Syangden never considered one of the potential consequences of her husband’s decision to work abroad. Now she can’t ignore it.

Hours before the Buddhist cremation ceremony she watched the coffin, with her husband’s body inside, arrive on a flight from Saudi Arabia where he had worked.

The paperwork says the 36-year old committed suicide there. Not a single person gathered for the cremation ceremony believes it.

“I don’t think so. He said he would go abroad, see the place, earn as much as he could for the children and come back. I think somebody killed him,“ his wife said.

She may never know exactly what happened to him. But the family says he had every reason to live. He was a retired police officer collecting a pension. He was healthy and he’d been working in Saudi Arabia for less than a month without any complaints.

“When my son went I thought that he would earn money for the family but his dead body came back instead,” his father, Sonam Singh Bomjang, said.

He can’t believe his son died this way, especially considering he survived being shot by Maoists while serving as a Nepali police officer.

The family's story is not at all unusual. Nepal is one of the poorest countries on earth. With little work available, an estimated 1,300 Nepalese citizens go abroad for work every single day. But every day some return in coffins.

“On an average per day, two to three coffins are coming back to Nepal mostly from the Gulf countries,” said sociologist Ganesh Gurung, a member of Nepal’s government task force for foreign labor reform.

The official reason for the deaths vary, but once the bodies make it to Nepal the cause of death is rarely if ever investigated further.

Gurung says Nepalese workers attracted by good money abroad often face awful problems. The most common complaint: workers do not get what they were promised. But the complaints can be far worse, particularly for women who work as maids in homes.

“They have experienced physical exploitation, sexual exploitation, and we have received many girls coming back with children from their employers,” Gurung said.

We met one such maid. Not even her own family knows the pain she has suffered. Kumari is seven months pregnant and said the baby inside her is a product of rape. The father, she says, is her former employer in Kuwait.

For a year-and-a-half Kumari said she was paid the equivalent of $144 a month but then the pay stopped and the beatings started.

“My landlord would beat me, they (he and his wife) both would beat me. My body would ache. I bore that beating for a long time but stayed,” she said in tears.

Then one day, she said, the beating came with something else; rape.

She said the landlord came home when the rest of the family was out, and called her into the bathroom while she was folding clothes in another room. When she refused he came to her.

“He beat me up. First he covered my mouth so I could not scream. After he did that (raped me) I asked for my passport. He wouldn’t give it to me,” she said her voice breaking.

So she fled to the Nepalese Embassy in Kuwait with no passport. She says she spent weeks in Nepalese custody and found herself with dozens of other Nepali women.

Some were pregnant like her, others had babies, and still others were one their own - but they all wanted to escape employment there.

The 35-year-old divorced mother of two now lives in a shelter in Nepal with other maids recovering from abuse abroad. When we asked what she planned to do with the baby on the way she said: “I wanted to get rid of this baby, (abort it), but they told me that was not possible because my life would be endangered.”

She was several months pregnant when she finally made it back to Nepal. “Now the baby is going to be born. I am not going to keep it,” she said.

For more than 10 years, Nepal banned women from traveling to Gulf countries for work after the suicide of a Nepalese maid who complained of abuse in Kuwait.

But the need to survive surpassed fear and women did it illegally. The government lifted the ban in 2010.

Now the lines for foreign work visas are as long as ever, even as the stories of despair keep coming home.

Human labor is Nepal’s largest export. The workers usually sign two or three-year contracts to work for employers abroad. The money Nepalese workers send back to their families from outside the country accounts for nearly 25% of Nepal’s gross domestic product.

It is big business in Nepal, officially second only to agriculture. And some labor experts argue remittances from abroad are actually the biggest contributor to the country’s economy because it is nearly impossible to tally all the cash that makes its way back into the country.

At a training facility in the capital, Masino Tamang is going abroad for the second time to find work even after he says he endured backbreaking work the first time.

He was promised a job as a driver, but when he arrived in Malaysia the job was making and lifting heavy furniture.

Still Tamang plans to try again. This time he is getting training and going through a professional agency.

“I am not going because I want to. People have money problems. If I stay home I will not be able to earn anything,” he said.

Some do make a relatively decent living but all say they work very hard. The government has now mandated any citizen going to work abroad must attend an orientation course.

Private companies such as SOS Manpower offer skills training and safety training to villagers who will be working on buildings on a scale they have never seen before. Many of the workers come from mountain villages where the only skyscraper is the Himalayan mountains.

