### TESTIMONY BEFORE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

### SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND WELLNESS OF THE 

### 

### GOVERNMENT REFORM COMMITTEE

**Trafficking in Persons: The Federal Government's Approach to Eradicate
this Worldwide Problem**

Recommendations on Trafficking in Persons Report June 2004

Thursday, July 8, 2004

2:00 p.m.

Room 2154 Rayburn House Office Building

Testimony of Charles Song

Staff Attorney

Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking

Congressman Burton, chair of Committee, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for the pleasure and honor of speaking with you this afternoon
on behalf of nongovernmental organizations working to combat trafficking
and the thousands of survivors of trafficking and their families that
are working hard to rebuild their lives. I would also like to commend
Congressman Burton and Congresswoman Watson for their leadership in
championing the rights of survivors of trafficking.

As the Staff Attorney at the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking,
I have been privileged to work collaboratively with nongovernmental
organizations, pro bono attorneys, and law enforcement officials to
ensure that survivors of trafficking receive comprehensive legal
services. Since its inception in 1998, CAST has been dedicated
exclusively to assisting all victims of human trafficking and modern-day
slavery and working towards ending all instances of such human rights
violations. CAST achieves its mission by providing social and legal
services to victims, conducting training and advocacy to improve
survivors' access to services and resources. CAST\'s activities are
interconnected by a client-centered approach that seeks to empower
trafficked victims to fully realize their individual potential while
advancing the human rights of all trafficked persons, including victims
of sex trafficking, domestic worker trafficking, and garment worker
trafficking, to name but a few. CAST has been a trailblazer since its
establishment by creating a social services model tailored to the needs
of trafficking survivors and drafting a comprehensive training
curriculum with its partners to provide practitioners with the tools to
better serve trafficking victims. The latest milestone in CAST's
continued leadership in the anti-trafficking movement is that it opened
the first shelter for trafficking survivors in the country.

This afternoon, I would like to talk about the recently published
Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report 2004, which chronicles
anti-trafficking efforts of 140 countries worldwide and places them in
one of three tiers based on their performances. The U.S. government has
linked the tier-system to non-humanitarian aid to put pressure on
countries that have not made substantial efforts to curb trafficking.

I would like to convey our recommendations on ways the U.S. government
could strengthen its efforts to combat trafficking and assist victims of
trafficking, both at home and abroad. Human trafficking is a global
problem that requires a global response. Globalization, along with the
easy flow of information and goods thanks to technological advances, has
made trafficking harder to track and easier to hide. Victims are
trafficked through multiple routes and various transit points before
they arrive in the U.S.. Therefore, it is imperative that the TIP Report
take a holistic approach to combating trafficking rather than
compartmentalizing trafficking happening in and outside of the U.S..
Treating trafficking in and outside of the U.S. as separate may not
reflect the multi-dimensional aspects of the problem and provide a full
scope of the issue. The foreign governments' activities need to be
linked to U.S. government's efforts to provide a complete picture of the
trafficking problem and to be able to tackle it. Furthermore,
nongovernmental organizations both in and outside of the U.S. can work
closely with foreign and U.S. governments to share their expertise and
ground experience in formulating a multi-pronged response. This approach
may facilitate collaboration between governments and enhance relations
to mobilize for a common cause.

We urge the U.S. government to: 1) Improve implementation of the Victims
of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (VTVPA), 2) Expand
efforts to prevent trafficking from source countries, and 3) Increase
its collaborative efforts with nongovernmental organizations nationwide
and worldwide that serve victims of trafficking.

**Landmark Trafficking Legislation**

In 2000, thanks to the wisdom and leadership of Congress and
anti-trafficking advocates nationwide, the VTVPA was passed to prosecute
traffickers, protect victims of trafficking and prevent further
trafficking. The landmark legislation, which is one of the most
comprehensive in the world, criminalized trafficking for the first time
and granted benefits to victims of trafficking provided they cooperate
in a federal investigation. To date, not one single trafficker has been
prosecuted under the new trafficking statute introduced in the VTVPA.
Instead, they have been convicted of existing statutes, such as human
smuggling and kidnapping, which usually carry lighter prison sentences.
The new trafficking statute could carry a 20-year prison sentence with a
maximum life sentence for some offenses, and this statute has yet to be
applied in trafficking cases. Traffickers ought to pay for their crimes,
especially if the legal measures to prosecute them already exist.

