Tips for Service Providers

While there is no set formula to determine whether or not a person has been trafficked, the following list of questions can serve as a guideline to determine if trafficking elements are present in a given situation

• Are you now being (or have you at one time been) held against your will?

• Were you ever forced or intimidated to do something against your will?

• Do you have a choice of where you work and how much you work?

• Have you been abused or beaten by your employers?

• Can you come and go as you please?

• Are you paid?

• How many hours/day and days/week do you work?

• Have you or your family been threatened to prevent you from leaving?

• Upon arrival at your destination did someone ask you to pay back a debt?

• Are you doing what you were told you would be doing when you were recruited?

• Who has your passport/identification papers?

PLEASE NOTE

• It is important to talk to potential victims in a safe and confidential environment. If the victim is accompanied by someone who seems to have control over them, discretely attempt to separate the person from the individual accompanying him/her, since this person could be the trafficker.

• Enlist the help of a staff member or another professional who speaks the potential victim's language and understands his or her culture.

• Do not collect more information than you need! In depth interviews with the potential victim should be conducted by mental health professionals, law enforcement professionals or legal experts. Multiple interviews may confuse and/or re-traumatize victims and may put you, as a service provider, at risk of being subpoenaed as a witness.

Comprehensive Guide to Victim Identification

(Excerpted from Hiding in Plain Sight by Donna Hughes, Ph.D.)

The following are examples and indicators of force, fraud and coercion that are used by traffickers to control victims. These should be considered signs that a victim is under the control of someone else and that further investigation is needed.

Examples of Force

• Kidnapping or recapture of an escaping victim

• Buying and selling of a victim from a recruiter to trafficker to pimp

• Battering, including hitting, kicking, pushing

• Torture, such as burning with cigarettes

• Threats with weapons

• Rape, sexual abuse, and harassment (unless the woman is fully consenting to the commercial sex acts, each act of prostitution should be considered to be a sexual assault)

• Imprisonment, confinement, or kept under guard or electronic surveillance

• Use of restraints, such as being tied up

• Denial of food or water

• Denial of medical care or medications

• Denial of contraceptives or condoms

• Forced pregnancy or abortion

• Forced to give up custody of children

• Forced into humiliating or compromising situations so that photographs or videos can be made (these images may be used to coerce the victim into cooperating with pimps or risk exposure to friends, family, or police if the act is illegal)

• Forced use of drugs or denial of drugs once a victim is addicted

• Forced participation in acts of violence against other victims

• Forced to lie to friends and family about their safety, well being, and whereabouts

• Forced to lie to men in the brothel that they are consenting, enjoy their "work," and earn large sums of money

Indications of Force

• Injuries from weapons, such as knives, guns, clubs; visible injuries or scars, such as cuts, bruises, burns or rope burns; head, face, and mouth injuries from being struck in the head and face

• Brands or scaring indicating ownership

• Untreated illnesses or infections, particularly sexually transmitted diseases; general poor health; diseases associated unhygienic living conditions, such as tuberculosis

• Emotional distress and psychological manifestations of trauma, such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, self-inflicted injuries, and suicide attempts

• Inappropriate or shifting loyalty to an abuser resulting from the perpetrator's systematic control of the victim through alternating violence, threats, and rewards; i.e. manipulation, indoctrination, Stockholm syndrome, brainwashing, traumatic bonding

• No English language skills or knowledge of how to move about and live in the local community

• Living on the same premises as the brothel or driven between the brothel and living quarters by a guard; living quarters locked, under electronic surveillance or guarded

• Heavy security at the brothel, barred windows, locked doors, isolated location; women never seen leaving the premises unless accompanied by someone

• Restricted public access to brothel: Access allowed only to members of a particular ethnic community, gang, or worker group; advertisement of the brothel only through word of mouth or foreign language publications

• Woman kept under surveillance when she is taken to a doctor, hospital, or clinic for treatment; pimp or a minder may act as translator

• Moved with other women on a circuit of brothels

• Signs usually associated with domestic violence: pimps/traffickers are sometimes "boyfriends," "partners," or members of the victim's family

• Victim is provided with an attorney or bail by the pimp/trafficker in order to control her testimony or get her released into the custody of the pimp/trafficker

Examples of Coercion

• Debt bondage: Victim is required to engage in a certain number of commercial sex acts or earn a certain sum of money before she can leave

• Threats of serious harm to the woman or her friends and family at home

• Control of her children

• Trafficker/pimp controls all her contacts with family, friends, or people outside the brothel

• Photographing or videotaping the victim in compromising or illegal situations, then threatening her with exposure to friends, family, or police; threatening to post pornographic images of the victim on the Internet or send them to family members

• Identity and travel documents, such as passport and visa, taken away

• Forced to watch pornography in order learn prostitution or stripping

• Manipulation of the victim's earning ability, so a woman who voluntarily engages in jobs such as hostess or dancer finds she has to engage in prostitution to earn enough money to repay a debt or buy food

• Punishment of another woman (including beatings, rapes, mutilations, even murder) in front of other victims to demonstrate what happens to those who do not obey

• Denial of clothing or clothing other than "sex industry costumes" so woman is reluctant to leave the premises

• Trafficker/pimp controls all money, including that which belongs to the woman

• Fines for rule violations in the brothels

• Involvement of the victim in criminal activity, such as a drug courier or manufacture of drugs

• Quotas for amount of money that must be earned or number of commercial sex acts each day

• Victim sees evidence of police or official corruption or collaboration with pimp/trafficker

• Threats to turn the woman over to the authorities with expectation that she will be imprisoned or treated harshly

• Threats to have the woman deported with expectation that upon arrival home she or her family will be harmed

• Threats to harm the woman or her family if she reveals anything about the trafficking operation

• Verbal or psychological abuse that intimidates, degrades, and frightens the victim

Indications of Coercion

• Victim is not in possession of identity or travel documents

• Victim is fearful of police or officials

• False accusations of abuse or neglect, particularly of children, or criminal activity are made about the victim

• Signs of threats usually associated with sexual harassment or stalking

Examples of Fraud

• Promises of valid immigration or travel documents, such as a green card and work permit

• Victim instructed to use false or counterfeit identity and travel documents

• Victim signed a contract to do legitimate work

• Victim is required to do work that is different than what was originally described

• Promises of money, salary, or earnings that never materialize or only sporadically

• Misrepresentation of work or conditions of work

Indications of Fraud

• Victim was lied to about any aspect of his or her travel, employment, living conditions, or treatment

• Victim does not know how identity or travel documents were obtained or was escorted through the process

• Someone else obtained all official documents

• Someone else made all travel arrangements

• Victim was coached on what to say to officials

• Victim does not know or understand the terms of the contract he or she signed; contract was in a language he or she could not read; terms of contract are illegal under general business practices

• Victim had to pay a fee to someone to arrange travel and transportation

• Victim was smuggled across borders