The inhumanity of human trafficking.

A teenage girl screams in terror as she is beaten up by a man twice her size. Trapped in a squalid basement in a foreign country bruised and bleeding she is at the complete mercy of her captors. Having been repeatedly raped and forced into prostitution the continued psychological torture has pushed her to the depths of despair. A victim of human trafficking-the forced movement of people across international borders--her story of sex slavery would ordinarily be considered by many too shocking to bear contemplation. However Human Trafficking a Lifetime Channel television mini-series that aired in the United States in October 2005 has put a human face to the countless women and children who are victims of the cruelest and most degrading treatment imaginable. Due to its subject matter the mini-series is not easy to watch. The brutal and dehumanizing treatment that the victims of sex slavery are forced to endure is challenging to viewers largely because it usually remains invisible and ignored. Producing such a television drama gives the issue the visibility needed to bring about change. Lifetime Channel also launched a comprehensive advocacy campaign in conjunction with the mini-series to draw attention to the problem and encourage people to do what they can to stop it. (excerpt)