Modern-day slavery found on fishing boats near West Africa

An investigation into illegal fishing off the coast of West Africa has instead turned up modern-day slavery. Fishing boats that provide fish for Europe have shocking working conditions according to the Environmental Justice Foundation. The EJF says that the fish are treated better than the workers who catch them.

From the Guardian, writer Felicity Lawrence has the scoop on the EJF discovery. Click to this page to find video footage of the fishing boats.

Forced labour and human rights abuses involving African crews have been uncovered on trawlers fishing illegally for the European market by investigators for an environmental campaign group.

The Environmental Justice Foundation found conditions on board including incarceration, violence, withholding of pay, confiscation of documents, confinement on board for months or even years, and lack of clean water.

The EJF found hi-tech vessels operating without appropriate licences in fishing exclusion zones off the coast of Sierra Leone and Guinea over the last four years. The ships involved all carried EU numbers, indicating that they were licensed to import to Europe having theoretically passed strict hygiene standards.

"We didn't set out to look at human rights but rather to tackle the illegal fishing that's decimating fish stocks, but having been on board we have seen conditions that unquestionably meet the UN official definition of forced labour or modern-day slavery," EJF investigator Duncan Copeland said. A report on the abuses is published by the foundation today.

UK improves a little in child well being

Instead of being right at the bottom, the UK is now near the bottom in child well being for European countries. The University of York conducts the survey to gauge how well European countries are doing in helping poor children.

The report says that the UK is taking many good steps to improve children's well being, but need to give those programs more funding and resources.

From The Press, writer Jennifer Bell tells us where the UK ranks.

In a report commission by The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), university researchers found that high numbers of youngsters in workless families, poor local environments and the low numbers in education or training left the UK trailing 24th out of 29 countries listed.

That was well below the performance of countries such as Germany, which came eighth, and France ranked 15th, and a long way behind the continent’s best-off children, in Holland and Scandinavia.

Only Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta fared worse, according to the research, which was based on data from 2006.

Among other factors which resulted in a low score for the UK were poor immunisation rates, children more likely to report poor or fair health and a relatively poor ability to communicate with parents.

The Child Poverty Action Group said the Government was using the right kinds of policy but had failed to back them with sufficient resources.

The group is one of 150 organisations which have joined forces to call on Chancellor Alistair Darling to announce a £3 billion-plus boost to benefits and tax credits for low income families in today’s Budget.

Asian and European leaders confirm sticking with MDG's

A two day conference between Asian and European leaders resulted in a declaration that the continents will still strive to meet the Millenium Development Goals, despite the global recession. Many countries are far behind on meeting the goals, and the recession has only made them fall further.

From ABS-CBN News, reporter Michelle Orosa attended the conference.

Thirteen Asian countries, 16 European countries, the European Comission, eight international organizations and 10 civil society organizations attended the two-day conference.

Of these 13 countries, Richelle said 5 to 7 were having more difficulty than the rest in following through with the MDG goals.

"Thanks to efforts from India and China, development has progressed significantly in the region. But this has not spread to the whole of Asia," he noted.

Richelle declined to name the countries, but according to a background study submitted for the 2009 ASEM entitled, "Development Challenges and Opportunities," cited as lagging behind other countries in fulfilling several aspects of the MDGs are Cambodia, India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Myanmar Laos, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The Philippines, in particular, was cited for lagging in the goals of halving the number of people living under $1 a day, improving quality of teaching and learning conditions, and improving access to health services.

Rolando Tungpalan, Deputy Director General for the National Economic Development Authority admitted that there was much to improve in the areas cited, but he maintains the government is committed to keeping the country on track to meet its MDG goals by 2015.

Richelle added there are currently 3 factors the ASEM is watching out for in achieving the MDG goals: Volatility in the prices of commodities, slowdown in remittance volumes as the crisis affect job prospects of migrant labor, and the amount of money available for official development assistance.

350 African migrants feared drowned

More than 300 African migrants are feared drowned in the seas between Libya and Europe as illegal trafficking has increased in recent days.

The boats that carry Africans to Europe usually do not have any safety equipment. Smugglers try to cram as many people as they can into the boats to maximize their profits.

From this Reuters story that we found at WNED, Ali Shuaib tells us the findings of security officials fighting the traffcking.

