Another good article:The Vatican on the Human Slave Trade.
There is a Russian film called Lilja 4-ever, about a Russian girl who gets tricked into going to Sweden, only to become a sex slave. It’s a poignant introduction to the widespread practice of abducting girls and selling them, which happens to thousands of women a year all over the world-specifically from Eastern Europe. Protection Project said in 2001 that more than 2 million women and children were sold into the sex trade every year.
Last year, Lifetime did a special on the topic called Human Trafficking. You can visit the website to see clips from the movie, which raised a lot of awareness about the subject.
Last month, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced almost $8 million in additional funding to create 10 new anti-trafficking task forces. The Trafficking in Persons Report by the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons said:
“In the 2004 Report, we used U.S. Government data that disaggregated transnational trafficking in persons by age and gender for the first time. This data shows that, of the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 percent are women and girls, and up to 50 percent are minors. The data also demonstrated that the majority of transnational victims were trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation.”