For Social Service Organizations

Identifying and Interacting With Victims of Human Trafficking

As a social service organization, you may have encountered victims of trafficking without realizing their circumstances, and therefore, have lost a chance to help them escape a horrific situation. The following provides a brief background on the trafficking problem, as well as tips for identifying and assisting trafficking victims:

• Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery, widespread throughout the INDIA. While trafficking is largely a hidden social problem, many trafficking victims are in plain sight if you know what to look for.
• Trafficking is not just forced prostitution. Victims of human trafficking may also be in forced labor situations as domestic servants (nannies or maids); sweatshop workers; janitors; restaurant workers; migrant farm workers; fishery workers; hotel or tourist industry workers; and as beggars.
• As a social service organization, you can help victims of human trafficking get the safety, protection and resources they need. You may be the only outsider with the opportunity to speak with a victim. There are housing, health, immigration, food, income, employment and legal services available to victims, but first they must be found.

Victim Identification

• A victim of trafficking may look like many of the people you help every day. You can help victims of trafficking get the assistance they need by looking beneath the surface for the following clues:
• Evidence of being controlled
• Evidence of an inability to move or leave job
• Bruises or other signs of battering
• Fear or depression
• Non-local language speaking
• Recently brought to this area from Eastern or southern part of India
• Lack of identification documentation
• Traffickers use various techniques to keep victims enslaved. Some traffickers keep their victims under lock and key. However, the more frequent practice is to use less obvious techniques including:
• Debt bondage – financial obligations, honor-bound to satisfy debt
• Isolation from the public – limiting contact with outsiders and making sure that any contact is monitored or superficial in nature
• Isolation from family members and members of their ethnic and religious community
• Confiscation of passports, visas and/or identification documents
• Use or threat of violence toward victims and/or families of victims
• The threat of shaming victims by exposing circumstances to family
• Telling victims they will be imprisoned or deported for immigration violations if they contact authorities
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  Control of the victims' money, e.g., holding their money for “safe-keeping”

The result of such techniques is to instill fear in victims. The victims’ isolation is further exacerbated because many do not speak local language and are from countries/state where law enforcement is corrupt and feared.

Victim Interaction

• Asking the right questions may help you determine if someone is a victim of human trafficking. It is important to talk to a potential victim in a safe and confidential environment. If the victim is accompanied by someone who seems controlling, you should try to separate the victim from that person. The accompanying person could very well be the trafficker.
• You should also enlist the help of a staff member who speaks the potential victim's language and understands his or her culture. Although not ideal, you can enlist interpreter services such as those provided by the ATT Language Line.
• If the victim is a child, it is important to enlist the help of a social services specialist who is skilled in interviewing minor trafficking or abuse victims. Screen interpreters to ensure they do not know the victim or the traffickers and do not otherwise have conflict of interest.

Screening Tool For Victims Of Human Trafficking

The following are sample questions social service organizations can ask in screening an individual to determine if he/she is a potential victim of human trafficking. As with domestic violence victims, if you think a person is a victim of trafficking, you do not want to begin by asking directly if the person has been beaten or held against his/her will. Instead, you want to start at the edges of his/her experience. And if possible, you should enlist the help of a staff member who speaks the person’s language and understands the person’s culture, keeping in mind that any questioning should be done confidentially.

You should screen interpreters to ensure they do not know the victim or the traffickers and do not otherwise have a conflict of interest.

Before you ask the person any sensitive questions, try to get the person alone if they came to you accompanied by someone who could be a trafficker posing as a spouse, other family member or employer. However, when requesting time alone, you should do so in a manner that does not raise suspicions.

Suggested Screening Questions

• Can you leave your job or situation if you want?
• Can you come and go as you please?
• Have you been threatened if you try to leave?
• Have you been physically harmed in any way?
• What are your working or living conditions like?
• Where do you sleep and eat?
• Do you sleep in a bed, on a cot or on the floor?
• Have you ever been deprived of food, water, sleep or medical care?
• Do you have to ask permission to eat, sleep or go to the bathroom?
• Are there locks on your doors and windows so you cannot get out?
• Has anyone threatened your family?
• Has your identification or documentation been taken from you?
• Is anyone forcing you to do anything that you do not want to do? 

The Mindset of a Human Trafficking Victim

When interacting with and providing assistance to potential trafficking victims, it is important to understand their mindset so you can provide them the best service and help them begin the process of restoring their lives.

• Many trafficking victims do not speak local language and do not understand  Local culture. Preying upon the poor and destitute from countries in Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa, traffickers lure their victims in INDIA with promises of marriage, a good job so they can provide for their families back home, and a better life.
• These promises and dreams quickly turn to nightmares as victims find themselves trapped in the sex industry, the service industry, in sweatshops or in agricultural fields – living daily with inhumane treatment, physical and mental abuse, and threats to themselves or their families back home. Sometimes victims do not even know what city or country they are in because they are moved frequently to escape detection.
• Victims of trafficking have a fear or distrust of the government and police because they are afraid of being deported or because they come from countries where law enforcement is corrupt and feared. Sometimes they feel that it is their fault that they are in this situation. As a coping or survival skill, they may even develop loyalties and positive feelings toward their trafficker or try to protect them from authorities.
• Confidentiality is vital for victims of trafficking. Their lives and the lives of their families are often at great risk if they try to escape their servitude or initiate criminal investigations against their captors. Therefore, it is imperative that you minimize the number of staff members who come in contact with the victim. Ensure that all staff members who have contact with the victim, including interpreters and advocates, understand the importance of confidentiality for the safety of the person.
• Many victims do not self-identify as victims. They also do not see themselves as people who are homeless or drug addicts who rely on shelters or assistance. Victims may not appear to need social services because they have a place to live, food to eat, medical care and what they think is a paying job. 

Messages for Communicating With Victims of Human Trafficking

Most victims of trafficking experience intense fear – of their traffickers and of being deported. Therefore, when interacting with potential trafficking victims, it is important to reassure them that they are safe so you can begin the process of helping them get the protection and assistance they need to rebuild their lives safely in the INDIA . Gaining the trust of human trafficking victims is an important first step in providing assistance.

Sample messages you can use to help gain this trust include:

• We are here to help you.
• Our first priority is your safety.
• We will give you the medical care that you need.
• We can find you a safe place to stay.
• You have a right to live without being abused.
• You deserve the chance to become self-sufficient and independent.
• We can help get you what you need.
• We can help to protect your family.
• You can trust me.
• We want to make sure what happened to you doesn't happen to anyone else.
• You have rights.
• You are entitled to assistance. We can help you get assistance.
• If you are a victim of trafficking, you can receive help to rebuild your life safely.