Responding to Foreign Child Victims of Trafficking

Anti-Trafficking in Persons DivisionOffice of Refugee Resettlement

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

1. Human Trafficking Overview

2. Identifying Victims of Trafficking

3. HHS/ORR Response to Human Trafficking

4. HHS/ORR Anti-Trafficking Resources

Overview

Part 1: Human Trafficking

Overview

Human Trafficking is….• the use of force, fraud or coercion for involuntary labor,

debt bondage or commercial sex• modern-day slavery• a violation of human rights• global in scope• a federal crime in the United States• based on principles of supply and demand• highly profitable for traffickers who can sell the same

product (human being) over and over

Who are the traffickers?

• Large-scale sophisticated national and international crime networks highly organized from the recruitment, transportation, and exploitation

stages of human trafficking often well-connected in country of origin

• Medium-scale often specialize in a particular source and destination country may include pimps, brothel owners, farm owners, salon owners

• Small-scale focus on recruiting a particular victim may be neighbors, friends, “boyfriends”, family members

Promises and Methods

Promises• Earn money to support family

back home• Receive U.S. education• Adoption• Marriage• A better life

Methods• Threats of physical harm to

victim or family• Threats of deportation or arrest• Isolation• Debt • Confiscation of money,

passports, visa, identification documents

* Traffickers are manipulators who are skilled at gaining the trust of victims and preying on their vulnerabilities to recruit them into the trafficking situation.

The Victims

• Men, women, and children• Individuals, families, or groups• Diverse in race, class, religion, and culture• Youth running away from unstable family

environments• Homeless youth (aka “street kids”)• Youth with history of physical and/or sexual abuse

Framework for Human Trafficking Response

• International– The United Nations’ Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in

Persons (Palermo Protocol)– As of June 2013, more than140 countries have criminalized sex and labor

trafficking*

• National– Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) 2000 and its subsequent

reauthorizations (‘03, ‘05, ’08, and ‘13)

• States– Many states have passed anti-trafficking laws or have legislation pending.

* Department of State’s 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report: http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/index.htm

Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA)

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) defines severe forms of trafficking in persons as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for:

(1)For labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery; or

(2) For the purpose of a commercial sex act in which the sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age. 

Key Elements of Federal Definition

•Coercion means threats of serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; or the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process. (22 U.S.C. § 7102(3)).

•Involuntary Servitude “includes a condition of servitude induced by means of (A) any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that, if the person did not enter into or continue in such condition, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint; or (B) the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process.” (22 U.S.C. § 7102(6)).

•Peonage means a status or condition of involuntary servitude based on real or alleged indebtedness. (8 CFR 214.11)

•Debt bondage means “the status or condition of a debtor arising from a pledge by the debtor of his or her personal services or of those of a person under his or her control as a security for debt, if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined.” (22 U.S.C. §7102(5)).

Key Elements of Federal Definition

Means: use of force, fraud, coercion

Purpose: subjection to commercial sex*, involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery

Action: recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person

*Any child (under 18) who is induced to perform a commercial sex act is, by federal law, a victim of a severe form of trafficking in persons. Means need not apply.

Trafficking vs. SmugglingTrafficking

• Crime against a person• Victims either do not consent to

their situations, or if they initially consent, that consent is rendered meaningless by the actions of the traffickers.

• Exploitation of victims to generate illicit gains for the traffickers.

• Trafficking need not entail the physical movement of a person (but must entail the exploitation of the person for labor or commercial sex)

Smuggling

• Crime against a country• The transaction is mutual and

usually ends upon arrival at desired destination.

• Business arrangement between smuggler and person wanting to facilitate the illicit crossing of a nation’s border.

• Smuggling is always transnational.

