Washington Foreign Press Center briefing on the release of the 20th Annual Trafficking in Persons report.
Transcript
Hello, I’m Grass Johnson. Welcome to the foreign press centers Video conference briefing on the release of the 20th annual Trafficking in Persons Report The meeting host will now all journalists microphones please keep your microphone mutants who you were called on to ask a question if possible. Once again, please rename yourself to display your name out in the country of your out. My colleagues will also be renaming journalists using the R S V P information we’ve received. Journalist with names and outlets listed will be prioritized in the questions and answer, and FBC journals will be a call in primary. You may record the briefing by clicking on the record button on the menu at the bottom of zoom screen, and we will also be sending up transcripts of the briefing along with posting the video on our website: fbc.state.gov. If you have technical problems during the briefing, you can use the chat feature in the meeting host or one of my FP seek. Alex will try to assist if the zoom session fails or disconnect. Everyone can please click on the link again to rejoin and our ground rules that this is on the record now I’d like Teoh introduce and thank our briefer for being here. Ambassador John Calm Richman, centers of the United States ambassador at large to monitor and combat trafficking in persons and leads the department’s office to monitor and come back trafficking in persons. In October 2018 the Senate unanimously confirmed him and President Trump appointed him to leave the United States global engagement to combat human trafficking and support the coordination of anti trafficking efforts across the U. S. Government. Ambassador Richmond comes to the highest position in the federal government dedicated to combating human trafficking after a distinguished career in the global battle for freedom. So once again, thank you for being here, Ambassador. I’m going toe allow you to make your opening statement, and then I will open toe a moderated Q and Isis. Well, thank you very much. It’s wonderful to have the opportunity to talk with you all today. Just about an hour ago, the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released the 20th annual Trafficking in Persons Report. We’re incredibly excited about what this report stands for, particularly on this the 20th anniversary of the trafficking victims protection Act and the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Palermo Protocol, which is one of the most widely adopted international legal instruments that we have. So we’re excited about. This tip report continues to be the gold standard of information about human trafficking around the world. It provides a narrative of 188 countries looking about how those countries are doing around the three p’s prosecution, protection and prevention. It also includes some recommendations about how governments can do better. We include a ranking and narrative for the United States as well, about things we need to do better as we move forward on our common goal to pursue freedom for people. So the reports authoritative. The report isn’t just a diagnostic tool, and it’s a report that’s made a difference over the years. We’ve definitely seen countries improve and make impact based on the tip report on its guidance. A couple thoughts. Just as you’re consuming the tip, reports say, and thinking about how toe right about it, what you might wanna write about, I would note that that the report has a ratings period is the period of time for gathering information runs from April 1st to March 31st each year it’s did. It’s the government’s activities during that year period that are being evaluated for the purpose of the tip of. Another thing that’s important to keep in mind is that the tip report does not compare one country to another country. Instead, it compares the country’s efforts during the reporting period to its efforts in the prior reporting period. So it’s measuring countries against itself. So we don’t think a country of tier two in one region and compare it to it’s here to country another region and expect to see the same things. It’s really a question. Are there increasing efforts? Are we see sustainable progress as we go forward And I think that will help you read and appreciate the work of the tip report. A couple of key things this year resolved 23 downgrades and 22 upgrades compared to the previous year. We’ve also seen 14 countries received upgrades from the Tier two watch listed here to it, so we’ve got a fair amount of action in the report in terms of movement within the tier structure, and I would like to highlight that we have the first country in Africa to achieve a tier one ranking since 2012. Namibia is the country and we congratulate them for their efforts. We condense the government for its work to improve on and I also I just want to note that is a huge part of what the State Department’s been working on for many years and through our diplomacy in action, through our investment of foreign assistance to to assist the government there. So I think it’s ah is a good indicator towards progress. Something new in this year’s tip report is it Congress and President Trump signed into law on January 2019 a new provisions