slapped and tortured by their Saudi mistresses. The labor ministry says “You have to ward off advances by your master, his brother, son and other male members of the household.” In 1982, a Miami judge issued a warrant to search Prince Turki Bin Abdul Aziz’s 24th-floor penthouse to determine if he was holding an Egyptian woman, Nadia Lutefi Mustafa, as sex slave, against her will. Prince Turki and his French bodyguards prevented a search from taking place, and then won retroactive diplomatic immunity to forestall any legal unpleasantness. Wealth and Privileges of Saudi Princes:In late 1960s King Faisal issued a decree that every inch land of the country that was not officially registered to a private individual belonged to the Saudi royal family. Thus the entire country is treated as private property of the Royal family. The King distributed much of the land to royal family members. Princes sold some of the land back to the state and some to the public, but most they kept for themselves. Inside major cities or out in the remote desert, the country’s vast landmass remains private property of the Princes now numbering over 5000. They also treat entire Saudi oil revenues as their private wealth. Every Prince or princess is entitled to a monthly salary starting the date of his/her birth. Minimum monthly salary for the prince is US$ 150K while princess is US$ 50K, which starts on the moment of their birth and continues up to their 11th birthday. Then the salary amount is re-adjusted with higher amount. And, the money accrued, up to their 11th birthday is either invested in business in Saudi Arabia or in some of the Western countries. This way, each of the Saudi princes, before reaching their 16th birthday, already turn into a multi-millionaire. The closer the relation to Late King Abdul Aziz, the higher is the salary. Like, immediate descendants of late King Abdul Aziz receive a 7 digit [millions] salary each month. The Princes are paid separate Salary for each of their official position. Like Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, reportedly holds over 60 separate positions in addition to chairing dozens committees, entitling him to separate salary for every position. Governors are entitled to a special additional payment of Saudi Riyal 1 billion annually to be used at their discretion. In addition, every Prince is entitled to a Luxurious Private Palace or money to build the Palace of his choice, as well as cash from birth to buy expensive cars and other luxuries. Literally every thing is supplied to the Prince free from the State, like electricity, water, medical, security, education, etc. All State developmental contracts are essentially awarded to the companies owned by the Princes. Similarly, their business establishments and other incomes are free from State control and taxes. Anything coming into Saudi Arabia under the name of a Prince via air or sea is not checked by any Government Agency. And what is the current size of Saudi royal family? According to information, up to April 1995, Prince Saud married into more than 30 tribes with 42 sons and 125 daughters. It was claimed that, the prince had married at least 1,400 women. The size of the royal family now should be somewhere above 50,000 members. Almost all the male members of the Saudi royals are polygamists. It will be totally difficult to identify even a couple of princes in the Saudi royal family, who has just one wife and 5-6 children. In most nominal cases, it will be 10-15 wives with at least 3-35 kids. Daily Reckoning reports: “Not many people know that over 90 percent of Saudi oil comes from six oilfields discovered before 1970′s. Experts argue that these oilfields are now well past their prime. Ghawar oil field is the super giant and has provided 55-60 percent of Saudi oil over the past five decades! According to experts, Ghawar is past its peak already and likely to enter into a major decline. Matthew Simmons, Chairman of Simmons and Company International, an investment bank specializing in oil industry says that “Saudi fields are aging much faster. The Saudis need to strip water out of nearly every well and this is a sign that Saudi fields are aging much faster than the industry has planned for.” Jasmine Revolution and Revelations:The spreading fire of ‘Jasmine Revolution’ in the Arab world is not only succeeding in collapsing one-after-another authoritarian regimes, but, with the fall of those autocrats, the world is getting information about the hidden sexualities inside the harems. And it is visible that, rulers in the Arab world are already sweating due to the spread of Jasmine Revolution in nations. For example, Iranian theocrats claim that the popular uprising against their allies in Syria is masterminded by Israel and West. Saudis and Bahrain’s despots claim that the popular uprising in Bahrain is masterminded by Iranian mullahs. King of Saudi Arabia announced early last February that those behind the Egyptian uprising were “foreign infiltrators” and agents. Libya’s Qaddafi even claimed that the rebels were on drugs and affiliated with al-Qaeda. Egypt’s old security agents declared [and some in the military apparently agreed] that the young protesters were high on drugs and free sex. Saudi palace Salafi clerics declared that it is against God and Islam to protest against the regime. |
