Human Trafficking

I think I am like most Americans when I consider the 1860s the end of global slavery. Sure Brazil had slavery until the 1880s but that is commonly thought as a footnote if that in most people's minds.

There is a great shame on humanity though. Slavery is alive and well in this modern age. Whether it is the international sex trade or Janjaweeds enslaving children for work on farms the problem is global.

Recently the US State Department released a report on human trafficking. Highlights include how Germany is becoming a major stop on the sex trade "industry" for girls from Asia and Eastern Europe because of the coming tourist attraction of the World Cup. The report breaks countries down by tiers (first tier being countries which actively combat slavery while third tier being gross human rights violators) and gives many countries their own narrative.

Other useful information can be found at the UN's Trafficking in Human Beings page. They recently released a good report on the problem too.

Finally there is HumanTrafficking.org which is a non-profit designed to help stop slavery. This site breaks trafficking down by region and country and has oodles of information.

Category: GeoInfo, Geopolitics