of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act to have sharpened our focus on state sanctioned forced labour on the the new law required. Wherever there is a government policy or pattern of human trafficking of those countries, must be ranked on tier three. When I see a government policy or pattern, we’re thinking and looking for information where it’s not just that governments are supposed to protect individuals from being from criminals who might traffic them in their country, but the government shifts into the role of the traffic for itself. and the government is actually trafficking people, forcing them to work. 10 countries were listed by the secretary of state as having a government policy or pattern of trafficking. And those 10 countries are all on tier three. This year’s, um and also just like to note that the tip report also highlights 10 heroes from around the world, and police takes time to read about their good work, their biographies. I think that is a bright spot way. Want to definitely celebrate the people who are doing this work. Another thing to look for as sure as you’re reading the tip report is a concern that we’re seeing around the world, where where governments are offering suspended sentences to traffickers, traffickers that they have actually convicted. The problem here is that if individual after Julie being convicted of trafficking walks out the front door of the courthouse, the victims lose hope that they will be restrained, becomes continue to worry that the tractors might menace them in the future, and it doesn’t encourage anyone else to come forward if if they know the system is just going to let the traffickers out with a suspended sentence. So we’re looking at that as well. This year also would just like you to know that the team that State Department has worked tirelessly to producers reported, particularly in the office, that I get to lead and serve, which is the office to monitor that trafficking in persons have produced this significant report in the midst of this global pandemic. And I think that that that work itself is evidence this administration is prioritizing trap. So with that is top. I look forward to your questions. A conversation about these issues. All right, thank you. Once again, Ambassador, to ask a question, please click on the Rays hand button at the bottom of the participant list and I’ll call on you. Please make sure that your name and outlet is shown in the participant list. Otherwise, rename yourself will be taking questions from FBC credentialed journalists. And if you have any follow up questions, you can reach out to D. C. F. P. C. At ST dot government will help you answer any of those. If you dive in as a telephone home, you can a Knute by pressing star six on your dial Bad when I call him. If you would like, please, remember to turn on your video for the camera. All right, I’m going to start off. I see. We have a question from Ben Marks with NHK Japan. All right, once. Yes, thank you. Ambassador Richmond, for holding this briefing. My question is, last year, Japan was a Tier one country. In this year’s report there in tier two, what changed that caused Japan to be dropped a tear to thank you. I appreciate you asking the question. A couple thoughts about Japan and what it means to be on pier one. The first thing I’d say is Tier one does not mean that countries doing everything right. It means they’re making serious and sustained efforts over time. Um, and we look at that has to occur every single year. We want t see growth. I know that a number of countries have fallen off of here one in the last several years, including Ireland, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, a whole number including Japan. This year, the government of Japan did not meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trapping you person tracking persons. But it did make significant efforts to do so. However, the efforts that we were able to gather were not serious and sustained efforts during the reporting period and therefore Japan was downgraded to Tier two. Um, e. I think of the helpful to note that Japan investigated, prosecuted and convicted fewer traffickers. Then they did in the previous year. They also imprisoned fewer fewer traffickers, and they did the previous year. Three Authorities continue to to prosecute and convict traffickers under laws other than their trapping lot carry lesser sentences, which is a concern of under charging. And they offered a significant number of suspended sentences. Eso traffickers did not actually go to jail and certain were not held accountable even after they were duly convicted. Was the issue of suspended sentences. I missed it earlier in my opening remarks. Those are some of the of the of the reasons, if you have time to actually read the narrative as well. I know it just came out today, but if you could read through the narrative, it’ll highlight each of the concerns under the prosecution section, the protection section, everything about identifying victims, making sure they get services as well as the prevention section. What can we do? How do we dismantle systems that make it easier for tractors to operate. And so I think there’s a great deal of work to be done in Japan. Specifically, I’d like to highlight the technical intern training program that has