STATEMENT OF
CHRISTOPHER GERSTEN PRINCIPAL DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY
ADMINISTRATION FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
BEFORE THE
HOUSE GOVERNMENT REFORM COMMITTEE SUBCOMMITTEE ON WELLNESS AND HUMAN
RIGHTS
JUNE 8, 2004
Good afternoon Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee. Thank
you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the
Administration for Children and Families’ activities under the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). Trafficking is
a modern-day form of slavery in which 600,000 to 800,000 people a
year are trafficked across international borders and exploited for
labor or commercial sex. Of that number, it is estimated that 14,500
to 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year.
The TVPA initiated a comprehensive effort to combat this scourge.
It provides for enhanced punishment of traffickers and the identification,
protection and care of victims.
Under the TVPA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
through the Administration for Children and Families, is responsible
for certifying persons as trafficking victims and helping them access
the benefits and services they need to rebuild their lives. In this
capacity, we created a nationwide network of organizations to identify
victims through community outreach, provide technical assistance to
service organizations and provide services to victims. Before discussing
these activities, I would like to share some background on what we
know about the victims of trafficking.
Background
Trafficking victims are drawn from a plethora of nationalities, ethnic
groups, and faiths. The traffickers exploit their victims for a variety
of evils, including prostitution, pornography, sweatshop labor, and
involuntary domestic servitude. Some live in society’s direct
view but are made inconspicuous by their reticence to openly interact
with others. Some are held at a single location, where they work and
live under lock and key. Others live in one location and work in another.
Their captors ferry them between the two and limit or completely preclude
their access to the outside world. Still others live with their captors
and have limited and controlled access to the outside world. Some
are paid a small wage, some are paid nothing, and still others are
told that their earnings are to work off their passage to the United
States.
Nonetheless, the methods of the captors and the vulnerabilities of
their victims produce certain frequently recurring characteristics.
Traffickers in the United States imbue their victims with incorrect,
but believable, stories of their legal vulnerabilities. Traffickers
tell victims that they are illegal immigrants and therefore criminals
who will be arrested and deported or imprisoned if they approach law
enforcement agents. Traffickers threaten their victims and their families,
both here and in their home countries, with physical harm, embarrassment,
and legal action. As a result, when victims do come in contact with
law enforcement and judicial personnel, health providers and other
people who would be in a position to assist them, the victims tend
to adhere to the coaching of their captors and do not alert such persons
of their plight.
Certification and Services
The Department has developed a systematic approach to the certification
of trafficking victims and the facilitation of their access to benefits
and services. Under the TVPA, HHS is the agency responsible for issuing
the certification document verifying that an individual is a victim
of trafficking eligible for federally funded or administered benefits
and services to the same extent as a refugee.
We consult regularly with staff at the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security and the U.S. Department of Justice, the agencies that investigate
-- and in the case of the Department of Justice, prosecute -- trafficking
cases, and refer appropriate cases to HHS for certification. We also
coordinate with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country on
trafficking cases as well as other federal law enforcement officials
from the Department of Labor and the Department of Homeland Security.
Once a referral is received, we must ensure that the victim has met
criteria required by the Act in order to be certified. If the appropriate
criteria are met, then a certification letter in the case of adults
or an eligibility letter in the case of minors will be provided to
victims safely and without breaches of confidentiality. We then contact
grantees of local refugee services providers and other benefit-granting
agencies to inquire about appropriate local programs to help the victims.
Many victims are in need of psychological counseling, medical assistance
and legal referrals.
We strongly encourage the participation of certified trafficking victims
in existing assistance programs for refugees – primarily the
Voluntary Agency Matching Grant Program and the Refugee Cash and Medical
Assistance Program. The goal of the Voluntary Agency Matching Grant
Program is to help refugees attain self-sufficiency within four months
of eligibility without accessing public assistance. The Refugee Cash
and Medical Assistance Program provides temporary cash and medical
assistance for up to eight months from the date of certification.
