U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of State

Closing the Window of Vulnerability: Preventing Human Trafficking of Migrant Laborers

Ambassador Mark P. Lagon, Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
Remarks to the American Society of International Law
Washington, DC
May 7, 2008

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I close with this story of Molina in the hopes of reminding us that in an age of globalization, and the tremendous benefits that international migration brings, we can not be blind to the dark side of this global economy—for it is in these shadows that an actual trade in human beings is permitted to flourish. Whether it is an Indonesian migrant worker trapped in factory in the Middle East, or an Eastern European prostituted girl held captive in a brothel in Western Europe, or a young North Korean bride forcibly married to a Chinese man—these are the faces of modern day slavery. These are migrants. They have intrinsic, value every bit as much as any other fellow human being. They have become ensnared in forced labor and human trafficking and they demand our attention, they cry out for justice, they yearn for dignity.

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