Rory Carroll Global, Period 4Human trafficking is an undetected problem worldwide. In the last 10 years, 2.4 million people around the world have become victims of human trafficking and 80% of them, women and children, are exploited as sexual slaves. Most victims of trafficking in this global industry are citizens of Eastern Europe. Eastern European citizens from Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary are the most common victims of human trafficking in Europe. Human trafficking is known as “modern age slavery.” Human rights are violated every day by this organized crime. The number of human beings being trafficked has been increasing in recent years, and there are perhaps hundreds of thousands of unreported cases (the EU's dirty secret). The secrecy and invisibility of human trafficking contributes greatly to the growth and success of this organized trafficking. -criminal affair. While the trafficking of women and children in Europe may not immediately impact the lives of Americans, the illegal kidnapping, enslavement, and exploitation of people represents a horrific violation of human rights that all members of America's democracy should be concerned about. . Human trafficking is an ongoing phenomenon. problem for centuries all over the world. In more recent times, there has been a dramatic increase in the reporting of the number of trafficked people in Eastern Europe due to various factors. It is known that one of the main factors contributing to the increase in human trafficking in Eastern Europe is the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 in Europe. “The collapse of the Soviet Union ended seventy years of centralized social, political and economic controls that guaranteed employment and social security for all” (Kate Transchel). These controls......middle of paper......The Balkan war fought from 1991 to 1999 on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, brought many foreign soldiers to this territory. These men were away from their wives and only secluded themselves with men for 9 consecutive years. The increase in brothels by soldiers in this region was a major reason for the exploitation of thousands of women and children for sexual purposes. When the war in the former Yugoslavia ended, many soldiers extended their military base period and stayed in this region to have sex. Once the military bases disappeared, the problem of human trafficking in the Balkans did not disappear, but remained. “The International Organization for Migration (IOM) report, for example, shows that several years after the end of the war in the former Yugoslavia, trafficking in the Balkans still represents a significant problem affecting an increasing number of women and children” (Vesna Nikolic - Ristanovic).