Liberia: U.S. Aid Cuts Likely to Put More Liberians at Risk of Human Trafficking 

• The Trump administration has cut 69 global programs tackling child labor and human trafficking and merged an office that once funded Liberia’s anti-human trafficking programs
• Although Liberia risks downgrading by the U.S. for poor antihuman trafficking performance, that sanction has less teeth given the administration’s drastic reduction in aid
• Experts warn the aid cuts, coupled with low financial support from the Boakai administration would deal a big blow to Liberia’s antihuman trafficking efforts

By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives

The Trump administration’s sweeping freezes on foreign aid continue to undermine a range of programs in heavily aid dependent Liberia. The cuts to health, education and agriculture have received substantial attention but cuts to the country’s anti-human trafficking work has so far gone unnoticed.  

Now experts are warning the cuts, combined with low levels of funding from the administration of President Joseph Boakai, could deal a big blow to Liberia’s anti-human trafficking efforts, just as climate change and growing rural poverty are making more people vulnerable to traffickers.

“Of course it’s a big blow,” said Adolphus Satiah, former head of secretariat of the anti-human trafficking unit at the Labor Ministry under the Weah administration. Satiah said the cuts, coming with reduced funding of $40,000 in the 2025 Boakai administration budget from a high of $230,000 in 2023, will likely not even be enough to cover the costs of prosecutions. “Because they will not be able to address a lot of issues. With $US40,000 alone, you can’t address all the pillars under the national action plan against Trafficking in Persons. You will not be able to address prevention adequately. You will not be able to address prosecution adequately.”

The U.S. has supported a range of efforts in Liberia’s anti-human trafficking work over the years, with a carrot and stick approach: It has funded the training of law enforcement, investigators, judges, lawyers and civil society. And at the same time, it has threatened to penalize Liberian governments with cuts in aid when they fell into the Tier 2 Watchlist on the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report for countries the U.S. deemed to have not done enough to combat the scourge.

Now the Trump administration has dealt a blow to both sides of the strategy. By cutting around $US300 million in U.S. aid to the country, threats of an aid cut have less clout. At the same time, the Trump administration has slashed dozens of offices of the State Department including the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons which issued the annual TIP Report. The U.S. Labor Department has also cut 69 programs that allocated more than $US500 million to combat child labor, forced labor and human trafficking according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post.

The TIP Report is mandated by the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act. It is released annually in late June or early July. The report measures how governments around the world deal with human trafficking, covering protection of victims, prosecution of accused traffickers, prevention of trafficking and partnerships with advocates working on the issue. The country was downgraded to the Tier 2 watchlist in the 2024 report. If it stays on the watchlist this year – as experts expect it will – it faces cuts in what U.S. aid remains in place.

A victim who testified against Arthur Chan-Chan, a convicted former national security agent, despite threats and bribes. She says the government offered her no support or security. The victim stands with the child she left behind when she was trafficked to Oman. Credit: Carielle Doe/New Narratives.

“If Liberia gets downgraded, it’s still a minus for us,” said Satiah. “It’s something that should worry every Liberian in terms of not performing well when it comes to human trafficking.”

After a couple of years of success – including the returning of hundreds of women who were trafficked to the middle eastern country of Oman in 2023, and the successful prosecutions of 21 traffickers – the country moved off the watchlist in 2023. Then, in 2023, the Weah administration slashed the budget by 90 percent from $US 230,000 to $15,000. The move was allegedly intended to support the 2023 presidential and legislative elections.

The Boakai government’s $40,000 in the 2025 budget is an 80 percent drop from where it was when the country last moved off the watchlist in 2023. The Boakai government has not prosecuted a single alleged trafficker in nearly a year. It lost the only case it prosecuted in September last year. It’s unclear how much of that was spent on the case, which was lost in part because of the refusal of the alleged victims to testify against their traffickers.

