Foreign Policy: U.S. Stopped Vital Foreign Aid Programs in the Name of Counter-Trafficking
“For over six months, the Trump administration’s drive to clamp down on human trafficking has quietly wreaked havoc on [support for] important U.S.-funded aid programs around the developing world, including money that could have helped alleviate the new Ebola outbreak in Central Africa. … Until very recently, the administration issued little and in some cases no guidance on exactly what programs should face funding cuts under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), leaving in limbo critical projects on demining former war zones, combating the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and even countering human trafficking themselves. … The Trump administration’s approach has left aid organizations — and even some U.S. officials involved in the deliberations — fuming as they watch important aid projects stall in the name of countering human trafficking. … Congressional aides say the State Department finally agreed to lift some restrictions on aid, including aid related to combating Ebola, in recent weeks — just as the department rolled out the 2019 TIP Report on June 20…” (Gramer, 6/26).