While the exact numbers may be difficult to ascertain, there are admittedly thousands of women and girls who are deceived or simply sold into forcible sexual slavery.

In his heart-breaking account of the international sex trade, journalist Peter Landesman wrote in The New York Times Magazine, "Some of them have been baited by promises of legitimate jobs and a better life in America; many have been abducted; others have been bought from or abandoned by their impoverished families."

Hughes told Voice of America, "Usually what happens is the woman is searching for a job and she is told that she can go abroad and make a lot of money ... but the problem is that when she arrives in that particular country ... she is told no, in fact you're not going to be a waitress, a nanny, you know, whatever job, a dancer maybe, that we told you. You're going to be in prostitution and you don't have a choice."

Those holding the women in slavery tell the victims they must remain and work as prostitutes until they pay off the transportation cost to the new country. Hughes said they're often told, "We'll beat you up if you don't do what we want and you owe us $30,000."

Sometimes, Hughes said, the men do release the women after the "debt" has been paid. "Other times, if the woman can't earn as much for the pimp as he likes, he sells her again. I've interviewed women who have been sold four or five times. Of course, the problem with this is that their debt starts all over again."

The coercion process is often a brutal one. Bharti Tapas, a girl interviewed by ABC News Downtown in 2001 for a special on the sex trade in India, was 14 when she was sold into slavery by her own parents, and then forced into prostitution.

"When I arrived at the brothel, I refused to do what they told me to and they beat me and starved me for 10 days," Tapas said. "I thought I would rather kill myself than be forced to work as a prostitute."

She relented, according to the story, and joined "thousands of other girls who are beaten, locked in tiny cages or hidden in attics. Some are forced to have sex with as many as 20 men a day under the watchful eyes of madams and pimps."

Psychiatrist Wendy Freed authored a report for Physicians for Human Rights. Her report on the psychological aspects of women trapped in sexual slavery in Cambodia presented this frightening pattern faced by thousands of girls and women:

"The young women have been in captivity for a period of weeks to months or years. Initially there is shock and disbelief. Many young women describe not being able to believe that they had been sold .... Once they realize that in fact they are sold, they fight the brothel owner's demand that they accept customers. Refusal leads to beatings, being locked in a room, and going without food. This persists until the young woman gives up and realizes that indeed they are trapped and have no options .... At some point in this process, the young woman becomes submissive in order to avoid further beatings and torment; her 'spirit is broken.' She surrenders, becomes resigned and accommodates to the circumstances of captivity."

Hughes calls these brothels "sexual gulags," and cites the reports of international aid workers that describe men buying oral sex from girls as young as five years old, and intercourse with girls as young as 10 or 11.

Porn -- Part of the Problem