During the past few days, the newswires have been busily documenting the sordid business of modern day slavery. The BBC today carries the story of Mende Nazer, a young Sudanese woman who was adbucted by slave raiders at the age of twelve and spent eight years as a slave before she escaped. Nazer was eventually given by her mistress to her mistress’s sister who lived in London. The rationale for the human gift, as the wife of a slave trader explained to Nazer’s mistress, was that “‘it’s easy for us to get you another abda [slave]…whereas I understand it’s impossible for people to find one in London.’” Nazer escaped while she was held captive in London and has recently published her book, Slave.

On a related subject, an aritcle in The New York Times documents the barbaric and lucractive U.S. sex slave industry. Sex slave are distinct from prostitutes: They are unwillingly forced into prostitution, receive no financial renumeration for their services, and are held captive by their traffickers or owners. The numbers are staggering. Kevin Bales, of Free the Slaves, America’s largest anti-slavery organization, estimates that the number of sex slaves in America amounts to 30,000 to 50,000 slaves.

The United States only recently enacted legislation that speaks to the crime of trafficking in humans.  The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 enables the United States to impose economic sanctions on nations that the it believes are not making sufficient efforts to stem the human trafficking within their borders. The Protect Act, established in 2003, criminalizes travel abroad or into the United States for the purposes of sex tourism that involves children.

That commerce in sex slavery and human bondage exists is shameful but perhaps not entirely shocking. What is without a doubt shameful is that it is only in the past few years that America has enacted legislation to criminalize it.

Mimi Hanaoka