JERUSALEM, 25 March 2005 — Thousands of foreign women have been smuggled into Israel and sold into prostitution, earning the criminal underworld millions of dollars a year, a parliamentary investigation has found.

For the last four years, between 3,000 and 5,000 women have been sold as sex slaves for $8,000 to $10,000 and forced to work up to 18 hours a day, said the head of the inquiry, Zehava Gal-On, of the left-wing opposition Yahad party. “We began this inquiry to investigate the extent of this phenomenon and raise political awareness of their plight and the brutal nature of the trafficking of women in this time of globalization,” said Gal-On.

“People must understand that sexual slavery is going on under our noses and must be obliterated,” she said, praising tough laws against people trafficking and prostitution already in place.