The sex-trafficking trade, which deceives and coerces women and children into sexual slavery, continues to flourish as a highly profitable enterprise for the criminals who capture and sell their victims. The United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) recently decried the increase of sex-trafficking in Austria, Lithuania, Moldova and Romania. The Interior Ministry of Macedonia has begun to address this epidemic in European countries by strengthening the customs services at its borders and collaborating with neighboring countries to fight the organized sex-trafficking business.
Profits have surged in the mail-bride industry. A $17 billion a year business where up to 150,000 women are sold annually. New Family, an organization that focuses on women’s rights within the family, recently called for an investigation of Israeli companies that provide mail-order brides from Ukraine. “The police and the Interior Ministry have an obligation to investigate what is happening, and if it becomes clear that the women are being abused and imprisoned, it must be stopped,” said New Family Chairwoman Irit Rosenblum, a global co-sponsor of Feminist Expo 2000.
