2006 Trafficking in Persons Report

AMBASSADOR MILLER: Trafficking in persons is the slave trade. Trafficking in persons is just a euphemism. It stands for slave trade and the slavery -- slavery, which unfortunately, after all these centuries, is still with us in modern form. I thought it ended with the Civil war. Back then, we had state-sanctioned slavery based on color. Today, you have different kinds of slavery. It' s not state-sanctioned around the world. It' s not primarily based on color. But there' s sex slavery, farm slavery, factory slavery, child soldier slavery, domestic servitude slavery, child camel jockey slavery  all kinds of slavery.

AMBASSADOR MILLER: Sure. We believe that it's possible that as many as half of the victims of modern-day slavery are under 18 -- are children. They're being robbed of their innocence, of their youth, whether they are in factories working 15 hours a day, going half blind and not able to leave, barely getting enough to eat, or whether they are in brothels serving sex tourists that maybe from another country.

They are losing their innocence, and their countries are losing a precious resource. These are children that could grow up to make a productive contribution to a country. Instead, they end up robbed of their health in many cases, robbed of their dignity, in many ways unable to be productive parts of society.

This is why we have to act. Every country has to act -- the United States, every country in the world, every government in the world has to act and individuals have to act, and civic organizations and religious institutions -- all of us have to do our part, and that's what President Bush wants, that's what our congress wants, that's what our Secretary of State wants.

AMBASSADOR MILLER: This country, the United States of America, has a slavery challenge, too. In our country we believe the two biggest kinds of modern day slavery are sex slavery and domestic servitude slavery. We believe that up to 17,500 men, women and children are trafficked across our borders into slavery every year. That' s the figure for one year across borders.

QUESTION: So if it' s happening in the U.S. it' s happening everywhere.

AMBASSADOR MILLER: Myles, I have visited I don' t know how many countries in the past several years. I have yet to visit a country where there wasn' t some modern day slavery. Sure, some countries have a lot more and others have less, but I haven' t seen one without it. Now, maybe there s some island paradise that I haven' t visited where it doesn' t exist, but I haven' t found it yet.

AMBASSADOR MILLER: I believe it makes a difference because I have seen cases where, after the report governments did things. And I like to believe -- I do believe, that the report helped produce those changes. Whether it was in Japan or Jamaica or Ecuador, we have seen good things happen after the report. I think those good things, whether it' s arrest of traffickers or setting up shelters or working with nongovernmental organizations, those good things happened primarily because good people woke up. But if the report helped them to wake up, that's great.