For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 25, 2003
Trafficking in Persons National Security Presidential Directive
President George W. Bush has signed a National Security Presidential
Directive to advance the United States Government's fight against
trafficking in persons, a modern day form of slavery. This policy
directive follows from the President's actions taken on February 13,
2002, when he signed Executive Order 13257 to establish a Cabinet-level
Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
Generally speaking, trafficking in persons refers to actions, often
including use of force, fraud, or coercion, to compel someone into a
situation in which he or she will be exploited for sexual purposes,
which could include prostitution or pornography, or for labor without
compensation, which could include forced or bonded labor. The United
States is committed to the eradication of human trafficking both
domestically and abroad. It is a crime that is an affront to human
dignity.
Trafficking in persons is often linked to organized crime, and the
profits from trafficking enterprises help fuel other illegal
activities. The growth of vast transnational criminal networks
supported in part by trafficking in persons fosters official corruption
and threatens the rule of law. The Administration policy includes the
use of law enforcement tools, prevention efforts, and victim protection
and assistance.
According to some estimates, each year at least 700,000 and
possibly as many as 4 million people, primarily women and children, are
trafficked around the world, including thousands into the United
States. Many victims are lured from their homes with promises of
well-paying jobs. Once they are deprived of the opportunity to return
home, they are forced or coerced into prostitution, domestic servitude,
farm or factory labor, or other types of forced labor. A significant
number of children are trafficked worldwide. Prostitution and related
activities, which are inherently harmful and dehumanizing, contribute
to the phenomenon of trafficking in persons, as does sex tourism, which
is an estimated $1 billion per year business worldwide. The exposure
of trafficked people to abuse, deprivation and disease, including HIV,
is unconscionable.
Our commitment to eradicate trafficking includes:
vigorously enforcing U.S. laws against all those who traffic in
persons;
raising awareness at home and abroad about human trafficking and
how it can be eradicated;
identifying, protecting, and assisting those victims exploited by
traffickers;
reducing the vulnerability of individuals to trafficking through
increased education, economic opportunity, and protection and promotion
of human rights;
employing diplomatic and foreign policy tools to encourage other
nations, the UN and other multilateral institutions to work with us to
combat this crime, draft and enforce laws against trafficking, and hold
accountable those engaged in it.
The United States Government's specific efforts to combat
trafficking in persons include:
The Department of State's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking
in Persons assessed the progress of 165 governments in addressing
trafficking and published findings in the second annual Trafficking in
Persons Report. Former Congressman John Miller was recently named to
head the office.
In FY 2002 the Department of State funded over 110
anti-trafficking programs in some 50 countries. Assistance
includes shelters for trafficking victims, support for return and
reintegration for victims, and law enforcement training.
The Department of Justice prosecuted 76 traffickers in FY 2001 and
2002, three times as many as in the previous two years. It has 125
open trafficking investigations as of today - nearly twice as many as
in January 2001.
The Department of Justice conducted its largest ever
anti-trafficking training for federal prosecutors and agents in
October 2002 at the Department's training facility in South Carolina.
In December 2002, the Justice Department held the first Department
summit on protecting children from prostitution and launched a pilot
program to enable communities to respond to this problem.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service issues the "T visa" to
enable certain trafficking victims to live and work legally in the
United States for three years while their cases are investigated and
prosecuted.
The Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human
Services are working together to certify hundreds of trafficking
victims so that they may receive federal and state benefits and
services including employment authorization, housing, and medical
care.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has implemented
a process for certifying victims of a severe form of trafficking
so that victims may receive the wide-range of services that help them
to recover and gain self-sufficiency. To date, HHS has certified over
370 victims.
The Department of Health and Human Services has provided over $4
million in grant funding to non-profit organizations throughout the
country which provide community education, outreach, and direct
assistance to victims of trafficking. Combined with HHS's outreach
efforts, these grantees have already reached well over 3,000
individuals and organizations throughout the country, increasing
knowledge, fostering program development and encouraging a call to
action to stop severe forms of trafficking.
Since January 2001, the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) has significantly increased its support for
anti-trafficking activities in developing and transition countries. In
FY 2002 USAID spent more than $10 million in over 30 countries in which
there are significant levels of severe forms of trafficking in
persons.
The Department of Labor negotiated a $1.2 million cooperative
agreement with the International Research and Exchanges Board, a
non-governmental organization, to conduct a two-year anti-trafficking
project in Eastern Europe. Started in November 2001, this program aims
to prevent the trafficking of women by creating viable economic
alternatives for at-risk women in seven major cities.
The Department of Labor has supported projects through the
International Labor Organization's International Program on the
Elimination of Child Labor to address child trafficking in 17 countries
around the world. These projects rescue children from trafficking and
exploitative work situations and provide them with rehabilitation
services and educational opportunities. They also undertake efforts to
prevent children from being trafficked in the first place.
The Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration
(ETA) sent a Directive to its field offices outlining the provisions of
the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 allowing victims to
receive job training and other services without regard to their
immigration status. The services provided at ETA One-Stop Centers,
such as job search assistance, career counseling and occupational
skills training, may be of significant value to trafficking victims.
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