Ted Poe: “Reclaiming my time, I want to spend some time talking about what I think and believe has become a scourge--a scourge not…”

“Reclaiming my time, I want to spend some time talking about what I think and believe has become a scourge--a scourge not only in America, but in other parts of the world. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to be in the Ukraine. I was there on some energy issues, and I came in contact with that scourge that I will talk about today. The Ukraine, because of its location, because of its former Soviet connections, and because of its high poverty, has a problem that a lot of countries do--and that's human trafficking. I'm not talking about people going from one country to another legally or even illegally. I'm talking about people being trafficked to other locations for sex slavery. The Ukraine is just one of many countries where this seems to be occurring. One scenario is that young Ukranian women looking for jobs--and people from foreign countries come to the Ukraine--they promise them a job in another country and that they will be paid a lot of money if they will go to this country and work doing whatever. They buy into that. They go to that other country, and they are forced into sex slavery. There, they are in a situation that is awful. Many of them never get out of it. The only way to get out, for some of them, is to get someone else convinced to replace them in this scourge. The Ukraine is not the only country. It's not even one of the primary countries. But it's just one.…”