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HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Many thanks to friends and contacts and friends of friends at the State Department (my old walking grounds) who helped develop this report and making it available.
Part 1 of a 7 part series
Human Trafficking in the Context of a Global Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis with unprecedented repercussions for human rights and economic development globally, including in human trafficking. COVID-19 generated conditions that increased the number of people who experienced vulnerabilities to human trafficking and interrupted existing and planned anti-trafficking interventions. Governments across the world diverted resources toward the pandemic, often at the expense of anti-trafficking efforts, resulting in decreased protection measures and service provision for victims, reduction of preventative efforts, and hindrances to investigations and prosecutions of traffickers. At the same time, human traffickers quickly adapted to capitalize on the vulnerabilities exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic.
Despite the significant disruptions to efforts to combat this crime, the anti-trafficking community found ways to adapt and forged new relationships to overcome the challenges. Some governments and organizations conducted in-depth assessments to identify the changing trends. Others leveraged technology to drive innovative solutions. Many aligned policies and practices to current realities. Nonetheless, the challenges uncovered by COVID-19 are monumental and may be long lasting, requiring sustained collaboration among governments, civil society organizations, private sector leaders, survivor leaders, and other anti-trafficking actors to adjust and respond aptly to overcome these challenges. As a result, this year’s TIP Report introduction highlights human trafficking issues related to COVID-19, with special focus on how anti-trafficking stakeholders adapted in rapidly changing environments. It reflects on the lessons learned from practitioners and offers considerations to rebuild momentum through coordinated anti-trafficking strategies. The introduction also illustrates collaborative ways to reimagine anti-trafficking efforts with an emphasis on preparedness to prevent compounding effects of future crises on trafficking victims and vulnerable individuals, as well as efforts to combat the most recent emerging human trafficking trends.
CHANGING HUMAN TRAFFICKING TRENDS AMID THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
A Growing Number of People Experiencing Economic and Social Vulnerabilities
The economic and social distress generated by the pandemic and related mitigation efforts exacerbated risks for vulnerable and marginalized populations. These included women and children, people affected by travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders, communities in areas of food insecurity, and survivors of trafficking, as well as persons directly and indirectly affected by the disruption of economic activities and reduced livelihood options. Due to school closures, some children lacked access to education, shelter, and/or food. Survivors of trafficking faced an increased risk of potential re-victimization due to financial and emotional hardships during the crisis. A survey by the Office of Security and Co-operation in Europe’s OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and UN Women highlights that almost 70 percent of trafficking survivors from 35 countries reported that their financial well-being was heavily impacted by COVID-19, and more than two-thirds attributed a decline in their mental health to government-imposed lockdowns triggering memories of exploitative situations. Many survivors had to close shops or leave jobs due to lockdowns and some were pressured by former traffickers when other employment options dried up. Some survivors had to sell their cell phones to purchase food, further isolating them from potential assistance from case workers. Additionally, COVID-19 mitigation efforts, such as stay-at-home orders and travel limitations, increased rates of gender-based violence and substance abuse, both of which put individuals at a higher risk of human traffickers exploiting them. Individuals in underserved communities faced barriers to accessing healthcare, while foreigners were stigmatized as carriers and spreaders of the virus, placing them at higher risk for exploitation and violence. Substantial changes in financial situations, such as the reduction of wages and work hours, closure of workplaces, rising unemployment, and reduced remittances, coupled with the rise in costs of living and disruptions to social safety networks, created newly precarious situations for those not previously vulnerable and even more precarious situations for those who were already at risk of exploitation.