But nothing can prepare these men for the searing desert heat in the countries where they will work. The heat has often been suspected in worker deaths.

For those using illegal means to get work abroad, the living conditions can be so horrid and unsanitary it makes workers sick.

Nepal’s Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai told CNN he is well aware of the many problems Nepal’s workers are facing abroad. He told us the government has been making changes to try to protect its workers.

“We have instructed our missions in those countries to take the issue seriously, but the main problem still is as long as we can’t provide jobs within our own country they are forced to migrate. They use illegal channels and when they go there illegally then they don’t have legal protection,” he said.

Bhattarai has a plan to bring more jobs to his country but concedes it could take years to see the fruits of that plan.

Far too late for the men and women who returned emotionally scarred, or even in a box, for simply trying to create a better life for themselves.

By Deborah Feyerick and Sheila Steffen, CNN

Go to Backpage.com, choose any city in any state, then click on the adult section of the nationwide classified ads website.

Young women wearing almost nothing pose provocatively. One of the first advertisements I open shows a girl in lacy black underwear. Her eyes are downcast, and she appears much younger than 19, the age stated in her ad.

No one checks whether it's true - not the ages or the identities of these young women. Someone else is clearly taking the picture. The pose appears unnatural, forced.

The text next to her photo reads, "Choke me. Spank me. Pull my hair. Do Whatever You Want...I don't Care - 19." The young woman promises "a time you will NEVER forget."

It's hard to know whether this alleged 19-year-old is doing this because she wants to or because she's being coerced. That's another thing the website doesn't check.

Although many ads are placed by consenting adults, others are not and stories are rampant of young girls seduced online by men who turn out to be pimps or sex-traffickers.

I'm struck by how young some of these girls look: 18-year-olds look 15 or 16. Nineteen-year-olds look 17. As it turns out, prosecutors across the country are seeing an increase in cases (50 in 22 states recently) of underage girls being sold for sex on Backpage.com.

With an increased focus on sex trafficking in the U.S., prosecutors want the site's adult service ads removed, calling it a hub for the sex trade. In Minnesota, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi says, "When we get a case involving trafficking or prostitution, usually the story is going to start on Backpage.com."

Armed with a fistful of these ads, I ask Backpage.com's lawyer (and chief defender) Liz McDougall how she would feel if she saw her own daughter selling herself in one of these ads.

Her response is immediate, "I would be horrified ... my heart goes out to those mothers and to their daughters who are victims of exploitation."

Yet it's happening every day.

We meet Violet in a neighborhood just outside St. Paul, Minnesota. The pretty blonde married young. Her high-spirited, 14-year-old daughter later ran away and was missing for three years. Prosecutors say the girl was prostituted by a man she met at a bus stop who gave her food and a couch to sleep on and then advertised her for sex on Backpage.com to "pay him back."

Violet, who asked we changed her name to protect her family, said, "The worst part was the torture I had to hear about. You know the torture she endured from different people along the way."

McDougall says the website is not the problem.

"The Internet is unfortunately the vehicle for this, and within the Internet, we are trying to be the sheriff," she says referring to the organization's effort to work with law enforcement to find missing kids. "If my daughter were missing, the first place I'd go would be to the Internet."

Examining the ads and what they appear to be offering, I ask an obvious question: "Isn't prostitution illegal?" McDougall's answer: "Prostitution is illegal, and we don't permit illegal activity on the website." But then what are they selling? "Legal adult entertainment services," says McDougall.

I read her a different ad from another 19-year-old: "Make me beg. Smack me. Spit on me. Degrade me."

McDougall looks genuinely surprised. "If that's online that's a mistake ... that should never be permitted, that violates the terms of use and our policy," which prohibits advertisements selling sex for money.

McDougall explains that the website scans for 25,000 terms and code words linked to prostitution, sex trafficking and child exploitation. She says a team comprised of roughly 100 people then checks each ad individually before it's posted. Some 400 suspicious ads every month are reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which contacts law enforcement. The suspect ads, however, are not removed.

With all the alleged safeguards, I wonder whether the ad I showed her actually did inadvertently slip through. I go back to the adult section to verify it's a coincidence. Instead, I'm inundated with propositions, positions, preferences & body measurements. And I'm only checking ads in a single city, in a single state.

Like Craigslist, McDougall's former employer, the nationwide classified ad website lets people sell all kinds of things.

