Protection Checklist

This checklist represents a non-exhaustive collection of common victim protection practices gathered by the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons from a variety of sources, including non-governmental organizations and foreign governments. These practices may neither be feasible or appropriate in all situations, but represent practices that governments may consider in developing victim protection strategies.

Identification

• Conduct targeted, culturally and linguistically appropriate public awareness campaigns within communities, industries, and areas at risk of trafficking
• Implement victim identification training for health care workers, attorneys, social workers, teachers, workplace inspectors, child welfare advocates, religious leaders, and other professionals likely to encounter trafficking
• Train government personnel, particularly those in labor, health, immigration and law enforcement, to identify and refer victims
• Conduct screenings for trafficking victims within jails and immigration detention
• Adopt programs to screen vulnerable immigrant populations, including asylum seekers, for indicators of trafficking
• Screen unaccompanied children for trafficking at borders
• Inform noncitizen and citizen workers of relevant workplace and other rights to facilitate the self-reporting of labor violations, exploitation and trafficking
• Establish a national hotline to facilitate referrals for victims of trafficking
• Investigate industries where trafficking is prevalent
• Take measures to protect the identity of victims in press statements allowing victims the decision on whether to disclose identifying information

Legal proceedings

• Keep trafficked persons’ identities and information confidential in legal proceedings, consistent with domestic law
• Enable the victims’ testimony to be presented and considered at appropriate stages of criminal proceedings against the trafficker, consistent with domestic law
• Train law enforcement personnel on victims’ rights and protections so that they treat trafficked persons as victims, rather than penalizing them for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of their being trafficked
• Create law enforcement protocols that mandate appropriate protection and treatment of trafficking victims
• Allow trafficked persons to take legal recourse against their trafficker and seek compensation for their loss
• Provide victims with information about their rights and legal proceedings in a language that they understand
• Take appropriate and feasible measures to protect trafficked persons and their family members from intimidation and retaliation from traffickers
• Provide access to services and support to victims during legal proceedings to help ease the burden of cooperation

Services

• Create and distribute victim assistance information about available services to appropriate locations
• Fund experienced NGOs to provide shelter and services
• Make the appropriate services available to victims, including: medical care; emergency and transitional housing with long-term housing assistance; mental health counseling; food; clothing; educational and vocational training and placement; family location and reunification; translation and interpretation; advocacy in the criminal justice system; spiritual support; criminal, civil and immigration legal assistance; safety planning; repatriation; and assistance in finding and accessing these many services
• Ensure shelter and services are appropriate for victims’ age, gender and special needs
• Permit victims the decision whether to accept shelter and services

Durable solutions

• Make available to trafficked persons temporary immigration status coupled with work authorization to provide stability during participation in an investigation and prosecution
• Facilitate the voluntary, safe repatriation of trafficking victims
• Assist repatriated victims in finding reintegration services in their country of origin
• Fund reintegration services for returning victims
• Explore third-country resettlement if return to the country of origin would not be safe and may include hardship, retribution or retrafficking
• Make available the option of local integration as a long-term solution when return would not be safe and may include hardship, retribution or retrafficking