Low-wage and migrant workers and those in the informal economy faced riskier employment conditions, including restricted movement, minimal oversight mechanisms, withheld wages, and increasing debts—all indicators or flags for human trafficking. During stay-at-home orders, workers who lived at their worksites became particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor while being restricted in their ability to seek assistance or leave their situation of exploitation. With minimal oversight mechanisms, many of these worksites remained unmonitored, resulting in fewer opportunities for victim identification. In the Gulf States, an IST Research survey of 6,000 migrant workers concluded employers were 36 percent more likely to confine migrant domestic workers to their workplace and were 240 percent more likely to force those workers to work on rest days than any other migrant workers. In the same survey, more than 50 percent of migrant workers reported bearing new debts because of the pandemic. According to UNODC, migrant workers whose plans were disrupted by COVID-19 travel restrictions, either to travel home or to the workplace, were likely to have already paid recruitment fees or travel costs, placing them at risk of debt bondage. Similarly, a study by the Government of the Philippines also found many overseas Filipino workers were stranded with their savings exhausted during 2020. Sinking demand also led major global retailers to cancel orders and, in many cases, refuse to pay for products their supplier factories had already produced. Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Global Worker Rights and the Worker Rights Consortium reported that this resulted in shutdowns of thousands c of factories in producing countries that sent home millions of factory workers, often without legally mandated pay.
Traffickers Quickly Adapt and Exploit COVID-19-related Risks
As COVID-19 caused a global economic downturn and increased the number of individuals vulnerable to human trafficking, traffickers adapted their existing tactics to take advantage of the unique circumstances of the pandemic. Human traffickers targeted the growing number of people unable to mitigate, adapt to, or build resilience against the worsening economic and social effects; they also exploited situations where screening and identification of victims became even more difficult. This included individuals confined to their homes or workplaces, households in dire need of financial support, and workers in the informal sector. Traffickers targeted families experiencing financial difficulties and offered false promises and fraudulent job offers to recruit their children, while other families exploited or sold their children to traffickers to financially support themselves. Business owners and landlords pressured individuals to take out loans in exchange for cheap labor or commercial sexual exploitation. Additionally, traffickers sought to re-exploit survivors who became financially unstable and vulnerable to revictimization.
Some examples include:
- In India and Nepal, young girls from poor and rural areas were often expected to leave school to help support their families during the economic hardship—some were forced into marriage in exchange for money, while others were forced to work to supplement lost income.
- Reports from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay illustrate that landlords forced their tenants (often women) to have sex with them when the tenant could not pay rent.
- During lockdown, traffickers in the Amazon in Brazil changed their patterns by sending child sex trafficking victims to the perpetrators’ private quarters or specific locations instead of the usual places where children were sold to perpetrators.
- In Haiti, Niger, and Mali, gangs operating in IDP camps took advantage of reduced security and limited protection to force residents at the camp to perform commercial sex acts.
- In Burma, families experienced drastic declines in household incomes, with 94 percent of households surveyed reporting a reduction of incomes, 81 percent reporting at least one family member losing a job, and 69 percent reporting having to take loans making these families vulnerable to trafficking.
While the number of individuals at risk of trafficking grew during the pandemic, so did the conditions under which traffickers thrive. Traffickers capitalized on the reduced capacity and shifting priorities of law enforcement resulting in greater anonymity and impunity to pursue their crimes. Disruptions to public justice systems and diversion of resources from anti-trafficking efforts during the pandemic increased impunity for traffickers and lowered the odds of their arrest.
An Increase in Forms of Online Sexual Exploitation
Pandemic mitigation efforts forced many people to shift online, including human traffickers. Online recruitment and grooming increased as children spent more time online for virtual learning due to school closures, often with little parental supervision. Reports from several countries demonstrated drastic increases in online commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking, including online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC), and demand for and distribution of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM), including content that involved human trafficking victims. The Philippine Department of Justice noted an increase of nearly 300 percent in referrals for potential online sex trafficking and OSEC cases from March to May 2020, the period during which the Philippines was under lockdown or quarantine measures. In India, there was a reported 95 percent rise in online searches for CSEM, and India ranked among the highest countries in the world for material related to child sexual abuse found online with a total of 11.6 percent of a global compilation of reports in 2020. The U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) reported a 98.66 percent increase in online enticement reports between January and September 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, and reports to their CyberTipline doubled to 1.6 million. While traffickers used the opportunity of increased numbers of children online to expand their operations, it should be noted that a portion of the increase resulted from the recirculation of sensationalized trafficking-related stories and misinformation on social media platforms. This included individuals who reshared CSEM content in hopes of helping the victim and raising awareness, but inadvertently contributed to reporting spikes leaving less time and resources to pursue every incident. With enough time for traffickers to establish effective methods to recruit and groom their victims and insufficient avenues to prosecute various forms of online sexual exploitation, the pandemic accelerated and accrued the challenges to combating online sex trafficking.
IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON THE ANTI-TRAFFICKING COMMUNITY
Governments, donors, and civil society organizations faced practical and ethical dilemmas reconciling pandemic mitigation strategies with the implementation of anti-trafficking activities. In the resulting absence of adequate anti-trafficking responses around the world, victims went unidentified, survivors were underserved, and traffickers were not held accountable.
Competing Priorities and Reduced Capacity
Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, governments faced the predicament of shifting priorities to focus on growing health and economic concerns, which drew attention and resources away from anti-trafficking efforts. Prevention efforts decreased as some governments suspended awareness campaigns, which often focused on areas less frequented during the pandemic, including airports, border crossings, bus and train stations, schools, and venues for large gatherings. Conversations related to human trafficking typically held by community, tribal, and religious leaders were often cancelled or postponed. Stay-at-home orders and travel restrictions made it more difficult for front-line officials to protect individuals through proper identification and screening techniques, leaving officials to rely on victims to self-identify during the pandemic, which already occurs rarely. In many countries, law enforcement agencies reassigned personnel responsible for investigating human trafficking to enforcing lockdowns and public health measures. Since the declaration of a national state of emergency in Peru, the assignments of police units, including those focused on anti-trafficking efforts, shifted to enforcing the government-imposed isolation measures. This, coupled with a shortage of protective equipment to supply police, resulted in many law enforcement officers and other specialized anti-trafficking officials becoming infected with COVID-19, some of whom died.
It is undeniably essential for governments to execute effective, coordinated public health responses to prevent further loss of life and economic damage as a result of the pandemic. But, it also is important to maintain political will and capacity to focus on other priorities to avoid backsliding on progress made in the anti-trafficking field or contributing to challenges in combating the crime. As vulnerabilities increase and human traffickers quickly adapt, governments must take steps to address anti-trafficking efforts in their COVID-19 strategies, including by supporting and cooperating with the anti-trafficking community as it adjusts to the pandemic operating environment.
Decreased Financial and Human Resources
Anti-trafficking actors experienced an all-around decrease in resources and operations. NGOs from various countries separately reported significant funding cuts due to COVID-19, which forced some to halt all assistance or cancel certain victim-support services. In 2019, official development assistance (ODA) made up one-tenth of external financial flows to developing countries, according to the OECD, which further predicted a decline of up to 8 percent in 2020 due to the impacts of COVID-19 on economies. In the first seven months of the pandemic, the International Aid Transparency Initiative noted a reduction of 17 percent in bilateral donor commitments between 2019 and 2020, which included a five percent decline in ODA. Within this decrease in obligated funds, donors shifted support to humanitarian and health sectors, consequently resulting in lower commitments to prevent conflict and support peace, security, and human rights. This has had cascading effects for local anti-trafficking organizations and their efforts, as many donors reneged on promised funds and funding opportunities diminished across the sector. According to the joint survey by OSCE and UN Women, only 24 percent of the 385 anti-trafficking organizations that responded to the survey could remain fully operational during the pandemic.
Challenges Facing Victims and Survivors
Victims and survivors faced obstacles accessing assistance and support as lockdowns, social distancing protocols, and a lack of resources caused service providers to close shelters and reduce services. Providers struggled not only to maintain services for identified individuals, but also to create safe spaces in accordance with capacity and social distancing protocols to allow service provision for future identified individuals. Other traditional emergency response and support services, such as shelters, hospitals, and clinics, where victims might be identified were overburdened, at reduced capacity, or closed due to COVID-related restrictions or surges. Self-disclosing one’s trafficking experience also became riskier, especially for victims quarantined with their trafficker, given reduced opportunities for movement and the risk of COVID-19 infection posed by fleeing into the community. Moreover, the OSCE/UN Women survey concluded that only 14 percent of national referral mechanisms were fully operational, due in part to “government employees working from home” and low technological literacy and capacity. For foreign national trafficking victims, closed borders meant repatriation remained a key challenge, resulting in service providers supporting victims for longer periods with dwindling resources. In Nigeria, IOM and the Nigerian government supported the repatriation of more than 7,000 trafficking survivors in both 2018 and 2019 but were only able to repatriate 620 individuals from January to July 2020. Regardless of whether the process was delayed or expedited, repatriation of trafficking victims had the potential to lead to serious health and protection risks in the countries of return, as well as increased costs and added difficulty due to quarantine requirements upon arrival.