In 2010, Craigslist caved to pressure and shut down its erotic ads section. It didn't take long before Backpage.com stepped in and filled the void, making almost $27 million in a 12-month period. It made $3 million in March, up more than 30% from a year ago according to AIM, an Internet classified advertising research and consulting group. Those figures appear to contradict McDougall's claim the Internet is solely to blame.

I asked McDougall if shutting down the adult section might, at the very least, disrupt child-sex-trafficking or make it more difficult.

Without presenting any evidence, she says no - that it might drive it underground or worse yet, she says, off-shore making it difficult for law enforcement to rescue children who are being forced into prostitution.

"When Craigslist shut down, people had said that was the silver bullet and that made no difference," says McDougall, who freely admits Backpage.com filled the void. Not only did it make $27 million, it's now the largest advertiser of online adult services.

Although it's likely that these ads would pop up elsewhere on the Internet, many groups want Backpage.com to take them down, believing it will stem the sale of underage girls and disrupt the ease with which ads are posted.

For moms who have seen their teenagers exploited and sold, McDougall's argument rings hollow.

Dawn, for example, knew her blue-eyed, blond-haired 15-year-old daughter had a secret, online "friend."

That friend made the teen feel good about herself, promising to buy her gifts and give her the good life.

"The only thing she got is a Happy Meal," says Dawn. The child ran away with him. In less than a week, her "friend," a known pimp, had posted pictures of her online in Backpage.com's adult section selling the child for sex.

"He took her and beat her into submission, raping her, and then held her in prostitution," says Dawn, who asked we change her name to protect the family. She learned details of her daughter's ordeal by reading the criminal complaint filed against the man, who has pleaded not guilty.

The case is being prosecuted by the office of Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, who says he has several cases against men prostituting girls as young as 15.

"These pimps are pretty adroit, manipulative people ... they may take them out for an evening and at the end of the evening is sex with the pimp and subsequently these girls are in the business of prostitution."

Both Dawn's daughter and Violet's daughter are in recovery programs near their respective homes trying to heal from the trauma. I ask Dawn whether her daughter will be able to somehow get past it, even with therapy.

"I believe that she'll probably still be damaged because even after the fact of her healing, she's still going to remember this."

There is now a major effort to shut down the adult section on Backpage.com. Major brands such as H&M, IKEA and Barnes & Noble recently pulled ads from publications owned by Backpage.com parent company Village Voice Media. Prominent musicians including Alicia Keys, members of REM, the Roots Alabama Shakes and others signed a petition to stop the sex ads.

That's in addition to 600 religious leaders, 51 attorneys general, 19 U.S. senators, more than 50 NGOs and 230,000 individuals.

McDougall sincerely believes she is helping stop child-sex trafficking and says the day she feels otherwise is the day she will quit.

Until then, Backpage.com will continue serving as the foremost classified advertising website for adult services - even if the ages and circumstances of some of the people selling those services remain questionable.

Five girls performed for U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to India.

They are part of Kolkata Sanved, a dance therapy movement founded in 2004 by Sohini Chakraborty, a dance sociologist and dance activist. It provides an alternative approach to therapy and healing for victims of violence and trafficking.

The 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report, produced by the State Department, said: “India does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so."

The company says there’s nothing illegal about it, even though 51 attorneys general want to shut it down.

Watch Liz McDougall, from Village Voice Media, defend Backpage.com

But New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof and California's Attorney General Kamala Harris argue Backpage is a marketplace for human trafficking.

By Richard Stearns, special to CNN

This February, I visited Cambodia, where my heart was broken by the evils of the sex trade in that country. Too often there is an acceptance of prostitution that leads to a male culture that believes sex with virgins improves health has created an epidemic of young girls and boys trafficked into the cities. Roughly 30,000 young women and men in that country (some estimates are as high as 100,000) are trapped in slavery. When imprisoned in the brothels, these young women and men serve roughly 700 people every year.

I interviewed a young woman named Ruse (not her real name) who had spent three years in a Cambodian brothel before being rescued and sent to World Vision’s Trauma Recovery Center in Phnom Penh.

Ruse’s story was heartbreaking. Her family was extremely poor, and when she was just 13, her mother became very ill and needed medical attention. Her father had left, and she had two smaller siblings as well. The family desperately needed money. Ruse told me, “My virginity was the most valuable possession my family had.”

The life Ruse led for the next three years defies all sense of human dignity. She was originally sold for $400 and then found herself captive in a brothel. Ultimately, a police raid set her free, and World Vision was able to help her with psychological recovery and job training. Today Ruse has a small apartment and a job as a nanny.

