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Overview: Trafficking Victims Protection Act Civil Litigation Project
For the thousands of people trafficked every year, escaping modern-day slavery is only the first step in the difficult journey of building a new life. Finding stability after escaping a trafficking situation often requires financial resources that survivors do not have. With specialized legal assistance, trafficking survivors can regain control by recouping damages from those traffickers responsible for the violations of the survivors’ human rights.
In a partnership with the International Human Rights Clinic at the George Washington University Law School, HRUSA has started to offer legal services to trafficking survivors who want to uphold their rights through civil litigation. In launching this project, HRUSA and the GW clinic are strategizing with other organizations that assist trafficked persons and working on the extensive legal research that is required to take on this important issue.
The project grew out of the representation that HRUSA provides to refugees seeking asylum, including women seeking refuge from forced marriage and other forms of trafficking. Through this work, HRUSA has seen a gap in services available to trafficking survivors seeking assistance. Many organizations provide social, medical, and immigration assistance, but do not have the resources or expertise to help trafficked persons who wish to pursue civil legal remedies. For HRUSA, this is an important opportunity to close a gap in U.S. human rights protections by helping trafficking survivors seek reparations for the grave abuses they have suffered. Successful civil lawsuits will also deter traffickers, potentially saving lives. So far, the response from service providers who work with trafficked persons has been enthusiastic, and the interest in the project from survivors and their advocates continues to grow.
The ultimate goal of the project will be to set legal precedents in U.S. courts under various statutes that would allow victims to collect civil damages for lost wages, violations of human rights, and physical and emotional suffering. But for many victims, a civil suit also represents the opportunity to hold their traffickers directly accountable for the harm they caused, unlike a criminal trial that holds traffickers accountable to the state.
Various laws and statutes can be applied to trafficking cases, including the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act and state and local labor laws, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and the Alien Tort Statute, which allows victims to recover damages for human rights violations that violate international norms.
Currently, HRUSA and the GWU Law Clinic are continuing their legal research and outreach and looking into specific cases to take on, with the hopes of developing cases in the early part of next year.
Why Should Trafficked Persons Receive Asylum?
Despite modest estimates that 17,500 victims are trafficked into the U.S. annually, in the six years since the TVPA statute’s enactment the U.S. government has only certified 1,362 aliens as “trafficking victims” under the meaning of the TVPA. These fortunate few are entitled to receive special “T Visas,” remain in the United States as legal aliens, access a wide range of social services (including job training, counseling, and English language classes), and eventually receive green cards and citizenship.
Why have so few trafficked persons been identified and certified for protection and recovery services?
Government officials insist that trafficked persons remain in the shadows due to their unique vulnerabilities. They rarely speak English, suffer severe abuse and intimidation, are taught to fear the police, often develop a sense a fatalistic acceptance of their situation, and do not readily volunteer that they are being exploited. Force, fraud, and coercion are not words that are written on their foreheads. It is true that at first glance, it is nearly impossible to distinguish a trafficked person from the average illegal alien working as a day laborer, nanny, housekeeper, or prostitute. However, the “it’s hard” excuse is only half the answer.
The rest of the blame lies in the TVPA statute itself. One of the fundamental weaknesses of the T Visa is that it is tied exclusively to law enforcement – rather than victim protection – objectives. To receive a T Visa, an alien must have been trafficked to the United States, have survived and escaped severe exploitation here, and work closely with law enforcement to prosecute their traffickers. There is simply no protection available to many other survivors, including:
- those who were trafficked elsewhere and seek refuge in the U.S.,
- women trafficked as brides, and
- survivors who refuse to work with prosecutors due to trauma or legitimate fear of retaliation against their families at home.
These people are considered trafficked persons under the U.S.-authored international treaty on trafficking, yet they face deportation because they are not adequately covered under domestic law.
What happens to trafficked persons in the U.S. who are deported to their home countries?
Our experience suggests a bleak picture. If a trafficked person escaped her traffickers and unsuccessfully sought refuge in the United States, she faces severe retaliation from those traffickers eager to make an example out of her or recoup their “costs.” If she had been trafficked to the United States and escaped but refused to work with U.S. prosecutors for the sake of her family’s safety, she would return home bearing the marks of trauma, a soiled reputation, and little money to show for her prolonged absence. Many trafficking survivors who are deported are later rejected by their own embarrassed families and live hand-to-mouth. It should come as no surprise that they are often re-victimized and subject to continued slavery.
How can the U.S. protect trafficked persons from further abuse?
The U.S. government already has a system in place to absorb and rehabilitate aliens fleeing violence in their home countries. The remedy is called “asylum” and it is doled out by DHS-administered Asylum Offices and Immigration courts across the country every day. To qualify, aliens must show that they cannot return to their countries of origin due to legitimate fears of persecution or torture on account of fundamental characteristics that they cannot change. Under existing U.S. law, refugee women fleeing severe forms of gender-based violence including female genital mutilation, forced sterilization, and honor killings are eligible for asylum protection. It is not a far leap, then, for the government to grant asylum protection to women and men fleeing a form of violence that is at least as grotesque, if not more so, than FGM.
What is Human Rights USA doing to protect trafficked persons in the United States?
In partnership with the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson and Equal Justice Works, Human Rights USA is pursuing strategic impact litigation on behalf of refugees fleeing trafficking and forced marriage. We currently serve as co-counsel in several cases raising similar issues involving refugee women fleeing trafficking in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and West Africa. We are also actively reaching out to partner groups, refugee advocates, and immigration lawyers to identify new cases that raise these issues.
Who are Human Rights USA's clients?
- P-C-, an Albanian girl targeted for trafficking by Socialist-controlled police in retaliation for her father's pro-democracy activism. While walking home from church three men burst out of a white van and tried to snatch her off the street. With the help of her brother she escaped, and her attackers fired gunshots as they ran away. P-C- immediately fled to the United States. [UPDATE: Human Rights USA secured a grant of asylum for P-C- on October 24, 2007!]
- Go here for a more in-depth account of her story.
- I-E-, a Nigerian girl sold by her father into marriage to a polygamous village chief. In an effort to quell her resistance to the forced marriage arrangement, I-E-'s father left her alone at the village chief's home, where he raped her repeatedly. She fled immediately to the United States. In partnership with pro bono counsel Miriam Porter, Human Rights USA secured a grant of asylum for I-E- in April 2006.
- Go here for a more in-depth account of her story.
- M-L-C-, a Chinese girl sold by her father into marriage to a local Communist official in exchange for loan forgiveness and living room furniture. M-L-C-'s father beat and starved her for three days when she refused to comply with the forced marriage arrangement. On the morning of her planned "wedding," the Communist official kidnapped her from her home, forced her to sign a marriage contract, and raped her that night. She climbed out of a third floor window as he slept, and immediately fled to the United States. The next hearing in her case is schedule for January, 2008.
- Get updates on her case and a more in-depth account here .
- V-, a Roma girl trafficked within Eastern Europe for the purpose of sexual exploitation at age 11. She was released during an Interpol-coordinated brothel bust. However, due to discrimination against Roma, her host country refuses to grant her identity papers or legal status and she has never received any recovery or rehabilitative assistance. Two years after her release, she was re-trafficked and is being actively pimped. She is now 14, and under the laws of her host country is engaged in "consensual prostitution" and is subject to criminal prosecution. Human Rights USA is working to secure legal status for V- in a country of refuge.
Who does Human Rights USA partner with to protect trafficked persons in the U.S.?
Our partners in this project include:
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