At least 23 bodies of drowned migrants were recovered by Libyan coastguards near the wreckage of three rickety boats which sailed from the coastal village of Sidi Belal near Tripoli, Libya's most influential daily, Oea, said Tuesday, quoting security officials.

One of the boats was carrying 365 people although it was only supposed to hold 75, Libyan officials said. It was one of four migrant ships which sailed from Libya between Saturday and Sunday, apparently heading for Italy.

"After more than two days of searching, we have found no more bodies or survivors or the boat," a Libyan official said.

Among those missing were people from Somalia, Nigeria, Eritrea, Kurdish areas of Syria, Algeria, Morocco, the Palestinian territories and Tunisia, officials said.

A Libyan security official quoted a Tunisian survivor as saying: "I was on board the boat with 13 other Tunisians among the 365 migrants. I'm the only survivor. All my fellow Tunisians drowned."

A fourth ship crammed with more than 350 migrants broke down near Libya's offshore Buri oilfield but Libyan coastguards towed the vessel to the port of Tripoli and rescued all the migrants, including women and children.

Microcredit: European utopia ?

from Cafe Babel

By Vincent Lebrou

When people see ‘micro’ they think ‘small’. That was what Muhammad Yunus thought, an economy professor in Bangladesh during the famine of 1974 and 1975. The academic quickly realised that if peasants had access to just one dollar, they could have met with their economic difficulties. But no bank would want to lend this ‘micro’ amount without a financial guarantee from the borrower. So Yunus became the guarantor. He became the ‘banker to the poor’.

Opportunity to combat misery

The debts were repaid from the very first year and the idea spread to various Bangladeshi districts. In 1983, the Grameen Bank was created, materialising this system of solidarity. Twenty-five years later, the bank has a presence in more than half of the villages in Bangladesh and 5% of its clients leave poverty every year. 94 % of the 2.1 million borrowers are women. These women prove to be more willing combative than men when they are given, or rather ‘lent’, the opportunity to get out of misery.

Now fifty-eight countries offer microcredit programs, adapted to specific local conditions. Even if the populations of developing countries are the main targets for microfinance organisations, market economies have seen their share of small businesses born thanks to the help of microcredits.
Who would have thought, at first glance, that in the regions in Norway's Arctic circle, a rich economic kingdom, microcredit would be used to check the depopulation of the Lofoten Islands? What is the situation on the rest of the Old Continent? If Norway as a land of microcredit might surprise Europeans, what place does microfinance have in the EU?

In Poland, too many regional disparities

Microfinance was accepted as a tool for economic development across the world in the eighties, and somewhat more recently in Europe. What is characteristic of the microfinance sector in Europe is the importance given to non-financial services, and to the status of those in question (those who are unemployed, in social reinsertion programs or excluded from the traditional banking system). Yet there is a difference in practices between eastern and western Europe.

Microcredit has been a dynamic part of central and eastern Europe since the collapse of communism. The general desire for economic transition was a true springboard for microfinance. Individuals who wished to start over economically were supported in spite of a banking sector that was not adapted to the new demand. Since the nineties, Microfinance (IMF) establishments in eastern and central Europe have been able to count on an average annual growth rate of 30%. Today, microfinance has had a clear success in this area, because along with the IMF and NGOs, commercial banks are finding a growing interest in proposing microcredits to the poorest customers.

However, this general trend is not always manifested in the same way across individual territories. The case of Poland illustrates the challenges microfinance has in the east. The absence of a general, national-level policy on microfinance financial services accentuates regional disparities.
Hesitant growth in western Europe

In western Europe, the philosophy of microfinance, which has seen hesitant growth recently, is more oriented towards goals of social cohesion. The economy of western Europe is based upon a system of small and medium-sized businesses (99% of SMEs are microbusinesses, with anywhere in between zero to nine employees), which explains the importance of supporting the most local initiatives. Many entrepreneurs do not have access to financial services via ‘traditional’ networks, even though the companies formed out of the microcredit system are making social links at the local level. What's more, microbusinesses develop principally in the tertiary sector, and in niche markets that large companies are no longer interested in. According to Philippe Guichandut, executive director of the European Microfinance Network (EMN), this extension of banking facilities to the excluded ‘is more a question of social sense than business sense.’

