The children transported across state lines from Seattle Washington and were housed in a slave shack behind the couple's home in a Sundown Town in West Virgina! Court raises bond as they believe couple raised money from human trafficking of minors!
According to West Virginia Metro News "CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Sissonville couple accused of allegedly locking five children up in a barn and forcing them to work are back behind bars and on a bond that’s more than double what they had already been given– now set at $500,000 each. Donald Ray Lantz, 63, and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, appeared in Kanawha County court Tuesday pleading not guilty to over a dozen new charges against them, including human trafficking of a minor child, use of a minor child in forced labor, and child neglect creating substantial risk of serious bodily injury or death."
We live in an era of climate disasters and visible examples of human slavery and genocide. Over the last four decades, climate-related emergencies have increased by over 80%, with reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) describing “changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system.” Across a wide range of countries, like India, Germany, Pakistan, British Columbia, and South Africa, in addition to many others, the negative impact of climate change is already being felt, impacting countless thousands. Media channels around the world report on climate-related mass displacements with growing regularity, with increasingly frequent severe weather events serving as catalysts for political and economic instability.
Instability breeds chaos, which generates and perpetuates a steadily growing range of vulnerabilities for impacted families and communities, including vulnerability to human traffickers! Between the threat of more frequent droughts and wildfires, sea level rise swallowing communities or entire countries, soaring temperatures making many places (especially cities) unlivable, and a host of other climate-related threats, the negative consequences of climate change are poised to harm and displace over one billion people. What once seemed a distant threat is now a bleak statement of fact in our everyday lives.
Amid these trends, human trafficking and modern slavery continue to be massive and pernicious problems. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 50 million people are enslaved today, more than at any other time in history.
Those who seek to prevent and address the issue of human trafficking need to consider the disruptive underlying force of climate change as part of any solution. In this report, we aim to analyze the complex and multilayered relationship between climate change and human trafficking. Drawing on the work of experts, researchers and analysts across both fields we will help unpack the factors at play in this intersection and illuminate some of the challenges found in today’s migration landscape.
Internally displaced people have been forced to flee from their home due to violence and conflict or natural disasters, but remain within their country. As they remain within their own country, they remain under the protection of its government, even if that government is the reason for their displacement. They are not afforded many protections under international law and are amongst the most vulnerable people in the world. Movement of persons that takes place outside the laws, regulations, or international agreements governing entry into or exit from the state of origin, transit or destination also makes people vulnerable to traffickers.
Under international law, refugees are defined as people who have fled their country to seek safety in another. This can be due to war, conflict, violence, or persecution. Refugees are unwilling or unable to return to their home country out of a well-founded fear of persecution. Refugees are protected by international law and cannot be sent back home if it is shown that their life or freedom would be at risk.
Note about the term ‘Climate Refugee’ or Climate Migrant: these terms can be found used in much of the current discourse about climate change, but this concept does not exist in international law and legislation. The 1951 Refugee Convention which defines who may be eligible to qualify as a refugee does not mention climate change related reasons. Climate refugees can be forcibly displaced both internally and across borders. It is still possible for persons displaced due to climate related reasons to be considered as refugees if the climate related reasons result in any of the reasons accepted in the Refugee Convention.