WASHINGTON – In recognition of National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, January is a time of renewed commitment for the U.S. Department of Transportation in its efforts to prevent, identify, and report human trafficking and its impact on America’s transportation systems, supply chains, and workforce.
“Transportation professionals and the traveling public are uniquely positioned to safeguard our nation’s roadways, railways, waterways, and airways in order to end the scourge of human trafficking,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Across urban, rural, and Tribal communities and across every mode of transportation, it’s critical for travelers to recognize and report suspected instances of human trafficking.”
On January 6, Secretary Buttigieg announced the opening of the Department’s 2025 Transportation Leaders Against Human Trafficking (TLAHT) Combating Human Trafficking in Transportation Impact Award, which incentivizes individuals and organizations to think creatively in developing innovative solutions to combat human trafficking in the transportation industry, and to share those innovations with the broader community. Public and private sector stakeholders are invited to submit proposals through March 7, 2025. Full guidelines are provided in the Federal Register Notice.
Secretary Buttigieg also announced the launch of the DOT Advisory Committee on Human Trafficking (ACHT) 2024 report with 123 recommendations for the U.S. Congress, DOT, other federal agencies, State DOTs, private and local transportation entities, law enforcement, associations, non-governmental organizations, and technology companies.
The ACHT recommendations highlight ways to strengthen and enhance current efforts to prevent and detect human trafficking and its intersection with the transportation sector’s workforce, supply chains, travelers, and partners. The report was disseminated to Congress, state and territory governors, and state and territory Departments of Transportation. General and topical fact sheets are available here.
Additional actions that the Department is taking to combat human trafficking include:
- The Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration posted a leadership video on social media this month encouraging vehicle manufacturers to bolster their counter-trafficking efforts.
- Operating Administrations across DOT are using social media to encourage multimodal transportation stakeholders to strengthen their counter-trafficking efforts.
- The Department’s Counter-Trafficking Initiative reached hundreds of transportation stakeholders and counter-trafficking professionals this month through in-person events at the 104th National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting and the 2025 Anti-Trafficking Symposium, hosted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Center for Counter Human Trafficking. These sessions highlighted recommendations and best practices for the transportation sector from the ACHT 2024 report and promoted the joint DOT/DHS Blue Lightning Initiative (BLI).
- BLI provided educational sessions for airport and airline stakeholders during the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority’s (MWAA) Combating Human Trafficking in Aviation event. MWAA received second place in last year’s Combating Human Trafficking in Transportation Impact Award for their proposed community-wide approach to combating human trafficking. In coordination with DOT’s Federal Aviation Administration, BLI will also host two trainings this month for airport and airline personnel at Tocumen International Airport in Panama. Over 150 aviation industry partners have now trained more than 350,000 employees through BLI.
- The Department’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is hosting counter-trafficking events in Michigan and Texas this month to educate and encourage the public to recognize, prevent, and report human trafficking.
Some of the other ways in which the Department is working to combat human trafficking include:
- To date, DOT has awarded over $12 million in grants through its Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to support state counter-trafficking efforts through driver’s license standards and programs. The Federal Transit Administration awarded $5.4 million in transit grants to address human trafficking as a public safety issue alongside other transit innovations.
- The Secretary of Transportation continues to serve as a member of the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, a Cabinet-level entity chaired by the Secretary of State to coordinate Federal counter-trafficking efforts. DOT continues to fulfill its commitments under the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking while applying the latest resources, policies, and best practices from the field in Department-wide counter-trafficking efforts.
- DOT’s bilingual, multimodal TLAHT Awareness Campaign now includes a training, poster series, pocket cards, visor cards, and social media graphics that reflect the latest best practices and insights from both multimodal partners and lived experience experts.
- DOT’s TLAHT initiative continues to maximize its collective impact in combating human trafficking through more than 600 transportation and travel industry partners representing all modes of transportation. Transportation-related organizations can join the multimodal, nationwide effort by signing the TLAHT pledge and accessing mode-specific counter-trafficking resources.
For more information about the Department’s efforts to address human trafficking, click here. To report suspect instances of human trafficking, tips can be reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline by calling 1-888-373-7888 or texting “HELP” to 233733 (BEFREE).
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Original article published by U.S. Department of Transportation