US urges employment agents to help prevent trafficking

US Vice Consul Joel Wiegert urged foreign employment agents to do everything possible to prevent their clients from becoming victims of human trafficking, in a speech given on August 10 at the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE).

The common connection of all trafficking scenarios, he said, is the use of force, fraud, or coercion to exploit a person for profit.

Sometimes workers are forced into prostitution or sexual favours; sometimes they are denied their wages or the means to contact their families.

He pointed out that such abuses can often be prevented by the vigilance of scrupulous employment agents who warn their clients of the potential risks they face in particular countries, check in periodically on them, and teach them the proper steps to take if they find themselves in an abuse situation.

These precautions make sense morally, and increase the foreign employment agency's profitability as well.