Passing Legislation and Setting Up Assistance Programs
Raids against transnational trafficking rings, statements by world leaders, international conferences, and articles as well as popular movies depicting sexual slavery heightened pressures to “do something.” In response, the Clinton administration drafted a comprehensive approach that embodied the prosecution of profiteers, protections for trafficked persons, and prevention measures. In 1994, the U.S. Department of State declared traf- ficking across borders to be a severe violation of human rights and began to issue an annual “Trafficking in Persons Report” that monitored what other countries were doing to try to bring the problem under control. The State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons originally focused on the sexual exploitation of women and girls smuggled by inter- national rings feeding the demand for prostitutes but broadened its scope to include forced labor. Foreign nationals who assist investigations and prosecutions are eligible for the designation
“qualified victims,” and they might be granted “continued presence” and immigration relief (from deportation), which can lead to permission to work in legitimate jobs, legal residency, and eventual citizenship. Federally funded services (provided through contracts with NGOs) include medical, dental, and mental health care; sustenance and shelter; help with transla- tion and interpretation; legal assistance; and transportation (Jahic and Finckenauer, 2005; Lobasz, 2009; Chuang, 2010; and U.S. Department of State, 2011). However, to be eligible for these forms of support, plus possibly restitution and a visa, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services must certify that the person meets the hard to prove standards of a “severe traf- ficking victim” (George, 2012).
In 2000, an international agreement went into effect: the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. That same year, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). Both laws defined trafficking as the recruitment and movement of children, women, and men for the purpose of subjecting these victims to involuntary servitude in labor- intensive activities. The TVPA was reauthorized and strengthened in 2003, 2005, 2008, and 2013. The 2013 reauthorization strengthened efforts to ban child marriage and to prevent the purchase of products made by labor traf- ficking victims. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 enables government agencies to terminate any con- tracts with organizations and individuals that engage in or support trafficking (Polaris Project, 2014a; 2014b).
An Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division was set up in the Office of Refugee Resettlement that is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It funds the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC), which staffs a hotline and tipline.
The U.S. Department of Justice runs a Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and an Office for Victims of Crime (OVC). The BJA in cooperation with the OVC has funded 42 Anti-Human Trafficking Task Forces across the country, which pair law enforcement agencies with service providers in order to offer effective first responses to exploited persons. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division of the Department of Home- land Security runs a Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit that seeks to locate individuals brought in from other countries. A Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center is a collaborative effort that involves the Department of State, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that functions as a repository of infor- mation about these illegal activities (Polaris Project, 2014a).
Besides the Department of Health and Human Services, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Justice, at least 15 international organi- zations participate in the global struggle to suppress human
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trafficking, including the United Nations, the International Labor Organization, the Organization of American States, the Association of Southeast Nations, and the World Bank (Lobasz, 2009).
On the home front, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation to combat sex and labor trafficking. However, most states still lack adequate laws to support and assist persons who have escaped, and 12 states had failed by 2014 to make even minimal efforts to pass such legislation, according to a rigorous rating system. The FBI’s efforts to disrupt human trafficking draw upon its Civil Rights Unit (CRU) and the Violent Crimes Against Children Section (VCACS). The CRU investigates forced labor; sex trafficking of adults by force, fraud, or coercion; and the sexual exploita- tion of foreign minors, while the VCACS focuses on the com- mercial exploitation of Americans under the age of 18 who have been drawn into the sex trade. The FBI has established close to 70 Child Exploitation Task Forces that operate around the country, in which its agents work in tandem with victim specialists from its Office for Victim Assistance, as well as state and local law enforcement agencies. The Bureau announced in 2014 that a nationwide crackdown on the sex trafficking of underage persons, part of its Innocence Lost initiative, swept up about 280 pimps and similar exploiters and led to the rescuing of nearly 170 minors from their con- trol. Since its creation in 2003, the Innocence Lost sting operations have resulted in the identification and recovery of approximately 3,600 sexually exploited minors (FBI, 2014a).
Activists have identified the immediate needs of per- sons extracted from the clutches of traffickers that ought to be provided by local law enforcement and social welfare agencies: temporary housing, assistance to relocate to another area, transportation on a daily basis, legal advice, and of course physical protection. Ideally, a trained counselor should be assigned to the rescued person’s case within a few hours (Gonzalez, 2013). Advocacy groups are developing and then recommending various “best practices” that fit within a victim-centered approach to prevent the smuggling and sale of human beings across national boundaries, to safeguard these rescued individuals from further harm, and to repatriate them to their country of origin or else reintegrate them into the destination society, at first with legal immigrant status and eventually with citizenship rights.