An estimated half-million women are trafficked annually for the purpose of sexual slavery. The women are kidnapped — or lured by traffickers who prey on their dreams of employment abroad — then they are "exported" to Europe, the Middle East, the United States and elsewhere, where they are sold to pimps, drugged, terrorized, locked in brothels and raped repeatedly.
Join the Discussion
What are your thoughts on the multibillion dollar global sex trade? What can be done to combat it and help its victims?
In Eastern Europe, since the fall of communism, sex trafficking has become the fastest growing form of organized crime, with Moldova and Ukraine widely seen as the centers of the global trade in women and girls.
FRONTLINE presents a unique hidden-camera look at this world of sexual slavery, talking with traffickers and their victims, and exposing the government indifference that allows the abuses to continue virtually unchecked. "Sex Slaves" also follows the remarkable journey of one man determined to find his trafficked wife by posing as a trafficker himself to buy back her freedom.
