The Aruba Connection

Natalee Holloway

Dutch, Aruba, Dominican Republic, Caribbean, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, Suriname

The Connection

The following information is very disturbing and comes from the U. S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, June 2005. http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/

The territories below are of interest in the Holloway disappearance, with the links to the corresponding State Department page.

(One of the suspects is a Dutch student who is the son of a high-ranking Dutch justice official, and is from the Netherlands.)


(U.S. State Dept.) THE NETHERLANDS (TIER 1)
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46614.htm

The Netherlands is primarily a destination and transit country for trafficking of women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation; trafficking for labor exploitation exists to a lesser extent. Most victims are trafficked from Central and Eastern Europe, with some victims from Nigeria and Brazil. Reportedly, a significant percentage of the 25,000 individuals engaged in prostitution reportedly are trafficking victims. Internal trafficking of young, mostly foreign girls by Moroccan and Turkish pimps into sexual exploitation also occurs. The Netherlands Antilles, where the Netherlands exercises responsibility over visa issuance according to guidelines issued by the Netherlands Antilles, became more of a concern as a transit and destination for illegal migrants, some of whom may have been trafficked.
The Government of the Netherlands fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Although the government did not provide final 2004 data on investigations, prosecutions, convictions and sentences, the Secretary of State has determined that it has made a good faith effort to do so. In 2004, the government adopted an anti-trafficking national action plan, expanded its outreach to potential trafficking victims and increased overall funding for protection and prevention. In January 2005, the government supplemented its existing trafficking law and incorporated forced labor into its definition of exploitation, bringing penalties in line with international standards. International scrutiny continued to focus on the legalized commercial sex industry in the Netherlands. Police reported a decrease in trafficking in the legalized sector, though comprehensive data on the number of trafficking victims is unavailable because the government did not carry out a recommended systematic screening of foreign prostitutes in the redlight district. While the government initiated several information and awareness raising campaigns, additional targeted and highly visible campaigns aimed directly at customers and women in the redlight zones should be made to increase effectiveness in combating the overall problem.

Prosecution
The Netherlands, in 2004, expanded the legal definition of trafficking to include forced labor and increased the maximum penalty for traffickers from six to eight years. Sentences of up to 12 years can apply in cases of serious physical injury. Average sentences increased by almost 3 months in 2003. Preliminary enforcement statistics reflected an increase in cases investigated for the first nine months of 2004. During this period, Dutch police initiated 604 investigations and referred 87 cases for prosecution. In 2003, the courts successfully prosecuted 127 trafficking-related crimes. The police incorporated anti-trafficking curriculum into regular police training; and a similar model was developed for public prosecutors and judges. Information on the modus operandi of traffickers was distributed to all regional police forces. There were no reports of official corruption or trafficking-related complicity.
The government reported that strict controls and licensing requirements for brothels were employed as a means of combating trafficking. Under the Public Information Integrity Act, the local government of The Hague denied licenses to five sex firms and withdrew two existing licenses due to indications of involvement in illegal activities, including trafficking. Police conducted unannounced bi-monthly visits to brothels in Amsterdam to check for illegal conduct.

Protection
In 2004, the Dutch government increased its funding for shelters assisting trafficking victims by 1.2 million Euros. Additionally, regional governments funded shelters, victim protection programs and local education programs. The Dutch Foundation Against Trafficking in Persons (STV), the national reporting center for registration and assistance for trafficking victims, registered 405 trafficking victims in 2004, an increase from 267 the previous year. Moreover, 185 trafficking victims received B-9 residency permits, an increase from 84 in 2003. In April 2005, the government enacted regulations to allow B-9 permit holders the right to work and eligibility for benefits and education assistance. Victims not wishing to apply for the B-9 were informed of other asylum options, including the option of accepting the B-9’s three-month reflection period. In 2004, the government donated 28.5 million Euros to UNICEF to protect child victims of trafficking.

Prevention
In 2004, the Dutch government initiated targeted information campaigns to prevent trafficking and raise awareness among government officials and the public. These included: an information campaign on the anonymous crime reporting hotline; a B-9 residency permit awareness campaign; and new public awareness campaigns on youth prostitution targeting at-risk youth in schools and among asylum seekers. During the reporting period, the Health Ministry subsidized a "stepping out" program aimed at re-socialization and psychosocial support. Information brochures in five languages on development of such assistance packages were distributed to local governments and distributed to 2,000 vulnerable women in prostitution across the Netherlands. Under this program, the government also funded Dutch language lessons for women formerly in prostitution and conducted outreach to 800 foreign national prostitutes to escape dependency on pimps and traffickers. In addition, the government funded outreach through an NGO in 2004 to 22,000 women in prostitution, potential trafficking victims and clients in the Amsterdam redlight district. The government, in January 2005, established a center aimed at preventing involvement of youth in prostitution to consolidate all prevention, information and support activities. The government continued to focus efforts on international prevention and outreach to source countries, and provided significant funding for a number of programs in those counties. The government has provided funding since 2003 to prevent the international sexual exploitation of children and international child forced labor.


