20th Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum – Human Trafficking/Illicit Finance

Hon. Karen Bradley, a member of the UK Parliament and the Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery, joins the forum and offers keen insight to the panel. Ms. Bradley begins with a short background of her work with the British government, specifically in her work on the Modern Slavery Act in junction with former PM Teresa May. Ms. Bradley continues to say that at first she thought it would be nearly impossible to pass such an act in such a large country, but through persistence she prevailed. It shows that in all countries, all parliamentarians can bring real action and success in such matters.

After touching on her success in the British Parliament, Ms. Bradley makes the interesting and distinct point that human trafficking is too often seen through immigration or an humanitarian crisis (similar to Ms. Basham), when in reality the profits and finances from it prove to cause the most world-wide trouble. Human trafficking is a financial crime, and it is used to exploit money in every single town, city, and country in the world.

Ms. Bradley then enters into how the USA and its allies can work to stop such a business model. First, she says that the Allies need to identify exactly what sectors and fields these criminals are benefiting from, so the Allies can seize the criminals’ assets. Next, Ms. Bradley says the hardest part of the work is bringing to light the criminals’ supply chains. Even large American corporations need to be investigative, transparent, and specific in their supply chains, because at root many of the victims of human trafficking end up in the factories producing the raw materials for such companies. Upon such investigating, allied governments can use data and financial modeling to trace where slavery may be occurring. Ms. Bradley pleads how getting victims to plead/admit they are slaves is so important, as then the testimonies can help allies find and prosecute the criminals. To finish, Ms. Bradley touches on the intersection of all issues. Human trafficking is the center point and intersection of terrorism, climate change, illicit finance, deforestation, and most other foreign, non-governmental issues. If the USA and allies can spend more on human trafficking prevention, such countries can save so much in the long run, because all other issues slowly disappear. Ms. Bradley ends with a quote on the outside statue of the National Archive Building – “Eternal Vigilance is the price of liberty.”