by Bill O'Keefe.
With so much partisan discord these days on Capitol Hill, it's hard to imagine any issue on which both parties can agree. Although Republicans and Democrats have drawn lines in the sand on matters ranging from the budget ceiling to job creation, there is one vital area of common cause: eliminating the scourge of human trafficking.
This is an example of bipartisan cooperation that has helped save lives both in the United States and abroad.
This spirit of cooperation is needed again for the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) a piece of legislation that cannot endure political stalemate. And with good reason: it protects victims of trafficking and helps prevent people from becoming victims in the first place.
That protection is just as vital today as when the landmark U.S. anti-trafficking legislation first became law in 2000. Despite years of attention to trafficking, it continues to affect millions of the most vulnerable in the United States and abroad.
Just last month, allegations were made against a contractor for Spanish fashion retailer Zara in Brazil. According to news reports, workers from Peru and Bolivia were living in debt bondage and threatened by supervisors to keep them on the job. The workers earned approximately $1 for every pair of jeans they made, jeans that would later sell for $126. And for some workers, most of that dollar evaporated in repayment fees to the traffickers.
The TVPRA authorizes the U.S. government's efforts, in partnership with organizations like the Catholic church at home and abroad, to prevent trafficking, prosecute traffickers and protect and support victims. Last year, six traffickers guilty of trafficking around 400 foreign laborers into the U.S. were locked up by prosecutors. The bill should be reauthorized without delay.
Victims of trafficking can turn up anywhere in the United States, from teeming cities to small farming towns. And the global economic crisis, so difficult for those who are unemployed or underemployed, puts more people at risk of being trafficked. That's why programs funded by TVPRA are even more important when times are tough. Reauthorizing and fully funding TVPRA allows local communities, service providers, and domestic and international organizations to continue combating trafficking.
TVPRA is our best tool to fight modern-day slavery. In Congress, both parties must continue to collaborate on this bill, not only reauthorizing it, but also strengthening and fully funding it. Preventing trafficking from destroying more lives, stopping human traffickers and helping their vulnerable victims should be a given. It isn't just smart politics. It's a moral choice across the political spectrum.
Bill O'Keefe is Catholic Relief Services' senior director for advocacy. He is based in Baltimore.
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Still, the real solution lies elsewhere. What I would like to see is some new innovative legislation that attacks the problem effectively from the prevention side. Specifically, a bill that encourages the US Dept of Education to formulate lesson plans that can be used in local schools throughout the country to sensitize school children to the dangers facing them. If we could teach children in a sensitive way, about some of the evil that people inflict upon one another, this could engender a sense of abhorrence and more caution on their parts, thereby decreasing the likelihood of making bad decisions and being drawn into it. Young people who are aware of the ugliness of the possible consequences of allowing themselves to be enticed by seemingly friendly acquaintances, will be more cautious and less likely to put themselves at risk.
- Prof Patt, http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/