The OSCE/UN Women survey demonstrated the overall plight of survivors during the pandemic, noting that access to employment decreased by 85 percent, medical services by 73 percent, social services by 70 percent, legal assistance and access to food and water by 66 percent, psychological assistance by 64 percent, and access to safe accommodation by 63 percent. With limited access to wraparound services that, in many cases, are integral to survivors’ independence and well-being, trafficking survivors are at an increased risk of re-victimization. Many COVID-19 mitigation measures, such as mask wearing, virtual engagements, and self-isolation, could re-traumatize survivors. Masks and other personal protective equipment, as well as virtual engagements, reduce the ability to read facial and non-verbal cues and body language, which can be a survival mechanism for survivors. Survivors might associate stay-at-home orders and self-isolation with movement restrictions and feeling there are fewer places to which to “flee,” which may induce or exacerbate a trauma response for some survivors. Overall, the intensified impact on the mental health and physical well-being of trafficking victims and survivors from long-term isolation, reduced access to services, and general COVID-related risks reaffirms the need for comprehensive, trauma- and survivor-informed, and victim-centered anti-trafficking responses during the pandemic.
Prosecution Challenges
Criminal justice systems often delayed and suspended overall prosecution efforts while law enforcement officials worked to manage COVID-19 outbreaks, even within their own units. Law enforcement officers were unable to conduct proper investigations and interviews with individuals to obtain the necessary evidence to prosecute human trafficking cases. When investigations and prosecutions did proceed, the coordination of extra safety precautions that met the victims’ and the prosecution team’s level of comfort further delayed the process in some cases. In other cases, the default method of conducting interviews virtually may not have been optimal for victims, who have reported feeling more comfortable developing a relationship with investigators before sharing their experience. Members of prosecution teams were obliged to think creatively to meet the victims’ needs while considering their own health and safety. Whether in-person or virtual interviews were held, prosecutors often avoided interviewing the victims multiple times, limiting the ability of investigators to follow-up and confirm details. Access to information and translation services for trafficking victims was also a challenge, as victim support networks reduced services to a minimum. Further, judicial officials postponed prosecutions and court proceedings due to delays in investigations, efforts to maintain safe social distancing regulations, and focus on competing priorities. Court closures at the onset of the pandemic also delayed prosecutions, contributing significantly to judicial systems’ backlog of cases. While many countries shifted to conducting court proceedings virtually, limited to no internet connectivity and cost-related barriers to internet access for rural or underserved communities in some countries, such as The Gambia, made it challenging for victims to participate in virtual courts. These delays decreased victims’ access to justice and legal assistance, which hampered victims’ emotional well-being, recovery, and repatriation, while allowing traffickers to continue their criminal activities and intimidate victims from pressing charges.
The multi-faceted challenges generated by the COVID-19 pandemic continue to evolve and expose vulnerability in individuals, as well as systemic gaps. Overcoming and adapting to these broad impacts of the pandemic remain critical to an effective response against human trafficking.
ADAPTATIONS TO ANTI-TRAFFICKING EFFORTS IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19
In response to emerging challenges, governments and civil society organizations conducted in-depth research assessments on the impacts of COVID-19, leveraged technology as a method to address emerging trends, adapted policy approaches, and sought to expand protections for victims. There were and continue to be survivor-led and -informed innovative solutions not only to ensure the continuation of anti-trafficking efforts but also to promote safety and security during the pandemic. The anti-trafficking community pivoted to address new circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrated resilience, and produced advanced solutions that could be beneficial even after the pandemic, but many challenges still exist and continue to emerge.
