ABSTRACT
In the period since the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the media, governments, non-governmental organizations and multi-or supra-national institutions have devoted increasing attention, debate and resources to the issue of human trafficking. This focus has taken several forms, including — overwhelming and frightening statistics ('500,000 women trafficked annually'; '$12 billion year in profits'); sensationalist, gendered and raced language ('trafficked for sex'; 'supply the flesh'; 'hellish journey'; 'white slavery'); the conflation of gender and race with innocence ('naive Slavic women'; 'stupid girl'; 'new white slave trade'; 'trafficked sex slaves') and an implicit criminalization of the issue ('a priority of the law enforcement community').1 It has emanated from such authoritative sources as the New Tork Times^ EU Ministers, the US Department of Justice (DOJ),2 International Human Rights Groups,3 former President William Jefferson Clinton4 and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.5 Indeed, a 'discursive verbosity' now surrounds debates about trafficked women (Foucault quoted in Stoler, 1995: ISO).6
