John Collins: End mail order bride abuse

Dear Editor
 
It is encouraging to read of the new detente in Russian/American relations, albeit through a dating agency www.womenrussia.com. "Closing the doors of old hostilities and opening new doors of friendship". Russia and America, the quiet detente 08/04/2004.
 
However, there are those, not least in the American govenment who take a different view of these new relationships and the agencies that promote them. U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell wishes to "End Mail Order Bride Abuse". Senator Cantwell said in her testimony before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 13 July 2004, "Websites such as www.womenrussia.com tout young women looking for love and marriage" http://cantwell.senate.gov/news/releases/2004_07_13_mob.html
 
Senator Cantwell has a bill before the United States Senate and Congress called the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act, which seeks to protect foreign young women seeking to marry American citizens. Senator Cantwell's concern is the "trafficking of persons and the use of International Marriage Brokers" and to "end mail order bride abuse".
 
John Collins