The suffering of Ruse and tens of thousands like her needs to end. However, the U.S. Congress is stalling on a bill that would go a long way toward locking up those who buy and sell human beings as well as preventing trafficking and providing treatment to its victims.

The centerpiece of American action opposing modern day slavery is the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). The bill helps and encourages governments like Cambodia’s to toughen laws against traffickers — including prosecuting here in the United States any American citizen who sexually exploits a child overseas. An innovative feature of the Senate version of the bill is that it allows the U.S. to partner with NGOs and foreign governments to achieve the greatest possible impact. World Vision works in Cambodian villages were trafficking is a huge problem, and we educate parents, teachers and children on the dangers of this trade in human beings and how they can prevent it.

This important bill must be renewed every few years to respond to the changing ways of traffickers. It has always been bipartisan and has always passed Congress unanimously. However, the law has been allowed to expire in Congress, and efforts to pass it have been bogged down by partisan games. With the failure of Congress to prioritize the fight against modern-day slavery, millions of children around the world, just like Ruse, and even children here in the U.S., are without the protection that has traditionally been offered by our government.

The bickering began last fall when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services pulled funding from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which had been contracted to provide services to victims of trafficking here in the United States. The resulting argument about access of faith-based organizations to government funding is an important one. But Congress’s inability to solve that debate should not mean that we look the other way while human beings, like Ruse, are bought and sold as commodities.

In conjunction with the International Justice Mission (IJM), the Polaris Project and Safe Horizons, World Vision is asking supporters in the U.S. to join a social media campaign against human trafficking and help move this legislation forward.

From now until the end of April, we urge people to call their senators or use Twitter with the hashtag #endslavery to get more senators to sponsor the bill.

By calling or tweeting Congress to voice support for a bipartisan TVPA bill, everyone can play a part in fighting modern slavery.

The Italian company, which produces Ferrero Rocher chocolates, Nutella spread and Kinder eggs, follows Nestle and Hershey as the third major chocolate manufacturer to announce new anti-slavery moves since September.

It says it will eradicate child labor and forced adult labor from cocoa plantations it uses by 2020, verified by “independent and credible” third parties. Also, it says it will publish a more detailed progress report this summer and promises improved communication to customers.

Up to 75% of the world’s cocoa beans are grown in small farms in West Africa. In the Ivory Coast alone, there are an estimated 200,000 children working the fields, many against their will, to create chocolate enjoyed around the world. Many of the children don’t even know what chocolate is.

In January, CNN highlighted the plight of the child labor in the Ivory Coast in a documentary, “Chocolate’s Child Slaves”, by correspondent David McKenzie.

A statement from Ferrero said its new goals were made “in the light of the need for transparency in the cocoa sector.”

The industry’s regulation over cocoa farms is largely self-regulated. Critics say progress is too slow.

Read all stories about Chocolate's Child Slaves

NGO Stop the Traffik, which worked with CNN on its documentary, welcomed Ferrero’s move as a “sweet deal” for children doing “back-breaking work”. 

“Ferrero is the first global chocolate company to explicitly state they will fulfill the promise the chocolate industry made collectively in 2001 to eliminate the trafficking of children in their supply chain. Together with Mars, who have promised 100% certified chocolate by 2020, Ferrero is the only other chocolate company to have made comprehensive commitments towards their entiry cocoa supply chain.

“This individual acceptance of responsibility, coupled with a commitment to report on progress each year, should be an example to the other major chocolate companies, such as Nestlé, Kraft/Cadbury, and Hershey’s, to follow suit.”

The London-based NGO called on Ferrero to put labels on wrappers of its products so customers would know they were untainted by slavery.

A statement added: “2020 is still a long way away, and Stop the Traffik will be monitoring Ferrero’s progress.”

More than 10 years ago, two U.S. lawmakers took action to stop child labor in the industry. The Harkin-Engel Protocol, also known as the Cocoa Protocol, was signed into law on September 19, 2001.

But manufacturers raised concerns and a compromise was reached that required chocolate companies to voluntarily certify they were stopping the practice of child labor. The certification process would not involve labeling products "child-labor-free," as initially proposed.

(Jupiter, Florida and Scottsdale, Arizona) - A growing number of Major League Baseball players are coming together to make every pitch, home run and strikeout count in the fight against child trafficking.

