CVSA Supports the Fight to End Human Trafficking
Greenbelt, MD… January was National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month in the United States. The law enforcement community and motor carrier industry membership of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) fully supports this important cause and is committed to bringing awareness to the crime of human trafficking and working together to prevent human trafficking throughout Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The United
Nations defines "trafficking in persons" or "human
trafficking" as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or
receipt of persons by force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, etc., to
control a person for the purpose of exploitation, such as sexual exploitation
or forced labor.
The International
Labour Organization estimates that forced labor and human trafficking is a
$150 billion industry worldwide. In 2017, the U.S. National Human
Trafficking Hotline received reports of 8,524 suspected human trafficking
cases. In Canada, there were 340 incidents of human trafficking in 2016,
according to police-reported data.
"As
members of law enforcement who inspect commercial motor vehicles, CVSA member
jurisdictions throughout North America serve as the eyes and ears of our
nation’s roadways," said CVSA President Lt. Scott Carnegie with the
Mississippi Highway Patrol. "Inspectors serve in a hands-on capacity that
grants them prime access and opportunity to potentially identify and recover individuals
who are being trafficked using our roadways."
What We’re
Doing
* Jan. 11 is National Human
Trafficking Awareness Day and it's Wear Blue Day, part of the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security's Blue Campaign. Members of the Alliance demonstrated
solidarity with victims of human trafficking by wearing blue and contributing
on social media using #WearBlueDay.
* On Jan. 15, CVSA
Executive Director Collin Mooney attended the Truckers Against
Trafficking (TAT) Everyday Heroes Truck Press Conference at 10 a.m. on the
National Mall in Washington, D.C. TAT will debut its Everyday Heroes Truck and
will offer tours of the Freedom Drivers Project, a full-scale
tractor-trailer retrofitted into a mobile anti-trafficking educational
museum.
* Jan. 15-18, commercial
motor vehicle drivers who are inspected in participating jurisdictions may
receive a wallet card and/or a window cling from inspectors, along with
information on how drivers can identify and report human trafficking
situations.
The 2018 Combating
Human Trafficking in Commercial Vehicles Act expanded the scope of
activities under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s outreach and
education program to include human trafficking prevention; established a human
trafficking prevention coordinator position within the U.S. Department of
Transportation; expanded the commercial driver's license financial assistance
program to include recognition, prevention and reporting of human trafficking;
and established the creation of an advisory committee on human trafficking.
In October
2018, CVSA Operation Safe Driver Program Chair Chief David Lorenzen, with the
Iowa Department of Transportation, was appointed to the U.S.
Department of Transportation's Advisory Committee on Human Trafficking (ACHT).
ACHT provides information, advice and recommendations to the U.S. DOT on
matters related to human trafficking and develops recommended best practices
for state and local transportation stakeholders in combating human trafficking.
Chief Lorenzen represents the Alliance and the law enforcement perspective as
an active member on the national advisory committee.
To find out what your local jurisdiction is doing to increase human trafficking awareness this month, contactthe agency/department responsible for overseeing commercial motor vehicle safety within your state, province or territory.