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Remarks by Ambassador Blake at a press conference announcing a U.S. initiative to combat human trafficking in Sri Lanka - October 18, 2007

Mr. Waidyalankara, Mr. Abdiker, Ms. Cohn, guests, and members of the press, let me extend to all of you a very warm welcome to the American Center.

We are here today to talk about a very serious issue, one that we may be aware exists but one that lurks in the shadows.

I am referring to human trafficking, something that takes place in many countries of the world, including the United States.  Human trafficking is the third largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world, and is emerging as one of the most urgent human security issues of today. A recent report by the U.S. Attorney General estimated that 600,000-80,000 human beings are trafficked across international borders each year.  80% of them are women and girls.

Thousands of these are trafficked into the U.S. which is why President Bush has made the United States a leader in the fight against this terrible crime and why the Attorney General prepares an annual report on U.S. efforts to stop trafficking.   
In Sri Lanka, high rates of domestic violence and migration, poverty, sex tourism and destruction caused by civil conflict and natural disasters have made Sri Lanka a country ripe for human trafficking.

Migration of women to the Middle East for domestic work, child recruitment and child sex tourism have overshadowed domestic human trafficking issues such as exploitation in domestic and industrial labor, and trafficking related to free trade zones.

According to Sri Lanka’s Foreign Employment Bureau, about one million Sri Lankans work abroad, of whom 60 percent are women.  Of these, 54 percent work as domestic workers and are subject to risks of abuse, sexual harassment and forced labor.

The families of migrant workers remaining behind in Sri Lanka face challenges such as long absences of the primary caregiver and sometimes neglect by the remaining caregiver, leaving children vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

A recent US State Department report found Sri Lanka to be a country of source and origin for men, women and children trafficked for domestic labor and sexual exploitation.

Though the report states that the Government of Sri Lanka does not fully comply with standards for the elimination of trafficking, it said that the government is “making significant efforts to do so.” 

Workers’remittances, as the second largest source of foreign exchange in Sri Lanka, play a key role in the country’s economy and are important source of income for its citizens.  Our concern, as a friend of Sri Lanka, is not to reduce foreign employment opportunities, but rather to help ensure that workers are not placed in situations where they are abused and exploited.

We commend the Government of Sri Lanka for amending its penal code in April 2006 to criminalize trafficking crimes in compliance with UN Trafficking Protocol standards, and for ratifying the South Asian regional convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution.

But the fact is, the real number of people victimized by trafficking is little known.

A second gap is that Sri Lanka needs a better trained network of law enforcement professionals to establish legal grounds under which instigators of trafficking can be identified and prosecuted under the law.

To enable Sri Lanka to identify those responsible and hold them accountable for trafficking practices, the U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development are funding a $500,000 program that will help train Government of Sri Lanka officials to pursue criminal investigations and prosecutions of trafficking offenses more aggressively.  

Funded at a total of $500,000, the program will be implemented by our long-time partner the International Organization on Migration, or IOM.

The program focuses more on litigation and prosecution, as well as prevention through training of police and trainers, to build capacity for law enforcement professionals in Sri Lanka to combat trafficking.

Specifically, this program will:

• Enhance the capacity and awareness of the government to combat trafficking through training of about 500 law enforcement and government officials on human trafficking.
• Improve data collection and dissemination across all organizations to track trafficking cases.
• Develop collaboration and coordination among governmental organizations and NGOs to share experiences, establish joint work plans and develop national policies to combat trafficking in Sri Lanka.
• Train more than 50 trainers, who will continue to build police capacity to combat trafficking long after these programs are finished, and
• Establish a database to help prevent and identify trafficking incidences and assist the government and other interested agencies in focusing their efforts on where the need is greatest.

We hope the Government of Sri Lanka will make training for its law enforcement officials a priority to raise awareness of trafficking and to identify it as a crime.  Another important deterrent will be prosecutions of those found to be involved in the practice.  

In that way, we can drive human traffickers from the shadows and into the light, where law enforcement and justice officials can help protect those who may be victimized by human trafficking.

Let me conclude by thanking Mr. Waidyalankara in particular for joining us today.  His participation and remarks signify the importance Sri Lanka attaches to addressing the problem of human trafficking.  My colleagues at the U.S. Embassy look forward to working closely with the Government and IOM on this important matter.

Thank you.