The players are pledging to donate money for each of their on-field achievements this season to the Free 2 Play campaign, a platform for the California-based Not For Sale non-profit group.

"A lot of Americans are shocked to hear that there are 30 million people living in slavery today, and [many] of those are children," Dave Batstone, Not For Sale's co-founder, said. "So we decided to create a program that not just releases a child from slavery, but provides them a new future."

Jeremy Affeldt, a relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, has been one of the most vocal athletes raising money and awareness for Not For Sale. Last season, he pledged $250 for every strikeout he pitched.

Affeldt has been recruiting teammates and other teams' ball players to join the fight.

"This is an opportunity for us as ball players to join together as one team, to support something that's very, very important," Affeldt said.

This season, at least 17 players from MLB have signed up to Team Free 2 Play, with more expected to join the effort.

Josh Collmenter, a pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks, said he wanted to take part after hearing Affeldt and Batstone speak about the global problem of modern-day slavery.

"It is definitely something I wanted to make sure I did to give back to the community and be a role model and help out where I can," he said.

But it's not just players who can make a difference. Fans can now get involved, too.

This season, Not for Sale has launched a new Free 2 Play Facebook app. It allows fans to pick their favorite player and stat, and then pledge a donation for every on-field achievement.

For example, fans of St. Louis Cardinals player Matt Holliday may choose to pledge 25 cents for every home run he hits this season.

"A fan can choose their favorite team, their favorite player, their favorite stat – and pledge 50 cents, a dime, doesn't matter what the money is – but they can participate," Batstone said.

Every little bit counts, organizers say.

"When it comes to raising money, it's not about going after big hitters, it's about going after a large amount of people who give a little," Affeldt said. "And you can do a lot of damage with that."

To take part in Free 2 Play, you can log on to Facebook and search for 'Not For Sale.' Then click on the Free 2 Play app.

For the past decade, photographer-filmmaker Mimi Chakarova has examined conflict, corruption and the sex trade. Her film "The Price of Sex," a feature-length documentary made over seven years on trafficking and corruption, premiered in 2011. She was awarded the Nestor Almendros Award for courage in filmmaking at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York. It will air in the U.S. on The Documentary Channel on April 11 at 4.30p0.m. ET

She was wearing a polka dot skirt and her favorite pink flip-flops the day she left her village in Albania. Her mom called out her name before she got into her boyfriend's red Mitsubishi. She didn't turn to wave goodbye. She was 12 and angry.

Her stepdad has been raping her for as long as she can remember. She couldn't tell her mom. She knows she'd be sent away. She'd be the one blamed. Girls tempt grown men and bring it on themselves, they'd say. And there was also his drinking that made him do it, they'd add.

Once they were in Italy, her boyfriend changed - he told her she'll work for him as a prostitute. She thought he was playing some silly joke. She left home to be with him; to one day marry him. He is older. She's in love.

He slapped her back to reality. Told her how much money she cost him for the speedboat ride, her fake documents, the clothes and make-up he bought to make her look pretty and pass for 18.

She cried. And he cut her knee deep with a knife to make her stop. For the next seven years, the scar is a reminder she has no one but him to fear and return to.

Years later, I recorded her story at a secret shelter for women and saw court documents backing up what she told me. She pressed charges against her pimp but she says his uncle was a judge and released him on bail. The pimp left Albania until things cooled off. He is still free and has even bought a three-story house in her village in northern Albania.

Meanwhile, her family found out she was a "hooker who didn't even bring back any money, only an abortion and STDs." They disowned her. Her mom still doesn't know her husband was the first to abuse her.

That was the story of a young Albanian girl I met while filming "The Price of Sex" - sold into sex work in Italy and Belgium by a man who pretended to be her boyfriend.

The first woman I photographed had been trafficked to Turkey. She returned to Moldova, one of the poorest countries in Eastern Europe, wearing the same pants, blouse and shoes she left in.

Relying on her contacts in the town where she was sold, I retraced her journey to Turkey and met with one of her pimps - a man notorious for the sadistic abuse of the girls he owned.

Unable to take photographs, I posed as a Bulgarian woman for sale and spoke with Tania, a girl from Ukraine who was trafficked at the age of 23 and purchased as a slave by Yusuf.

I push my camera bag under the white plastic table, slouching down to appear more relaxed. The sun set four hours ago and the outdoor cafe where I'm sitting faces the fishing boats docked by the bay.

