Modern day slavery, also known as human trafficking, is one of the most crucial human rights violations of our time. Human traffickers prey mostly on the most vulnerable people in our society – including but not limited to runaway teens and women suffering in foreign countries promised a better life in the United States by a trafficker with ill intentions.
Human trafficking is a crisis that affects people all over the globe, including our own backyards in Florida.Senator Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee & a large advocate of eradicating the entire human trafficking epidemic, has released several statements.
“As chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), I strongly commend the Trump Administration for downgrading China to Tier 3 in the State Department’s 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report.”
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Senator Rubio then proceeded to say:
Senator Rubio applauded the administration for “Downgrading Nicaragua to the Tier 2 Watch List. The government there must increase its efforts to eliminate forced labor and sex trafficking of all people, especially children, as well as the practice forcing people with disabilities to beg.”“Earlier this month, I joined CECC co-chair Congressman Chris Smith in sending a letter to Secretary of State Tillerson outlining the Commission’s own reporting on China’s human trafficking conditions, including labor trafficking of North Koreans that financially benefits Kim Jong-Un’s murderous regime, the Chinese government’s use of forced labor, and sex trafficking of women and girls. I’m glad to see the U.S. Department of State officially determine that Beijing does not meet the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking nor significantly trying to do so.”
He ended his statement by saying that he looked “forward to further examining the report and understanding the rationale for upgrading certain countries of concern. Human trafficking has rightly been called modern day slavery, and we must recommit to confronting this evil in its many forms and holding accountable foreign governments that fail to protect innocents, prosecute perpetrators and prioritize legal reforms.”
Senator Rubio has worked with countless politicians and advocates to put an end to human trafficking including Governor Rick Scott back in 2013, and most recently Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ). Senator Rubio & Senator Menendez reintroduced a bipartisan legislation with the purpose of reforming the State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report. Their new legislation is designed to further improve the efficiency of tracking down people that have been trafficked by properly preparing reports.
In 2013, Javier Manjerres, potential Congressional candidate & editor of The Shark Tank wrote about new bills being passed in regard to human trafficking and quoted Governor Rick Scott.
Governor Scott stated, “Somebody who’s been involved in human trafficking—we want to get them back to normal as quickly as we can,” Scott said. “Because of being trafficked, they end up with a criminal record that makes it very difficult for them to get a job, get into school, get on with their lives.”- Governor Rick Scott to The Miami Herald
Javier’s original article can be found here:https://texaspolitics.com/2013/05/31/florida-governor-scott-rubio-tackle-human-trafficking-epidemic/
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