FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JULY 16, 2004 WWW.USDOJ.GOV |
AG 202-514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888 |
BUSH ADMINISTRATION HOSTS FIRST NATIONAL TRAINING CONFERENCE TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING
President George W. Bush And Attorney General John Ashcroft Address Conference
TAMPA - Today, President Bush joined Attorney General Ashcroft and other senior Bush Administration officials at the first-ever national training conference on human trafficking: Human Trafficking into the United States: Rescuing Women and Children from Slavery. Hosted by the Justice Department, the conference brought together over 500 attendees, comprised of the hundreds of state, local and federal officials who work together to combat human trafficking in communities across America. Trafficking in persons, a modern day form of slavery, is a serious problem in the United States and throughout the world. Each year, an estimated 600,000-800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked against their will across international borders. Of those, 14,500-17,500 are trafficked into America. Victims are forced into prostitution, or to work in sweatshops, quarries, as domestic labor, or child soldiers, and in many forms of involuntary servitude.
Throughout the past three years, the Bush Administration has taken strong steps to combat trafficking at home and abroad. Today at the conference, the Bush Administration announced new steps and resources to combat human trafficking. These initiatives include $14 million to law enforcement to help human trafficking victims, $4.5 million for organizations to assist victims, new interagency cooperation to ensure the timely delivery of benefits and services to victims, a model state law criminalizing human trafficking, new training resources, new task forces, as well as greatly increased investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking.
From the very beginning of his Administration, President Bush has spoken forcefully and eloquently about the brutal crime of human trafficking, said Attorney General John Ashcroft. We will protect the victims, prosecute the perpetrators, and build partnerships to address, attack and prevent human trafficking. These steps send a clear message that America will repel aggressively assaults on our core values of freedom and respect for human dignity. We have had success in the past three years, but we understand that these efforts are only the beginning. It is critical that we work together to track down those who hide their barbaric businesses in the shadows, and to help their victims.
Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, CA: $500,696
Safe Horizon: $500,000
(For work in the five boroughs of NYC)
New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance: $500,000
(For work in the state of NY, minus NYCs five boroughs)
International Institute of Boston, MA: $500, 000
International Rescue Committee, NY: $499,999
(For work in the state of WA)
World Relief Corporation, Baltimore, MD $499,998
(For work in Al, FL, KY, MD, MS, NC, LA, TN, TX, SC, OK)
U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC: $413,298
(For work in MD, DE, PA and NJ)
U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC: $372,237
(For work in OR)
Refugee Womens Network, Inc.: $311,708
(For work in GA)
These new efforts will support the Bush Administrations ongoing initiatives to combat human trafficking and provide assistance to trafficking victims. Since 2001, President Bush has provided more than $35 million to 36 faith-based and community organizations across the country to aid victims of trafficking with services such as emergency shelter, legal, mental, and health services, as well as English-proficiency instruction. In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services has launched a referral hotline to help victims. The Administration has also worked to provide immigration relief for trafficking victims through a new class of visa (T-visas) that allows trafficking victims to remain in the U.S. for three years with work authorization and access to benefits and services. Additionally, on an international level, President Bushs budget has provided more than $295 million to support anti -trafficking programs in more than 120 countries since 2001.
The conference was attended by trafficking response teams made up of federal, state and local law enforcement, prosecutors and victim service providers from at least twenty-one cities with known concentration of trafficking victims. Teams came from communities including Atlanta, GA; Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; El Paso, TX; Houston, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Long Island, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Newark, NJ; New Orleans, LA; New York, NY; Metropolitan Washington, DC; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Richmond, VA; San Diego, CA; San Francisco, CA; St. Louis, MO, Seattle, WA and Tampa, FL. These teams learned how to uncover and investigate cases, as well as how to provide services to trafficking victims. The conference emphasized the importance of combating trafficking using a victim-centered approach. Rescuing victims requires proactive law enforcement strategies and an understanding of the collaborative approach to human trafficking that includes community members, first responders, restorative care service providers, victim advocates, as well as state, local, and federal law enforcement.
The latest U.S. government interagency report on human trafficking, Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons can be found at www.usdoj.gov/trafficking.htm <http://www.usdoj.gov/trafficking.htm>.
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04-489
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/7/16/221009.shtml
Bush Says Castro Welcomes Sex Tourism
NewsMax Wires
Saturday, July 17, 2004
TAMPA, Fla. -- President Bush on Friday accused Fidel Castro of exploiting Cuba's children by encouraging a sex-tourism industry designed to draw cash to the impoverished nation, comments certain to resonate with Cuban-American voters in the swing state of Florida
"The regime in Havana, already one of the worst violators of human rights in the world, is adding to its crimes. The dictator welcomes sex tourism," Bush said at a conference on "human trafficking" - forced labor, sex and military service.
Bush's rival, John Kerry, agreed with the president and the Democratic campaign said human trafficking demands a coordinated international response. The Kerry campaign did take issue with the pace of Bush's response, arguing that the president had waited too long - until February of this year - to submit an international pact against trafficking to the Senate.
By combining the human-trafficking issue with his hard-line rhetoric against Castro, Bush hopes to bolster his standing with Cuban-Americans in the state that decided the 2000 election. Friday's trip was Bush's 23rd as president to Florida, and recent polls show the race tied.
Last year, the Bush administration imposed sanctions on Cuba, Burma and North Korea for failing to take steps to stop such practices. In a report last month, the State Department listed Cuba among 10 nations that engage in human trafficking.
The president said Castro had "bragged about" Cuba's sex industry and he quoted Castro as saying: "Cuba has the cleanest and most educated prostitutes in the world."
That apparently was a quote from a 1992 speech in which Castro said prostitution in his country was illegal, but nevertheless present. White House officials said Castro had made the statement in the early 1990s, but could not be more precise.
"There is no cleaner, purer tourism than Cuba's tourism, because there is really no drug trafficking, no gambling houses," Castro told a session of the National Assembly of the People's Government 12 years ago.
"There are no women forced to sell themselves to a man, to a foreigner, to a tourist," Castro said. "Those who do so do it on their own, voluntarily and without any need for it. We can say that they are highly educated hookers and quite healthy, because we are the country with the lowest number of AIDS cases."
But Bush said Castro has turned Cuba into a major destination for sex tourism, which is "a vital source of hard currency to keep his corrupt government afloat."
"My administration is working toward a comprehensive solution to this problem: the rapid, peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba," Bush said.
The president said an "influx of American and Canadian tourists contributed to a sharp increase in child prostitution in Cuba," a claim he attributed to a report from the Protection Project, a legal human-rights research institute based at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Bush said the institute had found this was the case. In fact, the institute had cited "general news reports" suggesting that but had not independently concluded it.
Human traffickers bring as many as 17,500 people into the United States every year, trapping them in slavery-like conditions for forced sex, sweatshop labor and domestic servitude, the administration says. As many as 800,000 people were forcibly moved across borders worldwide in the last year, 80 percent of them women.
Bush did not announce any new initiatives Friday, but said his administration is combatting the problem at home and abroad by:
-Spending more than $295 million since the start of his term to support anti-trafficking programs in more than 120 countries.
-Bringing charges against 110 ringleaders.
-Helping foreign victims in America by treating them as refugees instead of illegal immigrants.
-Arresting more than 3,200 people who pay for sex slaves and other forced laborers.
Bush's campaign rally in Beckley, West Virginia, another battleground, was his 10th visit to the state as president. Kerry visited a day earlier.