The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative (HTAI) has increased from three to five days for 2023.
CVSA’s HTAI launched in early 2022 as a three-day awareness and outreach effort to educate commercial motor vehicle drivers, motor carriers, law enforcement officers and the general public about the crime of human trafficking, the signs to look for and what to do if you suspect someone is being trafficked. Building on the success of the 2022 three-day campaign, the CVSA Human Trafficking Prevention Program decided to extend the campaign to five days for 2023.
All three countries of the Alliance – Canada, Mexico and the United States – plan to participate in the 2023 HTAI. To capitalize on each country’s already-established Human Trafficking Awareness Day, CVSA set its five-day HTAI to align with that day in each country. Therefore, in the U.S., HTAI is scheduled for Jan. 9-13, 2023. In Canada, the HTAI dates are Feb. 20-24, 2023. And in Mexico, HTAI is set for March 13-17, 2023.
According to the United Nations, human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception with the aim of exploiting them for profit. Men, women and children of all ages and from all backgrounds can become victims of this crime, which occurs in every region of the world, including North America. Human traffickers often use violence or fraudulent employment agencies and fake promises of education and job opportunities to trick and coerce their victims.
In preparation for the 2023 Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative, CVSA is offering human trafficking awareness resources to its membership and working with the Truckers Against Trafficking organization to distribute wallet cards and window decals.
During the five-day awareness initiative in each country, CVSA jurisdictions will note human trafficking awareness and outreach efforts and projects and submit that data to the Alliance. The results will be released in summer 2023.
To find out what your jurisdiction is doing to increase human trafficking awareness, contact the agency/department responsible for overseeing commercial motor vehicle safety within your state, province or territory.
The Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative is part of CVSA’s Human Trafficking Prevention Program. The program seeks to reduce human trafficking throughout North America through coordinated enforcement and investigative and educational awareness measures within the commercial motor vehicle industry.