Human Trafficking is High Profit Business

Human Trafficking is not a usual topic of discussion that comes up at the dinner table or for that matter in most daily discussions. The truth is that Human Trafficking is a horrid reality for millions of people who are bought and sold daily through-out the world. The words are ugly and the life is uglier still. After selling drugs and gun running, trafficking in human beings is the third largest business world-wide. The profit to be made is huge and it's victims are mostly women and children. The profit to be made in trafficking humans is around 5 billion to 7 billion dollars a year.

The definition of Human Trafficking is as follows: Victims who are forced,defrauded or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation without giving the victim a choice. Each year somewhere between 600,000 and 800,000 mostly women and children, are trafficked across national borders. This does not count the millions who are bought and sold in their own countries. Most victims are chained, shackled or prevented from returning to their homes through the use of force. There are around 10 million or more women and children who are living at risk of violence daily somewhere in the world because of illegal slavery.

London-born actress, Julia Ormond 42 , recently gave her support to Anti-Drug Trafficking Groups and appealed to police agencies world-wide to share information and resources among each other, concerning the statistics of human trafficking. This appeal came after only one day past the anniversary of Britain's Anti-Slavery Law. The goal of Miss Ormond is to "Improve enforcement of the United Nationsand their 2003 Treaty Against Human Trafficking." Miss Ormond starred with Harrison Ford in the 1995 movie, "Sabrina."

The United States Congress has stated that, "People are being deprived of their human rights and freedoms. It is a global health crisis and it fuels the growth of world-wide organized crime." The United States has passed the following legislation:

American's who travel abroad to sexually prey on children will be prosecuted and sentenced to as many as thirty years in prison.

The Department of Health and Human Services are certifying victims of human trafficking that have been rescued, making them qualify for the same assistance that is made available to other refugees. There has also been funding for a 'public awareness campaign' to inform people of the growing problem of modern slavery.

There has been a zero-tolerance stand to be taken against anyone in Defense Personnel involved in or contributing to human trafficking.

The Department of Labor and Homeland Security are both executing plans to combat Modern Slave Trading.

Congress has also given more than $70 million in it's world-wide efforts to combat and educate nations in the battle to erradicate human trafficking.

One of the places where slave labour is growing at a swift rate is Nepal. Every year more than 5000-7000 women and children are sold into forced prostitution. Twenty percent of these prostitutes are young girls under the age of sixteen. There are also thousands of children in Nepal who are forced into the carpet factories, circuses, potato farms or forced to beg in the streets. The International Rights and Education Fund rescued many child slaves. The children as young as three or four years of age were forced to work in damp pits near the carpet looms. There was often no potable water made available to the children. They were forced to work between ten and fourteen hours daily after eating just a meager food called, Chapatis. This is just bread-balls, rolled together along with some salt and a bit of onion. The children were also forced to sleep on the ground beside their looms or in near-by shacks. The children worked a seven day work week. During the time when they weren't working they were forced to set up their work areas for the following day.

Slave trading in Africa was banned in the late 1880's but still continue in West and Central Africa today. U.N.I.C.E.F. estimates that 2.000,000 children in Benin and Togo are sold into domestic, sex or agricultural positions to the wealthy countries of near-by Nigeria or Gabon. In the Sudan the United States estimates that moe than 90,000 Dinka's are owned by North African Arabs. These black slaves are considered property and are bought and sold for as little as $15 each. The Arabs consider this a traditional custom to own slaves as chattel.The slaves are often abused and often physically mutillated to prevent their escape. The Arab slave owners then enforce their own ideologies upon their non-Muslim captives.

One thirteen year old boy who was purchased by a North African Arab and witnessed some Dinka men who had their Achilles tendons cut because they had refused to embrace the Muslim religion of their Master. The boy quickly decided to become a Muslim not wishing the same fate. In the Sudan an Arab slave-trader sold 132 women and children to a Christian group for the amount of $13,200. They were given their freedom.

Many of the women and children who are forced into slavery are enticed through promises of a better life. They are told they will be given travel to new countries where they will work in new positions. They are also sometimes lured into slavery after being promised easy jobs or modeling careers in big cities. Some are threatened and told that their families will be killed if they do not submit. Many others just disappear from the streets after being kidnapped never to be heard from again. In the majority of these potential captives, all are extremely poor. There are also many children as young as three who are being exploited by men in many Aisian countries for the purpose of sex. Many of the men who solicit these children are American men who sometimes obtain 'special travel packages' listed often on the internet, especially for the purpose of having sex with minors.