Fact-Finding and Research Assessments
Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, a lack of credible and accurate data posed a challenge to effective and efficient anti-trafficking efforts around the world. It was clear that COVID-19 exacerbated the vulnerabilities of millions of individuals and adversely affected efforts to combat human trafficking, but little concrete information existed to confirm the trends, understand the impacts, and shape the anti-trafficking response. International organizations conducted and produced most of the initial comprehensive assessments of the impact of COVID-19 on anti-trafficking efforts and highlighted areas in which to adapt policy approaches and target resources. For example:
- The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GIATOC) published a policy brief in May 2020 highlighting initial trends in human trafficking during the pandemic and challenges to traditional responses.
- OSCE/UN Women conducted a robust survey shining a light on the issues victims and service providers faced.
- IOM conducted rapid assessments in various countries to address the multiple effects of the pandemic on populations vulnerable to trafficking, such as the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 on labor migration in the Pacific Region.
- UNODC’s partner NGOs that work on human trafficking reported that pandemic-related measures led their beneficiaries to lose income and access to food.
With an anticipated increase in poverty rates for the first time in two decades, further research on the economic effects of COVID-19 remains essential to understanding the ensuing large-scale unemployment, particularly in the informal job sector, and how it will drive known and new forms of trafficking.
Technological Innovations
As seen in most fields during the pandemic, technology has become a powerful means to connect people and collect information, while limiting individuals’ exposure to the virus. Despite widespread challenges adapting to a remote, digital work environment, anti-trafficking stakeholders leveraged technology to identify victims, support victims and survivors, and increase collaboration.
Although the pandemic resulted in the reduction or suspension of many support networks for victims, service providers shifted to online and virtual platforms to continue supporting victims as much as possible. A service provider in Colombia ensured that all trafficking victims they served had access to the internet and a smartphone to receive online counseling services and mobile vouchers for food and hygienic products. In addition, some service providers offered telephone and online counseling and legal aid sessions, including filing temporary protection orders by email and providing legal representation via online platforms.
Civil society organizations collaborated to promote information sharing and the availability of COVID-related service provision and anti-trafficking guidance remotely. Many organizations consolidated lists of resources and online guidance on promising practices to provide support services to victims and survivors during the pandemic.
Some examples of online collaboration between anti-trafficking stakeholders include:
- The Human Trafficking Foundation started a Google group, and the Freedom Collaborative initiated a COVID-19 Response Facebook group.
- In Uganda, the Human Trafficking Institute (HTI) developed a forum via WhatsApp to establish communication among police and prosecutors during the shutdown. The WhatsApp forum allowed the nearly 350 police and prosecutor participants to share tips and resources on effective methods for trafficking investigations and prosecutions. It also allowed the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions’ Trafficking Prosecutor and HTI’s legal expert to provide mentorship and technical assistance on trafficking cases to forum participants across the country.
- In Kosovo, Terre des Hommes, along with partners, organized and conducted webinars on case management, challenges, and sustainability of delivering services to victims of trafficking during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some organizations leveraged technology to innovate systems for victim identification and referrals while others, even some governments, expanded access to training to national and global audiences. For example:
- IOM adapted its existing MigApp for migrant workers in the Americas to include a new section to highlight official health recommendations to prevent the spread of the virus, capture changes across countries—such as border restrictions, COVID-19 hotlines, or migration status changes—and produce surveys to better understand the COVID-related challenges migrants faced. In Colombia, IOM also designed a geo-referencing, GPS-based mobile application for members of the counter-trafficking national taskforce to detect trafficking victims and activate immediate direct assistance.
- UNODC’s Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Section (HTMSS) began providing alternative methods to deliver technical assistance by establishing an online center of excellence that will allow for delivery of trainings, webinars, and blended and self-paced learning, as well as interaction among practitioners to foster HTMSS’ community of practice.
- Estonia launched a nationwide e-learning initiative in schools, led by law enforcement organizations and anti-trafficking experts, to combat and raise awareness of the rise of online sex trafficking and child exploitation during the pandemic.
