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	Study reveals high levels of abuse and serious harm associated with human trafficking by Cathy Zimmerman, Dr Ligia Kiss IOM, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine   18 February 2015   First comprehensive study of trafficked men, women and children reveals severity of abuse and complex health issues.   The largest survey to date of the health of trafficking survivors has found high levels of abuse and serious harm associated with human trafficking.   For the first time, the findings reveal severe mental and physical health problems experienced by men, women and children trafficked for forced labour and sexual exploitation in Southeast Asia. The study, published in The Lancet Global Health, also highlights frequent physical and psychological abuse and extremely hazardous living and working conditions.   Recent estimates suggest that worldwide more than 18 million people are in forced labour as a result of trafficking, although the hidden nature of trafficking and the difficulties in defining it make estimates uncertain.   The new study was carried out by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the International Organization for Migration.   The researchers carried out face-to-face interviews with 1,015 people entering post-trafficking services in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. These participants had been trafficked to work in various sectors including sex work (32%), fishing (27%), and factories (13%).   Researchers asked participants about their living and working conditions, experiences of violence, and health outcomes. They also measured for symptoms of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.   Almost half of participants (48%) had been physically or sexually abused (or both) and many suffered violence such as knife and dog attacks, burning and choking. Almost two thirds (61.2%) reported symptoms of depression, and approximately two fifths reported symptoms of anxiety (42.8%) and/or post-traumatic stress disorder (38.9%).   Participants who experienced extremely excessive overtime at work, restricted freedom, bad living conditions, threats, or severe violence were more likely to report mental health issues.   Study lead author, Dr Ligia Kiss, Lecturer of Social Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:   “Our findings highlight that survivors of trafficking urgently need access to health care to address a range of needs, and that mental health care should be an essential component of this. Research is needed to identify effective forms of psychological support that can be easily implemented in low-resource settings and in multilingual, multicultural populations.”   Key findings on working and living conditions of participants:   48% experienced physical and/or sexual violence (481 of 1,015 participants); 35% of women and girls reported sexual violence (198 of 566 women and girls); 47% were threatened (478 of 1,015 participants) and 20% (198) were locked in a room; 70% of participants with data available worked seven days per week (685 of 985 participants); 30% of participants with data available worked at least 11 hours per day (296 out of 989)   Key findings on health outcomes among participants:   22% (222 of 983 participants with data available) had sustained a serious injury at work, such as deep cuts, back or neck injury, eye injury or even losing a body part; Only 28% of these reported receiving medical care for the injury (62 of 222); Headaches, dizzy spells and back pain were the most prevalent physical health problems; 61.2% of participants reported symptoms of depression; 42.8% reported symptoms of anxiety; 38.9% reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder; 5.2% had attempted suicide in the past month   Dr Cathy Zimmerman, study author from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “Our study shows there is no single profile of a trafficked person – we spoke to men, women and children of all different ages, from different countries, and with a range of experiences of exploitation.   “We believe the wide range of labour sectors in which abuse occurs points to the need for greater government regulation, stringent health and safety standards, and regular inspections of sectors that are susceptible to human trafficking.   “Exploitation of human beings is age-old. Although it is disheartening to see that human trafficking exists in such proportions in the 21st century, it is encouraging that various forms of these violations are increasingly recognised for what they are: modern-day slavery.”   Feb 2015 (Thomson Reuters Foundation)   From dog attacks, strangulation and rape, to injured fishermen being thrown overboard and left to drown, trafficked people can suffer extreme violence and severe health problems no matter where they end up working, researchers have found.   In the largest ever study into the health of trafficking victims, researchers interviewed more than 1,100 men, women and children in Southeast Asia who had been trafficked into at least 15 sectors - including factory work, domestic labour, sex work and fishing.   "While we all hear about the horrors of human trafficking, when you get the statistical findings like this, it tells you that these nightmares are not isolated cases or necessarily the worst of the stories that get told," Cathy Zimmerman, one of the researchers, said in an interview.   Most previous studies looked at the health of women trafficked into sex work.   What this study found was that women trafficked for other forms of labour, including factory work, domestic work and as brides, suffered worse mental health problems than those trafficked into sex work.   They were more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and high levels of anxiety, Zimmerman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.   Men trafficked as fishermen worked for the longest periods, about 19 hours a day seven days a week, spending on average 16 months at sea with no means of escape, Zimmerman said. One man reported being at sea for about 10 years.   Some told researchers they saw captains pushing injured fishermen overboard. "Murders were definitely witnessed," Zimmerman said.   Domestic workers were some of the worst affected, because they were extremely isolated, often did not speak the language of the family, and were kept indoors working long hours for months or years at a time, she said.   The worst violence was reported by women trafficked as brides.   "It makes it very clear that trafficking is not just about sex work, but is about exploitation in a huge range of sectors from which a lot of us probably benefit," Zimmerman said.   "We don''t want workers to be out of a job, we just want them to have good working conditions," she added.   About half those interviewed had been physically or sexually abused. Many had experienced extreme violence - they had been attacked with knives or dogs, burnt or strangled.   Most of the victims had worked long hours in appalling conditions, which meant injuries were common and usually went untreated. A few had lost limbs.   About 70 percent of men and women, and 35 percent of children, said they had never had any freedom.   The researchers found a lot of physical health problems, but the most common and severe symptoms were related to mental health. Depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder were prevalent. Five percent said they had tried to commit suicide in the four weeks before the interview.   Study lead author Ligia Kiss, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said survivors of trafficking urgently need access to healthcare, including mental health care.   Zimmerman said: "Health is one of those things that everybody always thinks somebody else is going to do because there''s a ''health sector'', and it''s not the case with people who end up in a shelter."   "You need to have referral systems to the health system, and the health system needs to be prepared to receive people who are trafficked ... with an understanding of what trafficking means to health," she added.   Very little is known about what makes someone vulnerable to being trafficked, Zimmerman said.   "Trafficking cannot be explained by poverty alone. There are lots of poor people in the world who don''t get trafficked," she said.   "There has been lots of awareness raising. But really, is it enough to say: ''Hey, if you migrate you could be trafficked''?   "What this study does, is hopefully puts numbers to the problem so that real action is taken to prevent exploitation, and resources are there to help people to recover who might fall prey to these abuses," Zimmerman said.   http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2015/abuse_trafficking_health.html http://www.cogitatiopress.com/ojs/index.php/socialinclusion/issue/view/21 Visit the related web page
	The targeted destruction of the ancient cultural history of Syria and Iraq by Al Jazeera, Unesco   24 August 2015   Syria: UNESCO chief condemns destruction of Palmyra’s ancient temple.   The Director-General of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, has condemned the destruction of Palmyra’s ancient temple of Baalshamin, in Syria, a World Heritage site.   “The systematic destruction of cultural symbols embodying Syrian cultural diversity reveals the true intent of such attacks, which is to deprive the Syrian people of its knowledge, its identity and history, said Ms. Bokova.   “One week after the killing of Professor Khaled al-Assaad, the archaeologist who had looked after Palmyra''s ruins for four decades, this destruction is a new war crime and an immense loss for the Syrian people and for humanity,” she added.   According to UNESCO, Baalshamin temple was built nearly 2,000 years ago, and bears witness to the depth of the pre-Islamic history of the country. According to several reports, the building was blown up on Sunday 23 August. Its cella, or inner area, was severely damaged, and followed by the collapse of the surrounding columns.   The structure of the Baalshamin temple dates to the Roman era. It was erected in the first century AD. The temple is one of the most important buildings in Palmyra. It is part of the larger site of Palmyra, one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world, famed for its Greco-Roman monumental ruins, repeatedly targeted by Da’esh [also referred to as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL] since May 2015.   