A 36-year-old Minneapolis man will spend the next 293 months in federal prison for the sex trafficking of a minor.

Federal District Court Judge David S. Doty sentenced Daniel McNeal Nov. 5 in Minneapolis. McNeal pleaded guilty May 1, 2007, to one count of the sex trafficking of a minor and one count of transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Of the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people who are trafficked annually across international borders, an estimated 14,500 to 17,500 are trafficked within the U.S. each year. According to the Justice Department, the Twin Cities metropolitan area is one of the 15 largest human trafficking centers in the United States.

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Human trafficking into Israel reached its height from the 1990s to the early years of 2000, as an estimated 3,000 women a year were brought to Israel under the false promise of jobs and a better way of life.

Some trafficked women are brought into the country legally, while others are smuggled across the border from Egypt.

Last year, the United Nations named Israel as one of the main destinations in the world for trafficked women. It has also consistently appeared as a Tier 2 offender in the annual US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.

For many years, the absence of anti-trafficking laws in Israel meant that human trafficking, which was less risky and often more profitable than trafficking drugs or arms, went unchecked.

In 2000, trafficking for sexual exploitation was made a crime after repeated criticism of Israel by the United States.

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Social workers in South Africa report that children as young as nine years old are being “primed for jobs” during the 2010 Soccer World Cup, which is to be held in South Africa. However, these jobs may be in commercial sex work to be used by opportunistic tourists.

Pimps are reportedly recruiting victims from the city’s streets, promising them better lives after the World Cup. A social worker cited that organized crime syndicates, who plan to reap foreign currency by selling the youngsters to sex tourists, are luring children into prostitution.

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At a recent briefing Mark Lagon, of the US Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking and Persons, explored the situation of human trafficking in China. Lagon cited that serious problems of forced labor exist in China, earning it a reputation as a source, transit and destination country, and giving it a Tier 2 Watch List ranking for three consecutive years.

Lagon cited examples of labor and sex trafficking in China. The examples showed that though many Chinese men and women are trafficked abroad for forced labor and sexual exploitation, the majority of trafficking in China is internal.

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