This program is designed to provide assistance to those refugees who
are not eligible for other federal benefits.
The trafficking program also has established a mechanism for serving minor victims of trafficking through the Department’s Unaccompanied Refugee Minor (URM) program. That program tailors the placement of and services to minors to meet their cultural, educational, health and security needs. The Department operates the URM program through grants with the Lutheran Immigration Refugee Service and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Further, we work with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate access to Employment Authorization Documents. The document is critical because it permits eligible victims to work, which in turn, leads to self-sufficiency.
Outreach
Outreach is clearly critical to our efforts to help trafficking victims.
As HHS’ Assistant Secretary for Children and Families Wade F.
Horn recently said, “It is unlikely that victims of trafficking
will be found and rescued in significant numbers until the American
public gains a much greater awareness of the horror of human trafficking.”
In fact, through FY 2003, HHS issued letters of certification or eligibility
to 448 victims compared with the estimated tens of thousands of victims
trafficked into this country during that period.
In response to this surprisingly low victim identification rate, Secretary
Tommy G. Thompson and Assistant Secretary Wade F. Horn initiated a
professional public awareness campaign, The Campaign to Rescue and
Restore Victims of Human Trafficking (the “Campaign”).
The Campaign is designed to overcome the barriers the federal government
has experienced in identifying and rescuing victims – barriers
that keep victims well-hidden from society’s view even as they
live among us.
The Campaign message is a call to action for people to Look Beneath
the Surface, as the Campaign posters implore, of people they encounter
and to call the HHS trafficking information and referral hotline to
report possible trafficking situations. The Campaign has developed
posters, brochures, fact sheets, educational materials and a trafficking
website.
The Rescue and Restore Campaign also is employing a coalition effort
that targets intermediaries – defined as those who are most
likely to know or come in contact with victims. Examples of intermediaries
include law enforcement, healthcare and social-service providers,
faith and civic groups, and other groups that conduct outreach to
populations vulnerable to trafficking. The Campaign is building this
coalition nationally and locally through an intensive city-by-city
effort. To date, the Campaign ---with participation from the Department
of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, law enforcement agencies,
faith communities and non-governmental organizations -- has announced
local coalitions in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Tampa. It will
announce additional coalitions later this year. Coalition members
are asked to use their communications mechanisms to distribute the
campaign message and materials.
Hotline
As a critical complement to the Campaign, the Department has established
a nationwide toll-free Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline
(the “Hotline”). The Hotline operator is the Covenant
House Nineline for youth in distress. The Hotline provides victims
immediate crisis counseling and referrals to local non-governmental
organizations (NGOs). It facilitates the establishment of an essential
NGO-victim relationship, enabling victims to get accurate information
about their options and giving them the confidence to cooperate fully
with federal law enforcement in the prosecution of traffickers.
The Hotline operates 24-hours-per-day, seven-days-a-week. Throughout
each call, callers remain connected with a “live” person
and can receive help in a wide variety of languages. Victims and those
calling on their behalf are referred to an organization in their immediate
area that is trained to serve trafficking victims. If a caller is
prepared to report a case of trafficking, referral to the Department
of Justice Trafficking in Persons and Worker Exploitation Task Force
is made immediately.
Between April 1 and June 15, the Hotline handled 563 calls from concerned
citizens, social service providers and potential victims of trafficking.
Calls to the Hotline increased by more than 60 percent between April
and May. In that same timeframe, calls for general information increased
by more than 55 percent and referrals to NGOs and various federal
agencies including the Department of Justice and the Department of
Labor increased by more than 65 percent.
Conclusion
In closing Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for bringing
greater attention to this important issue. The TVPA gave a name to
an age-old problem, and created a federal response to this terrible
assault on human dignity. We have worked diligently to provide services
to trafficking victims as well as to develop outreach activities and
a hotline to provide a broad reach to many more victims. I look forward
to working with you and the Congress as we advance toward our goal
of substantially increasing the rate at which the federal government
identifies and assists victims. I would be happy to answer any questions
you may have.
