International Slave Trade

There are an estimated 46.9 million enslaved people around the world. About 70% of them are women and girls. “Sexual slavery is the most profitable industry with annual returns of 90%,” states award-winning human rights activist Jánelle Marina Méndez Viera, author of “The Pathway Towards Peace: U.S. Human Rights Manifesto.”

When I retired in 2000, international slavery was on my list of problems I hoped to address--right up there with abortion. At that time most figures (and they are all a guess) was 28 million slaves, both sex, labor, and domestic servitude. The State Dept TIP program was started under Pres. Clinton, and each year issues an annual report. I see little improvement and I hope there are real people being saved behind all that country data.Fact Sheets for 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report - United States Department of State

"Boys represent the fastest-growing segment of identified human trafficking victims. UNODC’s 2022 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, released in January 2023, notes that the percentage of boys identified as victims of human trafficking more than quintupled between 2004 and 2020—a much larger increase than for men, women, or girls. The same report notes males (including boys and men) account for 40 percent of all identified victims of human trafficking. While women constitute about twice the percentage of identified trafficking victims as men (42 percent to 23 percent), the percentage of trafficking victims who are boys and girls is almost identical (17 percent and 18 percent, respectively). The growing awareness of boys exploited in human trafficking is fairly recent. While male trafficking victims are receiving more attention than in years past, “social and health services as well as legal and advocacy frameworks still predominantly focus on female victims of sexual exploitation,” according to the UNODC report. Media and civil society groups alike consistently refer to boys and adolescent male human trafficking victims as “unseen and unhelped,” a “silenced minority,” “invisible,” or “secret victims.” "

Because our own country spins its wheels focusing on the slave trade of the 18th c. and the results of the Civil War to free the slaves, little is said about a slave trade that far surpasses the Atlantic slave trade. It's easier for groups with a different agenda (punishing Americans) to ignore today's pressing needs. Also, our border situation which allows sex slavery to walk in the door would need to be addressed, and Democrats don't want that distraction.