FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD ADNITA
Adnita's story finds an echo in many other sad tales: Aakesh was only five when he was kidnapped from his Indian village, transported 200 miles away, and forced to weave carpets until he escaped nine years later; Cambodian sisters Naren and Sitthy were 10 and 12 when their parents sold them to a German to be used for sex.
The toll of suffering from human trafficking is practically immeasurable. A State Department report just released states that every year 800,000 people--80 percent are women, more than half, children--enter the stream of sexual servitude or forced labor, often in a country far from their own. Last year, Zambian girls were trafficked to Ireland for prostitution, Vietnamese children were shipped to the United Kingdom and forced to participate in drug smuggling, Chinese women were carried off to Afghanistan and sexually exploited, and Russian students were brought to the United States and forced to sell ice cream. It's the dark side of globalization.
To its credit, the Bush administration has been a leader in exposing and fighting this scourge. This month, it took the bold step of adding several U.S. allies--Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar--to the most serious Tier 3 watch list, making them vulnerable to economic sanctions. These nations join perennial violators such as Cuba, North Korea and Syria.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says, "[M]ore and more countries are coming to see human trafficking for what it is--a modern form of slavery that devastates families and communities around the world."
Several of the new Tier 3 countries are oil-rich Muslim nations with the means--but not the inclination--to fight trafficking. Bahrain, for example, home to the U.S. Fifth fleet, has made little progress despite the prevalence of forced labor and sexual servitude within its borders, while Qatar "provided evidence of only two convictions in a trafficking case involving a domestic servant this year, despite reports that this practice is common," according to the report.
Even the United States is part of the trafficking problem both as source and destination. The Bush administration has dedicated $28.5 million to fighting the problem. Last year, there were 98 trafficking convictions inside the United States; 234 foreign victims were identified and helped.
We think of slavery as a dark part of the past, but, sadly, it's very much part of the present. The relative ease of international travel has made trafficking--and its associated health problems--a global crisis.
The right to work for fair wages, to leave a job, and to be free from coercion and sexual abuse should be basic. Human trafficking is a problem that won't go away unless the strong light of justice is allowed to shine in its dark corners. The Bush administration has added brightness to that light.