When human trafficking knocks, Congress must answer

Q. When is a teenager who sells magazines door-to-door not a scam artist?

A. When he’s a victim of labor trafficking.

In a survey of more than 40 organizations serving homeless youth across the country, respondent after respondent reported examples of young people being forced to sell everything from magazines to candy and perfume in “exchange” for compensation or room and board that never materialized. Oftentimes, these kids are easy prey for traffickers because they’ve left intolerable home situations and have nowhere to go and no one to look out for them. Once attached to a sales group, they may be transported far from familiar surroundings and stripped of identification, leaving them stranded, broke and even more vulnerable. 

{mosads}While it may be easy to conclude that a teenage runaway is a “bad” kid, and hard to understand why a young person would run away from the relative safety of home, the reasons are numerous. Maybe they were sexually abused by a family member, left a dysfunctional foster care situation, or found it intolerable to live with a drug-addicted parent. Many “runaway” teens—reports say nearly half—were actually kicked out of home by their parents for identifying as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender (LGBT). 

Whatever the reason, it is estimated that 1.6 million youth between ages 12 and 17 experience homelessness in a given year, and more than 46,000 youth can be found living on the streets on any given night. Too often, they go unnoticed, quietly trafficked into exploitative labor or the sex industry. 

As leaders in Congress consider taking on these issues, it is important for the general public to be knowledgeable and aware of all of America’s hidden faces of modern slavery, and fulfill our moral responsibility to help them. Whether a human being is trafficked into the sex industry, forced into domestic servitude or trapped into selling magazines door-to-door, they all deserve the policy solutions and services necessary to escape and recover. 

Today, approximately 50,000 youth per year are served by targeted homeless youth programs—and thousands more who seek shelter are turned away. That’s hugely problematic, given that housing and services for homeless youth are our best means of preventing the predation of young people into human trafficking. 

One reason for the dearth of services is the paltry amount of government resources available to help get homeless youth safely off the streets. As a result, most housing and services targeting homeless youth are administered by private organizations, and rely largely upon private donations. 

The Senate is poised to act next week on anti-trafficking legislation, and it is imperative that senators include reauthorization of the federal Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) in the effort. The 40-year old piece of legislation only has $114 million for these life-saving programs, including street outreach that provides education, treatment, counseling and referrals to vital services; basic services such as temporary shelter, counseling, family reunification and aftercare services; and longer-term housing and other transitional support services. It’s simply not enough. 

Homeless teens who have been trafficked do not have access to traditional safety nets like child welfare, since they are outside of—and often aged out, run away from, or otherwise turned away from—foster care and other child welfare services. Programs supported by RHYA are vital to reaching this vulnerable population, and are perhaps the only means of identifying who is being trafficked and responding to their needs. 

We know that a well-funded RHYA could be the way out of unthinkable situations for so many homeless youth. Already, 69 percent of runaway homeless youth who participate in RHYA crisis intervention programs for minors are reunited with family, which means they are among the strongest trafficking prevention measures available. 

Congress has the opportunity to strengthen RHYA even more during this year’s reauthorization and appropriations process. That critical reauthorization, along with funding to meet the need, will result in more trafficking victims being identified and reached, as well as closing the gap between the number of runaway teens who need shelter services and those who actually get it. 

When a teenager who sells magazines door-to-door is actually a victim of labor trafficking, isn’t it Congress’ responsibility to ensure they have the resources to make it back home? 

Bardine is executive director of the National Network for Youth.