FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM 7 Middle East The sexual exploitation of women and children in the Middle East involves the import of women from other regions. The exploitation of Middle Eastern women and children tends to have less of a commercial dimension17. Women and children, mostly from Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Philippines) are trafficked as prostitutes, brides, camel jockeys, and domestic help to the Middle East. Women from the former Soviet Union are sent to Israel. According to Israel Women’s Network, every year well-organized criminal groups bring several hundred to 2,000 women from Russian and the former Soviet Union to Israel.18 Latin America and the Caribbean Estimates of the number of Latin America and Caribbean women and children trafficked for sexual exploitation each year is over 1,00,000. Impoverished children are particularly vulnerable to trafficking. The Organization of American States estimates that more than 2 million children are being sexually exploited in Latin America19. The presence of sex tourism from Europe, North America, and Australia has significantly contributed to the trafficking of women and children. A growing number of sex tourists are going to Latin America, partly as a result of recent restrictions placed on sex tourism in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and other Asian countries.20 Favoured sex tourism destinations are Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Argentina. Brazil has one of the worst child prostitution problems in the world.21 More than 50,000 women from the Dominican Republic reportedly have been trafficked abroad. Victims from Latin America and the Caribbean are trafficked to Western Europe and the United States. The Central American countries and Mexico are also transit countries for trafficking to the United States. 17 Supra note 10. 18 Michael Specter, “Trafficker’s New Cargo: Naïve Slavic Women”, New York Times, 11 January, 1998. 19 Supra note 3, p. 7. 20 www.catwinternational.org/fb/costarica.html 21 Social Security Network, “Brazil Spends $1.7 Million Helping Child Prostitutes”, Reuters, 12 June 1998.