A LOOK AT THE PROBLEM

OVER THE PAST year, at least 700,000, and possibly as many as four million men women and children worldwide were bought, sold, transported and held against their will in slave-like conditions. In this modern form of slavery, known as “trafficking in persons,” traffickers use threats, intimidation and violence to force victims to engage in sex acts or to labor under conditions comparable to slavery for the traffickers’ financial gain. Women, children and men are trafficked into the international sex trade for the purposes of prostitution, sex tourism and other commercial sexual services and into forced labor situations in sweatshops, construction sites and agricultural settings. The practice may take other forms as well, including the abduction of children and their conscription into government forces or rebel armies, the sale of women and children into domestic servitude, and the use of children as street beggars and camel jockeys.

Traffickers often move victims from their home communities to other areas - within their country or to foreign countries - where the victim is isolated and may be unable to speak the language or be unfamiliar with the culture. In many cases, the victims do not have immigration documents or they have fraudulent documents provided by the traffickers. Most importantly, the victims lose their support network of family and friends, thus making them more vulnerable to the traffickers’ demands and threats. Victims also may be exposed to a range of health concerns, including domestic violence, alcoholism, psychological problems, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Victims in these situations do not know how to escape the violence or where to go for help. Victims may choose not to turn to authorities out of fear of being jailed or deported, especially because the governments of some countries treat victims as criminals. In other countries, there is no protection for victims who come forward to assist in the prosecution of traffickers.

Traffickers recruit and find potential victims in a number of ways. Traffickers advertise in local newspapers offering good jobs at high pay in exciting cities. They also use fraudulent employment, travel, modeling and matchmaking agencies to lure unsuspecting young men and women into the trafficking networks.