Part 2:

Identifying Victims of Trafficking

Trafficking victims have been identified in the following sectors…

Sex Trafficking• Street prostitution• Exotic dancing bars• Latino bars• Asian massage parlors• Residential brothels• Escort services

Labor Trafficking• Domestic servitude• Agricultural labor• Sweatshops/factories• Salons (nails, hair

braiding)• Janitorial work• Housekeeping• Peddling

Challenges to identification may include….• Hidden nature of the crime• Victims often do not self-identify • Traffickers coach victims through threats and sometimes

violence• Victims are fearful of harm to themselves and their families• Shame• Mistrust of authorities• Feel they are honor-bound to pay debts• Trauma bond with traffickers• Lack of understanding by community of human trafficking

Potential Indicators of Trafficking• Minor (under 18) involved in commercial sex• Forced to live at workplace or with employer• Employer keeping identification documents• Works long hours, in exploitive labor, under bad conditions• Unpaid, under paid, or giving over all earnings to someone else• Increasing or unending debt• Coercion• Threats• Violence• Unable to choose residence or job• Recruited with false promises• Agreement changes upon arrival• Fear or false hope

Complex Case Trends

• Interrupted, clandestine journeys

• Potential Trafficking in other Criminal Activities– Drug trafficking– Hostage taking

Best Practices for Screening Children

• Provide a safe and confidential environment • Clarify your role • Allow the child to make choices – where they would like to sit, when

they would like to take a break or stop the interview• Use child-friendly language • Avoid leading questions and ask open-ended questions around the

edges of the child’s experience • Use a qualified interpreter, if needed• Limit interviews by utilizing Child Advocacy Center model when

possible• Give consideration to the role that trauma may play in the child’s

response to the interview process• Assess child’s age and brain development prior to conducting

interview • Take time to build rapport

Sample Screening Questions • What type of work do you do?

• If commercial sex – is anything of value exchanged?*

• Describe your working conditions. – How many hours do you work?– How often do you get paid and how much?– Do you owe money to anyone? If so, how much?– How do you get to and from work?– Do you have to ask permission to eat, sleep or go to the bathroom?

• Describe your living conditions.

• Have you been physically harmed in any way?

• Are you afraid of someone harming you or your family?

• Do you have your identification papers?*Minors induced to perform a commercial sex act are victims of human

trafficking, regardless of force, fraud, or coercion.

Protocols for a Child Protection Response

• Safety issues• Guardianship issues• Engaging CPS• Immediate and long-term placement options• Interviewing children

Child trauma and developmental issuesChallenges and resources

Part 3:HHS/ORR Response to

Human Trafficking

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (DHHS)

ADMINISTRATION FOR CHILDREN AND

FAMILIES (ACF)

OFFICE OF REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT (ORR)

ATIP DCS

UAC URM

* There are other ORR divisions (DRA, DRS, and DRH) that assist refugee populations, but DCS and ATIP specifically address the needs of child victims of trafficking.

DIVISION OF ANTI-TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (ATIP)– Created to implement the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (and

subsequent reauthorizations)

DIVISION OF CHILDREN’S SERVICES (FORMALLY DUCS)– Created by the Homeland Security Act of 2002; transferred

care/placement of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) from Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) to ORR in 2003

– Provides temporary shelter to UAC, including those who are potential or eligible victims of trafficking.

UNACCOMPANIED REFUGEE MINORS (URM) PROGRAM– Created in 1979 to serve unaccompanied children coming to the U.S. from

refugee camps. – A long-term placement option for eligible, UAC victims of trafficking.

Division of Anti-Trafficking in Persons (ATIP)

• Rescue & Restore Victims of Human Trafficking public awareness campaign

• Rescue & Restore Regional Program

• Comprehensive case management services for foreign victims of trafficking

• National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC):1-888-373-7888

• Certification and Eligibility Letters

Requesting Assistance for a Potential Foreign Child Victim of Trafficking

• Request for Assistance for Child Victims of Human Trafficking form

www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/ • Provides information for ORR to determine if a

child may be eligible for assistance• Submit forms to: childtrafficking@acf.hhs.gov or

by fax to: 202-401-5487

When Preparing a Case for Referral…

• Ensure the case summary reflects the elements of the federal definition of a severe form of trafficking.

