UT study aims to stop human trafficking chains related to Hurricane Harvey construction projects

University of Texas at Austin researchers are planning to study the human-trafficking chains that may have stemmed from construction projects following Hurricane Harvey.

The National Science Foundation awarded to the university a two-year $300,000 grant to interview workers who were part of Harvey recovery efforts and ask about their working conditions and other experiences since the hurricane hit in 2017.

"We're going to collect data in the Houston area because it's an area where we know just in general there's different forms of human trafficking and labor exploitation that goes on," said Matt Kammer-Kerwick of the Bureau of Business Research at UT's IC2 Institute. "There's a risk of it going on at higher levels in this recovery phase we're in after the hurricane."

Kammer-Kerwick, the lead researcher, said the atmosphere after a natural disaster can be a breeding ground for chaos, creating a sense of urgency as homes need to be rebuilt quickly. They will look for employees who might have been paid unfairly, worked in unsafe conditions or been coerced into completing dangerous work.

"People would want to know if their homes and local businesses are being rebuilt by workers who are exploited, coerced, or swindled out of their hard-earned wages," said Noël Busch-Armendariz, director of the Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and professor of social work at UT Austin, in the news release about the study. "Reducing labor trafficking and exploitation makes Texas a fairer and better place to work and live."

As a way to determine where to interview, researchers will identify Federal Emergency Management Agency-designated disaster counties to help understand where the damage was the most extensive and where rebuilding operations are likely to be the heaviest.

"It's not like there's a hotspot geographically, as much as there are hotspots where the work is occurring," Kammer-Kerwick said about where the trafficking is located. "As the reconstruction and rebuild occurs, the locations of the construction activities are going to change, and therefore, that's where the behavior follows."

Researchers from UT's Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and Fe y Justicia Worker Center, which advocates for workers who were exploited during Harvey, will also assist.

"We saw employers exploiting workers after Ike, and we are seeing it again with Harvey," said Marianela Acuña Arreaza, executive director of Fe y Justicia Worker Center, in the news release. "Wage theft is devastating for workers, many of whom live locally and are recovering from Harvey themselves."

Researchers hope to explain to business owners and policymakers specific intervention strategies that stop human trafficking. Kammer-Kerwick said an intervention could look like providing a program to educate workers on recognizing risk factors when accepting employment or job sites having to undergo specific inspection policies.

"We don't know necessarily if we're going to provide guidance or increased information to policymakers," Kammer-Kerwick said, "but that's the intent to help them better understand how to improve the lives of Texans in a post-disaster environment.".

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