Trafficking in women and children

Daniel Wallace
10-02-09
3:30
Trafficking in women and children
When I think of illegal trafficking, I think of drugs. Something that stood out to me is that there is also trafficking in human beings. Women and children are the most common trafficking of human beings. They are being sold and used for a sexual purpose and forced labor. In 1997 the government estimated that 700,000 women and children have been moved across international borders by trafficking rings. Trafficking to the United States violates US criminal, immigration, and labor laws, as well as the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act. Trafficking also usually involves conspiracy and visa, mail, and wire fraud. The gross, systematic violation of human rights, which often includes kidnapping, extortion, and enslavement, is also a violation of US laws. Traffickers usual prey on women from countries where the economy and employment rates are very low. Countries where organized crime is at the top of the food chain, and where women do not have a major role in the countries society. Often these women are tricked into leaving their countries by false promises of a better economic life abroad; traffickers lure victims with false advertisements and promises of jobs as models, dancers, waitresses, and maids. Now government agencies and NGOS, together with the international community, have adopted a variety of strategies to combat trafficking in women and children. Laws have been passed in order to cut down on this crime. Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Person of the Exploitation of the
Prostitution of Others (The Trafficking Convention), Convention on the Elimination for All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (CRC), These are some of the laws that are in place in order to stop women and children trafficking.

http://ftp.fas.org/irp/threat/pub45270chap2.html#5
http://www.unifem-eseasia.org/resources/factsheets/UNIFEMSheet2.pdf