And I Complain? REALLY?!

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• The United Nations estimate that over 12 million people worldwide are trafficked for forced labor or sexual exploitation. Other sources estimate the number to be up to 27 million

• 32 billion dollars is made every year off the bodies of young girls & women in sex trafficking.

• 80 % are female and 50 % are children, the large majority forced into the commercial sex trade.

• Modern-day slavery is said to be the second largest criminal industry in the world.

• The average cost of a slave around the world is $90.

• The estimated profits from one trafficked woman alone averages around 250,000 American dollars per year.

• The average victim trapped in the sex trade victim is forced to have sex up to 20 times a day.

• According to some estimates, approximately 80% of trafficking involves sexual exploitation, and 19% involves labor exploitation.

• Between 2001 and 2005, 140 defendants have been convicted of human trafficking in the U.S. which is a 109% increase from 1996-2000.

• Around half of trafficking victims in the world are under the age of 18.
• More than 2/3 of sex trafficked children suffer additional abuse at the hands of their traffickers.
• Trafficked children are significantly more likely to develop mental health problems, abuse substances, engage in prostitution as adults, and either commit or be victimized by violent crimes later in life.
• There is only one shelter in the U.S. designed specifically to meet the needs of trafficking victims, and it currently only houses a total of seven to nine victims.
• Trafficking victims normally don't get help because they think that they or their families will be hurt by their traffickers, or that they will be deported.
• An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States each year. The number of U.S. citizens trafficked within the country is even higher, with an estimated 200,000 American children at risk for trafficking into the sex industry.
• An estimated 2.5 million children, the majority of them girls, are sexually exploited in the multibillion dollar commercial sex industry
• 95% of victims experienced physical or sexual violence during trafficking (based on data from selected European countries)

• Estimated global annual profits made from the exploitation of all trafficked forced labor are US$ 31.6 billion
$ 15.5 billion – 49% - is generated in industrialized economies
$ 9.7 billion – 30.6% is generated in Asia and the Pacific
$ 1.3 billion – 4.1% is generated in Latin America and the Caribbean
$ 1.6 billion – 5% is generated in sub-Saharan Africa
$ 1.5 billion – 4.7% is generated in the Middle East and North Africa

• 161 Countries are currently identified as affected by human trafficking:
127 countries of origin; 98 transit countries; 137 destination countries. (Note: Countries may be counted multiple times and categories are not mutually exclusive.)

Sources:Polaris Project; UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns: April 2006; Initiative against Sexual Trafficking; National Coalition Against Domestic Violence ; U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report: 2007; UN.Gift; United Nations; Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves; International Labor Organization; United States, Department of State; UNICEF; U.S Department of Justice Report to Congress from Attorney General John Ashcroft on U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons; Source: U.S. Department of State, The Facts About Child Sex Tourism: 2005.