Editor’s Note: Martina E. Vandenberg is the founder and president of The Human Trafficking Legal Center, which she established in 2012. She has represented victims of human trafficking pro bono in immigration, criminal, and civil cases, and has also testified before multiple House and Senate Committees on issues ranging from human trafficking and peacekeeping to forced labor in global supply chains. Kehinde Togun is the Managing Director for Public Engagement at Humanity United (HU) and Humanity United Action (HUA). He has led global democracy and governance programs for 15 years. The opinions expressed in this commentary are their own. View more opinion on CNN.
It is an annual ritual. Today, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken released the Trafficking in Persons Report, just as the Secretary of State has done for the last twenty-two years. Flanked by Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Heroes from around the globe, Secretary Blinken announced tier rankings for countries worldwide. Those rankings, based on the U.S. government’s assessment of each country’s efforts to combat human trafficking, sparked celebration in some nations and grumbling in others. Countries ranked in the lowest tier – tier three – now face possible sanctions. As is the case every year, there are some countries that the U.S. ranks higher than is warranted. Still, as practitioners, we view the TIP report as a useful tool in our efforts to combat trafficking.
As the TIP Report reaches nearly a quarter century, it is worth pausing to take stock.
Twenty-three years ago, we had theories on how to combat human trafficking. Now we have evidence.
We know what works. And what does not.
Congress mandated publication of the annual TIP Report in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. That law created a framework, known fondly as the 3 Ps: Prosecution, Protection, and Prevention. Over the years, policymakers have focused most extensively on prosecution.
And that myopic focus on criminal prosecution has failed.
Last year’s TIP Report data indicated that, in 2021, there were only 10,572 criminal prosecutions for all forms of human trafficking in the entire world. Of those, just 1,379 were for forced labor. This year’s data for 2022 show some improvement, but there are still just 15,159 total prosecutions, 2,670 of those for forced labor.
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Those numbers might seem unremarkable, until one considers that the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated in 2021, that 27.6 million people worldwide lived and worked under conditions of forced labor, up from 24.9 million in 2016. That is approximately one prosecution for every 1,821 people held in all forms of forced labor. And if one looks only at forced labor outside the commercial sex sector, the number of prosecutions shrinks to just one for every 7,978 people.
For decades, international anti-trafficking funding has poured in to support criminal justice efforts. And still, the estimated number of trafficking victims grows. As David Feingold, an anthropologist based in Thailand has said (only half in jest), “Human trafficking: the more you spend, the worse it gets.”
A focus on prosecution alone is insufficient. A growing body of evidence shows that it is essential that – in addition to prosecution – we also focus on the most neglected P, Prevention. Survivor leaders in the sector have long called on governments to focus on root causes of human trafficking: poverty, discrimination, xenophobia, the failure to enforce labor laws, homelessness, and racism. Few have listened. That must change.
We have also neglected Protection. Trafficking survivors remain unhoused and impoverished, even years after escaping captivity. Funding is needed for the most basic protections: shelter, food, health care, and case management. These investments work.
What else works? Import bans. The U.S. government has robustly enforced laws that halt goods made with forced labor from entering U.S. markets. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which passed unanimously in the Senate, creates a rebuttable presumption that goods made in Xinjiang are produced with forced labor by Uyghurs and other Muslim groups. Trade remedies, such as Section 307 Tariff Act of 1930, can disrupt forced labor in global supply chains. These powerful tools create economic incentives to address the problem. In 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained nearly $1 billion in goods over concerns they could be tainted by forced labor. With shipments denied entry at the U.S. border, corporations are taking notice. They are investigating their supply chains, implementing compliance programs, and preventing forced labor.
We know strategic litigation also works. Since civil suits became possible under the federal trafficking laws in the United States, trafficking survivors have recovered more than $280 million in public settlements and court judgments. Civil litigation creates risk. And risk creates deterrence. In the absence of criminal prosecutions, civil cases are often a trafficking survivors’ only way to have a day in court.
In the early 2000s, when the TIP Report first launched, the Broadway hit “RENT” played to sold out theaters. That play told the story of human lives destroyed by the failure to prevent the AIDS epidemic. One of the musical’s most famous songs, “Seasons of Love,” asked the question, “How do you measure?” Faced with our own failure to prevent, we too must ask that question. Counting prosecutions is not an adequate measure. We must learn to count again. We must learn to measure prevention.
As we do so, trafficking survivors must take the lead. Taking a page from the Disability Rights community, Fainess Lipenga, a member of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking, a survivor-leader, and a colleague at the Human Trafficking Legal Center, reminds us, “Nothing about us, without us.” Experts with lived experience have already stepped up to drive policy. That policy agenda is clear: tackling systemic issues such as poverty, homelessness, and discrimination.
To paraphrase “RENT,” we now have 525,600 minutes to refocus. And then, in June of 2024, it will be time to measure our progress again at the next TIP Report Release. There is work to do, there’s progress to be made.