President Obama knows that early action on human trafficking could have global impact. He should start by reconsidering the use of raids -- they're not working.

In 2007, the junior U.S. senator

from Illinois, Barack Obama, sponsored a Senate resolution creating

the National Day of Human Trafficking Awareness, which we observed on

Sunday, January 11. Human trafficking is rarely on the pundits’ list

of priorities for President Obama’s administration, but

he knows that early action in this area could have global impact. For

starters, he should reconsider the current approach of raids, raids

and more raids. It’s not working.

The Sex Workers Project at New York’s

Urban Justice Center

recently interviewed law enforcement personnel, service providers who

have helped hundreds of trafficking victims, and a small sample of immigrant

women trafficked into sex work and other forms of labor, including domestic

work. We found that while there have been some successes, raids are generally an ineffective

anti-trafficking tool ,

and in many cases are harmful to people who have been trafficked.

Trafficked women reported that

they were repeatedly arrested, in some cases up to ten times, in police

raids on brothels and other sex work venues, without ever being identified

as trafficked. Yet that is the ostensible purpose of these raids – to

"rescue" the 14,000 to 17,000 women, men and children the US government

estimates are trafficked into the United States annually. These women’s

reports were consistent with those from service providers across the

country: a supervisor at a national organization working with trafficking

victims said very few trafficked people are referred for services after

raids.

Recent federal data supports

this conclusion. In the eight years since current anti-trafficking laws

went into effect, only 787 people have received the "T" immigration

visa set up to give residency and job status to trafficking victims,

even though 5,000 such visas are available every year.

Sex. Abortion. Parenthood. Power. The latest news, delivered straight to your inbox. SUBSCRIBE

Clearly existing law is ineffective.

Raids, for their part, are violent, chaotic events involving kicking

down doors, drawn guns and much yelling and shoving, further traumatizing

trafficking victims and decreasing the likelihood that they will cooperate

with law enforcement in prosecuting their traffickers. Some raids were

in fact accompanied by violations of the rights of the very people the

raids were intended to protect.

One woman interviewed for our

report told of being pistol-whipped and publicly strip-searched by officers

during a raid. Many more spoke of being interrogated following raids

without being given access to an attorney.

The Obama administration has

the opportunity to reassess this failed federal approach to human trafficking.

The recent passage of federal anti-trafficking legislation championed

by Vice President Joe Biden offers a fresh start – and a chance

to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

A good first step would be

to move away from high-profile, resource-intensive and largely ineffective

raids and to address the economic and social circumstances that increase

vulnerability to trafficking. It flourishes in labor sectors with few

protections, such as domestic work, agriculture, the service industry,

and informal economies such as day labor and, yes, sex work. Expansion

and targeted enforcement of labor laws in these sectors would not only

go a long way toward locating, identifying and assisting trafficked

persons, it would also protect the rights of all workers.

For the long term, strategies

led by individuals and communities with knowledge of and access to trafficked

people are far more likely than raids to meet with success. Obama’s

2007 Senate resolution recognized this, noting that the people most

likely to come into contact with trafficking victims are "essential

for effective enforcement" – but at the moment, such people are not

shielded from immigration consequences or arrest if they come forward.

Half the trafficked women we

interviewed for our report did not leave abusive situations as a result

of law enforcement intervention, but rather thanks

to the help of co-workers, clients and members of their communities.

Others said they would have left on their own if they had known of a

safe place to go or if someone had offered to help them. People who

had been trafficked themselves were the most effective in locating,

recognizing and assisting trafficking victims.

Trafficking victims by definition

have sought opportunity in the United States only to find themselves

in coercive and abusive situations. We owe it to them to find better

ways to locate, identify and assist them, and to develop anti-trafficking

initiatives that prioritize their needs, choices, and self-determination

as human beings. A good way to start would be to extend a helping hand

that is not also holding a gun.