The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says human trafficking is beginning to rival the drugs and arms trades in profitability.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting in Manila today (Monday), UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy challenged governments to enact more laws and enforce them to reverse the trend.
Ms. Bellamy attended the conference to provide delegates with a handbook that would help them in their legislative efforts to curb human trafficking -- particularly that of women and children.
She told lawmakers from all over the world that trafficking in humans brings in about 10 billion dollars per year. She also said exact numbers of trafficked children are hard to pinpoint, but one estimate puts it at 50 percent of victims.