Sex

by: Lia

I am working on a feature length documentary on the sex trade in Cambodia and the U.S. and I have amerced myself in the fight against sex trafficking for the last couple years of my life.

Something that I have found time and time again is that people in the United States can’t, and wont believe that sex trafficking happens here in the U.S.. They say, “Nah, it couldn’t happen here, we’d never let such a horrible thing happen.” So they turn a blind eye to the atrocity that are occurring right under their noses.

An estimated 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. every year and at least 300,000 American born children are trafficked within the Unites States annually. That’s a total of 317,500 people, a majority of them children, that we have found that are trafficked in the U.S. yearly. Most experts believe that number is way higher, it’s just hard to determine how many are really out there.

We have this wonderful thing called the Trafficking In Persons Report put together by the U.S. Department of State. The Trafficking In Persons Report explains the issue of Human Trafficking (the overall umbrella that sex trafficking falls under), what’s being done about it, victims stories, and more. One thing particularly helpful is that they break down each country and show how bad the issue of human trafficking is there. Only problem is they have neglected to even include the United States.

No wonder people wont believe sex trafficking is an issue in the United States, when the government wont even acknowledge it!