THE DUTCH CARIBBEAN AUTONOMOUS REGIONS

Anecdotal reporting suggests that the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, autonomous regions within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, are transit and destination regions for trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation. Curacao and Saint Maarten, in particular, reportedly are destination islands for women trafficked for the sex trade from Columbia, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. In Curacao (and neighboring Aruba) observers estimate that 500 foreign women are in prostitution, some of whom may have been trafficked. There are also reports of children being trafficked for sexual exploitation as underage prostitutes, particularly from the Dominican Republic. In September 2004, Curacao prosecuted and sentenced two traffickers who trafficked children from Suriname to Curacao using fraudulent documents. Visas for Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles are issued by Dutch Embassies following review by Aruban or Netherlands Antilles’ authorities. Visa controls were reportedly tightened in 2004. Also in 2004, the Dutch government provided 100,000 Euros to an IOM program focused on awareness raising, information dissemination and regional cooperation targeting officials from the Dutch Caribbean.


(Two of the suspects are from Suriname which is located on the coast near Venezuela.)

SURINAME (TIER 2 – WATCH LIST)
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46616.htm

Suriname is principally a transit and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Men, women, and children are also trafficked internally for forced domestic and commercial labor and sexual exploitation. Most women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation come from Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Colombia; they either remain in Suriname or continue to Europe for additional sexual exploitation. Girls from rural areas are promised work in cities and then trapped in situations of domestic servitude or sexual exploitation; other children are trafficked for sexual exploitation to mining camps in Suriname’s remote interior. Chinese nationals transiting Suriname risk debt bondage to migrant smugglers who place them into forced labor.
The Government of Suriname does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The government remains on Tier 2 Watch List for a second year for its failure to show evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking, particularly in its lack of progress in law enforcement action against traffickers. The government should investigate illegal migration, which often veils trafficking operations, and avoid summary deportations of victims who could assist in building cases against their traffickers. Government leaders should publicly support a "no tolerance" policy for officials implicated in trafficking, and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.

Prosecution
Suriname still lacks a comprehensive law to combat trafficking. Existing statutes prohibited slavery, migrant smuggling, and pimping but were not adequately enforced and they treated forced labor as a misdemeanor offense. Authorities failed to screen foreign women who were possible victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation before deporting them for immigration violations. Prosecutors and police received anti-trafficking training and created operations manuals to assist officers in identifying and investigating cases. Late in 2004, the government created a special police anti-trafficking unit. The police cooperated with Curacao officials in a case that resulted in convictions for trafficking of children to the Netherlands Antilles. Cooperation with Guyanese officials led to the arrest in December 2004 of a Surinamese official for trafficking young Guyanese girls for sexual exploitation. The government created a special section in the police fraud unit to investigate public corruption. No other investigations, prosecutions, or convictions related to trafficking were reported.

Protection
The government lacked resources and efforts to assist victims were inadequate over the last year. It provided no assistance specifically for trafficking victims. The government provided police with some training on identifying victims but more training is necessary. Potential trafficking victims typically faced detention and deportation for migration violations. Mechanisms for coordinating assistance with a foreign victim’s embassy were only available to victims with legal immigration status. Victims could file suit against traffickers. In May 2004, the government established a special victims unit and telephone hotline to handle reports of trafficking and complaints from victims.

Prevention
The government made a good faith effort to educate the public and prevent trafficking during the reporting period. Radio and television spots in early 2004 and newspaper articles including quotes from senior public officials late in the year brought the issue to the public’s attention. The government supported public awareness campaigns to prevent internal trafficking of children. It funded campaigns about the worst forms of child labor, including prostitution, conducted by the Surinamese Labor College, and educated teachers, families, and community leaders about the detrimental effects of child exploitation. The government also finalized its National Plan of Action in November 2004 and provided logistical support for IOM workshops on preventing trafficking and identifying and working with victims.


DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (TIER 2 – WATCH LIST)
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46613.htm

The Dominican Republic is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor. Dominican women and children are trafficked to destinations in Latin America and Europe, including Spain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, the Netherlands Antilles, Argentina, Costa Rica, and Brazil. There are indications that Peruvian women have been trafficked through the Dominican Republic to Italy. Additionally, Haitians are trafficked into the Dominican Republic for forced labor and sexual exploitation. There are reports of an estimated 2,000 Haitian children trafficked into the Dominican Republic annually to work on the street (such as shoe shining), to work in agriculture, or to be exploited in the sex trade. The ILO estimates that 48,000 children are engaged in child labor nationwide.

The Government of the Dominican Republic does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, is making significant efforts to do so. The Dominican Republic is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to address trafficking over the past year. Trafficking-related law enforcement efforts generally remained weak, though the current government made modest efforts to combat trafficking in some areas, including the successful prosecution of a high-level official complicit in trafficking-related offenses. The government, which took office last year, has newly appointed individuals in place to combat trafficking and has pledged to do more.

Prosecution
The Dominican Republic’s anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts remained limited during the reporting period. Existing anti-trafficking units remain poorly deployed and coordination between agencies is ineffective. The government has not provided comprehensive anti-trafficking law enforcement data, but did report that only two new trafficking arrests were made over the last year. The government was finally able to convict and sentence to 18 months in prison Congressman Guillermo Radhames Ramos Garcia on charges of alien smuggling and trafficking-related offenses while a consul in Haiti, following a two-year legal battle. The Attorney General and other prosecutors have also made strong public statements about the need to prosecute and investigate trafficking cases, but this has yet to translate into a substantial number of active cases. A few commercial establishments involved in sexually exploiting children have been closed. Efforts to address trafficking-related corruption have improved modestly, as evidenced by the conviction of the Congressmen noted above. The government has yet to prosecute accused child trafficker Maria Martinez Nunez, who has been imprisoned awaiting trial since 2002. Official corruption still remains endemic and continues to impede anti-trafficking efforts. Law enforcement efforts are also hampered by a lack of resources, personnel, and trafficking awareness. Potential trafficking cases are rarely fully prosecuted or brought to conclusion.

Protection
The Dominican Government’s efforts to protect victims of trafficking remained inadequate over the last year, hampered by a lack of resources. There are no shelters in the country specifically aimed to assist trafficking victims. Limited services are available to trafficking victims through NGOs. The government has made efforts to work with these NGOs to refer and assist trafficking victims, but efforts are uneven and should be increased. In general, the government lacks a comprehensive victim protection policy, which also affects the government’s ability to identify traffickers. Control of the Haitian border remains weak, and the government continues to deny birth certificates to Haitians born in the Dominican Republic, which leaves them more vulnerable to traffickers and also leaves them without access to certain services in the Dominican Republic. The process for the identification and responsible repatriation of Haitian trafficking victims living illegally in the Dominican Republic needs to be improved.

Prevention
The government recognizes that trafficking is a problem, but has failed to implement sustainable prevention campaigns, in part because of its resource constraints. There have been campaigns in the country warning about the dangers of trafficking and the government has increased efforts to train officials on trafficking-related matters. There have been several public awareness campaigns, including several town-hall meetings in Boca Chica, a known site of child trafficking. High government officials continue to speak out about the dangers of trafficking and have committed to do more.



In the News…
(ABC News Original Report) http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=831761&page=1

Striking Similarities in Two Disappearances
Story of Teen Who Disappeared in Aruba Strikes Chord With Virginia Family

Jun. 9, 2005 - One family knows all too well what the relatives of the Alabama high school graduate who disappeared while vacationing in Aruba are going through.

Ron and Iva Bradley see mirror images of themselves when they watch the friends and family of Natalee Holloway on television insisting they will not leave Aruba without her and that they remain hopeful they will find their missing loved one. Holloway, 18, was last seen May 30 while on a five-day trip to the Dutch Caribbean island with classmates celebrating their high school graduation.

The Bradleys have carried similar feelings of helplessness in the seven years that their daughter Amy has been missing.

"Nobody should have to go through what we've been though in the last seven years," Ron Bradley told ABC News affiliate WRIC in Richmond, Va. "I know that Natalee's family is going through the same thing. You have so many thoughts and things that come to your mind and it just doesn't leave you."

Disappearance on a Cruise Ship

Amy Bradley, a 23-year-old recent college graduate who was about to start a new job at the time of her disappearance, vanished in March 1998 while she vacationed with her family on a Caribbean cruise. The Bradleys were on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's Rhapsody of the Seas, then a year-old luxury ship, and Aruba was one of the ship's destinations.

