Slavery Still Exists

That is, slavery in the form of human trafficking.

Recent headlines have brought prostitution into the news from Craigslist cracking down on online soliciting to Elliot Spitzer escaping criminal charges for his involvement with a prostitution ring. But with an estimated 800,000 juveniles trafficked across international borders annually, and 250,000 child prostitutes in the USA, deaths from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) continue to be high:

109,000 Worldwide STDs deaths in 2004 (excluding HIV which killed another 2.0 million in the world) with 90% from syphilis; 50 USA STDs deaths in 2005 (excluding HIV which killed another 12,543 in the US) with 94% from syphilis

Top 5 Reasons for juvenile prostitution:

1. International rings and interstate crime operations traffic young girls with promises of employment and money
2. Parents advertise and prostitute their children over the internet
3. Runaways and homeless kids on city streets are recruited by pimps or engage in survival sex
4. Drug pushers force addicted teenagers to prostitute themselves
5. Gangs may require members engage in sex for money or other services

Top Origin Countries -where juvenile prostitutes are trafficked from (in alphabetical order):
Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Lithuania, the Republic of Moldova, Nigeria, Romania, the Russian Federation, Thailand and the Ukraine

Top Destination Countries -where juvenile prostitutes are trafficked to (in alphabetical order):
Belgium, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Thailand, Turkey and the United States

http://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/HT-globalpatterns-en.pdf

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/16/good-magazine-an-all-the_n_113006.html

http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/chlamydia/news-and-features.html

Sphere: Related Content