been a concern in Japan for many, many years about forced labor within that program. And there’ve been calls for the government of Japan to increase its investigations, increase its it’s work in that area. Um, and I think that’s an area growth for them, I think, as area where they can do more. All right, Thank you. All right. Our next question comes from Alex Raffle glow from Tehran News Agency. That’s your question. Sure, thank you. But I appreciated Ambassador. Thank you for being here for making yourself available. It’s a significant document in Did I appreciate that? Probably the most confusing thing for live people in my afterward is the tier cells. So keep it explain a little bit further. What is the difference between yeah to and here to watch list? Andi, Can they come ways the U. S. Restrictions off eight. I’m asking because I represent as abrasions independent. You say just a trunk. And as of John was listed on the Tier two watch lists. On my understanding is that a country that can only remain on a watch lease, I think two years in a row before big the upgraded or downgraded? Is that the case on def. You were talking point where the greatest needs are in Azerbaijan. What with, baby, I appreciate your opportunity. Let me start with, um, without your first portion to questions like What do the different here rankings me. And so again, if I hear one, it means people are making serious and sustained efforts to meet the minimum standards outlined. So therefore, minimum standards the 1st 3 or about having a legal framework in place that that is effective. So that’s minimums. Here’s 12 and three. They’re listed in the front of the, um of the tip reports. You’re welcome. T read through this, the fourth minimum standards broken up into a number of subparts, and it’s all about implementation. So if the 1st 3 minimum standards are about what the law is, the fourth minimum standard is Is the law being applied isn’t being applied in a in a variety of settings, and whether it’s are we looking at complicity with officials that with demand reduction are we looking at prosecutions, investigations and so on. So based on those four minimum Stayner’s, we gather information which primarily comes from the government itself on and liaison with our embassies around the world. We pulled together that that information and look to see Are they making increasing efforts? Are they making serious and sustained efforts from the prior reporting period? And if they were on tier two and they did not, it would fall to Tier two watch list. If they did improve, they would go up. And so it’s just a question of fours. Four Set 12 to watch list and three. You’re absolutely right that there are some restrictions about how long a country can remain on the Tier two watch list. Those changes happened in 2000 and eight. So before 2008 stay on the Tier two watch list as long as you like 2008. There was an amendment to the law that said you could stay on a maximum of four years on the Tier two watch list, and the last two years he had to get a waiver from the secretary of state in order to to remain so. That was changed again in 2019 when it when it became old maximum of three years on the Tier two watch list and that last year, the 30 year you have to get a waiver from Secretary so you’re right to get on the watch list. You could do it for two years, and then the third has to have a waiver from the secretary. There are no financial restrictions attached to being on the Tier two watch list. There’s no sort of stick that is. Justin is just where things are, however, on Tier three that does trigger restrictions triggers restrictions of all non humanitarian, non trade based aid to a country. Uh, those restrictions are limited to two, um, money that is given directly to the country’s not to civil society organizations in the country. Those restrictions can be waived by the president, and traditionally, the president’s using this law have generously given waivers, and that changed in 2018 when President Trump being far fewer waivers as a way to try and put some teeth into the law to try and help countries make this take this issue more seriously. So for the last two years we’ve seen fewer number of countries get full or partial waivers of of those restrictions. So the only tear answer your question that has any sort of financial restriction to it is the Tier three that last the bottom tier. Um, does that answer your question about the about the terrible Vonk racial left about Azerbaijan to have any? But where are the greatest needs in Azerbaijan is a country that has been the same list a second year? Hold on one second, we pull up some information about Azerbaijan. Absolutely any follow up questions and more in depth questions. You can email the DCF BC at ST dot gov and if the ambassador needs more time, I can be sure that his office gets it is ableto respond in depth. Thank you. Can you pull the narrative? So why don’t we go to another question that could we circle back and come back to the Azerbaijan question? Absolutely. All right. It looks like we have a question from and forgive me for my pronunciation. A bush fecal Fasel from just news Bt and Bangladesh. Please ask you questions and keep very much. Thank you, Ambassador, Each morning for this wonderful briefing and then Hank, thanks for your effort to for this wonderful work. And I want to ask about Bangladesh. The Bangladesh last year was here to and still I believe the Bangladeshis in here too. But the country’s situation is allow me in chance off human trafficking. You mentioned the end of the last month in Libya. 