Providing Services to Trafficking Survivors: Understanding Practices across the Globe

Background and Purpose:   Human trafficking impacts every country in the world with victims representing all genders, age groups, and global regions. There is a wealth of general information available on human trafficking and existing international, regional and national anti-human trafficking policies.  However, little is known about how to best support survivors of human trafficking.  The bulk of existing research on approaches to victim services is Western-Centric and focuses primarily on the United States. In order to examine service provision from a global lens, this study explores best practice approaches with survivors of human trafficking used by service providers from around the world.

Methods: Thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted with human trafficking service providers across twenty-six countries and six continents. Purposive sampling was utilized, with initial recruitment based off a list of suggested key contacts and online human trafficking directories followed by the use of snowball sampling. Final participant organizations served a range of survivors, including women, men, adolescents, adults, labor trafficking and sex trafficking survivors, and domestically and internationally trafficked persons. Interviews asked questions focused on country definitions of trafficking, identification and needs of survivors, victim service approaches of the organization, measuring success and identifying challenges, and policies and resources for survivors.  Data analysis was conducted using grounded theory. In line with this theory, the researchers developed codes representing concepts found in participants’ response that were then merged into families and themes.

Results: According to the participants, organizations conceptualize best practices in service delivery to human trafficking survivors across four interrelated domains: 1) individual, 2) community, 3) policy, and 4) culture. Many organizations utilized a survivor-centered approach, incorporated trauma-informed practices, or combined the two approaches.  Participants spoke about the importance of defining success of the intervention from the survivor’s perspective. Within the community domain, an exchange of knowledge and skills through training and collaboration was deemed as essential in providing effective multidisciplinary responses. At the policy level, participants identified funding as the major barrier to providing quality services to survivors. Moreover, government recognition of human trafficking and its survivors was found to be critical to survivors’ access to services and resources. Finally, participants emphasized the significance of cultural sensitivity in service provision. Participants recommended advocating for inclusive definitions of trafficking and stressed the importance of incorporating cultural norms into service provision.

Conclusions and Implications:  Expanding research on human trafficking survivor services, this study identifies best practices as defined by service providers from around the globe. Findings highlight the importance of a survivor centered, trauma informed approach in service provision.  The findings also suggest cross discipline collaboration and training. Moreover, as governments’ recognition of trafficking varies, as well as funding and services, the policy advocate is a critical role of victim service organizations.  Finally, culturally specific models of service provision allow for more survivor-centered approaches. Further research is needed to assess for the generalizability of these findings and to test best practice approaches identified by victim service organizations.