Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: The FBI launches a new intelligence-driven initiative designed to combat labor trafficking. 

The crime happens when a business or employer coerces and forces their victim into labor or domestic servitude.

Labor trafficking is historically seen in the agriculture and hospitality industries, as well as in household and au pair positions.

The FBI initiative educates local and state workers responsible for inspecting and licensing these industries on how to spot indicators of the crime.

Ryan Blay: Hopefully through us going to these regulatory agencies, we are able to make them aware—look, this is what labor trafficking is, and it’s real, and it exists, and you guys have a hand in helping us identify it.

Halpern: That was Supervisory Special Agent Ryan Blay of the Civil Rights Unit. He says the proactive approach aims to bolster investigations and prosecutions of traffickers.

Blay: By doing that, we’ll hopefully be able to recover and remove persons currently being exploited and being victimized from their situations. 

Halpern: With FBI, This Week, I’m Mollie Halpern of the Bureau.