Fighting Human Trafficking a U.S. Governmentwide Effort Fighting Human Trafficking a U.S. Governmentwide Effort Trafficking an "Egregious" Form of Slavery, USAID Official Says The National Security Strategy 2006 Human Trafficking (a State Dept./IIP webpage)

12 February 2007

(U.S. programs help prevent trafficking overseas, provide victim services)

Washington – Human trafficking is both a human rights violation and an international security risk, a State Department official told a group of foreign journalists February 5.

Eleanor Kennelly Gaetan, senior coordinator for public outreach for the Department of State's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, spoke to the journalists during a February 5-7 tour organized by the department’s Foreign Press Center.

During their three-day tour, the journalists met with U.S. and U.N. officials and representatives from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working to prevent human trafficking. (See related article.)

Human trafficking is a "human rights travesty," Gaetan said, "it is most obviously a violation of individuals' human freedom."

In the National Security Strategy issued by the White House in March 2006, human trafficking was listed as an international security risk, Gaetan said. The security risk and the human rights violations and health risks that human trafficking causes, "represent a pandemic," Gaetan said.  "Therefore, it is something that the U.S. government and many governments around the world have made a priority to eradicate."

Gaetan said that human trafficking fuels international crime. "Every time you have trafficking you have massive corruption, you have document fraud, you have corrupt cops, corrupt officials, custom agents looking the other way," Gaetan said. "It undermines the rule of law."

Approximately 600,000 to 800,000 people are coerced or forced into crossing international borders each year. Half of those are children, 80 percent are female and 66 percent are exploited sexually. About 14,500 to 17,500 end up in the United States, according to U.S. government estimates. (See related article.)

U.S. EFFORTS TO FIGHT HUMAN TRAFFICKING

In anti-trafficking programs overseas, U.S. funds are used to train local law enforcement, judges and prosecutors who help prevent, prosecute and convict traffickers. Funding also provides victims with shelter, medical treatment, rehabilitation services and vocational training. American public awareness campaigns also have helped educate people and tourists about the realities and consequences of human trafficking.

U.S. assistance has helped launch a public-information campaign on television, billboards and airplanes in Brazil; implement a financial savings program for former victims of trafficking in Cambodia; provide at least 170 jobs to trafficking survivors in India; and run a training program for local health care personnel in Tanzania for better identification of victims.

In fiscal year 2005, the U.S. government obligated about $95 million to support 266 anti-trafficking programs in 101 countries.

The work of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has carried out anti-trafficking activities in more than 70 countries, has led to some local jurisdictions signing agreements with the United States under which they promise to help trafficked victims safely return to their home countries and receive occupational training. (See related article.)

The full text of the 2006 National Security Strategy is available on the White House Web site.

For more information on U.S. policy, see Human Trafficking.