Department of Labor and Department of Health and Human Services

The United States’ own assessment of its efforts to combat human trafficking in the United States highlights that “the success of U.S. Government efforts to combat trafficking in persons domestically hinges on pursuing a victim-centered approach.”  But, despite its “victim-centered” approach, the federal government spent only 17.6% of the FY2006 appropriated monies for domestic anti-trafficking efforts on trafficking victims’ services.

Survivors need intensive social service case management, legal services and other support as they recover from the trauma of human trafficking.  These services include: emergency shelter and long-term housing, food, clothing, medical and mental health care, legal and immigration services, access to education and employment opportunities, and life skills training.

Programs to serve survivors of human trafficking who are foreign nationals:

• Only $9.823 million has been appropriated for services to foreign nationals, despite $15 million authorized beginning in 2000 under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).
• The number of certified victims of trafficking in 2007 was 303.  This represents a doubling of the number certified in 2003 and is roughly 30% higher than in 2005 and 2006.
• Nonetheless, HHS has certified only 1379 survivors of human trafficking in the seven fiscal years the program has operated. The U.S. Government estimates that up to 17,500 individuals are trafficked into the United States each year.  Not enough is being done to identify and support victims of trafficking.
• HHS aims to increase the number of certified foreign national trafficking survivors to 800 per year by FY 2011.  However, even today with the small percentage of trafficking survivors being identified and served, HHS has had to decrease the service eligibility period for certified victims of trafficking from eight to four months.
• When a typical trafficking prosecution can take a year or more, and recovery from trauma and abuse can take many more, it is clear that even eight months of support for a human trafficking survivor is insufficient.

Programs to serve survivors of human trafficking who are U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPR):

• No money has been appropriated for services to U.S. citizens and LPRs, despite $15 million authorized beginning in 2005 under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA).
• Federal and local law enforcement officials throughout the U.S. have identified the lack of appropriate and available shelter for minor victims of trafficking as the single greatest obstacle to pursuing investigations and to the children’s recovery. 
• Assuming a conservative cost of $25,000 per bed per year, $5 million could provide 200 beds with wrap-around social services.  Placing these numbers in context, outreach workers identified over 400 trafficked children on the streets of Las Vegas in May 2007 alone.
• Existing programs that serve runaway and homeless youth or domestic violence victims are frequently ill-adapted to serve this population, due to the stigma associated with many survivors of sex trafficking and the additional security issues when victims have been abused by (and sometimes are traumatically bonded to) organized criminals.
• There is currently no federal funding for specialized case management services for U.S. citizen and LPR survivors of human trafficking.

Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB):

• No money has been appropriated to the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking (within ILAB) to carry out the mandates under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2005, despite an authorization of $10 million.
• Section 105(b)(1) of Act directed the Secretary of Labor, acting through the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, to "carry out additional activities to monitor and combat forced labor and child labor in foreign countries." Section 105(b)(2) listed these activities as:
• Monitor the use of forced labor and child labor in violation of international standards;
• Develop and make available to the public a list of goods from countries that the Bureau of International Labor Affairs has reason to believe are produced by forced labor or child labor in violation of international standards;
• Work with persons who are involved in the production of goods on the list to create a standard set of practices that will reduce the likelihood that such persons will produce goods using forced labor or child labor; and
• Consult with other departments and agencies of the United States Government to reduce forced and child labor internationally and ensure that products made by forced labor and child labor in violation of international standards are not imported into the United States.

The Action Group strongly recommends appropriating $30 million to HHS for programs to assist survivors of human trafficking, and $91+ million to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs.