Free to be a prostitute?

John Miller led the Bush's administration's attempts to eliminate human trafficking. He feels that the Justice Department is promulgating legislation that will make it harder to convict known traffickers. The department's argument seems to be that prostitutes choose their profession. While this is true in some cases, I suspect that there are many, many girls (not women as many prostitutes are very young, some as young as 13 or 14) who have been duped or forced into providing sex. It is these people that should be protected. Miller lists some of the areas in which the legislation proposed by the Justice Department is faulty.

Should the State Department’s annual report on trafficking, which grades governments on how well they are combating modern slavery, consider whether governments put traffickers in jail? The Justice Department says no. Should the Homeland Security and Health and Human Services Departments streamline their efforts to help foreign trafficking victims get visas and care? No. Should the Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, State and Justice Departments pool their data on human trafficking to help devise strategies to prevent it? Amazingly, no.

Should the department prosecute the American sex tourists who create demand for adult human-trafficking victims in foreign countries? No. Should Congress make clear that there should be increased penalties for Americans who sexually abuse children abroad? No way. Should we give our courts jurisdiction over Americans who traffic human beings abroad? Certainly not. Should the attorney general include information in his annual report on his department’s efforts to enforce anti-trafficking laws against federal contractors and employees? No. Too “burdensome,” says the Justice Department.

And he tells us why he thinks this legislation is bad.

Put me on the side of those who have worked with the victims. I have talked with survivors all over the world, including the United States, and I share the view that these women and girls — the average age of entry into prostitution is 14 — are not participating in the “oldest profession” but in the oldest form of abuse. They are slaves.