Only now the fear slowly seeps in as I notice a middle-aged man with an off-white cotton shirt and beige trousers approach the table.

The young woman by his side looks straight ahead. Her clothes are a few sizes too small by intent. They sit down at opposite ends of one another. I introduce myself in Russian.

The pimp doesn't understand but he doesn't need to. He is here to price me. He adjusts his gold-rimmed glasses, lights a cigarette and puts his cell phone on the table.

The young woman, Tatiana, also known as Tania, is average – small, tired and looking much older than 25.

We start talking. I'm nervous: "I am coming from Istanbul. For work."

"So you know what this is about?" she asks slowly as if speaking in code and then takes another drag on her cigarette.

"Yes."

"Let's talk then," she smiles at Yusuf who is staring at my breasts without trying to be discreet. "You'll live with him. There is plenty of work," she pauses to adjust the thick strap of her orange tank top. "Sometimes 30 a day."

She tells me the clients are handsome, she denies Yusuf hits her – though in both cases I know the truth.

"Look, Yusuf likes you," she says. "You can start tomorrow."

My hand is shaking as I try to write down the digits of Tania's cell phone number.

"It's your first time, huh?" Tania smiles. "I was the same, hadn't done this before. But after a couple of days, you'll forget everything," she pauses and pulls out another cigarette.

"Home, friends, memories... " she looks down and inhales the smoke. "Nothing will matter."

Tania stares into the distance where boat lights flicker. Her next client is waiting in one of these boats. "Think about it," she stands up. "We'll be back in a bit."

She walks away with Yusuf close by her side like a father or an older uncle.

Working to expose this misery makes you want to never leave your house again. But you can't hide. You've promised too many people to carry on. You've connected the dots for a decade. You can break it down into the most basic elements: supply and demand.

The supply is steady - poor women and kids need a way out. They leave in search of jobs. They are duped, sold, used up and deported back to where they came from. Penniless, ashamed, scared.

And the demand? It's something few are willing to tackle. It's not only fishermen, construction workers and soldiers who frequent the brothels of Turkey, Russia, Kosovo, the United Arab Emirates, the U.K., Israel, Greece, Italy and many other countries where women are trafficked to. You also have cops, politicians, policy makers, U.N. personnel. Men who'd rather remain anonymous.

And after all, this human trafficking phenomenon isn't a new criminal trend. It's existed since the beginning of documented time. But what is astonishing to me is how recently we agreed to agree that sex slavery should be punished by law.

Think about it. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defined the Palermo Protocol in 2000 and implemented it in 2003. That's only nine years ago! And The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act was passed by the U.S. Department of State in 2000.

Awareness matters. People must know. We must change perceptions.

But let's not fool ourselves. As long as the huge discrepancy between poor and rich countries continues to exist, as long as access to justice is denied or corrupt, as long as stigma keeps women silent, and law enforcement agents take bribes or use the trafficked women as bargaining chips, we can make films, go to schools, speak until our voices grow weak and still only make a pitiful dent.

The first question we must answer is "Why is human trafficking only second to drugs in profitability?"

Then think of Henry Ford's words: "Show me who profits from war and I will show you how to stop the war."

Apply this to trafficking. If we, as an international community, agreed that the trafficking and selling of human beings is unacceptable and we've had nine years to reduce the numbers, then what else is standing in the way? Do the lives of poor women matter?

I am posing these questions because unless we honestly answer them, all of my work and the persistent effort and dedication of others in the field won't be enough in this lifetime.

And I don't think it is fair for the next generation should inherit one of the worst human rights abuses known to mankind. The time is now.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Mimi Chakarova.

The usually stoic mother wept when she saw her child’s lifeless face, eyes open and covered in ants, resting in the orange sands of the Mauritanian desert.

The master who raped Moulkheir to produce the child wanted to punish his slave. He told her she would work faster without the child on her back.

Trying to pull herself together, Moulkheir asked if she could take a break to give her daughter a proper burial. Her master’s reply: Get back to work.

“Her soul is a dog’s soul,” she recalls him saying.

Moulkheir, who is in her 40s, told her story to CNN in December, when a reporter and videographer visited Mauritania - a vast, bone-dry nation on the western fringe of the Sahara - to investigate slavery in the place where the practice is arguably more common, more readily accepted and more
intractable than anywhere else on Earth.

Listening to her story, two facts became painfully clear: In Mauritania, the shackles of slavery are mental as well as physical.

And breaking them - an unthinkably long process - requires unlikely allies.

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