The Bradleys say three men who worked on the ship became friendly with Amy and wanted to take her to a bar in Aruba, Carlos' n Charlie's bar and restaurant -- the same bar where Holloway was seen eating and dancing the night she disappeared. Holloway never showed up for her flight the next morning, and police found her passport and packed bags in her hotel room.

Bradley's parents say they last saw their daughter dancing along with her brother Brad at a Mardi Gras party on the ship before they retired for the night to the family's suite. The ship's computerized door-lock system showed that Brad returned to the suite at 3:35 a.m. March 24, while Amy arrived five minutes later. Brad Bradley said he and his sister sat on the suite's balcony and talked before he went to sleep. He said he last saw Amy sitting in a lounge chair on the balcony.

Ron Bradley said he awoke at 6 a.m. and saw that Amy was not in her room or on the balcony. He searched for her for approximately an hour before he contacted ship security officials. When the ship arrived in Curacao, the Bradley family pleaded with the captain not to lower the gangplank and let its 2,000 passengers off until officials conducted a massive search of the cruise liner.

Crew officials conducted a search of the ship, but found no evidence of foul play and suspected Amy Bradley fell or jumped off the ship. Authorities subsequently searched the ship and the waters but did not find Amy's body. Her whereabouts have been unknown ever since.

Hope for New Attention and Information
Ron and Iva Bradley say they pray for the Holloways and hope the search for Natalee Holloway can return attention to their daughter's case.

"We're doing these "media interview" pieces so that we can get some "attention" -- get Amy's face back out in the public -- because we know that somebody knows something," Ron Bradley said.

Aruban authorities are holding five men in connection with Holloway's disappearance while investigators search for the teen. Three men Aruban authorities initially questioned and referred to as "persons of interest" in her disappearance have been arrested. Their names have not been released. And police continue to detain -- but have not formally charged -- two former hotel security guards, Nick John and Abraham Jones.

Associated Press (AP)

ORANJESTAD, Aruba http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/breaking/060905_aruba_case.php

Aruban police arrested three men Thursday who acknowledged giving a ride to an Alabama teenager the night she disappeared on this Dutch Caribbean island, officials said.

The three, described by authorities earlier as witnesses and ``persons of interest,'' had been released last week after being questioned about 18-year-old Natalee Holloway.

They told police they dropped off Holloway, of Mountain Brook, Ala., at her hotel in the early hours of May 30, but Holiday Inn employees say security cameras did not record her return.

Police also impounded a gray Honda car. Holloway's friends reported last seeing her leave a nightclub in a silver car.
``The three people have been arrested as suspects,'' chief government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg told The Associated Press. He did not elaborate.

Attorney General Caren Janssen said the three were arrested at 6 a.m. She refused to name them, but authorities previously described the three as students - two Surinamese brothers and the son of a Dutch justice official studying to be a judge.

The Dutch detainee, a student at Aruba International School, left his home in the middle-class Montana neighborhood of Oranjestad on Thursday with his head covered in a blue-and-green striped towel.

Police identified the Surinamese brothers only as Satish and Deepak K.

Janssen refused to say whether the three were connected to two former hotel security guards detained earlier in Holloway's disappearance. A judge ruled Wednesday there was sufficient cause to hold the two ex-guards.
The judge's decision means authorities could detain Nick John, 30, and Abraham Jones, 28, for nearly four months while prosecutors investigate possible murder and kidnapping charges, defense attorneys said. Neither man has been formally charged.

John's lawyer, Noriana Pietersz, said she spoke to her client in jail Thursday.

``I have decided not to demand the immediate release of my client,'' she said. ``We prefer to let the prosecution investigate, confident that my client will be released by Wednesday'' when a judge will decide whether to extend his detention.

Holloway vanished while on a five-day trip with 124 classmates and seven chaperones celebrating their high school graduation.

The night she disappeared, Holloway ate and danced at Carlos' n Charlie's bar and restaurant. She did not show up for her return flight hours later, and police found her passport in her hotel room with her packed bags.

Police and the FBI said a lack of any solid leads was hindering progress in their search for Holloway.

Authorities have not said Holloway was a victim of foul play and have not ruled out any possibilities, including that she may have drowned.

The Aruba government and local tourism organizations have offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to Holloway's rescue, her family and benefactors in Alabama have offered an additional $30,000, and Carlos' n Charlie's donated $5,000 - for a total of $55,000.

Holloway vanished while on a five-day trip with 124 classmates and seven chaperones celebrating their high school graduation. Authorities have not said Holloway was a victim of foul play and have not ruled out any possibilities, including that she may have drowned.