Rachel Browning’s Legal Blog

            Yesterday the U.S. Department of State released its 9^th annual Trafficking in Persons Report, a comprehensive report outlining both the scope of the problem of human trafficking and the efforts the U.S. and international partners throughout the world are engaged in to end what has become known as modern day slavery.  The report sheds new light on various facets of the problem and highlights shared and individual efforts of the international community to encourage other foreign governments to take effective action against all forms of trafficking in persons.  

            The U.S. government enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000 as an initial step to define the problem and outline proposed strategies to combat human trafficking.  The purpose of the law is to punish traffickers, protect victims, and prevent trafficking from occurring.  The TVPA defines “severe forms of trafficking” as:  a) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; or b) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person 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.

·         Sobering Statistics

            The International Labor Organization (ILO)—the United Nations agency which addresses international labor standards, employment, and social protection issues—estimates that there are over 12 million adults and children in forced labor, bonded labor, and commercial sexual servitude at any given time. Of these victims, the ILO estimates that at least 1.39 million are victims of commercial sexual servitude, both transnational and within countries.   Victims come from all over the world, and many end up right here in the United States.  The majority of victims – 56 percent – are women and girls.  Human traffickers prey on the weak, targeting vulnerable men, women, and children by using creative methods to trick, coerce, and win the confidence of potential victims.  Most often this involves promises of a better life through employment, education, or marriage.  Another unfortunate aspect of trafficking is the role of parents in allowing their children to become victims.  In some situations, the parents are victims as well, tricked into giving up their children in servitude with promises of a better life, school or other opportunities.  But in many situations, parents play a more sinister role, selling their children into prostitution or involuntary servitude in order to repay their own debts.  The report stresses the importance of local law enforcement in combating this part of the problem and notes that several countries have begun taking steps to criminalize such actions of parents.  Albania, for example has made it a crime for a parents to force their children into begging.

·         Public-Private Initiatives

            On a more positive note, the report also highlights several Public-Private Sector Partnerships in which corporations are working with government agencies and NGOs to enact targeted strategies to deal with different aspects of human trafficking.   For example, the Wyndham Hotel Group has joined efforts with the non-profit agency Polaris Project to provide free rooms to victims of trafficking.  LexisNexis (a legal database and search engine) has partnered with the U.S. National Human Trafficking Resource Center to create a national database of social service providers.  And Microsoft has partnered with several non-profit agencies in Asia to provide technical training to individuals in underserved communities, enabling those individuals to find legitimate sources of employment, thus lessening their vulnerability to trafficking.  Microsoft also provides training to law enforcement agencies on computer-related crimes in which many traffickers target children online.   

·         U.S. Immigration Law – Protection to Victims of Trafficking

            Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), victims of trafficking can be eligible for immigration benefits.  The T nonimmigrant status (also known as the T visa) was created to provide immigration protection to victims of a severe form of trafficking in persons. The T visa also allows victims to remain in the United States and assist federal authorities in the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking cases.  Those who have been granted T-1 nonimmigrant status may eventually file for permanent residency provided certain conditions have been met.  Applicants must have been physically present in the United States for either a continuous period of at least three years since the first date of admission as a T-1 nonimmigrant; or for a continuous period during the investigation or prosecution of acts of trafficking, and the Attorney General has determined the investigation or prosecution is complete, whichever period of time is less.  In addition, individuals must have been a person of “good moral character” since admission as a T-1 nonimmigrant.  Finally, applicants must have complied with any reasonable request for assistance in the investigation or prosecution of acts of trafficking since first being admitted as a T-1 nonimmigrant, or else show that they would suffer extreme hardship involving unusual and severe harm upon removal from the United States.

            For more information about T Visas and other forms of humanitarian immigration benefits or questions about immigration in general, contact the experienced immigration attorneys of Smith & Garg in Houston, The Woodlands and Spring, Texas or Long Beach, California for further assistance.