Human Trafficking
Bringing an end to the global trade in people is a priority for the United States in keeping with American values that place a premium on human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. I am confident that together we can make a difference, all over the world, in the lives of people deprived of their freedom.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
2009 Human Trafficking in Persons Report
Human trafficking is a 32 billion dollar industry which exploits 27 million people worldwide in modern-day slavery. Trafficking takes places in many forms, not only sexual slavery, but also domestic situations, sweatshop factories, and tourist industries, among other types of businesses.
The goal of the Broken Cords’ concert is to raise awareness of the modern-day enslavement of women, children, and men, particularly in the Houston area. The United States Justice Department has ranked Houston’s I-10 corridor as one of the main routes of human trafficking in the nation.
The Sad Facts
Each year, more than 2 million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade. (United Nations)
Human trafficking is the world’s third largest criminal enterprise, after drugs and weapons. (U.S. Department of State)
The total market value of illicit human trafficking is estimated to be in excess of $32 billion (United Nations Children’s Fund)
In 2004 there were more slaves worldwide than were seized from Africa during four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. (Kevin Bales, Disposable People)
The United States is a source and destination country for thousands of men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. Women and girls, largely from East Asia, Eastern Europe, Mexico and Central America are trafficked to the United States into prostitution. Some men and women, responding to fraudulent offers of employment in the United States, migrate willingly legally and illegally—but are subsequently subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude at work sites or in the commercial sex trade. (U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report)
In the last quarter of 2007, 30% of all tips to the National Hotline came from Texas, with the majority from the Greater Houston Metropolitan Area. (Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition)