An estimated 2 million women are caught each year in the worldwide sex industry while countless children and other women are forced into low-waged jobs, the United Nations said Tuesday in a renewed effort to fight human trafficking, dpa reported.
The UN said there are no accurate statistics, but the number of women trafficked across borders each year could be twice as high if the count includes those forced into domestic situations.
UN Deputy Secretary General Asha Rose Migiro said international conventions on human rights prohibits slave trade and all forms of slavery, in particular the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
"But even today, millions of people - mostly women and children - are being coerced into human trafficking, which amounts to nothing more than a modern form of slavery," Migiro said during debate in the UN General Assembly. "They are threatened with violence and held against their will. They are exploited for sex, forced to work, and even killed for their organs."
Migiro called on governments to ratify the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons because the crime shocks the conscience of all people.