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At a Congressional Human Rights Caucus Briefing today, Ambassador Mark Lagon, director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. State Department, discussed human trafficking from conflict zones in sub-Saharan Africa. UNICEF estimates that conscription of child soldiers affects more than 300,000 children under the age of 18 in more than 30 armed conflicts worldwide.

In December 2007, the United Nations noted that evidence suggests refugee and internally displace person (IDP) camps are often prime recruiting grounds for child soldiers because of the concentration of vulnerable children. Lagon said that human trafficking is modern day slavery. Child soldiers undergo severe physical and psychological trauma, sexual abuse and are high risks of receiving sexually transmitted diseases and rehabilitation is incredibly difficult.

Lagon stressed the need for widespread education about trafficking, what it is and what it entails, which will decrease it from happening in large part. The United States has a “zero tolerance for trafficking” and the abetting of sexual prostitution, said Lagon. Congress has strengthened anti-trafficking legislation and contributed more than $74 million in funding last year for efforts to end slavery abroad. The money has been used for rehabilitation for victims, special housing shelters, law enforcement training, information and awareness campaigns and combating sex tourism.

Lagon said that the United States is asking governments to immediately take action to increase rescues of trafficking victims and prosecutions of traffickers, people freed from slavery must be treated as victims of crime and the demand for modern-day slaves must be stopped.