About USDOT’s Work to Stop Human Trafficking
Why Transportation?
The transportation industry serves as a critical connector that can both facilitate and prevent human trafficking. Transportation figures prominently in human trafficking enterprises in the United States and abroad when traffickers utilize roadways, railways, waterways, and airways in urban, rural, and Tribal communities to recruit and facilitate the trafficking of human beings. Survivors of human trafficking often use transportation to escape traffickers and rely on transportation during recovery.
Frontline transportation employees and members of the traveling public who are equipped to recognize and report suspected instances of human trafficking can help to help prevent this crime.
USDOT’s Role
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Counter-Trafficking Initiative (CTI), within the Office of the Secretary's Office of International Transportation and Trade, leads domestic and global efforts to combat human trafficking in the transportation sector by providing strategic leadership across USDOT, fostering public awareness and education, and advancing international cooperation.
The following principles guide these efforts:
- Person-Centered – Placing the priorities, needs, and interests of individuals who have been subjected to human trafficking at the center of our work.
- Trauma-Informed – Seeking to actively resist re-traumatization through policies and practice.
- Culturally Responsive – Interacting effectively with people of different cultures to plan, implement, and evaluate activities.
- Data-Driven – Recognizing the importance of informed, data-driven, decision-making at all levels.
Learn more about CTI initiatives:
- Transportation Leaders Against Human Trafficking (TLAHT)
- DOT/DHS Blue Lightning Initiative (BLI)
- Advisory Committee on Human Trafficking
Federal Coordination
DOT is a member of the President’s Interagency Task Force to Combat and Monitor Trafficking in Persons (PITF) and the Senior Policy Operating Group (SPOG).
The PITF is a Cabinet-level entity chaired by the Secretary of State created by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) to coordinate Federal efforts to combat trafficking in persons. The TVPA, as amended in 2003, also established the SPOG, which consists of senior officials designated as representatives of the PITF members. The SPOG, chaired by the Department of State, coordinates interagency policy, grants and research, planning issues involving international trafficking in persons, and the implementation of the TVPA.
Learn more about federal efforts to combat human trafficking: