Last year, all six Gulf states complained bitterly about a US state department report that accused the majority of Gulf countries of not doing enough to combat human trafficking.
Now, the Kansas City Star has just completed a six-month investigation into the problem of human trafficking inside the United States, which it turns out has thousands – maybe tens of thousands – of human trafficking victims inside its own borders, some of whom come from Muslim-majority countries.
The second part of the series is here.
Interestingly, the well-intentioned focus on international trafficking has left efforts to address trafficking of American born children underfunded and under-serviced.
Ever since passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act nearly a decade ago, foreign-born victims have been the law’s focus. They get extensive counseling, visa assistance and help with food and housing costs as they rebuild their lives.
For victims born in the United States, however, state governments were expected to take care of children prostituted by pimps or family members.
But that rarely happens.
“You talk about frustration,” said Thomas Egan of Catholic Charities in Phoenix. “We found hundreds of prostituted kids and no funding available to help them.”
