WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st January, 2023) US House Representatives Vern Buchanan and Debbie Wasserman Schultz introduced a bipartisan bill to fund training programs for students and educators on the warning signs of human trafficking, the lawmakers said in a statement.
Buchanan and Wasserman Schultz, both members of the Florida congressional delegation, introduced the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Prevention Training Act on Monday, the statement said. The bill would create a grant program to provide training to students, teachers and other school personnel on the warning signs of human trafficking, the statement said.
"As we close National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, we need to prioritize educating students and teachers about the horrors of this monstrous crime. This is critical to helping current victims and preventing future instances of trafficking, which is especially important in hotspots like Florida," Buchanan said in the statement.
Schools should be at the center of the strategy to protect young people from human trafficking, Wasserman Schultz said.
The bill would authorize $75 million in funding for the program over a five-year period, the statement said. The grant program would fall under the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Trafficking in Persons, the statement said.
It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of human trafficking victims are currently working in exploitative conditions in the sex, beauty and hospitality industries, the statement said. However, exact figures are imprecise given the illegal and covert nature of the crime, the statement added.
A total of 2,198 persons were referred to US Attorneys for human trafficking offenses in fiscal year 2020 - a 62% increase from 2011, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics data.
