Slavery still common

As many American cities prepare to observe Juneteenth, which commemorates June 19,1865, when slaves in Texas learned they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation more than two years earlier, it should not escape notice that the human slave trade is not a thing of the past.

Some 800,000 people, mostly women and children, are bought and sold across international borders for the sex trade and forms of forced labor. Some estimates say as many as 20,000 enslaved people end up in the United States each year, many of them working as prostitutes.

Across the globe, seven nations have been added to the U.S. State Department's annual blacklist for failing to halt "modern-day slavery." Some of those nations include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, all U.S. allies in the Middle East. Other "failing" nations added to the list were Algeria, Equatorial Guinea and Malaysia. They join perennial offenders Myanmar (Burma), Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria on the Tier 3 list, which renders them eligible for U.S. economic sanctions.

The State Department's "Trafficking in Persons Report" is a disturbing account of one of the worst human indignities — being bought, sold or traded into servitude. The State Department is to be commended for keeping such a report card and encouraging states to make slavery interdiction a higher priority. Human trafficking, said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice upon releasing the annual report, is "a modern-day form of slavery that devastates families and communities around the world."

While Utahns can readily point the finger at tyrannous and communist nations across the globe for their abhorrent human rights records, they need to know that human trafficking may be in their midst. Take the case of a 14-year-old girl who was forced to work 12 hours a day to pay off her smuggling debt. She and a Mexican woman, who was brought to the country illegally, were told by a Salt Lake couple that their families would be killed if they fled, according to federal court documents. The incident did not rise to federal human trafficking charges, but it came close, federal authorities have said. The couple were indicted on related charges and are serving sentences in federal prison.

Advocates say the extent of the human trafficking problem in Utah is unknown because victims who have been threatened with retaliation against their families are too afraid to come forward.

Unlike many nations across the globe, the United States is equipped to address human trafficking here and abroad. It is hoped that this annual report card — and accompanying sanctions — will result in a greater commitment elsewhere in the world to halt human trafficking.