Although microcredit organisations in western Europe are primarily in the form of associations, the legal framework is becoming more flexible, allowing the creation of partnerships between large banking and insurance companies. In the United Kingdom, for example, certain programmes are in place to help intermediaries who propose services to the excluded. The Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme (SFLG) is advantageous for banks loaning capital to people who would normally not be able to receive a loan without this guarantee system.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Roma poverty a major issue for EU

from the BBC

By Nick Thorpe

The European Union's freedom of movement laws mean Eastern Europe's large population of Roma (Gypsies) is now spreading west.

The effect of this influx on national economies, as well as the deep poverty of the EU's Roma, are high on the agenda as the first summit on Roma integration within the EU begins in Brussels.

Italy and Spain have received the most Roma, mainly from Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia, where they make up more than 10% of the population.

Italy has witnessed the most serious effects - murders blamed on Roma, and revenge attacks by vigilante groups, followed by controversial government attempts to fingerprint Roma immigrants.

In Hungary, there is tension between Roma and non-Roma, after a teacher was beaten to death by a Roma mob in one village, and attacks on a lorry driver and his family in another - both after road traffic accidents involving Roma children.

The creation of a "Hungarian Guard", by far-right groups who arrive in villages after such incidents, is fuelling fears of an explosion.

Integration key

"I don't really know how the EU could help," said Andras Ujlaky, head of the Chance for Children Foundation in Hungary.

"But perhaps they could start by pressurising national governments to implement their own declared policies in housing, employment and education."

In Hungary, an earlier policy to give money to schools for the mentally disabled, to which a disproportionate number of Roma were sent, was abandoned when it was realised that it encouraged segregation.

Now funds are focused on mainstream schools which accept more Roma - though they impose limits of 25% Roma in a class.

There has been a wave of school closures in recent years in Hungary, as population figures fall.

That cuts both ways for the Roma. When Roma ghetto schools close, and the children are redistributed among schools with an ethnic Hungarian majority, it helps integration efforts.

The town of Hodmezovasarhely in south-eastern Hungary has been a pioneer, with five out of 11 primary schools closed last year alone.

But in far-flung villages with a majority Roma population, Roma and non-Roma parents alike are upset when local schools close and children are bussed off each day to towns.

Police drive

In eastern Hungary poverty is so endemic - with the Roma blamed for widespread petty theft - that the head of the Hungarian Poultry Board recently complained that people are no longer raising hens in several counties.

One new initiative for Roma integration in Budapest is being run by Gyorgy Makula, a policeman of Roma origin.

Giant placards will be placed at strategic points around Budapest, to try to encourage more Roma to consider a police career.

Data protection laws make it impossible to measure how many Roma police there are in Hungary, but Gyorgy Makula estimates no more than 200, in a police force of 38,000.

"We should show to the Hungarian people, to the majority, among them the police staff, that there are really excellent people in this community who have been working for the police, who are not criminals of course.

"So we would like to change the mind of the people," said Capt Makula.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Poverty and exclusion blight Roma

from the BBC

By Oana Lungescu
BBC European affairs correspondent, Avrig, Romania

The European Commission is set for an unprecedented meeting with Roma (Gypsy) people from all over Europe.

It is a response to the challenge posed by what has become the biggest ethnic minority in the enlarged European Union.

Europe's roughly 10 million Roma remain the poorest of the poor, often migrating abroad in search of work.

The recent murder of an Italian woman sparked off a wave of hostility against the Roma and dozens of expulsions from Italy.

The main suspect is Nicolae Romulus Mailat, a migrant from Avrig, in central Romania.

Crowded shack

His younger brother Gheorghe showed me the family home - a tiny one-room wooden shack, where four people cook, eat and sleep in two beds propped up with bricks. Most of the light comes from the television.

"Bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, it's all here," Gheorghe explains. "We went to Italy to get enough money to build at least another room."

A tall 16-year-old who rarely smiles, Gheorghe has never been to school.

Several other brothers, he tells me, are in mental institutions or foster care, and one drowned while crossing a river on horseback.

Eight months ago, they sold the horse to pay for the bus tickets to Italy.

"It was better in Italy, it was easier to get by," says Gheorghe.

In Romania, he earns less than $10 (£4.90) a day picking corn or potatoes. In Italy he worked on building sites for $60 (£29) or more.

His mother used to collect scrap metal or beg.

After Nicolae's arrest, the family fled Italy.

But when they tried to return several weeks later, the Italian border police would not let them back in.

Italy setback

"They told us we were up to no good and we should stay in our country," Gheorghe complains.

