U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) led a bipartisan call on Wednesday for the State Department to step up efforts to combat human trafficking among Syrian refugees.
In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Capito called human trafficking a “humanitarian and national security issue” and urged the State Department to engage in government-to-government relationships with countries affected by the migration of Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
“It is imperative that we continue to strengthen our relationship with the Jordanian, Lebanese and Turkish governments in order to end the practice of human trafficking among the growing refugee population,” the letter states. “Complacency and inaction are no longer an option in this increasingly dangerous region. We must ensure that human trafficking does not continue, so that we may ensure the safety of millions of men, women, and children as well as halting an inhumane practice that provides funding for terrorist organizations.”
The letter was signed by a bipartisan group of nine senators, including U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Rob Portman (R-OH) and Marco Rubio (R-FL).
“Nowhere is the urgency to stop this practice felt more than in countries experiencing the effects of growing Syrian refugee populations,” the letter states. “Lebanon hosts approximately one million registered refugees, which means that one in five people in the country is now a refugee. Jordan hosts the largest Syrian refugee camp in the world, with a large enough population to make it the country’s ninth largest city; and Turkey is now host to over four million refugees, 90 percent of which live outside of camps. The fragility of the situation in these countries has led to the exponential growth of the threat of human trafficking activity.”
Human trafficking is also a national security issue, the letter adds, because terrorist organizations like ISIS have been known to sell women and children into marriage and sex slavery to fighters.
“The human trafficking industry profits number in the billions each year, contributing to dangerous organizations like ISIS, Hezbollah and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham that threaten the safety of millions of Americans at home and abroad,” the letter states. “Trafficking in this region is used to humiliate minority religious groups, promotes rape and forced sex slavery as a tool of war, and is used to extort families for ransom. It is estimated that the practice trafficking of refugees to Europe alone has generated over $320 million for ISIS and other jihadist groups in the region.”