State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year. More than 70% are female, and half are children. (11 Facts About Human Trafficking, 2014). Trafficking has become a huge problem all over the world; it is happening in many countries including the United States. Young girls and women from other countries are given the promise of having a better life and are then sold as sex slaves and forced into prostitution. What is human trafficking? Where are these girls being taken? Is there a solution that can help these women and end human trafficking? What organizations are involved or can become involved to putting an end to human trafficking? These are important questions and ones that are going to be answered throughout this essay.
Human trafficking is the third largest international crime industry (behind illegal drugs and arms trafficking). It reportedly generates a profit of $32 billion every year. Of that number, $15.5 billion is made in industrialized countries. (11 Facts About Human Trafficking, 2014). Most of the worlds human trafficking is being done internationally. A majority of the women are being brought from places like South and Southeast Asia, the former Soviet Union, Central and South America along with other less developed areas and then taken to more developed countries such as Asia, the Middle East, Western Europe and Northern America. An estimated 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked annually in the United States alone. The number of US citizens trafficked within the country are even higher, with an estimated more than 200,000 American children at high risk for trafficking into the sex industry each year. Victims of trafficking often come from vulnerable populations, including migrants, oppressed or marginalized groups, runaways or displaced persons, and the poor. (The Facts) According to a website provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, trafficking also commonly occurs domestically in the United States where we have problems with interstate sex trafficking of minors.
