The Week - News Article

The Week - News Article:

"The slave trade is now the third largest type of illegal trade in the world, after drugs and weapons, according to the U.S. State Department. Between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders each year, the State Department reports, with up to 17,500 of them entering the U.S. The International Labor Organization estimates that slave trading generates $31 billion annually. The traders seem to be getting increasingly brazen: In June, British authorities announced that 'slave auctions' were being held in public places in airports, with brothel keepers bidding on women arriving, under duress, from Eastern Europe. 'This is a new area,' says Vernon Coaker, Britain's top domestic security official. 'It's something five, 10 years ago perhaps, people very rarely talked of.' "