In some countries, prosecutors and courts utilized technology to safely continue prosecution efforts while employing a victim-centered approach. Prosecutors typically conducted interviews with victims virtually and less frequently to prevent re-traumatization. Judges admitted virtual victim testimony via livestream in a separate room to allow victims to feel safer and prevent the potential spread of COVID-19. Some governments expanded protective services, such as admitting live teleconference testimony in court or providing victims the option to testify remotely to avoid interacting with their traffickers. In June 2020, Mexico secured its first trafficking in persons conviction from a virtual court session; however, the risk of traffickers and other abusers intercepting victims’ phone calls, text messages, or other forms of communication has been heightened in a remote environment in which victims and prosecutorial investigators are unable to develop a relationship. This emphasizes the importance of prioritizing safety, privacy, and informed use of technology when facilitating virtual trafficking assessments, investigations, and coordination of services with trafficking victims.
While technology allowed the anti-trafficking community to navigate more easily the myriad challenges caused by the pandemic, its expanded use highlighted the importance of ensuring victims’ access to technology and online services, as well as their safety and privacy when using technology to receive victim assistance. Anti-trafficking approaches should continue to incorporate technological innovations responsibly to improve anti-trafficking responses. Collaboration between the technology industry and the anti-trafficking field should also be encouraged to promote the development of technologies designed to better support anti-trafficking missions and meet the needs of victims and survivors.
Survivor-led and Survivor-informed Solutions
Survivor leaders and their organizations were resilient and essential throughout the pandemic. Since traditional forms of community outreach were less accessible or no longer possible, survivor leaders leveraged their networks and expertise to engage with vulnerable populations and victims through informal channels to share information on available support in a given area. Survivors also supported broader community responses to COVID-19. In Lesotho, a group of trafficking survivors in a shelter produced masks for themselves and the local community, contributing to the fight against the pandemic. Likewise, Sewing New Futures, a nonprofit social enterprise that employs women and girls who have survived sex trafficking in northern India, expanded their product line to include cloth face masks. The organization also donated proceeds from the production of artisan goods, including the masks, towards medical care and social services for survivors.
Many anti-trafficking organizations also responded to the pandemic by emphasizing staff wellness, especially for employees with lived experience of human trafficking who are at risk of heightened responses to the stress caused by the pandemic. Acknowledging the emotional weight of bringing trafficking-related casework into one’s home, survivor-led and survivor-informed organizations were mindful of staff needs when managing cases remotely, offering resources and opportunities to support the staff’s emotional well-being. This application of trauma-informed principles during a time of collective trauma reflects the success—and the necessity—of the push from survivors in recent years for the anti-trafficking movement as a whole to become more survivor- and trauma-informed.
Increased Assistance and Protections
Governments and anti-trafficking organizations responded to the increased vulnerabilities due to the pandemic through efforts to reduce the risk of trafficking and expand protection measures for victims. Some countries automatically extended temporary and transitory visas for migrant workers, while others suspended fines for unauthorized stays or extended medical coverage to anyone awaiting a decision on their immigration status. The Government of Thailand issued a Cabinet Resolution in August 2020 that made it easier to obtain new work permits and provided extensions for migrants working in Thailand. The Government of Maldives incorporated questions on labor exploitation and unethical recruitment into health screenings and COVID-19 contact tracing for all foreign workers. In June 2020, the Government of Sri Lanka approved a National COVID-19 Response Plan for Migrant Workers that covered prevention and the protection of trafficking victims, while the UK government extended public-funded safe accommodation for current victims and survivors for an additional three months. Similarly, the Australian Border Force issued an information sheet on modern slavery and COVID-19 that provided guidance on how to reduce the risk of workers becoming more vulnerable to human traffickers as a result of the pandemic. In Zimbabwe, local anti-trafficking organizations developed isolation cabins at three shelters to continue supporting individuals waiting for their COVID-19 test results without putting existing shelter residents at risk. The tendency of this pandemic to aggravate hardship requires the responsible implementation of increased protection measures that are responsive to the needs of individuals with coexisting vulnerabilities to human trafficking and COVID-19 infection.
