Smith Combats Human Trafficking—Modern Day Slavery
The International Labor Organization estimates that nearly 21,000,000 people—mostly young women and children—are subjected to modern day slavery across the globe. Millions more are trafficked within their own countries. They are stripped of their dignity, robbed of their human rights and forced into bondage and sexual servitude.
Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry that touches every country in the world, including the United States. It is among international organized crime’s top moneymakers, right up there with illegal arms trading and drug smuggling. Criminals have found that there is enormous profit in this nefarious slave trade.
Information From Government Agencies and NGO’s on Combatting Human Trafficking
Congressman Smith has chaired numerous hearings and is the prime sponsor of three major laws and several international resolutions aimed at combating the scourge of human trafficking in the United States and around the world.
Legislation Pending in the 114th Congress H.R. 514 “Human Trafficking Prioritization Act” (Passed the House 1/26/2015) House Passed Bills, Senate Failed to Act H.R.4506 – “International Child Labor Relief Act of 1998” (105th Congress) H.R. 5138 – “International Megan's Law of 2010” (111th Congress) H.R. 4573 – “International Megan’s Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking” (113th Congress) H.R. 2283 – “Human Trafficking Prioritization Act” (113th Congress) Congressional Hearings
July 12, 2016 Accountability Over Politics: Scrutinizing the Trafficking in Persons Report
Congressman Smith (center) and other congressional leaders from the House
and Senate, gather to see a bipartisan bill, "The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act,"
S. 178, is enrolled and passed by the House in May 2015.
Bipartisan House Press Conference on Ending Human Trafficking
Congressman Chris Smith with Katie Couric on Sex Trafficking and the Super Bowl
US Department of State Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Reports
As a part of Congressman Smith’s landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act the US Department of State's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons publishes an annual report on every country’s governmental human trafficking efforts and categorizes each country on three tiers based on their efforts to comply with “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.”
Since the TIP Report’s inception, more than 120 countries have enacted anti-trafficking laws and many countries have taken other steps required to significantly raise their tier rankings—citing the TIP Report as a key factor in their increased anti-trafficking response.
Tier 1
Countries whose governments fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.
Tier 2
Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
Tier 2 Watch List
Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards, and for which:
a) the absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing;
b) there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year, including increased investigations, prosecution, and convictions of trafficking crimes, increased assistance to victims, and decreasing evidence of complicity in severe forms of trafficking by government officials; or
c) the determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional steps over the next year.
Tier 3
Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.
The Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, headed by Acting Director Kari Johnstone, leads the United States' global engagement against human trafficking, an umbrella term used to describe the activities involved when someone obtains or holds a person in compelled service.
The Blue Campaign is the unified voice for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) efforts to combat human trafficking. Working in collaboration with law enforcement, government, non-governmental and private organizations, the Blue Campaign strives to protect the basic right of freedom and to bring those who exploit human lives to justice.
The National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) is a national, toll-free hotline, available to answer calls from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year in more than 200 languages.
Call: 1-888-373-7888 | Text: HELP to BeFree (233733)
The State of New Jersey Office of the Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Task Force falls under the Office of the Attorney General’s Division of Criminal Justice and is committed to combating the crime of Human Trafficking through education collaboration and prosecution. Report Human Trafficking in NJ toll free 24/7 Hotline 855-END-NJHT (855-363-6548)
The mission of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Anti-Trafficking Program (ATP) is to educate on the scourge of human trafficking as an offense against fundamental dignity of the human person; to advocate for an end to modern day slavery; and to provide training and technical assistance on this issue. How To Identify a Human Trafficking Victim
Airline Ambassadors International (AAI) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization affiliated with the United Nations and recognized by the US Congress. It began as a network of airline employees using their pass privileges to help others and has expanded into a network of students, medical professionals, families and retirees who volunteer as “Ambassadors of Goodwill” in their home communities and abroad. It provides a way for members to share their unique skills and talents to care for others and bring compassion into action.
When an Airline Ambassador humanitarian team rescued an abandoned little girl in Cambodia in 2009, they also learned about the issue of human trafficking and determined to get involved. Inspired by the initiative of Innocents at Risk, they determined to discuss this on the next month’s mission to the Dominican Republic. Amazingly, they correctly identified trafficking incidents on two different airlines, leaving the Dominican Republic, (in one case leading to the bust of a human trafficking ring of 82 children) and on two more airlines the following month.