14 February 2002

Fact Sheet on Future U.S. Activities Against Trafficking in Persons

Following is the text of a State Department fact sheet, released February 14, outlining planned U.S. efforts to fight trafficking in persons:

U.S. Department of State
Office of the Spokesman

February 14, 2002

FACT SHEET

U.S. Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons

Future Activities

• The Department of Justice released two brochures at yesterday's meeting of the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons in conjunction with the Departments of State, Labor, and Health and Human Services. One of these brochures is for law enforcement agencies to provide to trafficking victims, and the other is for non-governmental organizations to use as a reference guide to help trafficking victims. These brochures will be posted on the Department of Justice's and other agencies' websites.

• The Departments of State and Justice will establish a Migrant Smuggling and Trafficking in Persons Center to improve efforts to turn intelligence into action. This Center will serve as a gathering and dissemination point of information from the intelligence and law enforcement communities on alien smuggling and trafficking in persons issues.

• The Department of State will publish its annual Trafficking in Persons Report in June 2002.

• USAID will develop partnerships across borders to forge links between source and destination countries in the fight against trafficking in persons. A pilot initiative between the United States and a source country of a significant number of individuals trafficked to the United States will facilitate partnerships between civil society groups, journalists, government officials, legislators, businesses and youth in both countries.

• The Department of Justice will conduct comprehensive anti-trafficking in persons training for federal prosecutors in October 2002, and for Immigration and Naturalization Service personnel and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in 2002.

• The Department of Justice is seeking sponsors in Congress for new federal "sex tourism" criminal penalties. The proposed amendments would allow federal prosecutors to prosecute any American who goes abroad and engages in statutory rape or sexual abuse of a child, or pays a minor to engage in sex.

• The Department of Labor will fund the establishment of six training and support centers for women victims of trafficking or at-risk women in major cities in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States, through its cooperative agreement with the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), a non-governmental organization. These centers will provide training for 6,480 women in areas such as basic job skills, computer literacy, job-seeking strategies and development of business plans.

• The Department of Health and Human Services plans to conduct a public awareness campaign designed to raise awareness about trafficking in persons and to encourage victims to step forward and seek help. HHS will work with its federal counterparts to significantly increase the number of trafficking victims eligible to receive benefits through the certification process.

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