Working together for effective solutions to trafficking and forced labor

josie, on September 19th, 2007 at 2:20 am Said:

“Karly, this is an issue I am deeply intereseted in. What should be the standard practice when dealing with trafficed women cuaght in raids? There are obviously going to be raids. And at least in Nevada, there are many undocumented people caught up in them.

So what should be done? Obviously ICE is not the answer. We can’t just send them back to their trafficker. So what is the human standard of care here? Anyone?”

Hi Josie, thanks for posting this question. It seems important, so I decided to make it a whole new thread.

Since I am a US-based worker, I cannot speak from personal experience about what trafficking victims go through before, during or after raids. For information, I look to trusted organizations such as:

The Network of Sex Work Projects

The Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center

EMPOWER, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Zi Teng, Hong Kong

And there are many others. These are just examples to get you started.

This article provides a chronological explanation of how money for trafficking is routed in the US. It highlights the problem of using un-scientific and exaggerated figures to quantify the problem of trafficking. Using these figures dilutes the real problems of trafficking that exist, focuses energy on punishment rather than services and wrongfully discriminates against women who travel here from other countries, even if not for sex work or any other labor.

From my perspective, even one case of sexual exploitation is too much and something should be done about it. But one instance of abuse does not mean that all sex work is abusive. Sex workers should be seen as allies in this fight. We need real solutions that provide assistance and support to people who are actually in need, rather than money being funneled through law enforcement agencies. The Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center in NYC provides legal support and assistance with immigration paperwork/T visas/etc. I would check them out for info about the actual practical details of assisting an identified trafficking victim. These efforts require money, but the money available for this work comes with all sorts of strings attached. Here is a statement from SWP:

Statement on Trafficking in Persons for the 51st Session of the Commission for the Status of Women on the “elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child.”

We recommend a realistic and effective policy model on human trafficking and prostitution, which would include:

• Training people who work in all industries where trafficking occurs to identify and aid trafficked persons;

• Enforcement of laws against assault, extortion and other human rights abuses committed against trafficked persons and sex workers;

• Access to comprehensive health care, education, and opportunities to seek a living wage in adulthood for all girl children;

• Removal of harsh immigration policies that exacerbate the vulnerabilities of those who are susceptible to being trafficked;

• Reform the criminal justice response to prostitution, as harsh systems increase vulnerability for trafficking and other abuses;

• Training in business and money management;

• Reductions in social stigmas that often prohibit sex workers from moving into other forms of labor if they want to do so; and

• Education and empowerment for sex workers on ways to prevent the spread of HIV.

What has actually happened is that there are a few thousand cases annually of trafficking for sexual purposes (and many thousand more cases of trafficking for other labor) but the numbers have been inflated. The federal government pumped tons of money into the ‘war on sex trafficking’ based on these false estimates. This resulted in dozens of NGO’s and law enforcement agencies getting huge grants to find victims that did not exist (this is not to say that there are no victims at all, but there were not enough victims to meet quotas for this money.) Since there were not enough people who could be identified as trafficked persons to justify this funding- and the NGO’s, law enforcement entities and government workers wanted to continue receiving that money- the definition of trafficking needed to be broadened, in order to include anybody engaged in any consensual sexual exchange, including US citizens. There are various provisions about crossing county/state lines for the purposes of sexual commerce= trafficking, etc. Plus, they wanted to be able to go after clients, which is where the ‘end demand’ language factors in. More info about the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the 2003 re-authorization of that act can be found here.

Some more material from SWP at the Urban Justice Center:

 

CRITIQUE OF FOCUS ON DEMAND IN THE CONTEXT OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

On the supply side, poverty, unemployment, the search for economic and other opportunities, and gender inequality combine to put many people at risk for exploitation and abuse during the migration process or once they arrive at their intended destination. Addressing these causes of the “supply” will do far more to protect the rights of sex workers and of trafficked persons than ineffective attempts to curb “demand.”

 

 

THE DANGER OF CONFLATING TRAFFICKING AND SEX WORK:

Sex work is alternately described as being the same as trafficking in persons or the cause of trafficking into sex work.16 These conclusions are based on flawed studies, providing biased and inadequate information.17 Conflating sex work with trafficking into sex work erases the voices of sex workers, worsening the conditions of sex workers and warping discussions of trafficking.

16 See Feingold, supra note 2, at 24 (The State Department website argues “‟Where prostitution is legalized or tolerated, there is greater demand for human trafficking victims and nearly always an increase in the number of women and children trafficked into commercial sex slavery,” despite a lack of data to support this bold assertion). 17 Ronald Weitzer, The Growing Moral Panic Over Prostitution and Sex Trafficking, THE CRIMINOLOGIST, 30(5), 1-5, 3-4 (Sept./Oct. 2005).

 

Response to the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights aspects of the victims of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Sigma Huda

A human rights-based approach to human trafficking acknowledges the root causes of trafficking, such as discriminatory practices in education, health and education marginalizing women, girls and minorities, and focuses on empowerment models to reduce or eliminate the vulnerability of persons to being trafficked. A human rights approach is more effective than a solely repressive criminal law strategy that claims to address the consequences of trafficking but not the causes.

I hope that this material will be helpful to you in understanding a human rights based approach. Hopefully other folks can add more material or clarify some of my summary. Thanks for taking the time to look into this Josie!

sincerely,

Karly