AMBASSADOR Robert Holmes Tuttle

Speeches, Remarks & Events

14 June 2007
Human Trafficking:  Exposing and Ending Modern Slavery

This article originally appeared in the Comment is Free section of the Guardian Unlimited web site.

800,000 victims. Nearly one million people traded and sold internationally. This horrifying toll is human trafficking in 2007. Two hundred years after the 1807 abolition of the slave trade in Britain and its dominions, nearly a million people a year worldwide are still trafficked across national borders in a horrific modern day slave-trade. The toll is many times higher if we count the millions who are trafficked within their countries' borders. Human trafficking is a hidden crime, whose victims are subject to labor and sexual exploitation, servitude, debt bondage, and child-soldiering worldwide.

A report in the Guardian on June 12 highlights the problem of child-trafficking in the UK. But human trafficking is a worldwide problem. On June 12, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued the U.S. Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Annual Report. The report, the most comprehensive global account of the efforts of governments to combat trafficking in persons, covers 164 countries, and aims to raise global awareness of this scourge and spur the international community to take effective action.

When the first Trafficking in Persons report was issued in July 2001, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell said, "The only way to effectively address the worldwide problem of trafficking is through collective efforts by all countries, whether they are countries of origin, transit, or destination, and by being brutally honest about this issue." This year's report is, again, "brutally honest" about human trafficking.

The United States is not immune from the crime of human trafficking. Like the United Kingdom, the United States is a major destination country for thousands of trafficking victims. Ten U.S. federal agencies work to combat human trafficking, and criminal prosecution of traffickers in the United States has increased sharply over the last three years as we have dramatically increased our awareness efforts. But we need to do more, at home and internationally.

One particularly bright light in this dark business is the exemplary professional cooperation between U.S. and UK law enforcement agencies in exposing and ending human trafficking. On June 6, 2007, the United States and the UK signed an agreement to expand the ability of our law enforcement agencies to share information, intelligence, and leads about criminal organizations involved in human trafficking. Even before the establishment of either the U.S. Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center or the UK Human Trafficking Centre, the Unitd States and UK were working together to identify the trafficking organizations sending victims to both countries. In at least one instance, traffickers from the UK hid proceeds and assets in the United States, but British and American law enforcement agencies working together were able to uncover this.

Both the United States and the UK face many of the same issues in confronting trafficking, from investigating and prosecuting the perpetrators, to protecting innocent victims of these crimes, to educating the public about trafficking and reducing the demand that creates victims. We are committed to even more effective collaboration with the UK Government to make it more difficult for traffickers to carry out their activities anywhere in the world.

Of the estimated 800,000 people trafficked across international borders each year, 80 percent of the victims are female, and up to 50 percent are minors. These shocking statistics reflect the brutal nature of trafficking, and highlight the need to protect the most vulnerable members of our communities.

While governments have a primary responsibility to address the problem of human trafficking, the private sector and non-governmental organizations are also important partners in these efforts. Where businesses may be involved in an industry that touches on human trafficking - the travel industry, for example - they are also in a good position to help raise public and corporate awareness, and to aid governments in exposing and ending trafficking. In fact, the airline industry has been helpful in taking steps to make public service announcements and to raise public awareness about the most horrendous form of abuse, child-sex tourism. And software giant Microsoft is actively committed to uncovering the mistreatment of people, especially children, in India who take apart old computers. There is ample room - and overwhelming need - for more of this kind of cooperation between government and the private sector to help end human trafficking.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are also critical partners in the fight: pressing governments worldwide to combat trafficking, keeping law enforcement officials informed, and assisting victims. One such organization, The Poppy Project here in the UK, provides assistance to victims of trafficking; similar organizations in other countries - Reaching Out in Romania, and in Tenaganita in Malaysia - are also effective advocates for victims. Thanks to these and other NGOs worldwide, more governments are joining a growing international partnership of nations committed to exposing and ending human trafficking.

Human trafficking is a crime that affects us all, whether we realize it or not. It deprives people of their most basic human rights and freedoms; it poses a public health risk; it is a major source of revenue for criminal organizations; it shatters lives. It diminishes all of us. It is slavery. And in 2007, it is time to end it, everywhere.

back to top ^