United States Ambassador Michael McCarthy who’s is on a tour of Southeastern Liberia will appear as a guest panelist later today on the maiden edition and sitting of a series of interactive public forums of the USAID funded Liberia Media Activity (LMA) Community Media Forums (CMF’s) at Pleebo City in the Southeastern county of Maryland.

Organized, facilitated, and moderated by the Liberia Media for Democratic Initiatives under its flagship platform, THE DIALOGUE, Liberia’s only sustained national People To People (P2P) media and community outreach blended public forum, today’s CMF/DIALOGUE will see and hear ambassador Michael McCarthy address the people of Maryland and exchange frank views on Trafficking in Persons (TIP’S) in direct face to face interactive engagement with dozens of citizens of Maryland County at the Pleebo city hall.

The ambassador is expected to urge the people of Maryland County in particular and the Southeastern Region, in General, to watch out for, raise their voice and resist the rather peculiar human trafficking ring in their communities. The trafficking in-person forum here at Pleebo will also be addressed by TIP’S government of Liberia, Ministry of Labor focal person, ADOLPHUS SATIA. Ambassador McCarthy and Mr. Satiah will also be joined by the Civil Society and local leaders of Maryland in discussing the apparent notable trafficking persons within Maryland county and the Southeastern Region in particular and Liberia in general.

The Trafficking in Persons sensitive forum with ambassador McCarthy in the Southeast of Liberia is part of a new five-year partnership between INTERNEWS Liberia and the LMDI to roll out a series of 19 public forums and debates annually on all kinds of national issues with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Internews Liberia Media Activity (LMA).

The engagement on TIP is especially aimed to create the urgently needed public awareness within the Liberian public about the apparent uncontrolled and unmonitored wave of human trafficking in persons in Liberia. Liberia has been suspected to be carrying out a ring of uncontrolled human trafficking which is said to involve trading or exchange of children internally for domestic servitude.

The U.S. Department of State Office monitoring Human Trafficking across the World and Liberia says the country that has not done much in many years about human trafficking in spite of its wild spread situation and that led to the country being put on TIER 2 watch list in 2019. The U.S. ambassador at large on human trafficking, JOHN RICHMOND was in Liberia in September 2019 to press Liberia to take urgent and stringent actions against Trafficking in persons in Liberia. Liberia’s Trafficking in-person ring is particularly peculiar because it is largely done internally and involves children whose parents are lured into giving their children up to people in Liberian cities, especially the capital Monrovia for better life and education, but end up being ill-treated in forced labor and sex trade by the guardians.