Two Million Fall Victim to Slave Trade Each Year, Says UN

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Two million fall victim to slave trade each year, says UN

By Justin Huggler, Asia Correspondent

Published: 31 August 2005


Every year, two million people are falling victim to the modern slave trade across the world, the United Nations has warned.

Louise Arbour, the UN's High Commissioner of Human Rights, said millions of women and children were ending up as sex slaves, beggars and forced labourers because of human trafficking, and called for closer international co-operation to prevent it.

Ann Veneman, the executive director of Unicef, the UN children's organisation, said two million people were estimated to be trafficked every year. "No country or region is immune," she added.

The senior UN officials were attending an Asia-Pacific human rights conference in Beijing. China has come under intense criticism for its own human rights record, and tight security at the hotel where the conference was held was believed to be designed to prevent Chinese petitioners from approaching Ms Arbour with their own complaints of abuse at the hands of the Chinese authorities.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article309206.ece

from d.a. levy
"Really"
                     the police try to protect
                     the banks - and everything else
                     is secondary