RESOLUTION NO. __________, SERIES 2026
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A RESOLUTION HONORING JANUARY 12TH AS LABOR TRAFFICKING AWARENESS DAY.
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SPONSORED BY: COUNCIL MEMBER PARRISH-WRIGHT
WHEREAS, January is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month: https://www.state.gov/national-human-trafficking-prevention-month/. This month celebrates efforts raising awareness about human trafficking by international organizations, anti-trafficking entities, law enforcement officials, survivor advocates, communities of faith, and citizens; and
WHEREAS, labor trafficking, as defined by Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. § 7102), is “[t]he recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery;” and
WHEREAS, it’s globally estimated 24.9 million people are trapped in forced labor: https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en/human-trafficking/labor-trafficking. 16 million are victims of labor trafficking in private industry and 4.1 million are victims of state-imposed forced labor. And labor trafficking is not only less visible but it’s a severely underreported form of the known 32-billion-dollar global human trafficking industry trapping all genders, ages, classes, and nationalities (https://www.wearepact.org/blog/2019/8/23/human-trafficking-101-what-is-the-difference-between-labor-and-sex-trafficking, https://polarisproject.org/myths-facts-and-statistics/); and
WHEREAS, labor trafficking remains largely misunderstood by the general public and can happen in any industry although remaining most prevalent where the workforce is isolated, underregulated, or heavily dependent on vulnerable populations such as agriculture, farm work, domestic work, caregiving, construction, hospitality, landscaping, and food service (https://www.safehouseproject.org/); and
WHEREAS: according to the National Institute of J...
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