Trade organization American Trucking Associations (ATA) and America’s Road Team, a national public outreach program, recently announced they will join Truckers Against Trafficking on Capitol Hill later this month.
The event brings awareness to human trafficking with the goal of reducing demand.
ATA Executive Vice President of Industry Affairs Elisabeth Barna is a board member of Truckers Against Trafficking. She recently spoke at a roundtable hosted by the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee.
The purpose of the roundtable was to educate committee members on how to prevent human trafficking and to spread awareness about trafficking. It also informed the committee on how truckers have reported possible trafficking activity to law enforcement.
“Our industry has made nearly 2,000 calls to the national human trafficking hotline, resulting in more than 600 likely human trafficking cases identified involving more than 1,300 trafficking victims,” Barna said. “More than 375 of those rescued victims were minors.”
ATA is adding videos and signs about trafficking to diesel fuel stations and driver lounge areas, Burna said, and member companies are training their employees.
Other participants of the roundtable included public sector partners from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency Homeland Security Investigations unit, the Department of Homeland Security Blue Campaign, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers.