In Brief... Two Million Women Sold as Sex Slaves
VIENNA-At least two million women from Eastern Europe have been sold as "white slaves" in the West in recent years, according to unofficial estimates by Interpol.
The practice, figures on which were released at a conference on slavery in the Bulgarian city of Varna, shows no sign of abating, with organized crime increasingly dealing in the sale of Eastern European women-often lured with promises of lucrative jobs and modeling contracts-to supply the sex trade in the West. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has warned that young female Kosovo refugees have been forced into the prostitution racket in refugee camps, and have been sent to work as prostitutes in European Union countries (South China Morning Post, 1999, Sonya Yee).