Building Upon Crisis Frameworks
Crises disproportionately affect the most vulnerable, exacerbating the conditions for victims of human trafficking and increasing the risk of human trafficking for others. Successful counter-measures often require anti-trafficking actors to build upon existing crisis frameworks and promising practices to include anti-trafficking responses that are trauma-informed and victim-centered. The Jordanian police counter-trafficking unit worked with UNODC to implement a coordinated COVID-19 mitigation plan to protect first responders by procuring sanitation materials, protective equipment, medical kits, and COVID-19 testing units. In response to the risks of carrying out in-person research activities in communities that are vulnerable to both COVID-19 and trafficking, Freedom Fund drew on multisectoral best practices and guidance to create criteria for determining whether in-person research during COVID-19 can be safely conducted, as well as health and safety procedures to ensuring safe interactions. The criteria and procedures were designed to minimize risks to project team members and research participants by considering the best-available national and project-level information and the latest public health recommendations for COVID-19 mitigation. Other collaborative efforts have provided anti-trafficking stakeholders, including service providers, investigators, prosecutors, and first responders, with the tools, equipment, and guidance to protect themselves against and screen for the virus, which is essential to ensuring the health and safety of victims, survivors, and vulnerable populations.
Navigating not only the continuation of but also the increased need for anti-3trafficking responses during a global health crisis proved to be exceptionally challenging. Despite this, the successes, the failures, and even the unknown results of the anti-trafficking response to COVID-19 allowed for new insights and solutions to pave a better path forward.
CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE ANTI-TRAFFICKING FIELD’S RESPONSE TO COVID-19 AND BEYOND
The anti-trafficking community made a concerted effort to incorporate anti-trafficking efforts into broader crisis responses in the past through building capacity, developing guidance and trainings, and supporting coordination of actors in the field. This has been seen through other crisis situations, such as the Darfur Genocide in 2003, the emergence of Boko Haram in Nigeria in 2009, the Philippines Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014, the emergence of the migrant crisis in Europe in 2015, and the Rohingya exodus in Burma in 2017, to name a few. As the world endures its second year fighting the global pandemic, the anti-trafficking community must emphasize learning and collaboration to deliver a continued and improved response to combating trafficking in this challenging environment. Drawing on lessons learned from the pandemic response thus far, there are four main considerations that aim to mitigate impacts of crises and guide the path forward for the anti-trafficking community:
- The value of collaboration between anti-trafficking actors.
- The need to incorporate anti-trafficking efforts into existing responses in other contexts, such as in humanitarian settings.
- The importance of proactive response and crisis mitigation planning to anti-trafficking activities.
- The application of equity-based approaches.
Addressing human trafficking during a global pandemic requires the full range of actors in the anti-trafficking community to bridge the gap and establish a comprehensive coordinated response. Governments should continue working with neighbors and NGOs to address cross-border trafficking issues and support strong collaboration at the borders to identify and prevent trafficking. Service providers should continue information-sharing efforts to develop and promote promising practices for supporting identified victims and vulnerable populations during the pandemic. Many organizations have published collaborative reports, such as Road to Recovery produced by Restore NYC, a U.S.-based service provider, in partnership with eight other anti-trafficking organizations, many of which were survivor-led and from various regions of the country, to present shared experiences and findings from service provision and organizational adaptations during COVID-19, as well as forward-looking takeaways. Anti-trafficking actors in all sectors should increase collaboration with the private sector to strengthen anti-trafficking efforts that encourage and support prevention of forced labor in supply chains, especially as companies aim to make up for pandemic-related production disruptions and widespread unemployment drives vulnerability. For example, Winrock International’s How to Build Cross-Sectoral Collaboration to Protect Workers in the Age of COVID-19, seeks to initiate cross-sector collaboration and provide guidance for the private sector and anti-trafficking organizations to address increased vulnerability to human trafficking, particularly forced labor, for job seekers, migrant workers, and individuals from vulnerable communities. In the long term, private-sector collaboration should aim to improve the ability of companies to withstand shocks from crises that could leave portions of their workforce vulnerable to trafficking.
