Human Trafficking

According to U.S. government estimates, approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. Eighty percent are female, and up to half of them are minors. These figures don't include the many millions more trafficked within the national border of countries, according to Ambassador Mark P. Lagon, director of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Lagon has traveled to eastern Asia, India, Middle East, Russia, Europe, three regions of Africa and Mexico in the past 10 months in an effort to combat this global problem, he said in an April 10 webchat. "When I travel abroad, we press for strong laws, prosecutions of trafficking cases and harsh sentences for those who commit this utterly dehumanizing crime," he said. "As a result of our efforts over the past five years over 100 countries have passed new laws or amended existing laws for the penalties of trafficking. Thousands of criminals are now prosecuted when just five years ago only a handful ended up in jail."

2008: Ambassador Lagon Discusses How To Combat Human Trafficking (Apr 14, 2008)

2007: Public Awareness of Human Trafficking Increasing, Rice Says (Jun 12, 2007) (Trafficking In Persons Report 2007) | U.S. State Department Reviews Nations' Anti-trafficking Progress (Jan 22, 2007) (Interim Assessment)

Laws on child pornography vary widely among countries -- in dozens of nations, it is not illegal -- and managers of pornographic Web sites can dodge investigators by hosting their pages on overseas servers, according to U.S. law enforcement officials. Tracking child pornography peddlers around the globe requires better international cooperation, agreed U.S. investigators and leaders of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) at a September 27, 2006, hearing before the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission. The roadblocks to many types of international investigations -- lack of resources to deal with language barriers and cumbersome bureaucracy -- are especially damaging to child pornography investigations, where speed is crucial. To help solve the problem, the FBI has assembled an international task force, with officials from Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement organization, and 18 countries serving six-month rotations in the United States to assist American investigators. Differences among countries in the way their laws treat child pornography and trafficking also pose problems for investigators.

2006: More Global Effort Needed To Fight Sex Crimes Against Children (Sep 28, 2006) | Report Details Mixed Human Trafficking Picture in Europe, Eurasia (Jun 6, 2006) | State's Sauerbrey in Brussels: U.S. Focusing on Preventing Human Trafficking, Protecting Victims (Jun 1, 2006) | State Department Issues Final Rules on Intercountry Adoption (Feb 16, 2006) | European Parliament Warns of Human Trafficking at World Cup (Jan 25, 2006) | U.S., Moldovan, Romanian Cooperation Leads to Sex Tourist Arrests (Jan 13, 2006)

2005: Trans-Atlantic Group's Action Against Human Trafficking Welcomed (Dec 12, 2005) | U.S. Co-Hosts Anti-Trafficking Conference in Macedonia (Dec 9, 2005) | U.S. Cooperates with Europe to Combat Sex Trafficking (Jan 6, 2005)

2004: U.S. Embassy, OSCE Work to Combat Trafficking in Macedonia (Jun 17, 2004)

2003: Fighting Trafficking in Southeast Europe (Jul 1, 2003) | OSCE Seminar in Greece Focuses on Trafficking in Humans (Feb 19, 2003)

2002: Authorities Pursue Internet Child Pornography Suspects in 10 Countries (Mar 20, 2002)