with the 13th Amendment in 1865, but in recent years it has returned in an even more virulent form.
Fueled by the collapse of the Soviet Union and other eastern European countries,
new technologies like the internet, and sieve-like borders,
the traffic in human beings has become an epidemic of colossal dimensions.
The State Department estimates that as many as 800,000 people are trafficked over international frontiers each year, largely for sexual exploitation.
My teammate Laura Meyers is passionate about anti-trafficking work,
so I have learned a lot about it from her.
When we were in Mexico,
we watched the shocking movie Trade,
about a teenage Mexican girl and a young mother from Poland
who are kidnapped and sold in suburban America.
Then, to remind me of how close to home this issue really is,
World Race alumni Matt Snyder recently posted this news article on his blog:
(Emphasis added.)
AP – Bill Draper
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – From a nondescript brick building a few blocks from the bright lights of Westport, Kansas City’s oldest entertainment district, Giant Labor Solutions lured hundreds of foreigners to the city with promises of good jobs and a chance to live the American dream.
But from 2001 until this spring, Giant Labor and two other metro-area companies turned the workers into slaves, fanning them out to housekeeping jobs in hotels and other businesses in 14 states while forcing them to live, sometimes eight at a time, in small apartments for which they were charged exorbitant rent, federal authorities allege. Most of the workers were in the country illegally and were threatened with deportation. Click here to read more from the newspaper’s website.
The first is sponsored by the International Justice Mission,
which, according to their website (www.ijm.org),
is
of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression.
IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials
to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare,
to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems.
to llustrate the staggering numbers inside human trafficking.
think again.
