The U.S. State Department estimates that close to one million women and girls are trafficked into the United States each year, most of them having been promised marriage, legitimate employment as nannies, or other work. Some women are brought in to “dance,” then coerced or forced into prostitution after the fact to pay off the “debt” to their “coyotes.”
Many young girls are kidnapped outright and forced into sexual labor.
Organized crime is highly involved. Internationally, the trafficking in persons has now surpassed the illegal drug and arms trades in moneys exchanged.
The International Labor Organization (ILO)—the United Nations (UN) agency charged with addressing labor standards, employment, and social protection issues—estimates there are 12.3 million people in forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, and sexual servitude at any given time; other estimates range from 4 million to 27 million.
This data shows that, of the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 percent are women and girls, and up to 50 percent are minors. The data also demonstrates that the majority of transnational victims were trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation.
With a focus on transnational trafficking in persons, however, these numbers do not include millions of victims around the world who are trafficked within their own national borders.
It is important to note that human trafficking for the purpose of sexual slavery is a domestic as well as an international problem, with St. Louis reportedly functioning as a hub within the trafficking networks. Evidence exists that the so-called sex industry in the United States (escort services, brothels, strip clubs, street and message parlor prostitution) is in part fueled by dept bondage and captive persons, the vast majority of these being women and girls.