Chris Smith: “Mr. Speaker, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Public Law 106-386 has made an enormous positive difference…”

“Mr. Speaker, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, Public Law 106-386 has made an enormous positive difference in our efforts to end modern-day slavery, a nefarious enterprise that, according to the United Nations, nets the exploiters something in the order of $7 billion to $10 billion each year. This modern-day slavery, this terrible practice that is in our midst, enslaves more than 800,000 to 900,000 people according to the United States Department of State, of which about 20,000 are brought to this country every year to be exploited in the sex trade and in other aspects of this modern-day slavery. That number, I would point out to my colleagues, does not even include those who are trafficked intra-country. For instance, in places like India where there are millions of women who are forced into sexual slavery, they are not even counted in this number. It is for the victim, a difference without a distinction like the difference between a refugee and the internally displaced person--IDP. They suffer the same misery, but they have not crossed a geographic border. But nevertheless, the exploitation continues. The 3-year-old landmark law with its numerous mutually-reinforcing provisions to prevent trafficking, to protect victims, and to prosecute to the max those who traffic, has been a model statute worldwide.”