Meanwhile other international partners have been warning the government to tackle the problem. The plight of victims was highlighted in preliminary findings released in December by a special rapporteur of the UN on Human Trafficking. In an exclusive interview with FrontPage Africa/New Narratives, Siobhán Mullally called for “more effective victims and witness protection,”  warning that “victims may continue to be at risk.” Mullally also urged U.N. agencies and development partners to help the government address the issue.

Since it entered office, the administration of President Boakai has forged partnerships with some institutions. It has also held awareness campaigns and meetings with stakeholders to evaluate the country’s national action on human trafficking. Cooper Kruah, Liberia’s labor minister, insists the government will continue to engage the trafficking victims who have refused to testify against alleged traffickers.

“For reintegrating these people into the society, we have to do it with the Ministry of Gender. A lot of meetings has been going on with the ministry,” said Kruah, who is also a lawyer. “You have the TEVT [the multimillion EU funded program known as Technical and Vocational Education and Training] under the Ministry of Youth and Sports. All these are opportunities that we will pursue for those of them who are willing to learn something new.”

In a recent interview Nuho Konneh, acting head of the anti-human trafficking secretariat, said the secretariat had “provided $US 2000 worth of food and nonfood items,” including rice and used clothes to four women in a government-run safe home and had “provided psychological and mental health training for 17 of the girls.” The women were also enrolled at the My Help Vocational Institute in Monrovia. This was confirmed in phone calls to the women.

Konneh said a portion of the grant was also used to send 40 women for medical care. But Konneh admitted that Kemah, and the women protesting their treatment by the government, have been left out so far.

The government’s sincerity in tackling the issue took a blow in February when it was revealed that one of their own was engaged in trafficking. Henry McGill, now dismissed assistant director for operations of the anti-human trafficking secretariat, was accused of deceiving three women that he would send them to Oman for high-paying jobs. McGill, 38, allegedly received $US 21,000 from the women, according to a police charge sheet. He was arrested in February but has yet to be indicted because his accusers have refused to testify about his alleged crimes.

Victims and experts now fear that with the drastic U.S. cuts things are set to get even worse. Kemah is one of the 112 women who were repatriated from Oman through a partnership between the Liberian government and the International Organization for Migration.

“Since I came from Oman, the government has not done anything for me yet,” said Kemah, 30, who asked that FrontPage Africa only use her middle name to protect her from retaliation. “I do not go to a safe house. When the government treating you like that, will you be happy? I not happy. I feel very bad.”

A former trafficking victim with her father. Credit: Carielle Doe/New Narratives.

Kemah is one of more than 300 women who say they were duped by Liberian and Omani agents to travel to Oman under the pretense they would get a well-paying job. She is one of many victims who have refused to testify in court against their alleged traffickers. Kemah said she was offered bribes not to testify, and threatened. With no finance or security to offer, the government has struggled to convince women to support prosecutions.

Philip Nushann, a pastor, who has provided psychosocial counseling for the women says it’s important for the government to win the victims over.

“The government needs to stand with them. They feel insecure to testify against someone who influenced them to have left this country. They need security,” said Nushann, director of the trauma healing and reconciliation program of the Lutheran Church. He says they also need safe houses. “They need safety to know that the government is interested in their reintegration by providing reintegration packages and training in ways that will make them self-sufficient.”

In messages to FPA/NN, Princess Taire, project manager for World Hope International, which has advocated for victims’ protection and care, said the government needed to go further.

“Most of them are deeply hurt. Call the women on the table again. Let them pull out their heart. Don’t plan for them. Plan with them,” said Taire. “Some of them need funding to start their business afresh. But you have to plan with them. They will tell you the kind of business they need. Some of them are in school. They need scholarships. Some of them need perpetual healthcare based on the situations they have encountered.”

This is part two of an FPA/NN two-part series. Part one found the Liberian government was risking serious cuts to US aid by failing to invest in anti-human trafficking actions.