Well, if you are a criminal justice student you will have noticed how risky is, and how much evidence you leave behind, if you just kidnap two girls with families expecting them, also that 20 minutes earlier just checked out of a flight in the airport. It would be easy to pinpoint their last known position, and the other driver in the minibus (the legal one) would be a witness.
Also, it is not worth the effort to murder two other people, and less in the open.
Then, there is the fact that you have to smuggle them, locked in a box, stuck in a ship, for weeks? It is a good plot for a movie, but thats not how it would have been done.
If someone is crazy enough (besides from sick) to try some kidnapping like that, I am sure that the moment the two guys stepped in the minibus they would have aborted, brought the passengers where they were supposed to, and try another day.
If you see the movie Taken, the first one, now that is a little more believable. They are alone, in a foreign country, have no resources, they dont have to smuggle them through customs, etc.
Im sure sex trafficking do exist, but it will be more aimed to those the other poster said, with no families, vulnerable, etc.

You have got to be kidding me! First of all, that nonsensical facebook thing that went viral "What rapists look for" or that "In the eyes of a rapist crap" was all a hoax!!
Long hair, small stature or preoccupation with cellular devices does not attract rapists. Women that are raped, are typically rape by family members, husbands or boyfriends!! Random attack rapes are VERY VERY rare. Of the 16,000 abducted, 15,000 would be by family members/ex-husbands/boyfriends! And what you are referring too with the third world countries is sex trafficking which I am not denying as real. However, The gang-rape and beaten thing is a myth for the most part though, because they know what they are getting into, but are willing to sacrifice their body for their family. They are often just coerced, and promised a better life if they have sex with all these different men and women. A tragic and sickening industry that is real, no doubt though. It is just nothing like what movies like Shuttle protray though. And again, this would never happen to women like the characters in Shuttle. Case closed.
Please don't believe what you read on Facebook, Zookeeper.

As a criminal justice student who has been studying the sex trade, I have to disagree with Spankalicious. Many of the children in the sex trade have been sold by their own parents, and this happens in third, second, and first world countries. It does happen to women with families, because these women are willing to travel to make money for their families.
The first thing that happens is that a young woman answers an ad for travel abroad to work. As soon as she is beyond her country's boundaries, her passport and all identifiable material is removed, and she is gang-raped, beaten, and then placed into a sex ring or pornography ring.
In the United States, roughly 70 percent of those abducted are in foster care, but this means 30 percent are in real families. Roughly 16,000 were abducted in 2007. If you are asking yourself why the press does not report this mess, you are not alone; so do I.
While tourists are not usually targeted, any female who is caught in a situation like can be victimized. Just look at what happened these four months in India on buses.
Just for your information, sex traffickers look for the same types of things that rapists do:

1. long hair (to grab)
2. small stature (for an easier attack)
3. preoccupation with a cellular device (to grab easily)
4. single women in dark areas (for no witnesses)
   A small amount of awareness to your surroundings can save your life.
   The gene pool could use a little chlorine

I mean, I am sure something like this has happened before in the U.S like what happened to Mel and JulesHOWEVER, I really doubt there'd be someone like the shuttle driver who gets away with doing this ALL the time like he appears to do when they show all the IDs he's taken.
I do remember there being a 20/20 story a few years back where this happened to a girl but they didn't ship her off, and she was basically beaten up and a sex slave for months in a home in the U.S. She did end up getting away and free, though.

In the United States Of America, or any Western country, or even civilised Eastern countries like Japan, China and South Korea. I can tell you right now, this sort of thing does NOT happen to women with families.
The vulnerable women-(and men) that are put into these sort of things in civilised countries are:

• Homeless and Drug-Addicted Women and Men.
• Prostitutes with no family.
• Illegal Immigrants.
• Unregistered Children that are born into the industry
  Women that are like Mel would never be under threat of something to that degree happening to them in the US. This is just a movie, and anyone who thinks "This could happen to me" while sitting in your home is an absolute idiot and whatever you do, don't watch Hostel. Because you will become convinced that Russians are prepared to pay big money to torture you if you ever go on Holiday there. In fact, just stop watching films altogether.

I see what you're saying (I just watched this movie, myself, cuz I was curious). But all of that is MUCH, MUCH easier said than done
Human trafficking is still quite alive and well, sex slavery is one of the most enduring forms of slavery. Obviously, we wouldn't know if this really happens in the U.S. as much as it might happen in other parts of the world, but I mean really, why not? "This could never happen here" is just one of those things we say to comfort ourselves when we see fictional movies like this, and sometimes even if we see news reports of an escapee telling her story. Or we go into a whole "well, if she was smart, she would've gotten away," or "she let this happen to her" victim-blaming syndrome (not saying that's what you're doing but it's just one of those thigns a lot of people can easily fall into).
The movie doesn't raelly have time to delve into the whole thing - it's only about one night of the capture process.
But let's suppose that when at the end she picks up a photo of the six or so women previously sold off into the sex trade, there would've been one more in that pic, but that one girl managed to escape before the photo was taken
In a foreign country, foreign language, not knowing the area or locals and with the possibility of the one or two corrupt local cops, what would she do if she escaped? Where would she go? No money to go anywhere. No way of knowing whom she could turn to for help. Not even knowing where the heck she even ended up. And, again, how would she know if there's anyone she could trust that could help her get to any sort of agency or office that might even broach this subject. In the meantime, as she's stumbling around the vicinity of her place of captivity trying to get her bearings, her captors familiar with the area would probably have a fairly easy time tracking her down. And, again, that's assuming she somehow manages to make it outside whatever building she's been held in and past the "clients" AND her captors.
The movie might be stretching it a bit for dramatic effect as far as how often such a single scheme could be going, how many victims such a single scheme could actually claim especially without alerting authorities. I'm sure that family and friends would be worried about them, especially given that Mel had filed a missing bag report before they left the airport, so she clearly was there that night. But filing a missing persons report does not always lead to said person being found and returning home safe and sound. Especially if they're sold into human trafficking halfway around the world - you don't hear about many such stories because, let's face it, few manage to escape and get word out, and even then, some people will find their stories very hard to believe.
And the drawer full of IDs really wasn't that full considering the driver claimed earlier on in the movie he had been on the job for about five years. So there really is no indication that they just pick a girl or two up on a weekly basis. Reading into it a bit more than I should, maybe, but I'm guessing that the conditions have to be JUST RIGHT for them to keep running that racket - as in, the airport's closing down late at night (it didn't seem to be a big airport at all, so I'm honestly not surprised that there weren't many amenities), there's no other shuttle in sight and their bus just happened to be the most convenient offer to get home fast. Plenty of people will take a shortcut if they see an opportunity to do so, including if it seems convenient AND cheaper - you don't even have to be an idiot to fall for the "how can I get there fastest and cheapest" vice.
Remember that they could've gotten on that other shuttle that was charging them more, but they hesitated and the legit shuttle just drove away cuz he couldn't or just didn't want to wait any longer for a couple of stragglers. And calling a cab would've still meant waiting around for the taxi to get to the airport - which still would've been enough time for the bogus shuttle to come by and pick them up.
Again, I think the movie may have just accentuated for dramatic effect and shock factor the apparent frequency of this single group of people's involvement in the human trafficking. But I wouldn't say it's entirely impossible, either. It's probably happening to someone somewhere right now even as I type this. And, again, awareness is low because there are so few that manage to get out and tell their stories which, again, just sound so horrific and astounding that they're not taken as credible.
Just my two cents after seeing this.