Part I: TIP Report and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act – Bridging the Connections

Human trafficking remains a pervasive problem in the United States. The U.S. State Department included analysis of the U.S. government in the TIP Report for the first time in 2010, and the U.S. has retained its Tier 1 ranking in the 2011 report.  As part of achieving a Tier 1 ranking in 2011, Polaris Project helped train federal law enforcement, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, and state and local law enforcement around the country to encourage prioritizing trafficking cases and prosecutions, as well as enable them to recognize red flags that indicate trafficking, via our National Training and Technical Assistance Program (NTTAP).

We also worked with foreign organizations and delegations—see this list of past international training audiences—and have a field office in Japan. Of the 23 countries which advanced to higher tiers in the past year, Polaris Project has interacted with eight (Dominican Republic, Guatemala, India, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mozambique, Portugal, and Sri Lanka). While we certainly do not take full responsibility for this great improvement and accomplishment, we do believe that our international interactions benefit foreign governments and NGOs by providing information on how to identify and assess victims, understand recent trafficking trends, and institute promising practices.

Still, there remain gaps in potential partnerships, unfunded and underfunded services, unclear stipulations regarding labor recruitment in U.S. law, and a variety of areas for improvement in the domestic approach to ending modern-day slavery.

Check back in with us tomorrow for Part II: The Trafficking Victims Protection Act 2011: The Time for Reauthorization Is Now.

Photo Credit: U.S. Department of State