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STATEMENT
BY TOMMY G. THOMPSON
Date: December 22,
2003
For Release: Immediately
Contact: HHS Press Office
(202) 690-6343
STATEMENT BY TOMMY
G. THOMPSON
Secretary Of Health
And Human Services
On the Trafficking
Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003
President Bush on
Friday signed important legislation that will authorize more than $200
million across the federal government to combat the practice of human
trafficking -- including women and children forced into prostitution.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003 (TVPRA)
renews the U.S. government's commitment to identify and assist victims
exploited for labor or sex in the United States and worldwide.
As President Bush
declared before the United Nations General Assembly in September, "Nearly
two centuries after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, and
more than a century after slavery was officially ended, the trade in human
beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in our time."
The TVPRA is a decisive
step toward meeting the President's challenge. It provides fresh resources
and initiatives to assist, in particular, the 18,000 - 20,000 victims
of human trafficking who are trafficked into the United States every year.
It augments the legal tools which can be used against traffickers by empowering
victims to bring federal civil suits against traffickers for actual and
punitive damages, and by including sex trafficking and forced labor as
offenses under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization statute.
It also encourages the nation's 21,000 state and local law enforcement
agencies to participate in the detection and investigation of human trafficking
cases.
The U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services has a significant role in implementing the
law's victim-centered, compassionate approach to finding and aiding the
victims of this modern-day slave trade. HHS is launching a major public
awareness campaign, targeted at local officials and service providers
most likely to encounter victims, to find, rescue and restore victims
to a humane condition of life. HHS welcomes the additional authority this
Act provides to assist victims from the moment of detection.
A bedrock principle
of this legislation is that victims of trafficking in the U.S. (who likely
are not legal aliens and may be involved in illegal practices such as
prostitution) are not perpetrators of crime -- they are the victims of
crime, and they ought be allowed to rebuild their lives by staying here
in the United States.
By signing the reauthorization
of the federal human trafficking program, the President is reaffirming
his Administration's commitment to end the horror of human trafficking,
and to ensure that the real criminals -- the traffickers of innocent people
-- are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
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Note: All HHS press
releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news
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