Associated Press (04.04.12) - Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Most of the 2.4 million people being trafficked against their
will at any given time are being exploited sexually, the head
of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime told a General Assembly
meeting on the subject Tuesday.
Human trafficking is a $32 billion-a-year business run by
criminal networks. The problem "is a challenge of
extraordinary proportions," said Yuri Fedotov. His office
estimates that just one of every 100 victims of human
trafficking is ever rescued.
Although 17 percent of people trafficked are forced to labor
in homes or sweat shops, 80 percent become sexual slaves. Two
of every three victims are women.
M. Cherif Bassiouni, an emeritus professor of law at Chicago's
DePaul University, noted that laws in most countries
criminalize prostitutes and other victims of trafficking and
overlook the perpetrators "without whom that crime could not
be performed." "We must change attitudes of male-dominated
police departments throughout the world who place this type of
a crime at the lowest level of their law enforcement
priorities," he said.