Closing the Gaps: The Need to Improve Identification and Services to Child Victims of Trafficking

Human Organization, Summer 2007 by Gozdziak, Elzbieta M, MacDonnell, Margaret

Human trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced labor is believed to be one of the fastest growing areas of criminal activity. The vast majority of victims of severe forms of trafficking are women and children. The particular vulnerability of child victims, related to biophysiological, social, behavioral, and cognitive phases of the maturity process, distinguishes them from adult victims and underscores the necessity of special attention to their particular needs. In the United States, most trafficking victims, but particularly child victims, go unidentified and even fewer gain access to the services developed to help them break free from their traffickers and reintegrate into the wider society. This paper uses a case study approach to examine the inadequacies and service gaps in the system established in the United States to care for child victims of trafficking. The case study is discussed within a broader context of the evolution of the system of care available to child victims of trafficking, including the transfer of care of undocumented children in federal custody from the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

Key words: human trafficking, child victims, policy, services

Introduction

The subject of human trafficking-or the use of force, fraud, or coercion to transport persons across international borders or within countries to exploit them for labor or sex-has received renewed attention within the last two decades. In the United States, human trafficking became a focus of activities in the late 1990s and culminated in the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), signed into law on October 16,2000. With the enactment of the TVPA, the United States took a lead in combating human trafficking, prosecution of traffickers, and protection of victims. However, despite tremendous efforts by the federal as well as local governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the research community working together to fight human trafficking, solutions remain elusive.

Human trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced labor is believed to be one of the fastest growing areas of criminal activity. The vast majority of victims of severe forms of trafficking are women and children. Women and children are most vulnerable to trafficking for sexual exploitation, including prostitution and sex tourism. Child sexual exploitation has grown exponentially in all countries, but is believed to be especially rampant in Asia and Latin America. Many women and children who are trafficked for bonded labor and domestic work end up being sexually exploited as well (Raymond et al. 2002).

The particular vulnerability of child victims, related to biophysiological, social, behavioral, and cognitive phases of the maturity process, distinguishes them from adult victims and underscores the necessity of special attention to their particular needs. In the United States, most trafficking victims, but particularly child victims, go unidentified and even fewer gain access to the services developed to help them break free from their traffickers and reintegrate into the wider society.

This paper uses a case study approach to examine the inadequacies and service gaps in the system established in the United States to care for child victims of trafficking. The case study is discussed within a broader context of the evolution of the system of care available to child victims of trafficking, including the transfer of care of undocumented children in federal custody from the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). It is important to understand this context to properly assess existing policies and systems of care, identify service gaps, and make recommendations for further enhancement of the system.

The data sources which informed this case study included a face-to-face ethnographic interview with Analis,1 a survivor of human trafficking for labor; a series of telephone and in-person interviews with service providers working with Analis at various junctures of her journey from captivity to reintegration into the U.S. society; as well as an in-depth analysis of case files. The case study is part of an ongoing collaboration, including both research and technical assistance activities, between Georgetown University and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), supported by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and the National Institutes of Justice (NIJ). Through this case study we seek to encourage further discussion, collaboration, and action to enhance existing policies, improve their implementation, and develop well-defined mechanisms and durable solutions to better identify child victims of trafficking and enrich services for child survivors to ensure long-term self-sufficiency and integration into the wider society.

Trafficked Children in the United States

While the United States has allocated a significant amount of resources and expended considerable efforts to the antitrafficking campaign and other countertrafficking activities, the scope of the problem remains vague. The U.S. Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, established in 2000 and located within the State Department, provides estimates of the number of victims trafficked yearly to the United States in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report. These estimates are wide ranging and the methodologies used to calculate the number of trafficking victims lack transparency (Gozdziak and Collett 2005). The figures presented in the TIP report dropped significantly from approximately 50,000 in 2002 to 20,000 in 2003. The current official government estimate is 14,500 to 17,500 persons annually (USDOJ 2005), although others believe the number to be much higher.