Actress Mira Sorvino Presses Fight Against Human Trafficking

Actress Mira Sorvino applauds Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s efforts to combat human trafficking, although she still decries the fact that the United States spends more on military bands than it does to fight the kidnapping, selling, and smuggling of humans.

Sorvino, a U.N. goodwill ambassador on such trafficking who starred in the 2005 TV miniseries “Human Trafficking,” addressed the issue during a forum Thursday night at George Washington University in D.C., according to The Hill.

During the discussion, Sorvino asked fellow panelist Luis CdeBaca how much the government spends on trafficking compared with war on drugs. The equivalent of about three weeks of spending the drug war, said CdeBaca, President Barack Obama’s ambassador-at-large to coordinate U.S. government efforts against modern forms of slavery.

“Every month, we spend twice the TIP [Trafficking in Persons] budget on military marching bands,” observed Sorvino, whose role in “Human Trafficking” portrays an NYPD detective who becomes an immigration agent to fight the crime.

CdeBaca also praised Clinton’s attention to the issue. The secretary of state will release a report on human trafficking on Monday, when CdeBaca and Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero also will speak.

The audience also saw a sneak preview of a CNN International documentary, “Nepal’s Stolen Children,” starring actress Demi Moore, another celebrity advocate against human trafficking.

“Real men don’t buy girls,” Moore tells trafficking survivors in Nepal during the film, which will premiere at 8 p.m. Eastern time Sunday on CNN.