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10 January 2005
United States Cooperates with Europe to Combat Sex Trafficking
Fact Sheet provides overview of U.S. assistance in combating sex trafficking
The following fact sheet on U.S. efforts to combat sex trafficking was compiled from U.S. government sources:
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U.S. Department of State
International Information Programs
Washington, D.C.
January 10, 2005
Fact Sheet: Sex Trafficking, the United States, and Europe
Every nation that fights human trafficking has a friend in the United States.
-- President Bush, July 16, 2004
WHAT THE UNITED STATES IS DOING TO COMBAT TRAFFICKING
The Trafficking in Persons Protocol:
In January 1999, the United States and Argentina proposed the first international protocol to require governments to criminalize trafficking in persons and to provide a framework for enhanced protection of, and assistance to, victims. The Trafficking in Persons Protocol, as it is called, entered into force in December 2003.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA):
The first federal law aimed specifically at trafficking, TVPA was signed into law on October 28, 2000. TVPA sets harsh penalties for traffickers and allocates $95 million to protect victims and penalize criminals. It requires the U.S. State Department to create annually the "Trafficking in Persons Report" and rate each country's efforts according to its government's efforts to combat trafficking. For a fact sheet on TVPA, see http://www2.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/TVPA_2000.html
Interagency Task Force:
In February 2002, pursuant to the TVPA, President Bush established a Cabinet-level Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. This task force is chaired by the secretary of state and includes the attorney general, the secretary of labor, the secretary of health and human services, the secretary of homeland security, the director of central intelligence, the director of the Office of Management and Budget and the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. The task force's responsibilities include coordination and implementation of the administration's anti-trafficking activities.
The State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons:
The TVPA also created the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, which is headed by Ambassador John R. Miller. This office supported more than 240 anti-trafficking programs in over 75 countries in fiscal year 2003. The types of assistance include: economic alternative programs for vulnerable groups; education programs; training for government officials and medical personnel; development or improvement of anti-trafficking laws; provision of equipment for law enforcement; establishment or renovation of shelters, crisis centers, or safe houses for victims; support for voluntary and humane return and reintegration assistance for victims; and support for psychological, legal, medical and counseling services for victims provided by nongovernmental organizations, international organizations and governments.
International Support:
Since 2001, the United States has provided more than $295 million to support anti-trafficking programs in more than 120 countries. Funding goes to governments and nongovernmental and international organizations to create specialized law enforcement units; train prosecutors and judges; strengthen anti-trafficking laws; provide emergency shelter and care for victims; offer voluntary repatriation assistance; make available long-term rehabilitation assistance and vocational training for victims; provide legal advocacy; make available psychological and medical assistance for victims; and launch information campaigns.
The PROTECT Act:
Congress passed and President Bush signed into law The PROTECT Act in April 2003. The PROTECT Act provides better tools for combating international sex tourism, commercial sexual exploitation of children, and the federal offenses of child abuse, child kidnapping and child torture. The PROTECT Act enables U.S. law enforcement to prosecute Americans who travel abroad and sexually abuse children.
President Bush addresses U.N. General Assembly:
President Bush underscored his commitment to fight trafficking in a speech to the General Assembly in September 2003 with a pledge of $50 million to support the work of anti-trafficking organizations.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act:
Congress passed and President Bush signed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act in December 2003. This strengthened the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. The new legislation required better statistical monitoring; created a “Special Watch List” in the State Department's annual report; made convicting and sentencing traffickers as important as investigations when evaluating efforts of countries to combat trafficking; and provided new tools for addressing destination countries that may not be doing anything about trafficking.
International Anti-trafficking Initiatives:
Under the leadership of the United States and Norway, NATO adopted a comprehensive plan to help combat worldwide trafficking in persons in Istanbul in June 2004. NATO personnel will support the efforts of authorities in host countries to combat trafficking while working with nongovernmental organizations and anti-trafficking experts.
In addition, the United States:
-- Vigorously enforces U.S. laws against all those who traffic in persons;
-- Strives to raise awareness at home and abroad about human trafficking and how it can be eradicated;
-- Identifies, protects, and assists victims exploited by traffickers;
-- Reduces the vulnerability of individuals to trafficking through increased education, economic opportunity, and protection and promotion of human rights; and
-- Employs diplomatic and foreign policy tools to encourage other nations, the United Nations and other multilateral institutions to work together to draft and enforce laws against trafficking and to hold accountable those engaged in it.
Cooperation with other countries has contributed to the prosecution around the world of nearly 8,000 perpetrators of trafficking crimes, resulting in over 2,800 convictions, according to the White House.
The United States does not deport victims.
Under U.S. law, victims have the right to stay in the United States, either through "continued presence," which allows victims to stay pending an outcome of a trial, or through a "T" visa, which allows them to stay for up to three years and to thereafter apply for legal permanent status. T-visas and continued presence had been granted to 584 victims as of July 2004.
For a fact sheet on certification for victims of trafficking see http://www2.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/cert_victims.html
The United States is currently the only country that offers the possibility of permanent residency to victims of trafficking.
CONTEXT: Trafficking in human beings - often called modern day slavery - involves forced labor, most often of men, women and children in the commercial sex industry as prostitutes, but it can also involve forced labor in factories, fields, restaurants and homes. Traffickers prey on the ignorance or aspirations of people living in war-torn areas or in despair or poverty, often promising them a legitimate job opportunity. Once under the trafficker's control, the victim is then coerced or misled into work beyond legal protection.
