The Price of Life
- After illegal drug sales and arms trafficking, human trafficking is the third most profitable criminal activity in the world (~$9 billion annually)
- 27 million people live in slavery around the world today
- Trafficking is not only the sex industry, but also sweatshops and bonded labor. 45,000 women and children are brought to the US every year under false promises and are then forced to work as prostitutes, abused laborers or servants
- Almost half of all those trafficked worldwide for sex and domestic slavery are children under the age of 18, about 2 million children
- Each year, 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States. The spread of HIV/AIDS among sex trafficked victims is a high epidemic and a public health issue
- The U.S. government has taken steps to address trafficking nationally and internationally through the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000
- It is vital to have public information, mobilize support for effective laws, raise the awareness of key law enforcement and other officials, and to make the socially marginalized groups from which victims are often recruited more aware of the reality of trafficking and less likely to be deceived when approached by traffickers
- Non-governmental, community, and faith-based organizations around the country continue to provide a wide range of social services for both U.S. and foreign-born trafficking victims.
What's sad is that there are more slaves now than there were when the Atlantic Slave Trade was active, and most of them are children. A lot of them are really young, too.
It makes me terribly sad to think about.