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Real People Real News : The first Global Forum for the Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Choice, Equal Human Rights and Liberty.

Each year, an estimated 700,000 to 1 million women and children are shipped across national boundaries and sold into modern-day slavery. About 50,000 of them are brought into the United States for sexual servitude, domestic servitude, bonded sweatshop labor and other debt bondage.

Trafficking in humans is, first and foremost, a human rights issue. But it is also a transnational crime issue, a socioeconomic issue and a public health issue.

Trafficking is a transnational crime issue because organized criminal enterprises that have flourished in the aftermath of the Cold War find trafficking in people a relatively easy and low-risk enterprise. They are sometimes abetted by corrupt government officials. The international trade in human beings is a major source of revenue for organized crime. The profits earned from it feed back into the other illicit activities of organized crime.

Human trafficking is a socioeconomic issue because severe poverty and the relative powerlessness of women in many developing countries make for an endless supply of potential victims.

There are also problems with repatriating victims after they have escaped or been rescued. Some cannot safely go home because they would face ostracism for 'dishonoring' their families or because their families sold them into slavery in the first place. Too often, victims continue to face the threat of violence and death from their traffickers.

Human trafficking is a public health issue because it exacerbates the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis-C and other infectious diseases. In many rural villages in Nepal, for example, one can find young women and girls who were sold into prostitution in India, contracted AIDS, were discarded by their captors and returned home to die. Many former victims desperately need crisis counseling services, which often are not available.

The U.S. government strategy for combating this trafficking includes educating the public, assisting the victims, protecting the vulnerable and apprehending the perpetrators. The administration is working with Congress to pass an effective bill that provides severe punishment for traffickers and protection for the victims, including medical treatment, shelter, and the opportunity to become legal residents of the United States in some cases.