The Horror of Trafficking
Trafficking in persons, especially women and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation, is quickly becoming the world’s fastest growing industry and most profitable criminal activity. Virtually every nation in the world is engaged to some extent in this tragic trade, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims. Indeed, UNICEF estimates that one million children alone are forced, sold, abducted, or coerced into the commercial sex trade annually.
The average age of children who are prostituted is 13.
Estimates of women and children trafficked across international borders each year range from 800,000 to four million. In the United States alone, the U.S. State Department estimates that as many as 18,500 men, women, and children are trafficked into the U.S. each year, many for sexual exploitation (2004).
Sex slavery has exploded into a global industry. For example, a Cambodian girl who has been illegally purchased by an individual or brothel immediately becomes the property of the buyer. This transaction can occur for as little as $150. Once bought, this child will be expected to give herself to buyers of commercial sex acts as many as 10 times each night. With minimal expenses, police as co-conspirators, and almost unlimited victims to prey upon, trafficking for sexual exploitation is surpassing the sale of illegal drugs as the preferred industry for many criminals.
In some countries a despicable pattern of trafficking targets the thousands of orphan children who live in state orphanages. Exploitive traffickers (men and women) track and follow the exact timing of when orphans come of age and are released into independent life. Knowing the orphaned young girls have nowhere to go, the traffickers meet them outside as they are leaving the orphanage and promise them a better life –some have even gone into the orphanage to conduct what look like formal “interviews” for various positions that they claim are waiting the children.
What follows is enslavement in brothels in international cities where children are raped and brutalized until they are driven to submit to their new roles out of despondency.
It is estimated that worldwide, 2 children are trafficked every single minute (US Dept of State, 2007).
