U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking Releases 2024 Annual Report

The U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking has released its 2024 Annual Report. The Council is comprised of 13 leaders with lived experience in human trafficking who bring their expertise and experience. Members advise and provide recommendations to the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (PITF) to improve federal anti-trafficking policies.

The report includes recommendations, goals, objectives, and takeaways from the Council’s trips to Alaska and Texas-Mexico border. Both regions have factors that contribute to high rates of trafficking and violence—including poverty and lack of access to resources. The Council engaged with a variety of federal, state, local, and Tribal agencies, as well as community organizations, to gain a comprehensive understanding of the human trafficking landscape in those regions.

Some of the recommendations relating to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) include: 

• Creating additional culturally responsive trainings and resources for Indigenous communities outside of the continental United States, such as in Alaska, Hawaii, the U.S. territories, and Freely Associated States, that address forced labor in high-risk industries (i.e., fishing, mining, canning, drilling).
• Collaboration with Indigenous and rural communities to develop and implement culturally-specific and language-accessible prevention and protection strategies.  
• Enhanced support, services, education, and training for unaccompanied children and transition-age youth (ages 18—24), their sponsors, and government staff (and contractors) to help prevent human trafficking among these populations who enter the United States without a parent or guardian.