December 28, 2005

HUMAN TRAFFICKING ALIVE AND WELL IN 21st CENTURY

While breaking a human trafficking operation in Florida, federal agents came across a prime example of what makes this crime more heinous than many others.

Robert Moossy, chief deputy for the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice, said as police raided a group of trailers used to hold female sex slaves against their will, they came across a 14-year-old Mexican girl locked in a filthy room.

The girl told police she was forced to have sex with as many as 30 men a day. The only two items in the room aside from the bed were a teddy bear the girl used to cling to her childhood, and a roll of paper towels.

Speaking before members of state and federal law enforcement agencies Tuesday, Moossy said the trafficking of human slaves, for sex or free labor, is alive and well in the 21st century. A global problem, the human slave trade seeps into the United States...

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that between 800,000 to 900,000 people are bought and sold worldwide every year. In the United States, between 18,000 to 20,000 victims are trafficked for various uses, including agriculture labor, textile workers, even domestic servants and nannies.

More than half of the victims trafficked into the United States are children and are estimated to be equally male and female, coming from locations like Latin America, Africa, Asia, India, Eastern Europe, Russia and Canada.



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