Health consequences of trafficking of women and girls in Southeast Asia.

THROUGHOUT ASIA, THE TRAFFICKING OF women and girls for the sex industry has generated a complex and politically sensitive range of health threats and prevention challenges for the women involved, local and national health authorities, and the international community. 1 The crime of sexual trafficking and slavery is widespread. Source countries from which significant numbers of women were trafficked in 2002 include Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Russia, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Laos, China, and the Philippines. Destination countries for these women include Thailand, China, Cambodia, India, Russia, Sweden, the United States, and the EU. Countries in which trafficking of women occurs within state borders for the domestic sex industry include China, Russia, India, Thailand, Cambodia, and Burma. All of the countries listed above (save the U.S.) are signatories to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which explicitly bars both trafficking and child sex work. Yet, in 2003, the trafficking industry and its harmful effects appear, if anything, to be increasing. This industry, a major source of HIV and other sexually transmitted disease (STD) potential, is a problem that will require regional and international cooperation to be mitigated or resolved. While this analysis focuses on the health impacts in the Southeast Asian women trafficking industry, several broad categories of health consequences are likely applicable to trafficking of women and girls globally.