Human trafficking generates more than $32 billion in crime each year and includes some 10-30 million people held in some form of 'slavery.'

Pornography Seen as a Root 

of Human Trafficking

BY ADELAIDE MENA

An expert in combating human trafficking urged congressmen last week to focus their efforts against the scourge by reducing the demand for commercialized sex, including pornography.

Laila Mickelwait, manager of policy and public affairs for Exodus Cry, an international anti-human trafficking organization, told CNA May 9 that, while it is important to “rescue and rehabilitate” victims of human trafficking, “work of prevention is the most important thing we can do in the fight against the global injustice of sexual slavery.”

She added that preventing people “from ever ending up in those exploited positions” would be “the greater victory.”

The “most critical component of sex-trafficking prevention is reducing the demand for commercial sex,” Mickelwait noted.

Mickelwait had spoken at a May 7 presentation hosted by Rep. Randy Hultgren, R- Ill., a recently selected member of the Congressional Human Trafficking Task Force, for congressmen and their staff.

Hultgren noted that the issue of human trafficking “extends even to our own backyards.”

“We cannot turn a blind eye to what’s going on in the shadows and what is at the root cause of it,” he stressed. “Learning about what exacerbates the problem of human trafficking is a difficult topic, but we must address the evidence before us. If we could save one child, one woman, one life, then our efforts would be worth it.”

Mickelwait’s presentation emphasized the enormity of the problem of human trafficking — an industry that generates more than $32 billion in crime each year and includes some 10-30 million people held in some form of “slavery” today, performing a wide array of tasks, including sexual slavery, forced or bonded labor, involuntary domestic service, child soldiering and organ trafficking.

She added that, while several forms of human trafficking occur in developing nations, sex trafficking occurs mostly in developing nations. Victims of sex trafficking are forced into the industry by a variety of means, including online recruitment, romantic interests or family members using their relationship to sell the victims and abduction.

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