42,000 Victims of Modern-Day Slavery, Prostitution Discovered & Rescued

That's only a fraction

More than 42,000 victims of human trafficking were discovered by authorities around the world in 2011, according to a new report by the U.S. State Department.

The adults and children were kept as slaves, forced into prostitution, held in bondage, or otherwise trafficked, according to MSNBC.

However, the International Labor Organization estimated earlier this month that there are still about 20.9 million victims of modern slavery.

The offense of trafficking involves "the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery."

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In order for the U.S. to determine that foreign governments are working to eliminate slavery, the foreign governments must supply information about trafficking investigations; some of the reports include victim's accounts.

One victim told her trafficker at his sentencing: 

"I walk around and carry the physical scars of the torture you put me through. The cigarette burns, the knife carvings, the piercings … how a human being can see humor in the torture, manipulation, and brainwashing of another human being is beyond comprehension. You have given me a life sentence."

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