Today, we mark World Day Against Trafficking in Persons to raise awareness about human trafficking. The most recent data from the State Department show that 27.6 million people around the world are victims of human trafficking, including sex trafficking and forced labor, number that includes boys and girls who, in different circumstances, would be doing homework or going to sports practice. Those who survive are saddled with long-lasting consequences, from poverty to physical pain to post-traumatic stress.
Since 2001, USAID has invested nearly $400 million across 88 countries to prevent trafficking and protect survivors. We are bringing together local, national, and regional stakeholders to design and implement new legislation to better regulate industries where trafficking is common and to provide law enforcement officials better anti-trafficking tools and resources. We are spearheading research and data-gathering efforts to shed light on key drivers and flows of trafficking, so that we know how best to use our resources, both to support efforts to hold traffickers criminally accountable, and to help prevent trafficking from happening in the first place. We are also delivering legal assistance to survivors to help bring their traffickers to justice. Our CTIP Field Guide highlights the U.S. government and USAID's commitment to working with a variety of stakeholders to build anti-trafficking initiatives and integrate survivor-centered approaches into a wide range of programs.
In Southeast Asia, for example, traffickers increasingly recruit unwitting individuals who are looking for technology- and tourism-related jobs to online scam centers, promising lucrative opportunities. The traffickers then force their victims to work under exploitative and abusive conditions to perpetrate financial scams that devastate families and cost the global economy roughly a billion dollars a year. USAID is strengthening the ability of law enforcement officials to identify and rescue these victims, while also providing criminal justice organizations and legal aid practitioners with resources and training to support them.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), women and children are the primary victims of sex trafficking, forced marriage, child soldier recruitment, and forced labor in degrading and dangerous conditions for little to no pay. The violence in eastern DRC caused by the actions of the Rwanda-backed, U.S.- and UN-sanctioned M23 armed group has contributed to displacing more than seven million people, increasing the risk of sexual violence and trafficking of women and girls. In March, USAID launched a new five-year counter-trafficking-in-persons effort in the DRC focused on women, children, and other marginalized groups affected by, and at most risk of, human trafficking and exploitation. Through collaboration with government stakeholders and local partners, the activity aims to help national and provincial leaders coordinate counter-trafficking interventions; expand access to comprehensive legal, medical, and psychosocial services for survivors; and create programs designed specifically to educate communities on how to recognize trafficking schemes, respond to trafficking cases, and change the harmful gender norms that normalize the sexual violence and trafficking of women and children.
USAID will continue to support U.S. government efforts to integrate trafficking prevention into all of our work, and to strengthen programs and policies that reduce vulnerability to exploitation. Whether your focus is on fighting hunger or building peace, we urge our partners to do the same, to put traffickers out of business, once and for all.
