Want to make $32 billion in a year? That’s more than Nike, Starbucks and Google combined. Go to your local massage parlor, nail salon, ethnic restaurant or men’s club to find out the secret. India, Thailand and the Philippines know as well. What’s the answer? Just join the sex trafficking industry.

If you think this only happens in poor, Southeast Asian countries, reconsider. People are sold as sex slaves right here in America and right here in Michigan.

For almost a year, Katya, a 20-year-old Ukrainian college student, was forced to work in Detroit strip clubs, according to a December 2007 MSNBC.com report. She was enticed by two men who, using a waitressing job as bait, lured Katya into coming to the United States. Upon her arrival in the country, however, she was imprisoned along with 15 other women in separate apartments around Detroit. They were threatened with violence to force them to work 12-hour shifts, earning up to $1,000 a night. But they never saw a penny of the money. The men controlled their every movement. These women were imprisoned and exploited, without any freedom or any way of finding help.

There are stories worse than this. Young teenage girls are sometimes kidnapped from their driveways and forced into sex slavery. Girls are gang raped, brutally abused, threatened to submission, treated worse than animals, locked up in cages or dresser drawers during the day and brought out to work entire nights with their every action closely monitored.

These are modern-day slaves. Females are exploited to work for sex without pay. You would be shocked to find out that the U.S. is the second largest destination of sex trafficked victims. These people can be found in New York penthouses, Nevada’s brothels, California’s massage parlors and in our very own metropolis, Detroit City’s strip clubs.

Traffickers use children to sell sex in big cities and small towns across the United States. Victims are tricked into the business through jobs and educational opportunities or sold by parents or spouses. Sex trafficking often includes exploitation through prostitution, pornography and stripping.

Some sources will tell you there are around 27 million slaves in the world right now — more than at any time in history — making the trade the most lucrative and fasting growing crime industry in the world, behind the illegal drug trade. Over 2.2 million children are sold into slavery every year, though not all to perform sex work. There are girls who start working as sex slaves at the age of 10 or even younger; for boys, the average age is between 11 and 13 years old. In India, 40 percent of prostitutes are children ages 12 to 14. Every year, 244,000 to 325,000 American children and youth are at risk for sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. According to a 2006 U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report, an estimated 14,500 to 17,500 victims of all ethnicities, ranging from 12 to 18 years old, are brought into the U.S. against their will.

But this doesn’t have to continue. We can be the new abolitionists of this century to free these people. There is hope: There are already victims who have survived, rebuilt their lives and even reached out to help others suffering as they once had.

We can raise awareness within our communities. No longer can people be ignorant of this issue by thinking that human trafficking only occurs in foreign places. No community is seen as untouchable in the eyes of human traffickers.

We can change the conversation. Children are too young to consent to sex so they should not be viewed as entering prostitution, but as victims of human trafficking. Victims should not be punished, as is the law now. Those on the demand side — buyers and pimps — are the ones to be held responsible.

We should be on the lookout. If you suspect slavery or exploitation, call the National Trafficking Hotline at (888) 3737-888.

Be informed. Fact sheets and articles on this issue are easily accessible online. Organizations like International Justice Mission will send you updates when you sign up online at www.ijm.org/justicecampaigns. Go to the website now to read and sign a petition asking President Barack Obama to push for further change in this area.

We must reduce demand. Fight sex tourism. Ask travel agencies, hotels, tours to sign the Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism at www.thecode.org.

And go to the League this Friday. At 7:30 p.m., Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier turned musician and human rights activist, will speak about similar issues at the 6th Annual Midwest Hip Hop Summit.

Amy Song is a Public Policy senior.