To navigate the challenges posed by stretched resources, competing priorities, and reduced capacity or political will of governments to combat trafficking, governments and NGOs should consider systemically integrating anti-trafficking efforts into existing response plans and practices in humanitarian and crisis contexts. Governments and other anti-trafficking organizations are already taking action to weave anti-trafficking measures into crisis responses. For example, IOM has developed resources for its staff to incorporate anti-trafficking into its own work in humanitarian and other emergency settings. In addition, IOM developed free, publicly available tools, such as its online course, Countering Human Trafficking in Humanitarian Settingsand its publication, Counter-Trafficking in Emergencies: Information Management Guide, to encourage humanitarians, government staff, anti-trafficking experts, and others to integrate anti-trafficking into their response work routinely. When responding to the impacts of the COVID-19 virus, it is important that those working on safety and security measures are equipped with the knowledge and resources to identify and refer cases of human trafficking. For example, training on trafficking indicators should be expanded to healthcare workers, such as those supporting COVID-19 testing and vaccination efforts as they might be the few people a victim could interact with in public.
The response to the impacts of the pandemic on anti-trafficking efforts thus far has largely been reactive as stakeholders work to understand the effects and adapt. To continue responding in the long term—whether amid the COVID-19 pandemic or other future crises—stakeholders should consider proactive planning for adaptation and flexibility to future crises through extensive risk mitigation and management tools. This includes conducting awareness raising campaigns when stay-at-home orders remain in place, providing services to identified victims when there are no safe spaces available, and intervening in stalled public justice systems to ensure minimal disruption and deter traffickers from expanding their activities. A crucial step for combating human trafficking in and out of the pandemic context is establishing specialized trafficking committees, offices, and/or units committed to ensuring anti-trafficking efforts are maintained and resources are less likely to be diverted. Anti-trafficking actors from all sectors should develop concrete risk mitigation and management plans to effectively respond to a variety of crises, including natural disasters, conflict scenarios, health crises, or a combination of emergencies that could exacerbate vulnerabilities to trafficking and the experiences of victims. Effective risk mitigation and management plans should responsibly incorporate survivor-informed, trauma-informed, and victim-centered approaches to meet the needs of survivors and minimize the chances of re-traumatization during crises.
Given the disproportionate effects of the pandemic on marginalized communities, an equity-based approach is critical to reducing vulnerabilities. Applying an equity-based lens involves evaluating and understanding how individual organizations perpetuate the marginalization of vulnerable populations, including persons with disabilities, LGBTQI+ persons, indigenous peoples, and members of racial, ethnic, and religious minority groups. Governments can enhance efforts to reduce disparities that widened during the pandemic—which also contributed to trafficking risks and emboldened traffickers—by formulating policies and programs that meet the needs of underserved communities. Service providers should examine how they can more meaningfully engage and collaborate with historically underserved populations to achieve inclusive and culturally responsive service delivery. Likewise, law enforcement should address biases to improve identification and protection efforts for victims from marginalized communities while preventing re-traumatization. Indeed, in many places the diversion of law enforcement attention from human trafficking toward enforcing pandemic-related measures has resulted in other community actors carrying out identification efforts, often in ways that are more culturally responsive and less likely to re-traumatize victims. As the pandemic taught anti-trafficking actors to adapt and view challenges from new perspectives, it is apparent that an equity-based approach is essential to the remainder of the pandemic response, as well as the future of the anti-trafficking field.
In the face of this crisis and future crises, it is the responsibility of the international community to work together toward the shared goal of preventing and combating human trafficking, protecting victims, and empowering survivors. Though difficult work remains ahead, the past year has already demonstrated stakeholders’ unwavering determination and promising innovations amid exceptional challenges. With continued collaboration, adaptation, and commitment to serving the needs of victims, survivors, and vulnerable populations, anti-trafficking efforts will emerge stronger in the post-pandemic era.
Human Trafficking: Human Trafficking in the Context of a Global Pandemic
Part 1 of a 7 part series
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Last Updated: 07/2022
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