The Mailat family home, if you can call it that, is at the edge of an illegal Roma settlement in Avrig, at the end of a dirt track where the mud comes up to your ankles and dogs gather in packs to keep visitors away.

The mayor, Gheorghe Fraticiu, says there are plans to install electricity and running water.

But until then, people carry water in buckets from the nearby stream, which is overflowing with rubbish.

These miserable living conditions have driven most of Avrig's 800 Roma abroad.

Ilie Linguraru, an elderly man with a bushy moustache, can barely earn a living by making traditional wicker brooms and baskets.

He and his wife had plans to travel to Italy, but now - like everybody around here - he is too scared to go.

One man, he says, has shamed all of Romania.

But not everyone is complaining.

Next door, Viorel Floca and three of his sons have slaughtered a pig in the middle of the road and are busy scrubbing it clean with hot water and a plastic brush, eagerly watched by several grandchildren - some barefoot despite the cold.

They may not look it, but these Roma are not poor.

Here to stay

The men work as shepherds, own quite a few horses and pigs, and Mr Floca would not even consider emigrating.

"I'm not leaving my country," he says proudly.

"Who wants to work, should work here in Romania. Why should I go abroad to steal or pull faces to beg? God has given me strength and health, so I'm staying here in Romania."

Only a short drive away from Avrig's gypsy shantytown is Sibiu, this year's European capital of culture and a thriving city.

As in the whole of Romania, alarm bells are ringing about a growing labour shortage.

One local factory has even hired about 100 metal workers from India.

Some 35-40% of Roma children don't have access to school
Magda Matache
Roma rights spokeswoman

Some employers argue that the Roma are either lazy or lack the right skills, while the Roma claim they are being discriminated against.

What is clear is that despite millions of dollars from the EU and a government integration strategy, change is slow to come.

Magda Matache, executive director for Romani Criss, a Roma human rights group, says at least 40% of the Roma population is unemployed.

"Although a lot of improvements have been made in the education system, the level of illiteracy in the Roma community is still high and 35-40% of Roma children don't have access to school," Ms Matache explains.

"Roma families will not send their children to school because they don't see the importance of it, as after they finish school they won't get a job, they won't get equal treatment."

Romani Criss has started a television campaign to change perceptions.

Now that Romania is in the EU, the advertisements say, the Roma should not remain on the margins.

But even the most optimistic think it will take a generation or more until people like Gheorghe Mailat can feel at home in their own country and the rest of Europe.

One in six Europeans living below the poverty line

from the MRT Online

According to the European Commission's annual social inclusion report, one in six Europeans lives below the national poverty line, while 10 percent of people live in households where there is nobody working, . Conducted in 2004, the study showed that 16 percent of EU citizens lived under the poverty threshold which is defined as 60 percent of their country's median income.

The poverty statistics ranged from 9-10 percent in Sweden and the Czech Republic to 21 percent in Poland and Lithuania while in all countries except the Nordic states, Greece and Cyprus, children are often at greater risk of poverty, said the study.

The report also found wide discrepancies in life expectancy between the bloc's member states and major differences in spending on healthcare with Estonia spending 5.5 percent of GDP and Germany spending 10.9 percent.

The average life expectancy of a man ranges from 65.4 in Lithuania to 78.4 years in Sweden while women in Romania have the lowest life expectancy coming in at 75.4 years, a figure that rises to 83.9 for their Spanish counterparts.

Reacting to the data which will be presented to EU leaders at a summit next month, social affairs commissioner Vladimir Spidla said that although reforms to make national systems more fiscally and socially sustainable are "encouraging" there are still "big challenges ahead."

Mr Spidla also published a separate report on "flexicurity" - Europe's answer to the challenges of globalisation.

The report suggests changing rigid labour practices in the member states in favour of a more flexible system allowing for the easier hiring and firing of people and more varied contracts but greater training, benefits and social security for workers on a Danish-type model.

"Reforms of legislation relating to contracts would allow easier job transitions and provide more opportunities for workers to progress, as would higher investments in training," the report said.

However it warned that despite Europe in 2005 seeing the biggest increase in the employment rate since 2001, some 22 million jobs would still have to be created to meet employment targets set for 2010.

"If Europe is to respond seriously and effectively to the challenges of globalisation and a rapidly shrinking working population, flexicurity must be the order of the day. Workers must be able to move easily and with confidence from one job to the next," said Mr Spidla.