Congressman Chris Smith (R-Hamilton), the author of the landmark U.S. law against human trafficking (PL 106-386), praised President Bush for his leadership and his call today for member states of the United Nations to step-up efforts to eradicate modern-day human slavery.

    “In his speech this morning, President Bush placed significant focus on human trafficking and rallied world leaders to join and continue the fight against the barbaric practice of trafficking and human slavery that, every year, brutalizes about 1 million people worldwide – mostly women and children,” Smith said.

    Smith, the prime author of our nation’s law against human trafficking and the leading advocate of this issue in Congress, praised President Bush for his faithful implementation of the U.S. law and commended the President for moving the issue front and center at the United Nation this morning.

    “Today’s action shows the President and the Administration’s deep commitments to aiding the women and children who are victims of trafficking worldwide,” Smith said.  “In the nearly three years since my legislation became law, the United States has led the way in prosecuting trafficking cases and in providing humanitarian support and services to help the victims of this crime. 

    “On the international front, my law and its mandated yearly State Department Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report have prodded and moved other nations – many of whom had horrific records on trafficking – to take concrete actions to more aggressively prosecute trafficking rings, aid the victims, and implement public education initiatives to prevent others from becoming victims of this crime.  We are off to a solid start and I look forward to continuing to work with Congress and other nations so we can achieve President Bush’s stated goal of ensuring that ‘the trade in human beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in our time.’”

    Several weeks ago, Smith introduced the Trafficking Victims Protections Reauthorization Act of 2003, which reauthorizes and expands the existing law and will provide more than $100 million in new funding to prosecute violators and help victims.  HR 2620, has cleared the House International Relations Committee and is expected to pass the full House later this fall.

    Major enhancements included in Smith’s reauthorization bill are: adding human trafficking to the list of racketeering offenses covered under the federal RICO Statute; allowing trafficking victims to sue their captors in U.S. courts; and prohibiting any U.S. funds authorized to fight trafficking from being used to promote, support, or advocate prostitution or efforts to legalize prosecution.

    It also allows the U.S. government to terminate international contracts of any company or employee found to be engaging in trafficking or sex with trafficked persons, or found to be using forced labor to execute the contract.  (This is in response to a problem uncovered last year with a firm working on a U.S. government contract in Bosnia). It also strengthens confidentiality provisions for women seeking help through T-Visas, provides increased support to help victims rebuild their lives, and requires U.S. airlines to distribute information on our nation’s laws against sex tourism to passengers.