The number of investigations and benefits issuance has grown
significantly since the VTVPA was enacted. Yet the absolute number of
investigations and prosecutions of traffickers, certification letters
that would allow victims to receive benefits, and T-visas that would
allow victims to stabilize their immigration status and focus on
rebuilding their lives, has room for improvement.

As of April 2004, the Department of Justice's Criminal Section of the
Civil Rights Division had 153 open trafficking investigations. There
were 26 convictions in all of FY2003. The Department of Health & Human
Services granted 151 certifications and benefits eligibility letters in
FY2003. As of November 2003, the Department of Homeland Security
approved 328 -- or less than half -- of the 757 T-visa applications
filed. The VTVPA mandates an annual quota of 5,000 T-Visas or nearly
20,000 over four years since it was passed. The numbers indicate that
the VTVPA assists less than three percent of the estimated 14,500 to
17,500 victims trafficked into the U.S. every year. When we consider
this figure to be an underestimate, the portion of victims receiving
assistance is even smaller. Current Administration officials have set
trafficking as a top priority for its government. It is safe to say that
the VTVPA and its supporters had not intended to have traffickers going
unpunished for this heinous crime and victims left without proper
immigration status, work permits or basic survival necessities.

**What Tier is the U.S.?**

CAST commends the U.S. government on its outreach campaign to raise
awareness on trafficking in the U.S.. As the wealthiest nation in the
world, the U.S. is a major destination country with its alluring promise
of the American Dream. Yet the TIP Report does not mention how the U.S.
government works with its embassies and consulates worldwide to provide
information in various languages about workers' rights and immigrants'
rights to all foreign nationals applying for a visa to enter the U.S..
Many trafficking victims receive inaccurate information from their
traffickers before, during and after enslavement, and many are
threatened with wrong information to prevent them from escaping. We at
CAST have seen many instances where the very knowledge of one's rights
in the U.S. could have saved a slavery victim from further abuse and
possible death. Victims usually do not self-identify as victims of
trafficking because they are isolated, threatened and live in fear for
their well-being under the thumb of the traffickers. In fact, this lack
of self-identification as victims of trafficking is one of the biggest
obstacles in discovering and identifying victims of trafficking. Once
they become aware that what is being done to them is a violation of
their rights, it will become easier for them to come forward to denounce
their traffickers.

**International Forums on Trafficking**

Conferences have been useful forums where practitioners of all
backgrounds and ideologies congregate to exchange new ideas, best
practices and lessons learned so that innovative programs will be
replicated and tailored to meet the needs of victims enslaved in any
U.S. state or country in the world. We would like to encourage the U.S.
government to organize international conferences open to all
practitioners at home and abroad to allow for transparent and
free-flowing information and resources so that victims worldwide will be
served in the most effective and efficient manner possible.

As the number of trafficked people grows exponentially and traffickers
become savvier in skirting around law enforcement, it is critical that
governments collaborate closely with nongovernmental organizations to
find and assist victims. Furthermore, government estimates of the number
of people trafficked into the U.S. every year has been changed from
50,000 in 1999 to 18,000-20,000 in 2003. In 2004, the estimate was
further revised down to 14,500-17,500 a year, citing methodology changes
rather than a decline in trafficked persons. CAST and many of the NGOs
working in the field believe this number does not fully capture the
scope of the trafficking problem in the U.S., and are concerned that
trafficking may be misconstrued as a waning problem. CAST alone has
served over 200 survivors of trafficking since its inception in 1998 and
the Samoan case alone had another 200 survivors. While we recognize the
difficulties associated with measuring this virtually invisible
underground activity, we urge the government to apply a more consistent
and accurate measurement tool to quantify this increasingly ubiquitous
problem that could be as close to the average person as a neighboring
home.

**Conclusion**

On behalf of CAST and other NGOs working to eradicate trafficking and
assist victims of trafficking, we praise the work of the United States
Congress in addressing one of the most egregious human rights violations
in the world today and look forward to continuing to collaborate closely
with members of Congress to protect survivors and abolish human
trafficking in all of its forms.

Thank you.