There've been a few reports lately on a problem about which, well, everyone, really, but especially those of us involved in this international adoption business should be concerned. I was reading that aforementioned Aaron Cohen article, did a little random searching and came up with a handful of stories about human trafficking in China.

Not babies, like the problems in Hunan (and, erm, eBay) a couple of years ago. No, these are mostly with children and the women that girl children grow into.

It's happening in America - specifically Las Vegas (of course), where cops found a troupe of Chinese acrobats held against their will and filed slavery charges.

That story's from Fox, so grain of salt, but still - a woman employed (or simply used) as a translator "escaped" and told police she and her 20 coworkers weren't being paid what they'd said they were being paid, and weren't being given much in the way of food. And, most importantly, weren't allowed to leave.

This embarrassing case follows some similar problems in Macau (or, if you like, Macao), another town famous for gambling (and, more pertinently, legal prostitution, and thus comfortable for certain kinds of traffickers). China may face economic sanctions from the U.S. if the country doesn't clear up human trafficking problems on the island city, according to a State Department report quoted by the Financial Times. If only it was 1999, Beijing could just shrug and say, "Not our problem," but now that it's part of One China, it is.

And similar problems are still being investigated and prosecuted in the heartland, too. The "brick kiln scandal" continues to unfold, with five people standing trial on charges of illegal detention, forced labor and mayhem after 400 parents circulated a petition wondering where the heck their children had gone. Answer: they'd been snatched and set to work in furnaces where bricks are made. The parents aren't happy with the charges, since there's no mention of actual human trafficing and slave labor, which is what seemed to actually be going on. The crazy pace of construction has hidden costs.



I'm actually just learning this stuff a little late - the State Department has been issuing warnings for quite some time.

It's much easier to just kind of read past these things and block them out of one's awareness, but facing them head on - or at least knowing what the heck is going on - is important, for humans, for parents and especially for parents like us.