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Trafficking in Women and Children: USG Definition
What is the nature and magnitude of trafficking?
At its core, the international trade in women and children is about abduction, coercion, violence and exploitation in the most
reprehensible ways.
A trafficking scheme involves a continuum of actors and actions. It includes recruitment, abduction, transport, harboring, transfer, sale or
receipt of persons through various types of coercion, force, fraud or deception for the purpose of placing persons in situations of slavery
or slavery-like conditions, servitude, forced labor or services. Examples include, but are not limited to, sexual servitude, coerced
prostitution, domestic servitude, bonded sweatshop labor or other debt bondage.
Trafficking in Women and Children: Human Rights Issue
- 1-2 million women and children are trafficked annually around the world
- Approx. 50-100,000 women and children are trafficked into the U.S. each year, primarily
from S.E. Asia and the former Soviet Union
- Trafficking victims suffer extreme physical and mental abuse, including rape, torture,
starvation, imprisonment, death threats and physical brutality.
- Women and children trafficked into the sex industry are exposed to deadly diseases, including HIV and AIDS
Trafficking in Women and Children: Economics and Migration Issue
- Traffickers capitalize on rising unemployment, disintegrating social networks, the low status of women worldwide and corrupt government and law enforcement officials in developing countries, Central Europe and the former Soviet Union;
- Victims are lured into trafficking networks through false promises of good working
conditions at high pay as domestic workers, factory workers, sex workers, nannies, waitresses, sales clerks or models
Trafficking in Women and Children: Transnational Crime Issue
- One of the fastest growing criminal enterprises in the world
- Well established criminal syndicates dominate the industry
- Profits feed into other illicit activities, such as drug and arms trafficking
- Corrupt officials facilitate the industry and undermine law enforcement and rule of law
Trafficking in Women and Children: Conclusion
- Trafficking in women and children is a grave human rights, economics, migration and transnational crime issue
- Approx. 50-100,000 women and children are trafficked into the U.S. each year, primarily
from S.E. Asia and the former Soviet Union
- There is no comprehensive law in the U.S. against TWC, and laws and infrastructure to protect and assist victims do not exist
- President Clinton issued a directive on March 11, 1998 establishing the USG’s anti-trafficking strategy of prevention, protection for victims, and prosecution and
enforcement against traffickers
- The President’s Interagency Council on Women is charged with coordinating all USG
policy on TWC