NewsWhore
07-14-2008, 03:30 PM
The Dominican Republic holds the dubious honor of occupying one of the top three slots in the Americas for its modern day slave trade. An estimated 50,000 Dominican women are estimated to be victims of human trafficking, and this figure does not include either men or children. According to Diario Libre, in her address to a seminar "Protection of persons affected by the slave trade", First Lady Margarita Cedeno de Fernandez said that this exploitation of migrant women is a crime against the state and its victims are mostly the result of poverty, sexual or racial discrimination, marginalization and unequal development. The First Lady emphasized that the elimination of the people trafficking in all its manifestations is an urgent necessity and a high priority. The keynote speaker listed the factors that promote this treatment of human beings, mentioning economic difficulties, social violence, crime, the hope of a better life in developed countries and trickery by people in these countries. In order to eliminate the slave trade, it is necessary to eliminate these causes.
The First Lady pointed out the need to create a well-thought out, well-conceived strategic national plan of action in order to fight this most lucrative of crimes. She said that the Dominican Republic has been trying to combat the slave trade since 1999, starting with the creation of the Inter-Institutional Committee for the Protection of Immigrant Women (CIPROM) which was set up under Decree 97-99 and regulated by law 137-03 which outlaws such dealings.
US ambassador Robert Fannin said that the United States has urged the Dominican government to intensify its efforts to investigate and punish anyone who traffics in human beings, especially government officials of any rank.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#12)
The First Lady pointed out the need to create a well-thought out, well-conceived strategic national plan of action in order to fight this most lucrative of crimes. She said that the Dominican Republic has been trying to combat the slave trade since 1999, starting with the creation of the Inter-Institutional Committee for the Protection of Immigrant Women (CIPROM) which was set up under Decree 97-99 and regulated by law 137-03 which outlaws such dealings.
US ambassador Robert Fannin said that the United States has urged the Dominican government to intensify its efforts to investigate and punish anyone who traffics in human beings, especially government officials of any rank.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#12)