Prostitution and related activities fuel the growth of trafficking by providing a façade behind which criminals can exploit the vulnerable. It is a vicious myth that women and children who work as prostitutes have voluntarily chosen such a life for themselves. A 2003 study first published in the scientific Journal of Trauma Practice found that 89 percent of women involved in prostitution want to escape. And children are also trapped in prostitution - despite the fact that international covenants and protocols impose upon state parties an obligation to criminalize the commercial sexual exploitation of children. For more information on the link between prostitution and sex trafficking, see
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/38790.htm
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) estimates that 600,000-800,000 people are trafficked globally across international borders, while millions more are trafficked within countries. Trafficking provides organized crime with annual profits in the range of $8-10 billion (Ashcroft, July 16, 2004).
DOJ estimated in June 2004 that 14,500-17,500 people were being trafficked into the United States annually:
| 3,500 – 5,500 | from Europe and Eurasia |
| 3,500 – 5,500 | from Latin America |
| 5,000 – 7,000 | from East Asia and the Pacific |
| 200 - 700 | from Africa |
| 200 - 600 | from South Asia |
| 0 - 200 | from the Near East |
AGE, SEX AND TYPE OF EXPLOITATION - ALL REGIONS:
| 33 percent Women | forced or coerced commercial sex |
| 23 percent Girls (under 18) | forced or coerced commercial sex |
| 14 percent Women | other forms of exploitation |
| 11 percent Girls (under 18) | other forms of exploitation |
| 10 percent Boys (under 18) | forced or coerced commercial sex |
| 6 percent Boys (under 18) | other forms of exploitation |
| 3 percent Men | other forms of exploitation |
| 1 percent Men | forced or coerced commercial sex |
TRAFFICKING BY REGION
REGION OF ORIGIN:
| 43 percent | East Asia and the Pacific |
| 29 percent | Europe and Eurasia |
| 17 percent | Africa |
| 5 percent | Western Hemisphere |
| 5 percent | South Asia |
| <1 percent | Near East |
REGION OF DESTINATION:
| 40 percent | East Asia and the Pacific |
| 36 percent | Europe and Eurasia |
| 8 percent | Near East |
| 6 percent | Africa |
| 6 percent | Western Hemisphere |
| 4 percent | South Asia |
THE TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT (TIP)
The best source to begin exploring the Trafficking in Persons Report is the "Introduction" provided by the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. It is available at http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2004/34021.htm
This introduction details the human and social toll of trafficking, provides an overview of the causes and effective strategies for combating trafficking, and then describes the 2004 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.
The Tiers
Tier 1: Countries whose governments fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act's minimum standards.
Tier 2: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Act's minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
Tier 2 Watch List: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Act's minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards, and:
a. The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing; or
b. There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year; or
c. The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year
Tier 3: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so. Six European and Eurasian countries moved up from Tier 3 status in the 2004 Trafficking Report: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
WHAT IS THE UNITED STATES DOING ABOUT TRAFFICKING SPECIFICALLY IN EUROPE?
Brief descriptions of the 105 anti-trafficking programs involving the U.S. Department of State, USAID and/or the U.S. Department of Labor can be found at
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/rpt/34182.htm
For example, the Department of State supports the Angel coalition, which assists nongovernmental organizations in Russia and is building an international hotline to improve investigations of trafficking rings and to get more convictions in court.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that since 1995, more than 88,000 children have been rescued, rehabilitated and/or protected from trafficking through the $125 million in international projects it has funded to combat trafficking. 22,000 of these children have been enrolled in education and training programs.
By working to increase compliance with labor laws, the Labor Department is helping to ensure that vulnerable immigrants are treated fairly. It is U.S. policy that all workers are entitled to full and fair compensation for their labor, regardless of their status.
In Eastern Europe, a Department of Labor-funded project created economic alternatives and job training for at-risk women in seven major cities. That project has provided skills training and job placement services to 20,000 women and young people of legal working age, the age group most vulnerable to traffickers.
A DOL-funded project in the Balkans and Ukraine is helping children and young people stay in school and learn marketable skills so they can find jobs when they reach the legal working age, thereby strengthening national policies in those two countries regarding trafficking.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is certifying trafficking victims so they may qualify for the same assistance available to refugees. HHS is also running a major public awareness campaign to alert victims in the United States - some of whom are from Europe or Eurasia - that help is available through the hotline number 888-3737-888.
The Department of Defense has implemented a zero-tolerance stand against any actions by Defense personnel that contribute to human trafficking and is instituting a service-wide mandatory training program.
The National Institute of Justice funded five trafficking studies that have been completed, including a study of trafficking in women from Ukraine.
For a list of active research grants by the National Institute of Justice and selected U.S. government agency research proposals with an international criminal justice component, see:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/international/grants.html
Public service announcements in the United States have been issued in Spanish, Russian, and Polish to inform victims of their rights.
Following are more fact sheets on specific topics:
The Link Between Prostitution and Sex Trafficking
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/38790.htm
How Can I Recognize Trafficking Victims?
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/fs/34563.htm
Best Shelter Practices by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs):
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/30069.htm
To End Child Sex Tourism: Fighting Trafficking in Persons
http://www.state.gov/p/io/fs/2004/36409.htm
Child Victims of Human Trafficking (including how to recognize) http://www2.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/children_victims.html
Citizen Action: How Can I Help End Modern-Day Slavery?
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/fs/35011.htm
Facts About Human Trafficking
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/33109.htm
Certification for victims of Trafficking (T visas, etc.)
http://www2.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/cert_victims.html
Federal Efforts to Assist Victims of Trafficking
http://www2.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fed_assist.html
Victim Assistance
http://www2.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/victim_assist.html
Operation Predator (targets sexual abusers of children)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/07/20040707-10.html
Presidential Initiatives to Combat Trafficking
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/07/20040716-3.html
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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
