Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04), Chairman of the House congressional panel that oversees global human rights, and author of the landmark law, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, Public Law 106-386), today marked the 14th anniversary of the law that has challenged modern day slavery in the U.S. and around the world and is rescuing women and children from the hideous crime of human trafficking.

    Smith, co-chair and co-founder of the House Human Trafficking Caucus and Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations, said the law was enacted Oct. 28, 2000 to launch domestic and international efforts to monitor and combat human trafficking.

     “When I first introduced the TVPA in 1998, the legislation was met with skepticism and outright opposition,” Smith said. “People both inside of government and out thought the bold new strategy that included sheltering, asylum and other protections for the victims, long jail sentences and asset confiscation for the traffickers, and tough sanctions for governments that failed to meet minimum standards, was merely a solution in search of a problem.”

    But according to the International Labor Organization, as cited in the annual report issued by the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Office created by Smith’s law, more than 20 million people worldwide are trafficking victims. Some anti-human trafficking non-governmental organizations (NGO), suggests that there are over 27 million victims.

    Progress has been made in combating adult human trafficking over the last nine fiscal years since enactment of the TVPA.  According to the most recent data, 1,108 traffickers were charged in the United States under federal human trafficking laws between 2000-2012, with 755 traffickers successfully convicted. In Smith’s own Garden State, there have been 21 state level prosecutions.  There have been a reported 237 victims rescued since 2005.

    “In the past 14 years we have seen progress on a number of anti-trafficking fronts,” Smith said. “With a combination of encouragement, plus some persuasion and sustained pressure via sanctions imposed by the United States, countries around the world have created or amended over 200 laws to combat human trafficking and in the past two years alone an estimated 80,000 victims have been identified and assisted worldwide. Since 2004, the TVPA has resulted in Anti-Human Trafficking Task Forces in 42 cities across the U.S., including one in Trenton, N.J. These task forces identify potential victims of human trafficking, coordinate local and federal law enforcement to rescue victims, assist with referrals for victim care, and train law enforcement.  More than 3,000 women and girls have been identified through federal trafficking grants. In New Jersey, 237 trafficking victims have been identified.”

    TVPA funds the toll-free National Human Trafficking Hotline, (888) 373-7888, which connects victims or those concerned about potential victims with assistance and rescue if needed.  The hotline showed:

• New Jersey is in the top 15 states for number of calls to the hotline. Between 2007 and 2013, more than 750 calls came from New Jersey.
• Between 2007 and 2013, more than 14,600 potential sex trafficking victims were identified.  
• Nationally, Approximately 80 percent of calls involve female potential victims of human trafficking.
• Pimp-controlled sex trafficking also had the highest percentage of sex trafficking cases involving minors—40 percent of cases involved child victims.
• The data from 2007-2012 showed that 88 percent  of sex trafficking victims with a pimp were female, as were 86 percent of likely domestic labor trafficking victims.
• Even more tragically between 2007 and 2013 at least 4,306 likely child trafficking cases were reported nationwide—the vast majority of these cases involved of little girls.

    The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has estimated that 1 in 7 endangered runaways reported to them in 2013 were likely trafficking victims.  Researchers and NGOs estimate 200,000-300,000 American children are at risk of being trafficked, and that there may be as many as 100,000 American children—mostly runaways, average age of initial enslavement 13 years old—exploited in the commercial sex industry each year.

    “These children, when found, need specialized care to help them reclaim their lives from the trauma of human trafficking.  States and federal government alike must ensure that these children receive the rehabilitation they need to break free from the emotional chains of abuse and that they know what happened to them is not normal life,” Smith said.
 
    The TVPA-created TIP report uses tier rankings set by the U.S. State Department to evaluate just how hard governments around the world are combating human trafficking. Good or bad, the record is laid out for the world to see. TVPA also created the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the State Department. Its annual TIP Report rates 195 nations. Rep. Smith chaired a special hearing in April to evaluate the records of countries downgraded to the lowest tier in the 2013 report, such as China and Russia, as well as countries facing downgrades.

    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. At the April 2014 hearing, Congress also examined problems in Europe and other developed countries, such as Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, Italy and others. The 2014 report confirms again this year that Brazil continues to have a major problem with child sex tourism, and recommends that Brazil vigorously investigate and prosecute those who engage in the prostitution of children.

    In addition to the original 2000 law (P.L. 106-386) which provided for the annual reports, Smith wrote two subsequent anti-trafficking laws (PL 108-193 and PL 109-164) increasing resources for crime prevention and expanding treatment assistance for victims.

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