Illustration by Paola Bilancieri.

Recent US events have called attention to children’s trafficking and exploitation, a phenomenon that is widespread and causes enormous suffering. Among the several forms of children’s exploitation are forced labor, sexual abuse, involving them in armed conflict, marrying them when they are underage, or selling them for illegal adoption.

Millions of women and girls are bought and sold each year either into marriage, prostitution or slavery. Although most trafficking victims are girls, boys are also involved. Boys and men are more often trafficked for forced labor, while girls and women are predominantly trafficked for sexual exploitation. Human trafficking, most of whose victims come from just ten countries, generates an estimated $150 billion annually in profits.

According to the President’s International Crime Control Initiative, in the early 2000s approximately 45,000 to 50,000 women and children are trafficked to the U.S. every year, primarily from Southeast Aisa, South Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe and forced to work as servants or prostitutes. In the notorious case of Jeffrey Epstein, an investigation conducted by the office of Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon found that Mr. Epstein brought in young women from countries as distant as Russia, Belarus, Turkey and Turkmenistan to the US to be sexually exploited.

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