CVSA Supports the Fight to End Human Trafficking
Greenbelt, MD… January was National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month in the United States. The law enforcement community and motor carrier industry membership of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) fully supports this important cause and is committed to bringing awareness to the crime of human trafficking and working together to prevent human trafficking throughout Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The United Nations defines "trafficking in persons" or "human trafficking" as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, etc., to control a person for the purpose of exploitation, such as sexual exploitation or forced labor.
The International Labour Organization estimates that forced labor and human trafficking is a $150 billion industry worldwide. In 2017, the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline received reports of 8,524 suspected human trafficking cases. In Canada, there were 340 incidents of human trafficking in 2016, according to police-reported data.
"As members of law enforcement who inspect commercial motor vehicles, CVSA member jurisdictions throughout North America serve as the eyes and ears of our nation’s roadways," said CVSA President Lt. Scott Carnegie with the Mississippi Highway Patrol. "Inspectors serve in a hands-on capacity that grants them prime access and opportunity to potentially identify and recover individuals who are being trafficked using our roadways."