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1 M. Cherif Bassiouni, Investigating International Trafficking in Women and Children for Commercial Sexual Exploitation: Phase I: The Americas 1 (2001)

handle is hein.intyb/invitfkw0001 and id is 1 raw text is: The Problem To most people, slavery is a terrible relic of the past. Yet, an estimated 2,000,000 women and children are t onsidcr the Poor peas ,I oo - 'llll i'(1ec orn to the il held in sexual servitude throughout the world. Eighty percent of them are under the age of 24, and an estimated 50% were internationally trafficked from one country to another. The precise numbers are unknown and difficult to determine for lack of empirical research in the different countries where this h lrnind; espcilly criminal phenomenon exists. Nevertheless, it is estimated that yearly, between 100,000 and 200,000 e young women and children, some as young as 6 years old, are trafficked for sexual exploitation from one thiY to have the olnti country to another. he m of ratiol he -S.Vinicent d( Anecdotal accounts suggest that those held in sexual servitude have a short life-span. Most of them die within a few years due to abuse, torture, neglect, and disease. A reasonable statistical projection is that St. c ii Sdes ption is U 15% of the sexually exploited population, or 30,000 women and children, die every year. Over a ten year tr Ific hill span, it is more than those killed by the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is why it is the m s x exploitation 6 most compelling human rights problem of our time. Yet, this tragic situation is causing few concerns T poor w dolj among most governments of the world. th /i thp to S B ta/so because.V tho. The phenomenon is fueled by poverty and indifference to the rights of women and children, as well as htoProtectthI-fi conflict and political upheaval in various parts of the world. The advent of globalization has exacerbated the problem by creating what some call market opportunities for traffickers in human beings and for their Q do tin th exploiters. Liberalized borders and ease of movement of people across them have made international t d gI sm Aim trafficking in persons a profitable criminal activity. But when the illegal trafficking of human beings - across borders is connected to their sale into sexual servitude, the activity becomes significantly more profitable. It is the third most lucrative international criminal activity after drug and arms trafficking. The worldwide situation is worsened by the fact that the persons trafficked are not deemed victims in most countries into which they are imported. Instead, they are considered undocumented aliens whose illegal presence makes them subject to imprisonment and to deportation to the countries from which they have fled. They are also doubly victimized since by working in the sex industry, they are also working in an illegal area. They rarely receive legal or other support from the countries in which they are imported and placed in sexual bondage. Moreover, they have no incentives for cooperating with governments in identifying those who illegally trafficked and exploited them. Because of the high profitability of this activity, it has become part of small and large criminal organizations in many countries. Smaller organizations limit themselves to cross-border illegal smuggling of persons, or combine that activity with the sale of women and children to other organizations. Larger organizations that directly exploit trafficked persons may also involve themselves in the cross-border activity. Once in-country, the trafficked persons are resold like commodities to other exploiters. The regional manifestations of this worldwide criminal phenomenon differ. The patterns of trafficking from Africa to Europe differ from those within Southeast Asia or the Indian Sub-Continent. Invariably, however, the end result is that women and children become hopelessly trapped in sexual slavery without much chance to extricate themselves from it alive. Regional and National Statistical Estimates * 80,000 women and children from Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and China have been sold into Thailand's sex industry since 1990. * 5,000 - 7,000 Nepali girls, some as young as nine, are trafficked into the red light districts of India each year. 200,000 Nepali girls, mostly under 14, have been trafficked into India in the last decade. * Afghani women are sold into prostitution in Pakistan for 600 rupees per kilogram. * Albanian women are regularly trafficked into Italy, more than 10,000 in the last 5 years. * 45,000-50,000 women and children from Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe are trafficked for sexual exploitation into the United States. The going rate for a woman or child sold to the U.S. sex trade is between $12,000 and $18,000. * 10,000 children between 6 and 14 are enslaved in brothels in Sri Lanka. * 5,000 children from 10 to 16 are sold into sexual slavery in Cambodia every year. * 300,000 women have been trafficked into the Western European sex trade in the last 10 years. * 20,000 women are in brothels in the Czech Republic, most are from the former USSR. * 10,000 Albanian women have been trafficked into Italy in the last 5 years and forced into prostitution. * 250 women from Romania, Moldova and the Ukraine were discovered in Bosnia in the last 2 years having been trafficked and forced into prostitution. * 5 women from Moldova were discovered in a Phnom Penh, Cambodia brothel in 2000. * Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have become sex centers for Western Europeans. The women trafficked there are from the former USSR Republics. * 1,000 women trafficked from the former USSR into Israel became prostitutes in exchange for legal documentation. * 3,000 Nigerian women have been forced into prostitution in Italy. -These numbers are estimates drawn or projected from afew actual cases, based on NGO and media reports, as well as scant law enforcement reports. 25 East Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois USA 60604-2216 312/362-5919 FAX: 312/362-5923 http://www.Iaw.depaul.edu 1 lnt or outer the * ery that vance Paul way 17 for Pear esed rotect who t do // the lves, hty. ouni

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