Invisible Chains (29 page)

Belgium's approach to human trafficking has been described as “the result of a compromise between two concerns: on the one hand there is the necessity to offer to the victims a series of measures for aid and assistance; on the other hand there is the fight against persons and networks involved in trafficking in human beings.”

Victims of human trafficking who return to their countries of origin may seek assistance from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). This assistance typically consists of temporary housing and care, psychological follow-up, and guidance toward education and/or vocational training. These are important protective measures to ensure victims are not as vulnerable to being re-trafficked when they return home. Canada's failure to co-operate similarly with the IOM is putting victims at risk.

Specialized police and prosecutors

Belgium has approximately five hundred police specialists in human trafficking, federally and locally. An additional thirty officers who develop and implement action plans to combat human trafficking and migrant smuggling comprise the country's central human trafficking unit. Specially trained public prosecutors and labour auditors are appointed for each judicial district to ensure that suspected cases of human trafficking are prosecuted.

Criminal proceedings in Belgium depend primarily on written statements. As a result, victims and witnesses rarely are obligated to testify against their traffickers in court. Should the victims' presence prove essential, the law permits audiovisual statements in order to minimize the victims' fear of testifying against their abusers.

The Belgian system is not without flaws. The initial residence permit for foreign victims has been criticized for its infrequent use, and in some cases the evidence in support of trafficking charges has been inadequate, perhaps because front-line workers encouraged victims to press charges quickly and take advantage of a secure residence status. Nevertheless, Canada can learn from Belgium's holistic approach.

Best practices from Belgium

•  Create human trafficking offences based on the
Palermo Protocol
that are straightforward to prove, with stiffer penalties for offenders who employ egregious means and whose victims are minors.

•  Make human trafficking a priority crime with specialized police officers and prosecutors to investigate and prosecute offenders.

•  Provide victims with access to a range of services for recovery and rehabilitation, as well as “victim-friendly” procedures to ease their role in the prosecution of their traffickers.

•  Co-operate with the IOM to assist with the voluntary return of trafficking victims, thereby reducing the risk of re-victimization.

•  Collaborate with neighbouring countries and private companies to disrupt transit trafficking.

Italy: Counting on non-governmental allies

A powerful strategic alliance between NGOs and the Italian government has proven effective in combatting the country's serious human trafficking problem. In contrast to Canada, NGOs in Italy have worked more directly and co-operatively with police and government officials to help identify trafficking victims and then offer them assistance and protection.

Development of an NGO network of support services

In 1998, the Italian government enacted legislation recognizing key roles for NGOs to protect and assist victims of human trafficking. The resulting Programme of Social Protection and Assistance committed to financing projects that are directed by accredited NGOs, such as faith-based organizations and women's groups. This unique approach encourages a countrywide collaborative network. In 2008, U.S.$9.41 million in funding supported sixty-six victim assistance projects.

Through this program, survivors of human trafficking receive a variety of support services, including counselling, health care, legal assistance, shelter and protection, social support, Italian lessons, vocational guidance and training, and assisted return home at the victim's request.

The services run by the NGOs include several kinds of shelters: short-term emergency facilities, second-care shelters for stays of a few months while the victims become stabilized, “autonomy houses” for victims starting to work and waiting to find their own housing, and alternative housing where victims live with families or other support groups. Minors often are placed with families for longer-term recovery.

NGOs seek to break the cycle of exploitation that ensnares survivors. In developing vocational training programs, for example, an NGO called “On the Road” avoids economic sectors that are unstable or traditionally linked with marginalized categories, such as domestic labour. Instead, based on their individual skills and with support from psychologists or tutors, victims work as trainees or interns in reputable
companies. While the program covers salary and social security costs, companies may elect to hire victims after training. The program's employment rate is an impressive 90 percent.

NGOs, supported by funding from the Italian government, provided literacy courses for 588 victims and vocational training for 313, while helping 436 find temporary jobs and 907 locate permanent work in 2007 alone. In the same year, the Ministry of the Interior issued 1009 residence permits to victims who assisted in a law enforcement investigation, and the government ensured the safe return of 62 foreign trafficking victims, funding the costs of repatriation, reintegration, and resettlement in their home countries.

Innovative measures to identify victims

Italian law allows foreign trafficking victims who are at risk of exploitation to obtain renewable six-month special residence permits. Victims can seek to convert these to regular residence permits for work or education and eventually apply for permanent residency. Between 2003 and 2006, about 950 foreign victims annually were granted residence permits. Child victims of trafficking receive automatic residence permits until they are eighteen.

NGOs and Italian police effectively identify trafficking victims and refer them for care and assistance. One NGO, Transnational AIDS Prevention Among Migrant Prostitutes in Europe Project (TAMPEP), sends out
unita di strada
(street units) whose members are from the same ethnic background as women and girls commonly trafficked to Italy. For example, a Nigerian “cultural mediator” is in place because until 2005, more than half of the 1575 trafficking victims assisted by TAMPEP were from Nigeria.

These street outreach teams identify likely victims of violence and trafficking, establish trust, and offer them health information and testing along with general guidance. Inside health clinics, social workers inform the victims of their rights and options for assistance.

Outreach units play a further role in sensitizing local authorities to the problems of trafficked persons, and in mapping the pattern of
arrivals, departures, and prolonged stays of potential victims. They also strive to create networks in given areas to reach those victims “behind closed doors” who are harder to identify—a significant initiative because the sex industry in Italy is increasingly concealed.