35 Bangladeshi people died on Libyan human trafficker set out a group of my friends That is 3500 people died in Libya and in the three The reason I’m telling a Bangladeshi Islamic a member of parliament, his wife also member of parliament this three member of parliament Shahidul Alam, arrested in Kuwait for his Ellie involvement in human trafficking and money laundering. Official confirmed on June 7 and Transparency International ti I be as Tom as an elite involvement off a lawmaker in human trafficking and money laundering. Is there just just disrespectful? Example off mischief in Bangladesh politics on Africa presentation I mean the the policy the Parliament member, they are also involved in human trafficking and Colin Regime is very much elected on the issues. So how you describe this situation particularly on it’s, um I glad you asked about that. And interestingly, Bangladesh was on the Tier two watch list for the last several years since event venture Bangladesh actually moved up to Tier two. Um, Bangladesh is a complicated place. As you know, there’s many different aspects of trapping that were going on their We’ve had a number of concerns of what we’ve seen. First, we start with deposit. They finally, after several years, established tribunals courts that are specifically focused on trafficking in persons. We thought that was a A positive. They also increased the number of victims that they identified since the last of reporting period, and they convicted farm or traffickers than they have in prior years. We saw these as serious, sustained efforts. Um, that would warrant an upgrade, but I want I do want to be clear. Although they had some increases, the convictions they had a decrease in the number of investigations. There are massive reports of complicity of government officials involved in in trafficking, and one of one of my particular concerns is that they’re taking very little efforts to do any sex trafficking investigations in the brothels in the capital on and there are some of the largest brothels in the world. Were deeply concerned about sex trafficking, thin those brothels and call on the government to increase its investigations. We’ve heard lots of claims. Both of adults who are coerced into sex trafficking as well as miners were coercion. Eczema. Question. If there’s a minor there, we know it’s six, right? Um, there’s also many. Many Bangladesh assistants have been identifies forced labor victims in the Gulf, including in Saudi Arabia. And we’ve called upon the government to investigate those cases in the connections that there may be within Bangladesh to, uh to migrants who are going there and perhaps being being compelled to work. There’s also a concern around recruitment fees in Bangladesh, and we’re deeply concerned about how recruitment fees might be used as a way that traffickers or coercing individuals, including addressing how they’re operating presses that sub agents of recruiters are operating illegally. And then finally, a massive challenge is perhaps in the in Cox’s Bazar on, and I had the privilege of getting to visit Bangladesh and getting getting down in Cox’s are concerned about the Rohingya and the vulnerabilities they face around trafficking, and I think there needs to be far more done to investigate trafficking there. So we do recognize deposits and some of the progress that Bangladesh has made grateful for the consistent engagement by our ambassador there. Best for Miller, who’s been a champion of this issue and consistently brought it up to the government. So there there’s good work has been done, and there’s much, much more work that has to be done. Future. All right. Thank you. Our next question comes from Pearl Matiba with open parliament in Zimbabwe. Pearl, please. Extra. Thank you very much, Ambassador. I was just quickly flipping through your reports and I noticed on page 64 the map of Africa, which is a very nice visualization there. But I have a couple questions because, um, the caption to the numbers that you have there just say that you’re relying on sources from African governments. Number one number two. Ah, that this is representing labor trafficking only. So my question to you is how reliable. How can we trust these numbers? Are, uh I don’t know. I’m not certain where I don’t know too much about your verification processes, but information coming out of some of these regime’s is not always trustworthy. And also the map shows sub Saharan Africa, not the entire continent. Is there another? What can you share? Maybe your comments between may be the difference between the entire continent and sub Saharan Africa itself. Thanks absolutely so a couple of a couple of points on that. First, the countries that are represented on the map for Africa are are is the region that the State Department has has created in order to organize ourselves in terms of our dealings. Northern Africa is group with a different region which is includes the Gulf and in the Middle East. And so those countries are are all served by the same group of folks