Breaking the Link between Human Trafficking and Forced Migration
AEHT and NAC produced a 60-minute virtual briefing that explores the link between forced migration and human trafficking. Panelists, including a migrant survivor of human trafficking and women religious who accompany migrants facing dangers posed by human traffickers, share their experiences and their expertise. Their first-hand accounts clearly illustrate the dangerous nexus between forced migration and human trafficking.
The National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and the Alliance to End Human Trafficking are very grateful to Rep. Jamie Raskin and Rep. Chris Smith for serving as Honorary Co-Chairs for the June 14, 2023, virtual briefing that marked the beginning of this project. We look forward to working with their offices and with other policymakers as we seek solutions to help migrants and immigrants be safer from the threat of human trafficking.
Rep. Raskin (D-MD) at a March 2022 hearing spoke of the need to “shine a light on the shocking and mostly unknown plague of missing and murdered women and girls in communities of color.” He cited that “[in] 2020, 100,000 of the 250,000 women and girls who went missing in the United States were Black, Brown, or Indigenous.” He went on to say that nearly two-thirds of sex trafficking victims in this country are Black and Latina or Hispanic, and noted that the numbers are just as dire for native women: in South Dakota, Native American women and girls constitute 40 percent of sex trafficking victims.
Raskin prepared a video greeting in advance of the June 14 briefing.
Rep. Smith (R-NJ) is the author of the United States’ landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and its 2003 and 2005 reauthorizations. He is also the author of a major child trafficking prevention law, the International Megan’s Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders, which became U.S. law in 2016. Most recently, Smith wrote the Frederick Douglas Trafficking Victims Prevention, Protection and Reauthorization Act, which was signed into law in 2019. A new version is slated to be released imminently.
Smith served five times as Chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission and is the co-founder and Co-Chair of the Congressional Human Trafficking Caucus.
We hope you will join us on this journey to address human trafficking caused by forced migration. Collaboration among non-governmental organizations, government and communities is essential if we are to develop comprehensive solutions that protect people, deter perpetrators and prevent future instances of human trafficking. Together we can create a world where exploitation is eliminated, and every person can live free with security, dignity and respect.