02 Mar 2015   Baghdad - On Baghdad’s al-Mutanabi street, Iraqis mourned the destruction of 3,000-year old statues in Mosul.   "I’m so upset I can’t speak about it," said one woman interviewed her eyes filling with tears.   The huge statues of winged bulls with human heads at the gates of Assyrian palaces are among the most iconic symbols of ancient Mesopotamia. Known as lamassu, they were meant as protective spirits. Their images are recreated on everything from copper plates to the walls of embassy buildings around the world.   The stone statues have guarded the gates of Nineveh in present-day Mosul since the palace was built in the 7th century BC.   Last week, they fell to men with power drills and a mission to eradicate every trace of Iraq’s pre-Islamic civilisation.   "Believe me, I couldn’t sleep all night when I heard the statues were destroyed," said Abdullah Doshan, a sculptor.   The artistry in Assyrian stone carvings astounds sculptors today. Lions and gazelles seem to leap out of the walls.   The "cradle of civilisation" - the fertile land of ancient Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers fostered the world’s first known cities. The first writing was believed to have developed there more than 5,000 years ago. Many Iraqis view the ancient achievements as their legacy.   "This is our culture, it’s our civilisation which we’ve built on. This is our identity," said Hussam Sabah Khalil, an arts student. “When I go to other countries I tell them ‘I am a son of the Baylonian empire, a son of the Assyrian empire, a son of Iraq. We need to wake up. We can’t lose anymore."   Museum officials said it was unclear how many of the 172 pieces at the museum had been destroyed or sold.   Many of the museum staff are still in Mosul. They have remained at home since ISIL gunmen took over the building in June.   "All the Iraqi people, even the Mosul residents want to protest but they have no power. If they went out to protest they would be killed”.   Mosul, chosen by ISIL as the capital of its self-declared state, was traditionally a centre of commerce and culture - the most religiously diverse and one of the most sophisticated Iraqi cities.   The ruins of Nineveh, the capital of the powerful Assyrian empire, are within its city limits.   “Many of the best musicians of Iraq were born in Mosul," said Saad Eskander, outgoing director the National Library. "Apart from that, the most important historians came from Mosul, the first woman judge came from Mosul. Mosul was the important city in terms of the culture and history of Iraq."   Just days before ISIL released the video of the destruction in the Mosul museum, reports surfaced that the group had burned the Mosul library.   Khaldoon Salem used to visit the museum when he studied at Mosul university. "It is unimaginable," he said. "They are destroying our civilisation. They are destroying our history."   27 February 2015   UNESCO chief condemns ‘cultural cleansing’ in Iraq   The head of the United Nations agency mandated to protect heritage sites has reiterated her dismay at the “destructive fury” exhibited by militants of the ISIL in their recent assault on the Mosul Museum.   Briefing journalists at a press conference, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General, Irina Bokova, condemned the devastation of artefacts and bas-reliefs, including large statues from the UNESCO world Heritage site of Hatra, by ISIL.   “This tragedy is far from just a cultural issue: it’s an issue of major security,” she declared. “We see clearly how terrorists use the destruction of heritage in their strategy to destabilize and manipulate populations so that they can assure their own domination.”   Ms. Bokova, who has urged Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council to meet on ISIL’s rampant destruction of cultural heritage, said she was encouraged by “the strong international mobilization” against the group’s actions and warned that the “deliberate destruction” of cultural heritage is a war crime according to the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).   She added that she had already contacted ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda “to attract her attention to the attacks on the Mosul Museum and encourage her to open a case.”   ISIL extremists have reportedly engaged in “cultural cleansing” across Iraq and other territories occupied by the group, including the destruction of religious heritage belonging to Muslim, Christian and Jewish sects alike. At the same time, they also participate in the illicit traffic of artefacts in order to help fund their terrorist acts.   At the press conference, the Director-General also confirmed that UNESCO is preparing to launch a coalition of partners to stop the illegal trade of cultural heritage.   http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=50256#.VPqsrY6pX-Z http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=51704#.Vdvngn2pVow Visit the related web page
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