Trafficking in Persons
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| Combating human trafficking includes prevention, protection, and prosecution and depends upon a wide range of actors and approaches. USAID plays a key role in the U.S. Government's effort to combat trafficking in persons worldwide. These case studies and success stories illustrate the many facets of human trafficking and the range of approaches being used by USAID to combat it. |
Trafficking in persons is an egregious violation of human rights that reduces human beings to the status of commodities to be bought and sold.
Today, what drives the trade in persons is demand for prostitutes and cheap laborers in developed and developing countries, and the profitability and relatively low risk to traffickers.
The Department of State estimates that 800,000 women, children and men are trafficked across national borders each year, mostly for sexual exploitation and forced labor. The number of individuals who are trafficked within their own countries would add significantly to these figures.
The U.S. Government has been at the forefront of efforts to stop trafficking in persons throughout the world. Since 2001, the United States has provided about $528 million in anti-trafficking assistance overseas. USAID has been a major part of this effort, providing $123.1 million in assistance to more than 70 countries since 2001.
Many of the factors that make individuals vulnerable to trafficking are development problems – including poverty, economic deterioration, conflict, population displacement, post-conflict political transition, lack of female educational and economic opportunity, discrimination and the low value placed on women and children. The factors that make states vulnerable to traffickers include corruption, weak legal systems and lack of expertise among government officials.
We must show new energy in fighting back an old evil.
Nearly two centuries after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, and more than a century after slavery was officially ended in its last strongholds, the trade in human beings for any purposes must not be allowed to thrive in our time.
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President George W. Bush
Address to the United Nations General Assembly, 2003
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USAID assistance works to prevent trafficking, protect and assist victims and strengthen the capacity of governments to prosecute and convict traffickers. This direct anti-trafficking assistance is reinforced by USAID programs that support economic development, good governance, education, health and human rights.
The Office of Women in Development (WID) coordinates USAID's anti-trafficking work. The WID Office also provides technical assistance to missions to collect information on trafficking patterns, design anti-trafficking programs, assess results from ongoing or completed programs and train justice officials and service providers.
In response to the requirements of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, the WID Office is working with USAID missions in Cambodia and Ecuador to implement pilot residential rehabilitation activities.
Current Activities
Technical Assistance for USAID Anti-Trafficking Activities
Funding for USAID Anti-trafficking Activities
Please see the Activity Archives for a list of completed Trafficking activities.
Key Publications
 The USAID Strategy for Response 2/03 (525K PDF)
Trafficking in Persons: USAID's Response
March 2006 (1MB PDF)
March 2005 (751K PDF)
March 2004 (1MB PDF)
September 2002 (2MB PDF)
September 2001 (731K PDF)
State Department Trafficking in Persons Site
Full List of Publications
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