The U.S. passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (Trafficking Act) in 2000, as a means of addressing the issue of forced laborers, and allocated budgets over $80 million annually for related activities. The money is used to enforce U.S. anti-trafficking laws, raise public awareness of the issue, and assist and protect victims. There are also efforts to reduce the vulnerability of individuals who may be coerced into forced labor by providing educational and alternative economic opportunities. The U.S. says working directly with other countries, and with the United Nations (U.N.), is key to combating the problem. The U.N. International Labor Organization (ILO) is an important international body for discussing the issues of forced labor. The ILO formulates international agreements and recommendations for international labor standards. One such agreement, the Convention Concerning Forced Labor, came into force in 1930. The Convention has amended and changed over the years to address modern modes of forced labor. The ILO's Convention on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor deals specifically with the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, forced labor, child prostitution, and the use of children for drug trafficking. Such conventions give countries a starting point for creating laws and procedures to deal with trafficking issues. The U.S. provides immigration privileges, in the form of T-visas and U-visas, to victims of severe trafficking and various types of crimes, including forced labor. Severe trafficking includes the trafficking of people under 18 years of age for sexual exploitation and the recruiting of people for labor or service by use of force or coercion. The visas expire after three years, at which time the recipient can adjust to the longer term status of Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR). The number of these visas that can be issued annually is limited to 5,000 T-visas and 10,000 U-visas. Holders of either of

A turning point in international efforts to address human trafficking was the adoption in 2000 of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children ("the Protocol"), which built on other related conventions and instruments such as ILO convention 182, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, precipitating intense activity to combat trafficking in persons. The Protocol provided a comprehensive definition of the crime, and legal tools for fighting this crime. Focusing on prevention, protection and prosecution, the Protocol entered into force on 25 December 2003, and to date has 128 parties. In 2004, the Commission on Human Rights adopted a decision 2004/110 to appoint a Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons especially women and children. This development highlighted the importance of a victims' rights-based approach to combating trafficking in women and children. In 2006 and pursuant to a request from the Economic and Social Council (resolution 2006/27)- reinforced by GA Resolution 61/180-the Inter-Agency Cooperation Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT)2 was established following the initial meeting in Tokyo. ICAT's aim is to foster coordination and cooperation among relevant United Nations agencies and other international organizations involved in combating human trafficking. The launch of UN GIFT in March 2007 provided all anti-trafficking actors including the UN, governments and civil society organizations a global forum to share respective experiences.3 This initiative, launched by UNODC in partnership with ILO, OHCHR, UNICEF, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and IOM, further highlighted the need to collectively address human trafficking in a multi-faceted and holistic manner. On 13-15 February 2008 UN.GIFT organized a forum on trafficking in persons in Vienna (the

ILO in June (2002) declares the world day against child labour. In Switzerland the ILO presented two teenagers as evidence of child labour. One of them a Nigerian girl Comfort was a child prostitute. This girl was trafficked from her home country to foreign and engaged in forced labour and her education ended. It is observed that many of the children stolen from their homes to other countries or cities are coerced to do hazardous work. Such forced labour as prostitution or domestic helps without pay. Many children taken from their parents with promises of better lives are brought to the cities where they are handed over to strangers who engage them in dehumanizing jobs. There was a case of a boy stolen from Kano State and was discovered a year later in Lagos leading a blind beggar as his job. Agbo, ( 2004) observes that human trafficking is the act of carrying men, women, and children from their natural homes or habitation to foreign places where they may not be able to trace their way back home. When they get to the foreign land the victims' international passport and visa are taken from them and they (human beings) are handed over to their masters and mistresses who subject them to any type of obnoxious activity and business. The United Nations Organization (UNO) defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or the receipt of person by means of threat, the use of force or other forms of coercion, fraud, deception, or the abuse of power, position or vulnerability, or the giving or receiving of payment or benefits to achieve the concept of person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation.

How was Human Trafficking's effort evolved? * Human trafficking is basically another word for modern slavery that consist of women and children and then the women are used as prostitutes, while the girls are usually lured away from their villages with false promises of jobs * Human trafficking evolved from slavery. India has used human trafficking more than a lot of other countries and this has been starting since the Islamic conquerors. * Slavery has spread to disease and death, the destruction of dignity and innocence

Major Events/Turning Points -The Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) was one of the first organizations in the United States to concentrate on anti trafficking. -CAST would help people who have been caught up in situations of slavery or forced labor through human trafficking with the larger contact of worker exploitation, transnational migration, and violence against women and children -It is to end all violations of human rights -CAST provides social services, legal services, and training and advocacy. They have helped over 200 victims of trafficking -They help to build cases against traffics and slaveholders, and to educate both officials and the public by working with the police, national, state, and local governments -CAST opened the first and only shelter in the United States exclusively for survivors of trafficking with funding from the Office for Victims of Crime in 2004