'DATELINE'S' CHRIS HANSEN TRAVELS ACROSS ASIA TO REPORT ON A DRAMATIC HUMAN TRAFFICKING RESCUE MISSION ON WEDNESDAY, AUG. 8

NEW YORK � August 6, 2007 � U.S. Government analysts estimate that every year there are between 500,000 and 1.1 million people who are trafficked across international borders, making it one of the fastest growing forms of international organized crime. The majority of cases occur in Southeast Asia. In the upcoming "Dateline" report "To the Rescue" airing Wednesday, Aug. 8 (10 p.m. ET), Chris Hansen travels across Asia to report in real-time on an extraordinary mission to rescue a number of young trafficking victims who say there were being threatened with prostitution. What's more, Hansen and NBC News cameras confront one of the alleged leaders of the human trafficking ring.

The hour long report follows Tom "Troop" Emonds and his friend Jerry Howe as they embark on an improbable rescue mission stretching from the Philippines to Malaysia after receiving an alarming phone call from Emond's 22-year-old niece, Lannie, in which those holding her demanded ransom money. The call had Emonds convinced she had fallen into the shadowy world of human trafficking. After failing a national nursing exam, Lannie took what she believed was a job as a hotel singer in Malaysia. But once she arrived in Malaysia, her passport was confiscated and she was told to sign an eight-year "contract," meaning she was going to be held against her will until she was 30.

Ambassador Dr. Mark Logan, Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State, was interviewed for the report. He refers to this as a "bait and switch," saying: Young people like Lannie are often told, "'We can get you out of this awful economic situation you're in with better work, the conditions will be good, the pay will be good'�and often times it turns out to be the most gross form of sexual exploitation."

As President Bush is expected to decide in September whether or not to sanction Malaysia for its failure to combat human trafficking, this report shines a light on how the dedication and resilience of two Americans were able to save the lives of a just a handful, while millions of people are being kept in modern day slavery which robs them of their youth, health and innocence in immeasurable ways.

David Corvo is the executive producer of "Dateline NBC."