WASHINGTON DC: With a view to intensifying its fight against trafficking in persons, the United States (US) administration plans to aggressively pursue the fight against the evil trade, and will put in place new initiates beside aggressively enforcing existing ones.
This was announced Thursday by the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, after chairing the first meeting of the President’s Interagency Task Force on Trafficking in Persons. This agency monitors and tries to combat human trafficking.
Pompeo praised the agency’s officials, saying they “set a courageous example of service for the US, and for the world, by choosing to transform their harrowing experiences into powerful advocacy”.
He presented the Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons to Minal Patel Davis and William C. Woolf III. Patel-Davis, who has been campaigning against human trafficking, is special adviser to the Mayor of Houston on issues of human trafficking, while C. Woolf III, is an investigator, Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force, Fairfax County, Police Department Virginia.
Cases of human trafficking have increased dramatically worldwide, and the US is taking preventive steps to alert persons against falling into the clutches of human traffickers. While the human trafficking trade is widely prevalent in Africa, Asia and Latin America, it is also acquiring disturbing proportions in the poorer East European countries, with many of the victims bound for the West, including the US, where they are exploited by traffickers and their operators.
“The US government is seeking new ways to leverage input from human trafficking survivors to strengthen federal policy and programming efforts,” Pompeo said, adding that the State Department was doing its part through four key initiatives.
The secretary of state recalled that the administration had launched last year the Programme to End Modern Slavery, a congressionally-funded US foreign assistance programme that sought to achieve a measurable reduction in the prevalence of modern slavery in specific countries or regions.
“The Programme began with an initial investment of US$25 million for the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery and now, we have just awarded a second contribution of US$25 million to the Global Fund and the University of Georgia Research Foundation to continue this important work. Congress has made yet another US$25 million available for fiscal year 2018, which will bring our total investment for this important Programme to US$75 million,” he explained.
The State Department’s Domestic Worker In-Person Registration Programme will expand to two new cities in 2019. This programme was developed to enhance protection and oversight of foreign domestic workers employed by foreign mission and international organisation personnel.
The third initiative is the new ‘Know Your Rights’ video that will air in US embassies and consulates to increase visa applicants’ awareness of their rights, help them identify human trafficking situations, and lead them to both avoid and report suspicious activity.
Many experts believe that alerting visa applicants of the potential dangers of human trafficking would prevent the pain caused to the victims, besides serving as a deterrent against traffickers.
Fourthly, the State Department has just awarded a contract to create the Human Trafficking Expert Consultant Network, which will allow the Department to meaningfully incorporate survivor input into its anti-trafficking work, while compensating survivors for their expertise.
President Donald Trump, while addressing the Interagency Task Force on Trafficking in Persons, also reinforced his administration’s determination to crackdown on traffickers and stop their trade.
“We’re working to aggressively target traffickers and protect the victims of this inhumane abuse. In my first month in office, I signed an executive order directing federal law enforcement to prioritise dismantling the criminal organisations that engage in human trafficking. I later hosted survivors and experts here at the White House on numerous occasions for a conversation about how we can strengthen and improve our nation’s anti-trafficking efforts,” he said.
Trump also revealed his administration was “challenging foreign regimes that facilitate this horrible evil of sex trafficking and forced labour. And, we’re working to take down the criminal organisations that illegally traffic drugs and people across our border, exploiting them for their own gain. And we are pursuing criminal charges against those who perpetrate these monstrous acts and deeds”.
He said his administration last year had prosecuted a record number of traffickers.
“The Department of Health and Human Services National Human Trafficking Hotline received over 8,500 reports of potential trafficking last year. And our brave heroes at ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) have made over 1,600 human trafficking arrests.”
– Bernama