dictionary

U.S. reinforces fight against human trafficking

Jonh Ashcroft

From Terry Frieden
CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General John Ashcroft Tuesday announced steps he hopes will help combat the growing global problem of worker exploitation, including the international transportation of women and children for forced prostitution.

Ashcroft said he was adding two attorneys to the Civil Rights division, establishing a permanent telephone hotline, pressing a public education campaign, and urging federal prosecutors to focus on a new law allowing tougher penalties.

"Thousands of persons, primarily women and children, are trafficked into the United States each year," Ashcroft told reporters at a Justice Department news conference.

"Many of these women and girls are trafficked into the sex trade in this country, but these crimes are not limited to the sex industry," he added.

MESSAGE BOARDS Women in society

LEGAL RESOURCES Latest Legal News Law Library FindLaw Consumer Center Select a topic Bankruptcy Discrimination Divorce Estate Planning Landlord-Tenant Personal Injury Taxes

"Victims are often forced into labor conditions in illegal sweatshops, in the agricultural industry and in domestic servitude."

The attorney general announced a second case was brought Friday under a new law aimed at stopping human trafficking. A man was arrested and charged in American Samoa with recruiting Vietnamese women and holding them in involuntary servitude in his garment factory.

The first case under the new law was brought earlier this year in Alaska where Asian women had been lured to the state and forced into sex-related activities.

The Departments of Justice, Labor and State are moving to implement a law passed last year with strong bipartisan support to fund programs aimed at stemming what has become a form of modern-day slavery in many countries.

Government agencies have estimated about 50,000 women and children are smuggled into the United States each year. The victims believe they are being transported to this country to engage in legitimate employment, but find themselves forced into roles as sex slaves, prostitutes, or nude dancers.

Civil Rights attorneys told CNN that many of the women and children come from poor Asian countries, but they have also arrived from republics of the former Soviet Union and Latin America.

The problem has appeared in many countries, with as many as 700,000 to 1 million victims worldwide transported each year across national borders in sex-related trafficking.

Some of the most liberal and conservative lawmakers in Congress teamed up to pass the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000.

Its provisions include tougher penalties for criminals engaged in worker exploitation, special visas allowing victims to remain in the United States, programs to assist the victims, and to enable them to assist with prosecutions.

United States Department of Labor
U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Department of State

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.