Washington - American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday urged nations and individual citizens everywhere to fight harder to curb human trafficking, a scourge she called entrenched but beatable.
“The problem of modern trafficking may be entrenched, but it is solvable,” Clinton wrote in an opinion piece. “By using every tool at our disposal to put pressure on traffickers, we can set ourselves on a course to eradicate modern slavery.”
“Many other countries can still do more to strengthen their anti-trafficking laws. And all governments can devote more resources to finding victims and punishing human traffickers,” Clinton added.
“Citizens can help too, by advocating for laws that ban all forms of exploitation and give victims the support they need to recover. They can also volunteer at a local shelter and encourage companies to root out forced labor throughout their supply chains by visiting www.chainstorereaction.com,” she wrote.
The top US diplomat said the number of human trafficking victims worldwide is estimated to range from 12-27 million.
Among the most common forms of trafficking are modern-day slavery, forced labor and forced prostitution. - Sapa-AFP