If you thought slavery ended with Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, you’re wrong. Estimates of the number of people who are victims of modern day slavery range from a low of 4 million to a high of 27 million according to the U. S. State Department. International human trafficking impacts 800,000 people each year. The U. S. Department of Justice admits that the actual number may be much higher and does not include intra-national trafficking. Its website on the subject says,
“The following statistics are the most accurate available, given these complexities, but may represent an underestimation of trafficking on a global and national scale.”
Trafficking in Persons, the official designation of the activity, is not what many Americans might think of when first hearing the term. It is not receiving payment for guiding people across the border to seek work. However, if Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is correct that many illegals are forced to serve as drug mules while crossing, there would be an element of human trafficking involved. The accepted definition of trafficking in persons has been set by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as:
“…the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”
By far the most common exploitation involved in human trafficking and its component slavery is the commercial sex trade. According to the U. S. State Department, 1 million children worldwide are enslaved in the global commercial sex trade. The Department of Justice reports that 80% of modern day slaves are women, with 70% of that number forced into prostitution. The remaining 30% are trafficked as forced labor. An estimated 200,000 American children are at risk of being trafficked into the sex industry each year. Internationally, the sex slave industry is estimated to generate $4 billion dollars a year.
Worldwide, the principal source nations for trafficked slavery are from South and Central America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. The largest source for human trafficking into America is East Asia (including the Pacific), with the next highest numbers coming, roughly equally, from Latin America, Europe and Eurasia.
Look, I know we’ve got a lot on our plate right now with recession and joblessness, oil spills, oil dependency, two hot wars and upcoming mid term elections. But, we’re talking about people being beaten and dying here. We’re talking about children being forced into prostitution with all the life shortening disease and terror and humiliation that goes with it. We’re talking about a national and international market in human beings. With all the uproar about securing our borders and all the partisan bickering that attends it, maybe, just maybe we should put some of the clamor and some of those resources to the task of addressing human trafficking and slavery instead of chasing wannabe landscapers, cleaning crews and farm workers.
Sources: U. S. Department of Justice (including State Department statistics), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Cross posted at Elijah’s Sweete Spot.
Contributor, aka tidbits. Retired attorney in complex litigation, death penalty defense and constitutional law. Former Nat’l Board Chair: Alzheimer’s Association. Served on multiple political campaigns, including two for U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR). Contributing author to three legal books and multiple legal publications.