In recent years, public awareness of human trafficking has increased, along with anti-trafficking action in Congress. Yet the problem persists. It’s a human rights catastrophe, claiming more than 20 million victims worldwide. And contrary to the myth that it’s a problem “over there,” the United States is both a source and destination of victims. With $150 billion in annual profits, trafficking is the world’s fastest-growing criminal enterprise. The reason for the trafficking boom is no mystery: large profits, low risks.
Traffickers work hard to protect their lucrative business model. Victims are lured by the promise of a better life, often paying a fee for the promise of this new opportunity, and when they arrive at their destination, their identification papers are taken away and wages withheld to pay o the enormous debts they incurred and the false expenses manufactured by unscrupulous recruiters. To better protect potential victims, the US government recently banned federal contractors from charging workers recruitment fees at any stage in their supply chains. But the traffickers have caught on and are now charging workers fees under the guise of “mandatory” training or equipment, which they will never receive.
Victims are lured by the promise of a better life, often paying a fee for the promise of this new opportunity, and when they arrive at their destination, their identification papers are taken away and wages withheld to pay o the enormous debts they incurred and the false expenses manufactured by unscrupulous recruiters.
What we need is a comprehensive effort to stay one step ahead of the traffickers and change the financial equation. This must entail an increase in prosecutions, which are so infrequent—fewer than 4,500 convictions worldwide last year—that traffickers enjoy near impunity. But it must also entail an increased effort by businesses, working in partnership with government and law enforcement, to root out the problem. The US economy, still the largest in the world, has global reach; so, too, do efforts by American businesses to eliminate trafficking from their supply chain.
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