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US urged to take lead against trafficking

About 17,500 people being trafficked into America a year

AFP, Washington
The illicit trade in people for sex and forced labour is a fast-growing multibillion-dollar business aided by official neglect, corruption, lust and greed, activists told US lawmakers Wednesday, urging Washington to push harder to stamp it out.
US officials estimate that between 600,000 and 800,000 people are forced into slavery each year across the world, including between 14,500 and 17,500in the United States.
The victims -- many of them women and children kidnapped or lured into prostitution or forced labour -- often go unnoticed by authorities in the massive illegal flow of migrants and refugees worldwide.
"Trafficking in persons is in many ways a quintessential 21st-century crime problem. In an era of globalisation and enhanced technology, small networks of criminals can operate internationally, preying on those who would migrate in search of work or a better life and subjecting them to horrible abuse," said Wendy Patten, US advocacy director for Human Rights Watch told the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and human rights.
Some 62 countries -- including most
African and Middle Eastern nations -- lack laws criminalising the trade, and only 117 have signed a UN treaty calling for international cooperation to end the practice.
Since 2000, the United States has adopted tough new laws against human trafficking and barred US citizens from engaging in sex tourism. Washington also has threatened sanctions against nations, which tolerate the trade or fail to take adequate efforts to stopit.
Consequently, US officials are keen to ensure their own efforts are above reproach, with Democratic and Republican lawmakers working to craft effective solutions in a rare display of bipartisan cooperation.
"My colleagues and I must continue to vigilantly monitor the situation, and to consider whether further legislation is necessary to bolster the (US Justice) Department's efforts," said the subcommittee's chairman, Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas.
"Our efforts on this issue show we can work together to protect some of the most endangered people in the world," said Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York. "It's clear that there's much more to be done."
Lawmakers invited representatives of groups involved in anti-trafficking efforts to recommend ways the United States could
act to further curb the trade.
They called on Washington to do more to help trafficking victims by loosening rules to allow more of them to stay in the United States as their cases are processed, and to give refuge to those who might face persecution or retaliation in their home countries.
US efforts to fight human trafficking "are being thwarted by unintentional, yet overly restrictive barriers to critical victim protections," said Charles Song, staff attorney for the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking.
"There is tremendous benefit and very little risk and cost associated with the United States providing life-saving protections and services to human beings who have narrowly escaped from violent criminals with their lives."
The activists also sought expanded programs to help local authorities identify and deal with trafficking cases, and urged senators to ratify both the UN Convention Against Transnational Crime and its antitrafficking protocol. The United States is one of 69 countries that have signed but not ratified the convention, which took effect in September.
"It is imperative that the United States demonstrate its leadership on this critical international issue," Patten said.