| Although immigration experts say unauthorized flows across the Southern border have dropped in the current financial downturn, United Nations officials worry that the global economic recession will create more and more victims of human trafficking. The State Department estimates that up to 17-thousand people are trafficked into the U-S each year, many via the Southern border. They say about three quarters of them are women and half are minors. Activists equate human trafficking with modern-day slavery and they say it's having a serious impact on immigrants. In 2000 Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which made human trafficking illegal in the United States. Since 2005 police and anti-trafficking activists have discovered more than 200 victims in Los Angeles. But they say there are likely hundreds more that go unaccounted for. A growing number of activists scour the streets of L.A. every day, in search of people are still being forced to work for no pay. They are, in essence, modern-day abolitionists. This radio documentary tells their story. |
