Sex Trafficking

Did you know that around 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders each year for forced labor, slavery, and commercial sex exploitation?* Victims are pulled in by force, lured by false promises of marriage, career or educational opportunities, or coerced by threats.

On top of the 18,000 to 20,000 foreign individuals that are being trafficked into the U.S. from Latin America, East Asia, East Europe and Eurasia every year, an additional 200,000 American children are at risk for trafficking into the sex industry.**

Victims of sex trafficking endure rape and other forms of sexual abuse from multiple clients, participate in pornographic films, or are sold as sex slaves in a bidding process. To ensure compliance, traffickers may torture, drug, threaten, and psychologically disfigure victims until they obey.

2008 Trafficking in persons report - US Department of State