It has been well over a century that slavery has been outlawed in the United States, but the evil institution still thrives worldwide. UNICEF estimates that over 45 million people are pawns in the multibillion-dollar transnational industry of modern day slavery.
The sheer scope and scale of the problem is daunting, but the United States is committed to its eradication. Legislation passed the House following last month’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report from the State Department. The three bills are based on the idea that human trafficking will only end when prevention and prosecution strategies are broad and comprehensive, combining and coordinating resources across state, federal, and even international lines.
The appropriately named Frederick Douglas Act (H.R. 2200), sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., includes new funding for training government personnel, local police, and even airport workers, as well as providing for victim support and reintegration. In order to put American might into the fight against international modern day slavery, the bill reauthorizes the Trafficking in Victims Protection Act of 2000.
Slavery, as pointed out in the TIP report, does not just deprive an individual of his or her liberty and dignity, it also damages society at large. Human trafficking undermines the rule of law, wrecks families and communities, strengthens international criminal networks, and degrades general norms of basic human decency. The report makes clear that every country in the world is stained in some way with variations limited only by human ingenuity.
The tragic list is endless: millions in South Asia are working hopelessly to pay off their ancestors’ debts, children soldiers are conscripted in Africa; domestic servants are isolated and abused in Saudi Arabia; and everywhere, girls and boys are prostituted or sexually exploited online.
In its report, the State Department classifies each country into one of four tiers, using information from U.S. embassies, published reports, academic studies, and research trips. But rather than relying on the actual number of trafficked persons in each nation, the Department instead considers each government’s efforts to combat the problem as well as its demonstrable progress. To receive a Tier 1 designation, a country must have laws prohibiting the most egregious forms of slavery, combined with appropriately severe penalties. It must also protect victims’ rights and dignity, and make efforts to reduce the demand for international sex tourism and prostitution.
The leverage of the United States is, of course, financial. According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), reauthorized by H.R. 2200, the President can withhold U.S. government non-humanitarian aid to Tier 3 countries. He can also instruct the U.S. director of each development bank and of the IMF to use their best efforts to deny loans to these nations, and to refuse to provide funding for educational and cultural exchange programs.
Depriving non-humanitarian aid to these countries or asking the IMF to deny them loans may seem harsh, but the State Department’s report puts this “harshness” into perspective. The different narratives detail chilling instances of government indifference and even complicity. In Afghanistan, for example, the report noted that men who exploit boys for social and sexual entertainment (bacha baazi) often have relationships with prosecutors and judges that prevent their prosecution.
According to a 2015 UN report, North Korean citizens are subjected by their government to forced labor in China, likely with the approval of the Chinese government. And as a major source of income, the Cuban government coerces over eighty thousand doctors and nurses to work in nearly seventy countries, threatening them with retaliation against their families if they leave their post.
Whether at home or abroad, modern day slavery is a crime that rightfully appalls men and women of good will, regardless of ideological or political persuasion. As the great English abolitionist William Wilberforce once said, “You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say that you did not know.”
Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie is a Policy Adviser for The Catholic Association.
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