http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/3959/human-trafficking-a-battle-that-still-needs-to-be-won
by Nola Theiss
19 August, 2013
Slavery has been fought on many fronts in many countries in many eras and, with human trafficking, we are in the midst of the battle once again. Can we succeed this time?
Every year since 2001, the United States government has issued a Trafficking in Persons report known as the TIP report. It reviews the current state of global efforts to combat slavery, identifies a focus, and evaluates nations' efforts to attain minimal standards as set by the United Nations Palermo Protocol and the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act. As one can imagine, many nations object to the role the US takes as an evaluator, especially as it was not until 2010 that its own efforts were evaluated.
This year's TIP report states that 40,000 victims worldwide have been identified. Compared to the 27 million victims estimated to be living in the world today, that is a very small number, but it is significantly larger than even 10 years ago. One only has to compare the number of prosecutions and victims treated with the estimate of actual victims to understand why human trafficking continues to be a problem. It is a low risk, highly profitable criminal enterprise, second only to drug trafficking.
In addition to the US federal law, all 50 states have passed anti-human trafficking legislation. Just this week the Polaris Project, a non-profit that also runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline and which has assisted states in the passage of laws, issued a study evaluating the laws passed in all 50 states using a tier system, similar to the TIP report. Thirty-two states were placed in Tier 1 based on 10 criteria, including recognition of both sex and labour trafficking, training of law enforcement, Safe Harbour protection of sexually exploited minors, and vacating convictions for sex trafficking victims.
One problem with judging a state or country purely on the passage of laws is that laws are only as effective as the willingness of prosecutors to prosecute, law enforcement to enforce, and government to fund the services mandated. The impact of these laws on the recovery of the victims and the punishment of the perpetrators remains to be proven. Data is always hard to gather in this crime, where victims are sometimes treated as criminals and traffickers may be prosecuted under other existing laws, such as kidnapping, rape or assault.
This lack of valid data is often cited as a major hindrance in developing an effective approach to human trafficking, but unless investigating cases and rescuing victims become a priority, there will not be accurate data. Two weeks ago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation held a nationwide sting over one weekend in 76 locations and recovered 103 possible victims and arrested over 150 possible traffickers. This was the seventh year that they conducted this kind of assault on the crime.
How many more victims and traffickers would be found if this were the normal mode of operation for both federal and local government instead of a glorious exception? Yes, we have seen progress and, yes, the work is hard and times are tough. The 40,000 identified global victims receiving care are better off than they were before. But what about the estimated millions of others?
Nola Theiss is executive director at the Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships
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