5 Feb 2014

US Attorney says human trafficking 'second-largest criminal industry'

4:43 pm on 5 February 2014

The United States Attorney for Guam and the Northern Marianas has called human trafficking the second-largest criminal industry in the world.

Alicia Limtiaco says after illegal drugs, trafficking is the second highest alongside the illegal arms trade, but unlike the other two, human trafficking has a reusable commodity that criminals can reuse time and again.

She says human trafficking is often prevalent in the sex industry but also common in the domestic help sector, sweatshop factories, cleaning jobs, and on construction sites, farms and in restaurants.