The U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking , comprised of eleven survivor leaders, has released its 2023 Human Trafficking Annual Report . The Council brings expertise from members’ personal experiences of human trafficking as well as their ongoing work and leadership in various national, state, and local anti-trafficking efforts.
The Council provides a consistent, formal mechanism for the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons to receive recommendations on federal anti-trafficking policies from people with lived experience.
The Council shares that this year’s report was, “written in the spirit of unified stewardship.”
“As a nation, our collective anti-trafficking work is generational. It unites on a shared river of progress that spans cultures, societies, and lifespans. The Council’s recommendations seek to leverage our shared power to identify gaps, celebrate successes, uplift unheard voices, and ask that we collectively push ourselves to the next level of possibility.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) works to implement the Council’s agency-specific recommendations and those for PITF agencies at large. In 2023, HHS released an Information Memorandum (PDF) summarizing the Council’s past recommendations and overviewing HHS’ implementation efforts to date. The Council acknowledged this Information Memo in its recent report, and commended HHS for its proactive efforts to review, implement, and report progress on the Council’s recommendations.
The Council further highlighted a number of HHS’ accomplishments.
- Formation of the National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC), which creates opportunities for refugee and newcomer youth to share their resettlement experience directly with HHS/ORR in addition to HHS/ORR’s other advisory councils
- Creation of mechanisms to gather grantee feedback through the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center.
- Efforts to improve survivor engagement among grant programs, for example, by providing bonus points to grant applicants that plan to give survivors meaningful and ethical opportunities to engage and support project activities.
Recommendations outlined in the Council’s report related to HHS include:
- We recommend that DOJ/Office for Victims of Crime (DOJ/OVC) and HHS/Office on Trafficking in Persons (HHS/OTIP) increase efforts to communicate directly with grantees and those they serve to collect formal and informal feedback on training and technical assistance (TTA) needs to improve services, ensure TTA draws from diverse perspectives, and ensure that grantee and survivor experiences inform future grantmaking.
- Pursuant to NAP Principle 4.3 (Strengthen federal anti-trafficking efforts by incorporating survivor input), we recommend that DOJ, DOL, DOI, HHS, DHS, HUD, and USDA hire and encourage their federally funded programs to hire and compensate Survivor Engagement Coordinators with lived experience to act as liaisons and help build sustainable community engagement with persons with lived experience to ensure equitable and inclusive representation in communities’ grant programs, task forces, and/or initiatives.
- Pursuant to NAP Priority 2.6.5 (Increase access to assistance broadly), we recommend that HUD, in collaboration with HHS and DOJ, coordinate to expand anti-trafficking efforts so LGBTQ+ survivors, survivors with physical and mental health challenges, male survivors, and survivors of labor trafficking have access to sustainable housing.
- Pursuant to NAP Principle 2.2 (Safeguard victims of human trafficking from being inappropriately incarcerated, fined, or otherwise penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked) and Priority Action 2.6.1 (Increase access to mental health and other healthcare services), we recommend that PITF agencies, and specifically HHS and DOJ, increase awareness, training, and services to serve people who have experienced trafficking impacted by the current fentanyl crisis that contributes to forced labor, criminality, substance coercion, barriers to service and safety, and mortality rates.
- Pursuant to Priority Action 2.6.1 (Increase access to mental health and other healthcare services), we recommend that HHS increase research, funding, and programming specific to survivors of trafficking impacted by a traumatic brain injury (TBI).
- We recommend that HHS, DOJ, and DOL increase oversight and support for unaccompanied and other vulnerable children at risk of experiencing child labor trafficking.
Learn more about the Council and read the full report .