• An estimated 700,000 to four million people are trafficked annually worldwide.

• Trafficking occurs for a variety of purposes, including bonded labour, forced prostitution, forced marriage and the stealing of human organs.

• Approximately 50,000 women and children are trafficked annually into the US for sexual exploitation.

• Thai trafficking victims in Japan are regularly detained as illegal aliens and deported with a five-year ban on reentering the country.

• In 2002, almost half the chocolate produced in the US was linked to cocoa beans harvested by child labourers in C“te d’Ivoire, West Africa. Many of the children had been trafficked from neighbouring countries.

[Source: <http://hrw.org>. Got a shockfact? Email <glw@greenleft.org.au>.]

From Green Left Weekly, September 8, 2004.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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