SALT LAKE CITY — Threats that escalated in both severity and frequency have prompted Utah's lead agency that coordinates assistance to human trafficking victims to cease services to any future clients.
Jocelyn Romano, executive director of the Utah Health & Human Rights Project, said the decision to stop offering those services to new clients was made last week after a series of threats led to concerns of personal safety for staff.
Victims now being helped in the program will be transitioned to other providers over the next six to eight months. She said the group wants to continue to help victims by consulting with other providers to set up a program where law enforcement takes more of an active role.
- 600,000 to 820,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders
- About 80 percent are women and girls
- Up to 50 percent are minors.
The Salt Lake Police Department is investigating the threats, which Romano said were "generalized and non-specific ... but still they had to be taken seriously. As they were continuing, they were increasing in frequency and we had to make the incredibly difficult decision to stop providing those services at this time."
The project, she stressed, will not abandon its core mission of helping victims of torture and other severe human rights abuses to overcome their history and become self-sufficient.
In 2006, the organization took on helping victims of human trafficking — which presented a new dynamic to overcome.
"With human trafficking, it is an active crime situation, not a crime that occurred years ago. The perpetrators may be right here."
Romano said that presents problems because the very nature of the project's mission is to operate with transparency to shed light on what has happened to people who suffered from torture or other abuses.
"We are a vulnerable agency not set up in a secure and private location," such as domestic violence shelters, which often operate out of nondescript buildings with no markings as a way to shield their victims.
Since the project began working with human trafficking victims — serving more than 200 people — it has had to take on a victim advocacy role Romano says is better suited for law enforcement.
In those instances, rape victim advocates or those assigned to be front-line help for domestic violence victims typically are employees of police departments also trained to respond to volatile situations.
Romano said that in the months to come it would be ideal if the project could work with other providers such as social services agencies, police and those offering legal help to come up with more suitable model to help victims.
"We'd like to design a program in conjunction with law enforcement going forward," she said. "Because of the very complex and violent nature of these crimes, that model of having that victim services provider in law enforcement has been successful in other states."
A human trafficking task force was established in Utah several years ago, drawing on membership from multiple local law enforcement departments and federal agencies including the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
It is headed up under the auspices of the U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah, which spokeswoman Melodie Rydalch said will continue to shepherd cases.
"Victims of human trafficking will continue to be served, and we are confident there will be no break in services," Rydalch said. "Having said that, (the project) has done some outstanding work and we are sorry they cannot participate."
Romano said the project has identified and served both U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants who have been subjected to the sex trade, agricultural and labor trade or put into domestic servitude. There have also been cases involving mail-order child brides. Trafficking victims have been men, women and children, Romano said, and entire families have been rescued.
"The victims become beholden to their captors, who threaten them to keep them in control or threaten to harm their families," she said. "They rely on a tremendous amount of fear and intimidation to retain control."
E-mail:aodonoghue@ksl.com
Threats force Utah group to curtail helping trafficking victims - ksl.com
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