Some sources state that "Between 800,000 and 900,000 people fall victim to human trafficking each year,".... "About 18,000 to 20,000 are brought into the United States from Asia, Central and South America, and Eastern Europe. Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor."
Other sources state that "It is estimated that more than 1 million people are trafficked annually around the world; some experts say it could be double that." Various agencies- government and private- dispute the actual number of cases of trafficked persons, some claiming more- others say the numbers are not as high as some private organizations (who get their funding by the number of projected victims there are) claim there to be.
Of those who are considered "victims of trafficking" (by governments at the instigation of radical feminists and Conservative Christian groups), how many are truly trafficked and how many have freely chosen to leave the harsh conditions in their own countries to find employment elsewhere- even if it means being illegally transported and paying top dollar for that transportation? Would those statistics hold up if we deducted the number of adult women (and men) who entered prostitution of their own volition? Or do the anti-prostitution, anti- pornography lobbyists need the inflated statistics which include all consenting adult prostitutes to make their case to the general public and get their funding?
We do know that these organizations who claim to be assisting victims of trafficking admit that they include in their numbers of those "trafficked" into the sex industry all those who have entered this work as consenting adults, those who return to the brothels again and again after being "rescued" and returned to their country of origin. (We know this because these organizations and even the US Government will not acknowledge a difference between forced sex slavery and consenting adult prostitution, therefore they would not make a distinction in those who are "trafficked" which is by definition "against their will" and those who are migrant workers engaging in consenting adult prostitution.) We know that many of those US Government funded organizations are "faith- based," whose guiding principles must be said to include the Christian moral values of those organizations, and which does not include the secular possibility that sex workers may infact like their work and have no desire to be rescued- and who most likely do not share the same "Christian values" as those who have been given license (and funding) to "rescue" them.
We agree that slavery is wrong, whether it be for garment manufacturing, factory working, domestic service, construction industry, or sex slavery. But sex slavery is NOT prostitution- it is rape. Equating the horrible violation of human rights- in the case of slavery (sexual or otherwise)- with the consenting activity of adults who wish to find employment in other countries and are willing to pay someone to get them into the country country and or who are willing to sell their sexual services to others, diminishes the devastating impact that real forced labor or forced sexual intimacy has on its victims and it diminishes the resources which could be used to assist them. The hundreds of thousands- if not millions- of dollars spent by law enforcement agencies to conduct sting operations [ and in some cases have sex with the 'suspected prostitutes in order to make cases against them...] annually to bust escort services, massage parlors and internet sex workers could be used to house and care for those who are truly victims of trafficking.
http://www.adventistreview.org/2004-1548/story5.html