However, I was simply unaware that the problem was so huge. To know that today's global slave trade is far larger than the slave trade was at the height of the Atlantic Slave trade if horrifying. Even more horrifying is the fact that many slaveholders are in Western countries where slavery has long been illegal, and these slaves are hidden away and may never be detected. Three forms of human trafficking that I noticed were smuggling-related trafficking, where immigrants seeking to come to the United States are instead diverted into sweat shops and forced to work as laborers, the sex-slave trade, and the domestic labor slave trade. Most troubling to me was child trafficking. Honestly, after watching the videos, I went beyond them to further examine the problem. I found a wide variety in numbers, but consistently saw that between 100,000 and 300,000 children in the U.S. are at risk for sex-trafficking each year, and that many of these children come from the more than 2 million U.S. children living on the streets. Moreover, while the videos distinguished between different types of slavery,...
For example, a U.S. family might bring a young girl from another country to work as a domestic in the U.S. home, with the father using her as a sex slave as well. Finally, I was alarmed to see that the barriers for freedom are so significant. Slaves who are brought into the U.S. illegally face deportation and even criminal charges if they escape their captors. They may have loved ones with them that are in danger if a slave escapes. They may also have vulnerable loved-ones in their countries of origin. Slaves frequently face language barriers, as well. Depending on the country of origin, they may have a deep mistrust of law enforcement, because law enforcement may have participated in or ignored the slave trade in their home countries. There is also the stigma associated with the sex work that many of these slaves are forced to endure. Finally, they may face credibility issues, since many slaveholders are otherwise respected members of the community. All of these barriers discourage escape and reporting of the crime.