working on a regional team. But we’ve divided up kind of those northern northern countries in Africa from the southern countries in Africa. So our Africa bureau focuses its work on the countries that you see represented on the map that you just mentioned. But I really appreciate you drawing everyone’s attention to the numbers that are represented in this chart that these are the material that we’ve been able to gather from governments. We know that some governments have a great deal of difficulty in pulling together and knowing what their data is. There may be able to get information from capital, but not maybe, information from more rural areas there. Maybe some countries have electronic systems for maintaining this data. Some still do it on all paper, and it’s difficult to tax s. So we’re sharing what were receding. You talk about verification. I think there’s some real questions there. And if you read the sentence below the chart, we’re trying to express that, um that these numbers are important because they’re what they’re being provided. But we’re not trying to state that these are completely accurate. It could be that a country has actually identified more victims than they and their able T share because they’re not getting information from a rural area or another part of the country. It could also mean that there could be some level of inflation a government could actually have given an inaccurate number in the other direction. I do, though, want to draw your attention to your question about forced labor. The number and the parent medical in the chart is the number of individuals a government shared that they identified or prosecutor convicted that was involved in labour trapped forced labor, the larger number. That parenthetical number is a subset of the larger number next to it, and that would include all victims identified so sex trafficking and labor trafficking victims. So, for instance, for Africa, it indicates that there were 41,609 victims identified by governments, and only 1000 310 of those were forced labor victims. We highlight this for a reason. We’re deeply concerned that there’s there’s not enough forced labor victims being identified and cared for and that governments need to do that are in this area. We want to make sure that labor trafficking is prioritized if you look at the not just the African map, but if you look at the global law, there’s a similar table for global law enforcement information. You’ll notice that the total number of labour trafficking victims that were identified this year is the lowest number since we were able to start listing this, so we feel like there needs to be a priority on working labor trafficking cases by governments around the world, including right here in the United States, where I think we we number one recommendation for the United States for the last several years has been to increase its work around labor trafficking cases. So we joined in. This is as a new area of growth. Hope that helps. Yes. Yes, it does. Thank you. All right, Ambassador, I just want to check that we’re still good on time. You’re going to take a few more questions. All right? So we’ll go to con Wall a bt next, and then we’ll take a few questions from the CHET. Kind of, if you would mind at its finger question. Hi. Can you hear me? Hello? Yes. Okay. Hi. Thanks. Ambassador for doing this press briefing. I am from Pakistan. Andi. I represent dzBB daily, but I have two questions for you. Can you please speak at large about us government policy to coordinate with Pakistani government who go trafficking at large? And my second question is more off quantitative. Are there any official statistics on trafficking across Iran and Pakistan on Afghanistan and Pakistan? If yes, underworked category this off for more like child labor. Sex trafficking. So peace. Can you just talk about border issues. Thank you. Absolutely. Um, I’ll just note that Pakistan was downgraded from tier two to Tier Two watch list by the secretary in the report that was released today, and that’s because they did not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. But it did make some significant efforts to do so. Um, Paxon reported an overall increase in investigations from 23 to 77 its conditions, so we saw some some progress there. But we’re deeply concerned that there’s very little progress on bonded labor. Uh, there are far more bonded labor cases out there than they are they’re doing in. And there’s also a data collection problem in Pakistan, which goes to the point that we were just talking about with with your colleague from Zimbabwe. In Pakistan, most of the government data and information comes from the from food job in one products. Um, other provinces provide far less information in data, and so I think that’s an area of growth, for Pakistan is figuring out how to pull this information together so that they can so they can share it. We did note that the government achieved the first conviction under the 2018 Trafficking Act. It is, however, a law enforcement ever, ever overall dropped significantly. The government on Lee investigated US 916 sex trafficking cases, compared with 2367 the year before. So I dropped way down in terms of the number of sex trafficking cases that it was focused on. Um, there’s also a challenge with complicity of government officials that we hear so continued reports about the need to investigate complicity in Pakistan. So we look forward to working with the government of Pakistan are the State Department has been working very hard to build that partnership in that relationship and to keep this as an issue of priority, We know that where we’re focused on trafficking, we’re focused on the rule of law. We’re focused on the protection systems that are necessary to help vulnerable people on. And so working through this issue actually benefits the whole of government. Okay, Thank you. If we could go back to the to the journalists who asked about Azerbaijan. Thank you. And I apologize. I do have some information here that could help us. You? Yes, wise on the watch list, the efforts of the effort said they did make, UM, they convicted more traffickers. They provided guidance to judges, and they issue some stricter sentences for her traffickers. But the government. I also note that it established grants for civil society. It significantly increased overall funding for victim protection on, and I see the engagement with civil society is an incredibly positive, positive move. However, they didn’t demonstrate an overall increasing efforts compared with the prior reporting period on. And that’s why they remained on the Tier two watch list for the second consecutive year. And as you, as you noted earlier next year, would be the last year with a waiver that they would be able to stay on the Tier two watch list, the government identified fewer victims. It did not regularly screen vulnerable populations. Any continued to lack sort of proactive victim identification efforts, particularly internal trafficking. Ueno from International Labor Organization that the majority of trafficking victims never cross the border. They’re trafficked in their country of origin. So making sure that we’re not just thinking about this is a transnational crime, but we’re also thinking about it as a internal crime, a crime. It is domestic. In fact, that was the theme of last year’s tip. Report. The 2019 to report. If you have time to download that, you’ll see lots of material that might be helpful to you as you consider how we can encourage how we can encourage countries to focus on internal trafficking as well. Thank you all right, unless anyone has any other questions that they like to ask. Now I’ll give you a couple questions that we’ve received in the chavs. All right, we have one question. I’m my questions on human trafficking of athletes. In this year’s report, there’s a case study on feet, his efforts to monitor player recruitment. But it’s rather brief. You have some real stories or current numbers of human trafficking case in sports, in the confident of Asia and in Africa and what’s being done to avoid this type of aircraft. Thank you. I was really excited that one of the topics that we were able to highlight in the introductory materials is this very issue of trafficking and sport, and I think one thing to remember and I think I think that this using athletics is the lambs really helps us focus in on what are the essential aspects trafficking, because I think that it surprises folks to learn. The trafficking occurs in this sphere. The track, regardless of the industry, whether someone’s being forced to dance at a bar or someone is forced to work in an agricultural field where someone is forced to play a sport on an athletic field. The traffickers always recruiting and compelling people to engage in some sort of activity for which the trafficker profits. It’s an economically motivated crime. And so traffickers have learned that they can recruit young athletes with promises of what it will be like to play professionally or to train in certain camps, and they lure them in. And they do it in a way that they get to profit from that experience. Not that it’s not the athletes getting to have the great athletic experience of being on a team. It’s that they now get ground down into a Monnet, being monetized in a sense, for the benefit of the trafficker. And so we took some time to highlight that. I think you’ll see from the stats standpoint, this is an area of weakness, I think, for the whole anti trafficking movement on this an area and therefore it’s also in area of growth. I think the number in that article is about 15,000 potential potential victims. But one area that we need to grow is figuring out how do we measure and how do we identify the prevalence of a problem in any given space? To answer that, the State Department has undertaken a massive research initiative, the Prevalence Reduction Innovation Forum, where they’re using, um, the best researchers from around the world to figure out different methodologies and figure out how do we measure the scope of the problem? So for years, people have asked, You know how many human trafficking victims are in any particular country and the methodology supplied have been fairly weak. And therefore we’ve got numbers that are difficult because the survey instrument you had used to ask about adult men who are being forced to work in agriculture is very different than the survey instrument that you would use to ask about minor boys being being sold for commercial sex, different traffickers, different industries, different areas and so we’re funding a number