More Than Hope
Trafficking survivors are rebuilding home and reclaiming life
For an estimated 25 million adults and children worldwide who have been trafficked for labor or sex, hope turns to despair and loss of sense home. Facing limited opportunities in their native countries, these individuals often find themselves stripped of passports and more. What comes next is forced labor; illegal confinement; physical, mental, and sexual abuse; gender-based violence; and torture.
Human trafficking — also known as modern slavery — is the second largest criminal industry globally.
As a Senior Human Rights and Inclusion Advisor at USAID, I have devoted my life and career to protecting and promoting human rights for at-risk individuals around the world. At the State Department, I designed a program to stem the trafficking of women from Ukraine through Poland. Inspired by this work, I focused my graduate research at Columbia University on the complicity of oil and pipeline corporations in exacerbating the conditions along the Thai-Burma border that increased sex trafficking of women.
Since then, at USAID I have focused on human rights.
Deriving Inspiration from Survivor Stories
In Mali, I saw, firsthand, the places where sex trafficking victims lived and worked, as one woman recounted to me, “feeling caged” and unable to return to Nigeria. During focus groups, our USAID and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention delegation listened for details on the force, fraud, and coercion they experienced while travelling from their home countries or while currently at the brothels, that compromised their safety and security. I was struck by the need to address their human dignity.
These survivor stories left me with the desire to learn more.
In Kazakhstan, I visited a shelter in Nur-Sultan. Here we heard stories about women who had fled ISIS-held territories, transgender women, and gay men who were susceptible to trafficking, exploitation, and gender-based violence. I learned about factors affecting the susceptibility to trafficking, including violent extremism, complex trauma, stigma, and discrimination, which is particularly pronounced for gender and sexual minorities.
Through these visceral, in-person experiences, I have become keenly aware of the gendered dimension of trafficking, and how exploitation is not limited to men for labor and women for sex.
From Nepal, I’ve been inspired by the resilience of trafficking survivors, such as Charimaya Tamang. As recounted by my colleague Jessica Benton Cooney, Charimaya, at age 16, was ambushed and drugged by four men while out alone cutting grass. She was transported 36 hours from Nepal, across the border to the brothels in the red light district of Mumbai, India. Her captors left her in a windowless room, where she was forced to be a sex worker for the next 22 months. After she escaped, along with 15 of her fellow survivors, she established the USAID-supported Shakti Samuha, which translates as “power collective” in Nepali. It is the first organization in Nepal established and operated by survivors of human trafficking — providing shelter, legal aid, vocational training, and counseling to other survivors.
Her story of resilience exemplifies how integrated USAID-supported human trafficking programming, in partnership with survivors and civil society, strengthens a country’s commitment and capacity to counter trafficking. This survivor-centered approach prioritizes human dignity and self-empowerment.
Earlier this year, while visiting Cambodia, I met with the USAID-supported organization CENTRAL, as labor rights specialist and my former colleague Bama Athreya had done a few years ago. I was particularly taken by the story of Sok Leang, “hired” under false pretenses at 15 years old to be a house maid. After working through her complex trauma, she reintegrated back into her family’s daily activities at age 29.
And in Liberia, the government has taken actions that signify their commitment to prosecute and prevent trafficking and to protect its victims. An anti-trafficking task force has a budget allocation for the first time since 2014, and there are increased investigations of internal trafficking. Through these efforts from the government, supported by civil society and my colleagues, the Department of State upgraded Liberia to Tier 2 in the 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report — indicating significant efforts toward compliance with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
The Effects of Trafficking in Our Own Past
Sok Leang’s story resonated with me, especially during the current national conversation on racial injustice in the United States and the reminders of our own legacy of slavery and trafficking. We recognize that not everyone in the United States has enjoyed the same equitable access to human rights or the ability to exercise them. Coming to terms with that history of inequality assists us in standing in solidarity with other countries facing the modern day enslavement of people. And it pushes me to approach trafficking overseas from a place of humility.
Our country’s history also inspires us to reimagine a world where the human dignity, mental health, and psychosocial needs of survivors are at the center of a global anti-trafficking effort.
USAID is committed to fighting this global human rights challenge, bringing innovative ideas and enthusiastic commitment to restoring dignity to those whose lives were upended by trafficking and to mitigate the potential of further human rights violations.
Through a whole of government approach that also includes partners and host countries, we can stem the scourge of trafficking-in-persons in places where those traffickers prey on the most vulnerable.
When I meet with trafficking survivors, such as Charimaya Tamang, I will listen intently to their stories and endeavor to co-create a future with them that is survivor-centric.
About the Author
Ajit V. Joshi is the Senior Human Rights and Inclusion Advisor at USAID.
