- Upwards of 27 million people are held in some form of slavery, sexual trade, or indentured servitude.
- According to the United Nations, human trafficking has become a $12-billion-a-year industry impacting nearly every country, surpassing all criminal markets other than drug and arms trades.
- Slaves today are usually valued at less than $100, giving slaveholders minimal incentive to take care of them.
- According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), almost 200 million children (5-14 years) are put to work to help support their families in the developing world.
- In an attempt to combat human trafficking, the US created a tier system, 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act, rating countries on the degree at which they are fighting trafficking:
- Tier 1: Countries are considered active in fighting trafficking
- Tier 2: Countries are making moderate efforts against trafficking
- Tier 3: Countries have done nothing to prevent trafficking. If a country is categorized in Tier 3 for three consecutive years, all U.S. non-humanitarian funds will be withheld.
Several Country Specifics:
- Nearly every country plays some role in human trafficking. Frequently, it is the cooperation of the trafficking networks that connect countries, allowing for the illegal kidnapping across borders, and fostering the continuation of the slave trade. However, human trafficking seems to appear in different forms from country to country.
- Approximately 90 percent of girls in rural parts of Albania cannot go to school for fear of being kidnapped and sold into prostitution.
- Moldovan women may make up to 80 percent of prostitution trafficking in Western Europe.
- Trafficking for labor rather than sex is more prevalent in African countries.
- Asian victims are often sold to traffickers by their own families in hopes of providing an escape from poverty.
- Some 25,000 women and children are trafficked each year out of Bangladesh.
- Thailand is a prime destination for pedophile sex tourists fueling the demand for the trafficking of children.
Sources: The CQ Researcher, March 26, 2004, Volume 14, Number 12, pages 273-296
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