3 Ways USAID Is Combating Human Trafficking in Liberia
Seeking solutions through civil society, community engagement, and collaboration
Human trafficking is a serious challenge in Liberia. According to the Department of State’s 2023 Trafficking in Persons report, the government identified 154 trafficking victims, compared with 35 victims during the previous period.
Every year, thousands of women and children are lured from rural communities to urban areas, and from the neighboring countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Côte d’Ivoire, with the promise of a better life. Instead, they are forced to become domestic workers to engage in hard labor without pay.
Even worse, many women become victims of sex trafficking, while children become street vendors and beggars — exploited and deceived into forced labor on gold and alluvial diamond mining areas and on small-scale rubber plantations.
Struggling to rebuild after 14 years of civil conflict — from 1998 to 2003 — and two years of transitional rule, the government elected in 2005 to address trafficking was limited by a crippled judiciary and a lack of resources. Since then, Liberia’s human trafficking challenges have come from internal, as well as external sources.
The economic impact of COVID-19, including massive job losses, hit many Liberians hard. Poverty stricken victims became easy prey for traffickers promising them jobs in foreign countries. For example, over 100 young women traveled from Liberia to Oman and other Middle Eastern countries based on false promises that they would easily get good paying jobs. Instead, these women were subjected to domestic servitude, forced labor, and sexual exploitation.
The Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPA) mandates that all USAID strategies in certain countries incorporate approaches to protect children and reduce the risk of trafficking.
This work is challenging. Keep reading to learn three ways USAID supports existing Countering Trafficking in Persons champions, and bolsters that with an integrated approach to comprehensively tackle the issue.
1. Training Civil Society Organizations
USAID supported and empowered local civil society organizations in Liberia to launch robust advocacy initiatives that led to the passage of a revised Trafficking in Persons Act in September 2021. This act amended the 2005 Trafficking in Persons Law — which prohibited all forms of trafficking — and imposes harsher punishment on convicted traffickers, including imposing a minimum sentence of 20 years imprisonment for trafficking in persons perpetrators.
Additionally, the law empowers courts to impose monetary fines on perpetrators, requiring them to pay restitution to their victims.
Additionally, USAID provided training to all its implementing partners on how to enhance their knowledge, and develop skills to integrate and mainstream Countering Trafficking in Persons activities into their projects by disseminating easy-to-understand infographics to generate awareness.
2. Messaging to Generate Awareness of Human Trafficking
Given that more than half of Liberia’s population is illiterate and that most of the country’s electricity and internet infrastructure is very poor — awareness raising around trafficking mostly has been conducted by word of mouth. Additionally, in coordination with Liberia’s Ministry of Labor, USAID designed an easy-to-understand infographic to generate awareness of what actions could be taken to counter trafficking in persons — which it has deployed throughout common community centers, such as health clinics, schools and local government offices in local communities around the country.
There’s also been enhanced awareness on trafficking prevention risks through training for 86 civics teachers, 15 youth advisory committee members, 25 community-based journalists, 30 administrators and deans from eight higher education institutions, and other USAID partners. Additionally, USAID awarded small grants to local community members to raise awareness about trafficking through sharing victims’s stories in their communities.
Members of the National Anti-Trafficking Task Force, including domestic civil-society organizations, are now expanding the effort to raise awareness of human trafficking across Liberia’s 15 counties.
3. Establishing Interagency Collaboration
Through solid U.S. Embassy interagency collaboration and coordination with the leadership of the Ministry of Labor and its National Human Trafficking Task Force, over 100 young women from Oman to Liberia were repatriated. This effort led to the prosecution and conviction of a government official and others engaged in trafficking in persons. The Task Force also supported construction of three safe homes and services for human trafficking victims, including in-kind grants to start small businesses.
USAID is committed to fighting this worldwide human rights abuse and providing survivors hope for a future in which no one has to endure what they have.
About the Author
Alvin Yelloway is the Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance Advisor with the Office of Democracy, Rights and Governance at USAID’s Mission in Liberia.