• State facts and child’s statements only, no assumptions please.

• Be specific, but only information germane to the trafficking situation is necessary.

• If interviewing the child, remember to take a child-focused, victim-centered approach.

• Use open-ended questions that will not be leading, and will allow for detailed responses.

Child Trafficking Law Enforcement Reporting Responsibility

 

Section 107(b)(1)(G) of the TVPA:

“Not later than 24 hours after a Federal, State, or local official discovers that a person who is under 18 years of age may be a victim of a severe form of trafficking in persons, the official shall notify [HHS] to facilitate the provision of interim assistance ....”

Contact us at: childtrafficking@acf.hhs.gov

or 202-205-4582

Eligibility Letter• Issued by ORR to a foreign child who is determined by

ORR to be a victim of a severe form of human trafficking

• Cooperation with law enforcement is not a requirement for foreign children to be issued an Eligibility Letter

• Receipt of Continued Presence, a bona-fide T visa determination or T nonimmigrant status is not required for a foreign child to be issued an Eligibility Letter

• Eligibility Letters do not expire

Interim Assistance• ORR issues an Interim Assistance Letter to a foreign child who

may have been subjected to trafficking • It provides a 90-day period of eligibility for benefits while the case

is under ORR/ATIP review and additional information is collected. • After issuing interim assistance, HHS/ORR is required to consult

with the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security and nongovernmental organizations with expertise on victims of trafficking before determining the child's eligibility as a victim of trafficking.

• Cooperation with law enforcement is not a requirement for a foreign child to be issued an Interim Assistance Letter

• ORR State Letter regarding Interim Assistance:

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/policy/sl10-05.htm

Benefit Options for Minors with Eligibility Letters

• URM Program• Access to benefits and services to the same extent as a

refugee, to include, but not limited to: – Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program

(CHIP)– Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)– Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)– Food Stamps (SNAP)

Program Division of Children’s Services-Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC)

Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URM)

Placement • 24-hour care for all UAC

• Placements made 24/7 by Federal agency calling UAC hotline number at 202-401-5709

• Federal agency must transfer UAC in custody to ORR within 72 hours

• 24-hour care for certain categories of unaccompanied, non-U.S. citizen minors, including those with ORR Eligibility Letters

• Placements made only M-F during normal business hours by NGOs. Contact HHS ORR for assistance

• Admission to URM Program may take months

Locations 13 states, 80 sites & foster careHHS/ORR funds grantees directly and monitors programs, all of which are State-licensed

15 states, 20 programs (and 3 sub-offices)HHS/ORR funds states that oversee/administer URM programs and contract with State-licensed providers

Average Length of Stay

Temporary Care30-45 days • Released to sponsor (approx. 85%)• Repatriated (approx. 1.4%)• Age out (approx. 1.4%)

Long Term Care3-4 years (usually enter as teens)Depending on State, youth could be in program up to age 23 receiving independent living services and/or educational/training vouchers.

Custody Federal Government State, County or Private Agency(dependency/custody MUST be established by court before 18th birthday)

Reporting Responsibilities 

• Federal, State, and Local officials: Do you believe an alien minor may be a victim of human trafficking?

If yes, you are required by federal law to notify HHS to facilitate assistance. (22 USC § 7105(b)(1)(G))

Call an ORR/ATIP Child Protection Specialist at 202-205-4582.

• Do you believe a minor may have been abused, abandoned, or neglected by a caretaker in the United States?

If yes, contact your local child welfare agency to make a report. Note: Mandated reporter laws and child protection policies vary greatly depending on your jurisdiction. If you have any questions, reach out to your local child welfare agency.

Part 4: HHS/ORR Anti-Trafficking

Resources

Rescue & RestoreResource Materials

Rescue & Restore Campaign websitewww.rescueandrestore.org

Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division Child Protection Specialist

childtrafficking@acf.hhs.gov

202-205-4582

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/