Additional actions that the Department is taking this month to combat human trafficking include:
- Operating Administrations across DOT are using social media to encourage aviation, motor carrier, rail, transit, and pipeline stakeholders to strengthen their counter-trafficking efforts.
- The Department’s counter-trafficking initiative is reaching hundreds of transportation stakeholders this month through an in-person event with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) highlighting the joint DOT/DHS Blue Lightning Initiative (BLI). BLI trains aviation industry personnel to identify potential traffickers and human trafficking victims, and to report their suspicions to Federal law enforcement through in-flight and on the ground reporting methods. To date, over 130 aviation industry partners have trained more than 350,000 employees through BLI and actionable tips continue to be reported to law enforcement. Participation is open to any U.S. aviation industry organization and to international air carriers serving the U.S.
- The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is hosting a Human Trafficking Prevention Month Webinar highlighting transit-specific resources developed as part of an FTA-funded grant to prevent crime and human trafficking at smaller transit agencies.
Some of the other ways in which the Department is working to combat human trafficking include:
- The Secretary of Transportation is 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 anti-human trafficking efforts.
- The DOT Advisory Committee on Human Trafficking (ACHT) held two public meetings in 2023 that highlighted promising strategies to counter human trafficking across transportation networks. The ACHT will deliver a report with recommendations and an assessment of best practices.
- Responding to stakeholder recommendations, the Department of Transportation has developed counter-trafficking awareness training that is tailored specifically for transportation employees and travelers. The Department’s “Combating Human Trafficking in the Transportation Sector Awareness Training” for transportation personnel underscores the intersection of human trafficking and transportation, provides general and transport-specific indicators of human trafficking, and gives specific information on how to report suspected trafficking.
- The Department’s Transportation Leaders Against Human Trafficking (TLAHT) initiative comprises nearly 600 transportation and travel industry stakeholders working jointly to maximize their collective impact in combating human trafficking across all modes of transportation. Stakeholders can join the effort by signing the TLAHT pledge and accessing modal counter-trafficking resources online. TLAHT pledge signatories include airports and airlines, urban and rural transit agencies, trucking and bus companies, ports, railways, state departments of transportation, industry associations, states, cities, and non-governmental organizations.
For more information about the Department’s efforts to end human trafficking, click here.
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Original article published by USDOT