The signs of human trafficking could be all around
Department of Defense personnel: a subcontractor withholds passports and delays
payment to its employees or a company forces potential workers to pay a large
fee to obtain a contract job on a DOD installation.
The DOD is highlighting the issue and its efforts to fight
trafficking, said Army Col. Joshua Burris, deputy chief of staff for Mission
and Installation Contracting Command at Joint Base San Antonio-Sam Houston, and
the executive director for DOD’s Operational Contract Support Joint Exercise
2016.
Human trafficking is modern-day slavery, Burris said, adding
that Defense Department has zero tolerance for violations.
DOD wants its service members, civilians, contractors and
others associated with the agency to be able to recognize the signs of human
trafficking and know how to report suspected violations, he said.
Human trafficking includes using force, fraud or coercion to
compel a person to provide labor, services, or sex, Burris said. It is a
violation of basic human rights, he said. It is a global problem; it happens in
the United States and around the world.
"This is a heinous, awful thing that happens. It's very
important that we eradicate it," he said.
The three most common forms of trafficking, according to the
DOD's Combating Trafficking in Persons office, are labor trafficking, sex
trafficking, and child soldiering.
DOD relies on contractors at installations around the world,
Burris said. The human trafficking violations the agency sees most often, he
said, are labor abuses involving debt bondage.
Debt bondage is when a person is required to pay a large fee
to obtain a job, putting the person in extreme debt in which the individual
works a year or more just to pay off the debt, Burris explained.
The contract workers on bases are the ones who make meals,
pump gas, or do other tasks to support the military, he pointed out. They face
dangers as well, he said, including indirect fire at installations in warzones.
They must be treated fairly and in accordance with laws and DOD regulations, he
said.
Five hundred people, including service members from Army and
Air Force South, U.S. Special Operations Command and the 1st Armored Division
and Acquisition and Financial Management professionals, will take part in a
joint, interagency exercise in March and April 2016 at Fort Bliss, Texas.
A focus of the Operational Contract Support Joint Exercise
includes scenarios in human trafficking, Burris said. The exercise will
evaluate current policies and approaches via the DoD supply chain.
"It's especially important because it is happening
worldwide," Burris said. "It's something that we need to take a look
at and make sure our people know."
The exercise includes Army South partner nations. They will
observe human trafficking and Operational Contract Support training to
incorporate lessons into next year’s U.S. Southern Command’s PANAMAX, he said.
Scenarios are based on coalition forces responding to an armed conflict and
follow-on stabilization operations.
The exercise will use role player scenarios so participants
will better recognize signs of human trafficking, and what actions should be
taken, Burris noted.
"We have to keep an eye out and be able to identify
these signs, and that's why the training presents this in our exercise,"
he said.
The signs of labor trafficking include an employer
confiscating identification documents or forging legal documents, subjecting a
person to unsafe working conditions, providing inadequate living conditions, or
denying the worker medical care, Burris said.
Members of the military and DOD civilian personnel are
required to take at least one Combating Trafficking in Persons training course
every fiscal year. Specialized training is available for service members, law
enforcement personnel, senior leaders and contracting professionals.
Signs are posted around military bases so workers know their
rights, Burris said. DOD has supplemental exercises each year on fighting human
trafficking.
DOD officials emphasize that everyone can do their part in
fighting trafficking. Incidents of human trafficking can be reported to the DoD
Inspector General hotline at 1-800-424-9098, 703-604-8799 or DSN 664-8799, or
at http://www.dodig.mil/hotline.