Today is the first day of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) five-day annual awareness and outreach effort in Mexico to educate commercial motor vehicle drivers, motor carriers, law enforcement officers and the general public about the crime of human trafficking, the signs to look for and what to do if you suspect someone is being trafficked.
This week, law enforcement jurisdictions, companies with trucks and motorcoaches, and transportation safety organizations in Mexico will conduct human trafficking awareness and outreach activities and submit data about those activities to the Alliance. CVSA will gather and analyze the data and report the results this summer.
Leading up to this week’s initiative, CVSA educated its membership and the public on human trafficking through webinars, social media, articles, training sessions, radio appearances and online resources, including access to a Spanish-language educational video on human trafficking awareness and prevention.
This week, through a collaboration with Mexico’s Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT), The Well of Life, Citizen Council for Security and Justice of Mexico City, and TAT (formerly Truckers Against Trafficking), drivers and motor carriers will receive complimentary wallet cards and other educational materials, which will be distributed at essential locations throughout Mexico’s federal motor transportation sector, such as SICT centers, training centers, verification units and terminals.
The United Nations defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception with the aim of exploiting them for profit. Men, women and children of all ages and from all backgrounds can become victims of this crime, which occurs in every region of the world.
Accurately tracking and reporting human trafficking is difficult due to its hidden and underreported nature. Interactions are kept secret, traffickers don’t keep records, and many victims never report their exploitation due to fear, stigma, shame or lack of resources. However, some verifiable data is available. The Mexican government reported 860 victims of human trafficking in 2024, which included 343 sex trafficking victims, 75 forced labor victims and 442 victims of unspecified forms of exploitation. Mexico also reported 661 new human trafficking investigations in 2024 (392 for sex trafficking, 48 for forced labor and 221 for unspecified forms of exploitation).
If you suspect someone is being trafficked or you are the victim of human trafficking, call Mexico’s national hotline at 800-5533-000. In the U.S., call 888-373-7888. Hotlines are confidential, free of charge and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
CVSA’s members are commercial motor vehicle safety officials and motor carrier industry representatives in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. As a North American organization, Canada and the U.S. are also a part of CVSA’s Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative, with each country having its own dates. Canada’s HTAI was Feb. 23-27, and the U.S. initiative was Jan. 12-16.
The annual Human Trafficking Awareness Initiative is part of CVSA’s Human Trafficking Prevention Program. The program seeks to reduce human trafficking throughout North America through coordinated enforcement and investigative and educational awareness measures within the commercial motor vehicle industry.