Empowering Survivors
Four ways USAID is countering human trafficking
For an estimated 25 million adults and children worldwide who have been trafficked for labor or sex, hope can turn to despair and loss of a sense of home. Facing limited opportunities in their native countries, these individuals often find themselves stripped of passports and other identity documents. What comes next is forced labor; illegal confinement; physical, mental, and sexual abuse; gender-based violence; and torture.
Human trafficking is the second largest criminal industry globally. This comes despite the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which the U.S. Government enacted in 2000 to coordinate its anti-trafficking efforts and provide tools and resources to address this global crime. Although the Act has been in place for over two decades, stronger national and international efforts are necessary to increase victim identification, expand access to support programs for survivors, and hold perpetrators accountable.
USAID is committed to fighting this worldwide human rights challenge, bringing together survivor voices and innovative ideas to restore dignity to those whose lives were upended by trafficking and to mitigate the potential of further human rights violations.
Below are four ways that USAID’s revised Counter-Trafficking in Persons Policy has strengthened our approach — specifically to provide hope and healing for survivors in rebuilding their lives when they return home.
Empowering Survivors
USAID recognizes that survivors not only play a crucial role in addressing the root causes and practices that enable trafficking, but also communicating the needs of other victims. USAID’s revised C-TIP Policy prioritizes the safety and well-being of trafficking survivors. Survivors’ voices now help to inform policies and programs, providing opportunities for collaboration and supporting services for physical and emotional healing, legal assistance, safe and secure accommodations, and access to workforce development opportunities.
For example, Saiful Islam, from Bangladesh, was deceived about the terms of his contract working abroad and exploited without pay for almost a year. After a harrowing escape and finally returning home, he had no way to earn a living and support his wife and daughter. Then he attended a trafficking-in-persons community-awareness event sponsored by USAID. Through the program, he received counseling, entrepreneurship, and life skills training and found community in a survivors’ group. In early 2019, Saiful started his own small business and began to earn a living for his family.
Later that year, he helped his community prepare for emergencies by compiling a database of more than 860 volunteers who had agreed to donate blood at local hospitals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Saiful made and distributed masks, identified families needing relief, and urged residents to follow health protocols.
Today, Saiful is paying it forward by raising awareness about human trafficking and safe migration by giving regular talks at community meetings and local schools. He remembers how difficult it was when he returned home and wants to do everything he can to prevent others from suffering the same ordeal.
“As long as I am alive,” Saiful said, “I will try my best to help them.”
Information and Resources
Millions of people leave their homes each year in search of more lucrative job opportunities.
USAID understands that protecting migrants’ rights and informing them of safe migration routes can reduce their risk of exploitation, particularly in regions affected by human-made conflicts and disasters exacerbated by climate change. USAID’s C-TIP Policy aims to empower workers through information and resources in order to make them less vulnerable to traffickers who seek to capitalize on those seeking better economic opportunities far from home.
USAID’s Safe Migration Project in Central Asia, for example, strengthens the mutual accountability and effectiveness of governments, NGOs, and the private sector. For the past 15 years, Nurzhan Tulegabylova, director of the Public Fund “El Agartuu,” an NGO that works to prevent human trafficking in the Kyrgyz Republic, has advocated on behalf of trafficking victims.
Nurzhan has educated university students to be vigilant against trafficking, developed guides and instructional manuals now adopted by the Kyrgyz Republic’s Ministry of Education and Science as learning materials on anti-trafficking, and created a national database of 40 anti-trafficking NGOs that help national authorities identify and assist trafficking victims.
“It’s better to prevent victimization than identify victims,” Nurzhan said. “This is why we focus on raising public awareness with youth to safeguard against human trafficking.”
Efforts from Nurzhan and hundreds like her have contributed to three out of five Central Asian countries moving up in the U.S. TIP report rankings in 2021.
Reducing Barriers Faced by Marginalized and Vulnerable Groups
Women and girls are especially vulnerable to trafficking. They account for 99% of victims identified in the commercial sex industry and 58% in other sectors, such as domestic work.
Although all populations can be vulnerable to trafficking, certain ones are especially at risk and in need of additional safeguards and protection. Survivors from marginalized, disadvantaged, and vulnerable communities often face additional structural hurdles to accessing support services and reintegration assistance. USAID’s C-TIP programming is tailored to local and regional contexts to best serve and safeguard these populations most susceptible to trafficking.
Providing Services for Physical and Emotional Healing
Trafficking survivors often suffer lasting physical, mental, and emotional stress and do not have the support they need to address this harm. Through training for staff on addressing trauma, the USAID C-TIP Policy prioritizes the needs and concerns of trafficking survivors to ensure they receive support services that are compassionate and culturally competent.
USAID supports counseling services, legal assistance, safe and secure accommodations, and access to workforce development opportunities to help survivors heal and regain agency over their lives.
Hope for the Future
USAID recognizes that trafficking in persons breaks down rule of law, corrupts global commerce, and diminishes development goals.
Although much more needs to be done, the revised USAID C-TIP Policy aims to provide survivors hope for a future in which no one has to endure what they have.
About the Author
Janice Lam is a Program Specialist on USAID’s Center for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance’s Justice, Rights, and Security Team.
