Monrovia — The United States Ambassador to Liberia, Mark Toner, paid a courtesy visit to Labor Minister Cllr. Cooper Kruah on Thursday, August 29, 2024.
The newly accredited ambassador of the United States to Liberia visited the Labor Minister at 2:00 PM at the EJS Ministerial Complex, where the Ministry is situated.
The meeting deepened the strong partnership between Liberia and the United States, with a focus on strengthening efforts against human trafficking, combating child labor, and enhancing staff capacity development.
During the meeting, Minister Kruah outlined his vision to combat human trafficking and child labor, emphasizing the need for institutionalized approaches to prevent, protect, and prosecute individuals involved in such illegal activities, while also focusing on developing the human resource capacity of the Ministry's staff.
Minister Kruah acknowledged that the past administration did not perform well in prosecuting trafficking cases. "We did not do so well during the last administration and last reporting period. We did not successfully prosecute all cases, losing some due to various reasons, including the unwillingness of victims to testify. This led to our downgrade to the Tier Two Watch List, which we are not pleased with. We are now working assiduously to prosecute three cases on the docket for the August term of court. Two male and one female victim, who were trafficked, are now in our safe home."
He continued, "I am pleased to announce that we have successfully prosecuted a trafficking-in-persons case involving a Sierra Leonean man who trafficked and sold his own daughter here in Liberia to acquire money to process his U.S. Diversity Visa program. He is now serving a prison term, and final arrangements have been concluded for her repatriation to Sierra Leone through their embassy here, in keeping with consular protocols."
Mr. Kruah also acknowledged the partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which renovated two safe homes and successfully conducted a review of the TIP National Action Plan (NAP). The review led to the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and a major high-level stakeholders' engagement was recently concluded to revise the U.S. State Department's 2024 TIP report on Liberia. The discussions focused on addressing recommendations such as increasing efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers; enhancing protection services for victims, including long-term care; allocating financial and in-kind resources to support anti-trafficking efforts; and implementing the 2019-2024 NAP, including training officials, law enforcement officers, and labor inspectors, and raising public awareness.
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The Minister expressed his appreciation to the U.S. government for its continuous support of Liberia's programs and policies. He reiterated calls for financial and logistical support, both directly and indirectly through development partners, to combat human trafficking, child labor, staff capacity development, and other relevant programs.
He also highlighted the significant budget cut for prosecution, from US$250,000.00 to US$33,000.00, which poses a major impediment to investigating and prosecuting unlawful individuals.
The U.S. Ambassador thanked Mr. Kruah for his vision for the Ministry and appreciated his farsightedness in working hard to uphold international labor standards and protect human rights. He committed to helping Liberia get back on the right path to regain its position.
Ambassador Toner added that Mr. Kruah is taking the right steps to put Liberia on the right trajectory, emphasizing that respect for workers' rights is a fundamental human right.
"I am pleased to hear that you are taking good steps and making progress in combating human trafficking. We hope the economy and investment are growing, and you must do that in coordination to fight human trafficking," Ambassador Toner concluded.
