Mangalorean, Harold D’Souza attends the PITF meeting at The White House

Mangalore Today News Network

November, 01 2019: Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, several members of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking including Indian American, Harold D’Souza and representatives of 18 other federal departments and agencies participated in a Meeting of the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (PITF). The PITF meeting was organized at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, at The White House on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019.

 

 

White House domestic policy director Joe Grogan summed up the problem when he lamented, “We have almost 5,000 shelters for animals who have been abused in the United States and fewer than a thousand beds for children who were trafficked sexually, many of those by their own families”.

Human trafficking is a colossal problem in India. Vulnerable population are manipulated, tricked, and trapped by traffickers. Education, prevention, protection, and creating awareness is one of the solutions of this horrendous epidemic in India, reflected Harold D’Souza.

After the event during a session with reporters, John Richmond, ambassador-at-large to monitor and combat trafficking in persons, said, “Encryption’s an issue if traffickers are using it”. Richmond then added, “Most traffickers are operating cash-based business. It’s one-on-one engagement with the workers they’re exploiting and forced labor”. Often such cases lead law enforcement to act with “simple, good, just shoe-leather investigative work”.

Survivor-Advocate Harold D’Souza is travelling across India to raise awareness on this issue. He is focused to educate and empower community members to overcome stigma and shame by sharing his own experience from slavery to success, fear to freedom, and stigma to strength. Family members should support victims by caring and accepting.  It is not the fault of the victim, even if it is one of your family members.

Human trafficking remains a pressing, dire issue that the U.S. government is committed to eradicating. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo announced that the U.S. Department of State will invest an additional $25 million in the Program to End Modern Slavery, a targeted effort to reduce the prevalence of human trafficking in specific countries or regions. This recent addition brings the total U.S. investment to $75 million, which makes it the department’s largest anti-trafficking program.

President Trump appointee to the Advisory Council, Harold D’Souza, from Bajpe, Mangalore is passionate to start “Bharat Maanav Shoshan Hotline” in India.