Human Rights Committee
- Human trafficking is a crime that occurs when force, fraud, or coercion is used to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act from another person.
- AFA has partnered with the Department of Transportation and Department of Homeland Security to bring Blue Lightning human trafficking awareness training to thousands of Flight Attendants.
- The Blue Lightning Initiative has recently released updated training on human trafficking based on feedback from airline employees and human trafficking survivors. You can access the training through the AFA Online Learning Academy.
In 2013, AFA formally started efforts to educate Flight Attendants about human trafficking and ensure that airlines provided such training. Those efforts grew in 2015 when AFA launched a major campaign to support the Blue Lightning Initiative (BLI), led by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Department of Transportation (DOT). The goal of BLI is to train airline personnel to identify potential traffickers and human trafficking victims, and to report their suspicions to federal law enforcement. This support expanded into an official partnership in 2017, when AFA became the first labor union to secure a memorandum of understanding to bring the Blue Lightning Training to thousands of Flight Attendants.
As Flight Attendants, we are uniquely positioned to identify human traffickers and assist their victims. Flight crews are skilled observers, and with the appropriate training, they can be the frontline against trafficking, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Indicators of human trafficking can include: physical control of travel documents of an adult traveler by a co-traveler; restricting the movement and social interaction of an adult traveler by a co-traveler; an adult traveler who is unclear on details of his/her final destination or point of contact; or a child traveler who appears to be accompanied by someone claiming to be the parent or guardian who is in fact not related to the child.
Updated Blue Lightning Initiative Training
The new Blue Lighting Initiative training, led by the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Transportation, is an element of the DHS Blue Campaign. The training is 17 minutes in length, and is comprised of four lessons that include:
- What is Human Trafficking?
- Indicators of Human Trafficking Activity
- Reporting Suspected Human Trafficking
- Indicator Challenge
You can access the updated training through the AFA-CWA Online Learning Academy. If it’s your first time visiting the AFA-CWA Online Learning Academy, you’ll need to register for an account using your personal email address in order to access the training.
More Information
You can find more information about efforts to end human trafficking on the Blue Lightning Initiative or the DHS Blue Campaign website pages.
