2013 Trafficking in Persons Report Released

This week the U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Office released the 2013 Trafficking in Persons Report. Secretary of State Kerry released the 13th annual Trafficking in Persons Report yesterday, June 19th.  The theme of this year’s TIP Report is Victim Identification: The First Step in Stopping Modern Slavery.

There is abuse that can take place in even the most improbable places in the most probable ways. And I learned then, looking in the eyes of young women who had been the victims of these crimes, that they were terrified of being victimized again, by the process, by the system. And nobody quite understood what it meant to a victim or the ways you could help victims through the system. Only when we started focusing on victims, not just as potential witnesses but as survivors, human beings entitled to respect and dignity, that’s when we started to provide people with a greater measure of justice. And that’s when we were able to give people a better chance at rebuilding the future. -Secretary Kerry, from his opening remarks.

"This Report estimates that, based on the information governments have provided, only around 40,000 victims have been identified in the last year,. In contrast, social scientists estimate that as many as 27 million men, women, and children are trafficking victims at any given time. This shows that a mere fraction of the more than 26 million men, women, and children who are estimated to suffer in modern slavery have been recognized by governments as such and are eligible to receive the protection and support they are owed"

Secretary Kerry and Ambassador at Large Luis CdeBaca also honored the 2013 TIP Heroes, who included; Laura Anyola Tufon of Cameroon, Katrin Gluic of Croatia, Simona Broomes Guyana, Mohammed Bassam Al-Nasseri Iraq, Javier Antonio Morazán & Juan Victoriano RuÍz from Nicaragua, Ippei Torii of Japan, Susan Ople of The Philippines, Paul Holmes of the United Kingdom, and in memory of Eunice Kisembo of Uganda.  Read all of there amazing stories and see how they are changing the face of modern slavery here.

Download your copy of the full TIP Report here: http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2013/index.htm