Cross-posted from The Global Sociology Blog.

Things that suck

Another session, another !@#$ baby.

The universe turning against you:

• Being delayed at Logan Airport long enough to see O-Force One (Change you can believe in!!) for the big birthday bash, apparently.
• Sitting on the plane next to a woman (with young child!) wearing a pink "Obama Mama" shirt (that'll teach me to upgrade to Economy +)
• Driving home in the biggest !@#$ thunderstorm with lighting that makes you think you're in a rave party.

The Thing that Really Sucked

Kevin Bales did not show up for the session on human trafficking and slavery. Damn, I really wanted to see him, he's my hero!

Putting a session on such an important topic as human trafficking (which definitely fits with the general topic of labor) on the last day, where most people have already gone home.

Things that don't suck

The session on human trafficking and slavery, which had two very interesting contributions.

The presentations (one from a lawyer - she mentioned she worked for the Justice Dept back when it was not embarrassing to say so in public - and one criminologist) offered evaluations of the implementation of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, good fact sheet here).

The Act is organized around the three Ps: Prevention, Protection and Prosecution and the implementation of T Visas (limited to 5,000 a year by Congress... the estimates on the number of persons trafficked in the US every year varies from 15,000 to 80,000... obviously, it's hard to measure such things with absolute certainty).

The act distinguish between three domains related to trafficking:

• Act : recruit, harbor, transport or obtain people for the purpose of trafficking
• Means : fraud, force, coercion
• Purpose : provision of sex acts, labor, services

The means of coercion include force, withholding of passports and legal documents, threats of deportation if the traffic victims are found by the authorities, threats to families back home, indentured servitude, complex debt peonage schemes, or any combination of these.

Unsurprisingly, of the three Ps, the emphasis has been on prosecution and even that is not really strongly enforced as very few cases ever reach a prosecutor. Why is that?

Because in the US, trafficking is seen as a subset of fighting organized crime, which is the real priority. There is very little attention offered to victims.

The victims themselves are seen as criminals: prostitutes, illegal immigrants, illegal employees.

• Law enforcement officers and agents have stereotypes regarding trafficking victims ("Asian girl chained to a bed in a brothel") and any deviation from that stereotype is not seen as victim of trafficking.
• A victim is also someone rescued by law enforcement agent, so, if a person manages to escape and walks into a police station claiming to be a victim of trafficking, s/he will most likely not be believed.

Enforcing the TVPA also conflicts with other law enforcement agenda that have higher priority these days:

• fighting terrorism
• fighting illegal immigration
• eliminating prostitution

Sovereignty is also an obstacle as countries prefer to enforce their own laws rather than international ones, so, there is little enforcement of the UN Protocol on human trafficking whose title itself reveals the issue of conflicting agenda: Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Obtaining a T visa is not always a cakewalk either. There are stated conditions:

• the victim must be recognized as a victim of trafficking
• the victim must be willing to cooperate with law enforcement in an helpful fashion
• these conditions do not apply to minors

These conditions seem straightforward but the implementation which have led to misinterpretations of the TVPA, especially for the victim to recognized as such:

• the victim must show that exploitation has taken place in a concrete form
• the burden of proof is on the victim
• the victim must provide "conclusive" proof"
• "willing to cooperate" is interpreted as "law enforcement agents must choose to initiate investigation and prosecution"

This all means that a lot is required from the victims and that a lot is left up to the law enforcement agents. They are the ones who decide whether to initiate an investigation and they are less likely to do so if the victim does not conform to the stereotype AND was not rescued (escaped).

Finally, the implementation of TVPA has been stalled is the "fear of the floodgates"... that is, the fear that millions of immigrants are going to show up, claiming to be trafficking victims. The presenter showed how ridiculous this claim is but it is still the reason why Congress put a 5,000 cap on T visas. However, since TVPA was passed, the number of requests has averaged less than 900/year, with less than 450 obtentions. Obviously, there are no floodgates to be afraid of.

Another set of problems with the implementation of TVPA described in the other presentation is intrinsic to the organization of law enforcement in the US: local and state law enforcement agencies do not like to have to implement federal statutes that they see as trickling down from above. A good response has been for 33 states to pass their own version of TVPA, still, criminalization has been the main response.

The main problems with implementation have been that local law enforcement agencies are not good at responding to what is perceived as a "new" crime especially those that run counter to the traditional role of the police and law enforcement routines. In the case of trafficking, local police officers have trouble identifying the victims (who are rather seen as illegal immigrants or prostitutes).

Moreover, the police is used to dealing with illegal immigration issues, not the regulation of exploitation or fighting slavery even though it is more and more widespread: 43 stated have now identified cases of trafficking (and for the other 7, it may be that cases have not be identified as such). Very often, local police officers just "stumble upon" cases of slavery and trafficking while operating against other crimes. In such cases, they often have no idea as to what to do with the victims. Once trained, however, they tend to get better at identification and dealing with victims.

However, the stats on victim treatment are as follows: 1/3 are deported, 1/3 "disappear" (no one knows what happens to them, it may be fear of deportation, often, back into a cycle of trafficking and exploitation... which also happens often when the victims are deported), 1/3 actually receive government services.

An appalling situation all around for a country like the US.

The solutions:

• Better training for local law enforcement agencies, since we know that global flows of trafficking are multiplying and they end in rich countries.
• Less burden of proof on victims
• Less reliance on agents when it comes to investigation and prosecution
• Better "first night" services: when a victim shows up at a police station, if that person is not offered a solution for the first night (like a shelter or a bed somewhere), s/he disappears and does not come back
• Treating trafficking as a category in itself, and not a sub-category to a "more serious" criminality
• $$ for prevention and protection, not just prosecution