of prevalence studies that are industry specific in geographically focused. So instead of how many Dio how many victims rain Kenya, the question would be how many domestic workers are forced in metro NYC? Brody. That’s a number you could get. And then you could get interventions and try activities to see if you could measure again. Reduce that number if you are we actually making an impact through our efforts on the prevalence of a problem. So I very much appreciate your raising the question of prevalence around athletics as well as the issue of prevalence in other areas. All right, thank you very much, Ambassador, And we will take one more question. Unless there’s any chance. Remember, you can always raise your hand with one more question that we received. Image. The crowd virus pandemic has led to several countries closing their borders or restricting immigration agent silent visas, etcetera. Have you seen an increase in trafficking in persons in the last few months? Because these avenues of legal aggravation have been shut down, and so that’s a great question, and one that is worth spending some time thinking through, um, I love to share with you how I’ve been trying to process this question of code, its impact on on trafficking. Um, and you all may have your own ideas as well. About what? Um, what is going on? Because we’re all experiencing this in real time. We’re living it right now and trying to trying to sort it out. A couple things I’d note, um, number one traffickers have not shut down. They are capitalising on the chaos of this moment, and they’re continuing to exploit people. Um, another thing that I think we could take away is that people who are vulnerable are being made more vulnerable by this pandemic, both by illness, perhaps because they have the virus, but also because of shutdown orders and stay at home orders. It’s we are hearing concerning patterns of victims actually being forced to quarantine with their traffickers. This is particularly difficult if the traffickers air family members where where someone is stuck at home and their parents or their uncle or their and are the ones that are trafficking them now they have even less ability to get out. So we’re deeply concerned about how cove it might be having its impact on on victims come. Compounding the trauma that they experienced, we know that if they can’t protect themselves from their traffickers, they’re not gonna be able to safely protect themselves from the virus either. Um, and also say it has an impact on survivors people who are no under currently being traffic. But their access to services might have been diminished through really to get the care or the treatment, or be a part of a support group for counselling more difficult to do that in a socially distant setting. We’ve also heard from survivors who lost their jobs through no fault of around because government orders to shut down businesses on now. Without that, economic stability there made more vulnerable, and they worry that their traffickers might target them again in the future. We’ve also seen a concerning pattern about traffickers using the Internet itself to commit their crime. Or, um, or that cyber sex trafficking, if you will, is on the rise of the amount of abusive, inappropriate photos of Children are being sold in streamed and we’re seeing governments are beginning to see more and more evidence of that. Um, I’ll tell you that all of cover all the traffickers were not shutting down. This is a time where where people of goodwill have got to accelerate their efforts to make sure that vulnerable people are protected. A government has a unique responsibility to make sure that is actually taking the words on paper with laws that have been created and using those laws implementing them to protect individuals who are in need and that responsibility has not been canceled. That responsibility continues throughout the Corona through this Corona virus crisis, and we have to make sure that trafficking remains a priority. And I will just say the fact that the tip report has come out on time in the midst of this pandemic, while everyone has been telling. Working, I think is evidence itself of the priority that the United States is placing on this issue on. And we’re gonna join with all of our colleagues around the world on as they keep trying to make this a priority as well. All right, thank you very much. Ambassador Richmond, I want to thank you so much for coming out and speaking to our journalists taking the time out for the important work that you do. I also want to take our journalists for taking the time to come out and learn about the topic and for the excellent questions they with that, we will conclude our briefing. If you have any remaining questions, you can reach out to D. C F P C at ST dot gov. A transcript of this briefing will hopefully be ready as soon as possibly there later this evening or tomorrow morning, and the video and transcript will be posted to our website, fbc dot state dot gov. Um, if the people who have requested one on one interviews with please stick around otherwise everyone else can leave the meeting. I believe we had three that we were able to make time for Salim, Nike and Pearl. Please stick around for a one on one reasons. Otherwise everyone else these clothes out of me. Thank you.