On July 28, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced that Port of Seattle Commission President Sam Cho has been appointed by Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to the department’s Advisory Committee on Human Trafficking (ACHT). This appointment elevates the Port of Seattle’s efforts to the national level.
Cho told the Northwest Asian Weekly, “Tackling human trafficking is one of the pillars of my work at the Port of Seattle—especially because so many victims are from the Asian diaspora… the Port was the recipient of the USDOT’s 2022 Human Trafficking in Transportation Impact Award. Our efforts locally are being recognized on a national level and I’m very excited to continue our work across the country.”
In addition to training, the Port of Seattle posted 310 signs in the restrooms and passenger loading bridges at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, as well as 20 signs at Port of Seattle parks and 10 signs at Fisherman’s Terminal on how to report suspected trafficking. The signage is translated into eight languages beyond English: Spanish, Tagalog, Korean, Chinese, Somali, Russian, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.
The 15-member ACHT is chartered to create a triennial counter-trafficking report with recommendations for countering human trafficking. In addition to Cho, the committee includes representatives from the aviation, bus, law enforcement, maritime, port, rail, and trucking sectors.