Police officers also receive training in identifying and assisting victims. In 2006, a report from an independent commission found that government measures were not fully effective in identifying victims on boats arriving from North Africa. In response, the government began to allow international organizations and NGOs to inspect detention facilities and interview migrants.

Collaboration in prosecuting human traffickers

In 2007, when the Italian Ministry of the Interior created a committee to improve the process for convicting human traffickers, it invited NGOs to join the assessment and policy-making committees. In Canada, however, NGOs and federal government agencies rarely interact and often are suspicious of each other.

Italian prosecutors also have won the co-operation of victims of human trafficking in denouncing their exploiters, a development that some NGOs attribute to the recovery period and services available before testifying. In some cases, victims chose to testify after consulting with other victims who had done so. As one Italian judge noted, “[T]he trafficked women want to act as witnesses because once they are confident about their own situation, once they know that they are protected, that they can get a job, they want their traffickers to be punished.”

Best practices from Italy

•  Provide funding to develop a network of support services to assist trafficking victims, and to encourage collaboration between NGOs and the police.

•  Help trafficking survivors break the cycle of exploitation through short-term recovery and long-term rehabilitation, including job training and employment with private companies.

•  Give special consideration to child trafficking victims in obtaining legal immigration status.

•  Implement innovative measures to identify victims using ethnic and community-based outreach teams.

The United States: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

Over the past decade, the United States has invested hundreds of millions of dollars, improved legislation, and launched innovative programs to confront what it views as modern-day slavery—both a tarnish on the legacy of President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and a violation of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery. President Barack Obama has recently recognized the ongoing problem: “Sadly, there are thousands who are trapped in various forms of enslavement, here in our country.... It is a debasement of our common humanity.”

Comprehensive laws to combat human trafficking

President Bill Clinton signed the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000
(TVPA) into law just six weeks before the United States committed to the
Palermo Protocol.
Moreover, the TVPA has been reviewed and updated in 2003, 2005, and 2008 in response to ongoing monitoring of results and increased understanding of the problem. Traffickers readily adapt to meet changing circumstances, but so, too, has Congress.

By comparison Canada, which signed the
Palermo Protocol
one day after the United States, has yet to enact any federal legislation remotely as comprehensive as the TVPA.

The TVPA includes educational and public awareness campaigns and assures victims of access to federally funded social services like health care, housing, education, and job training. In fact, foreign victims of human trafficking qualify for the same federal and state services as refugees.

From 2001 to 2008, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services certified assistance for 1696 foreign trafficking victims, about 10 percent of them minors; since 2002, the number of foreign victims receiving assistance each year has increased steadily.

Case management for victims has emerged as an important step in helping them recover and achieve self-sufficiency. A case manager links the trafficking victim to the services, programs, and support required, often becoming the first and sometimes the only person whom the victim trusts.

The TVPA also created the “T-visa,” which permits foreign trafficking victims to remain in the United States as temporary residents, allowing for permanent residence after three years. To obtain this assistance, foreign victims are required to co-operate with U.S. law enforcement, but this does not mean they must testify publicly against their exploiters. Between 2001 and 2008, more than 2300 T-visas were issued to foreign victims of human trafficking and members of their immediate families. In 2008 alone, 394 foreign victims of human trafficking applied for T-visas, and 80 percent were approved. Trafficking victims also can qualify for the Witness Protection Program.

The TVPA's tough criminal laws hold traffickers accountable for their crimes, especially when their victims are under eighteen. Furthermore, unlike Canada's
Criminal Code,
U.S. law recognizes “the subtle means of coercion used by traffickers to bind their victims into servitude, including psychological coercion, trickery, and the seizure of documents.” The TVPA also specifies no need to prove child victims were subject to force, fraud, or coercion, but if they were, higher penalties apply. Again, Canada's criminal offence of human trafficking is much narrower, limiting its effectiveness.

In 2007, the U.S. attorney general created a special Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit. Its mandate includes providing technical expertise and training to police agencies, along with legal support during the investigation of major cases. From 2001 to 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division and Attorneys'
Offices, prosecuted 531 alleged human traffickers. Of these, about 28 percent were charged with labour trafficking and the balance with sex trafficking, resulting in 419 convictions. Almost one thousand new human trafficking investigations have been launched. The average sentence for cases involving adult victims was nine years and four months, with the maximum being fifty years imprisonment. These prosecutions also led to traffickers having to pay millions of dollars to their victims.

Bipartisan support for improving the response

The United States has not treated human trafficking simply as another partisan issue. While President Bill Clinton originally signed the TVPA, President George W Bush signed into law the
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003
(TVPRA), which expanded the TVPA. This law created stronger provisions to prosecute travelling child sex offenders and to help trafficking victims sue their traffickers. It also requires an annual report from the attorney general to Congress evaluating the progress of the United States in combatting human trafficking. The TVPRA also authorized two hundred million dollars (U.S.) for projects to combat modern-day slavery.

In 2005 and again in 2008, the TVPA was reauthorized and expanded to fund new victim rehabilitation services, support state and local efforts, and enhance the criminal offences. To ensure political attention, a Cabinet-level task force chaired by the U.S. secretary of State was created to coordinate federal counter-trafficking efforts, in addition to a senior policy group to keep bureaucrats on task.