Secretary Napolitano Participates in Human Trafficking Roundtable

[The Patriot]

Secretary Napolitano Participates in Human Trafficking Roundtable

01-12-2012 04:00 AM

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

WASHINGTON—Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today met with public and private sector representatives for a roundtable discussion at the White House to discuss the Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking, in recognition of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. This month, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Blue Campaign launched a new suite of awareness trainings, which will be distributed to key sectors, including transportation, hospitality, retail, law enforcement, first responders, and NGOs to increase awareness and educate people on how to identify and report suspected cases of human trafficking.

“At DHS, we are committed to working with our partners and leveraging our wide range of expertise and resources to combat human trafficking,” said Secretary Napolitano. “If we all do our part to learn the signs of human trafficking and report them to authorities, we can better prevent human trafficking, protect victims, and prosecute traffickers.”

During the roundtable meeting, Secretary Napolitano was joined by officials from the U.S. Fire Administration, the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association, National Native American Law Enforcement Association, National Latino Peace Officers Association, the Polaris Project, Airlines for America, Carlson and the National Retail Federation. Secretary Napolitano underscored the importance of collaborating with the public and private sectors to build a sustained effort to combat human trafficking.*

This month, the Blue Campaign launched a general awareness training, designed to inform the general public about how to identify and report human trafficking to the proper authorities. The Blue Campaign is also launching awareness and training materials for the federal acquisition workforce, first responders and airline employees, to help increase awareness about the indicators of human trafficking.

In 2010, Secretary Napolitano launched the Blue Campaign– a first-of-its-kind initiative to coordinate and enhance the Department’s anti-human trafficking efforts, led by a cross-component steering committee, which is chaired by the Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Homeland Security Alice Hill. The components of the Department of Homeland Security combat human trafficking through a variety of programs, and the Blue Campaign helps to coordinate this work.

For more information, visit www.dhs.gov.

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