Source: excerpted from UN.GIFT (United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking), IOM (International Organization for Migration) and the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 2009. Caring for Trafficked Persons: Guidance for Health Providers.
1. Adhere to existing recommendations in the WHO Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Interviewing Trafficked Women (Available in Armenian, Bosnian, Croatian, English, Japanese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Serbian)
2. Treat all contact with trafficked persons as a potential step towards improving their health. Each encounter with a trafficked person can have positive or negative effects on their health and well-being.
3. Prioritize the safety of trafficked persons, self and staff by assessing risks and making consultative and well-informed decisions. Be aware of the safety concerns of trafficked persons and potential dangers to them or their family members.
4. Provide respectful, equitable care that does not discriminate based on gender, age, social class, religion, race or ethnicity. Health care should respect the rights and dignity of those who are vulnerable, particularly women, children, the poor and minorities.
5. Be prepared with referral information and contact details for trusted support persons for a range of assistance, including shelter, social services, counseling, legal advocacy and law enforcement. If providing information to persons who are suspected or known victims who may still be in contact with traffickers, this must be done discretely, e.g., with small pieces of paper that can be hidden.
6. Collaborate with other support services to implement prevention activities and response strategies that are cooperative and appropriate to the differing needs of trafficked persons.
7. Ensure the confidentiality and privacy of trafficked persons and their families. Put measures into place to make sure all communications with and about trafficked persons are dealt with confidentially and that each trafficked person is assured that his or her privacy will be respected.
8. Provide information in a way that each trafficked person can understand. Communicate care plans, purposes and procedures with linguistically and age-appropriate descriptions, taking the time necessary to be sure that each individual understands what is being said and has the opportunity to ask questions. This is an essential step prior to requesting informed consent.
9. Obtain voluntary, informed consent. Before sharing or transferring information about patients, and before beginning procedures to diagnose, treat or make referrals, it is necessary to obtain the patient’s voluntary informed consent. If an individual agrees that information about them or others may be shared, provide only that which is necessary to assist the individual (e.g., when making a referral to another service) or to assist others (e.g., other trafficked persons).
10. Respect the rights, choices, and dignity of each individual by:
11. Avoid calling authorities, such as police or immigration services, unless given the consent of the trafficked person. Trafficked persons may have well-founded reasons to avoid authorities. Attempts should be made to discuss viable options and gain consent for actions.14
12. Maintain all information about trafficked persons in secure facilities. Data and case files on trafficked persons should be coded whenever possible and kept in locked files. Electronic information should be protected by passwords.
Source: IOM (International Organization for Migration). 2006. Breaking the Cycle of Vulnerability: Responding to the Health Needs of Trafficked Women in East and Southern Africa.
The UN.GIFT (United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking) website has a full array of basic references, manuals and tools, and news about past and upcoming meetings on trafficking. The link relating to “best practices” is particularly useful as guidance.
Caring for Trafficked Persons: Guidance for Health Providers (United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking), IOM (International Organization for Migration) and the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2009). Provides practical, non-clinical advice to help health providers understand trafficking, recognize associated health problems, and consider safe and appropriate approaches to providing healthcare for trafficked persons. The guidance is also useful for meeting the health needs of women migrant workers who are victims of abuse. The “action sheets” include: sexual and reproductive health, special considerations when examining children and adolescents, trauma-informed care, safe referral, mental health care, disabilities, and medico-legal considerations. Available in English.
WHO Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Interviewing Trafficked Women (Zimmerman, C. and Watts, C. 2003). Available in Armenian, Bosnian, Croatian, English, Japanese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Serbian)
Handbook on Direct Assistance for Victims of Trafficking (International Organization for Migration, 2007). Available in English.
Breaking the Cycle of Vulnerability: Responding to the Health Needs of Trafficked Women in East and Southern Africa (International Organization for Migration, 2006). Available in English.
Manual for Medical Officers Dealing with Child Victims of Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation (Manual for Medical Officers Dealing with Medico-Legal Cases of Victims of Trafficking for Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Child Sexual Abuse (United Nations Children’s Fund and the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of India, New Delhi, 2005). Available in English.
National Referral Mechanisms: Joining Efforts to Protect the Rights of Trafficked Persons: A Practical Handbook (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, 2004). Available in Albanian, English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.
For additional resources on trafficking, search the tools database.
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