HHS Responds to ATEST: Legal Assistance Will be an Allowable Expense for Trafficking Victims

HHS Department Funds May Be Used to Provide Legal Services to Foreign Victims fo Human Trafficking

The Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking (ATEST), in a letter of appeal dated July 11, 2011 addressed to the attention of Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, requested that the Department reconsider its policy prohibiting the use of HHS funds by grantees to provide legal services to foreign national survivors of human trafficking.

Legal services are essential to the identification, protection, and empowerment of survivors of trafficking. Funding direct legal services for survivors of trafficking helps many escape from slavery, cooperate with law enforcement and achieve independence. Moreover, because of past exploitation and abuse, survivors are particularly vulnerable to re-exploitation and need ongoing access to lawyers' advice to defend against such threats to survivors' tenuous safety and independence.

In a positive response dated January 24, 2012, HHS indicated to ATEST that it is revising its policy to include legal assistance as an allowable expense by its grantees to assist foreign victims of human trafficking. The Administration of Children and Families' Office of Refugee Resettlement (ACF / ORR) will issue a State Letter to state refugee coordinators, national voluntary agencies providing case management services to foreign victims of trafficking, and other interested parties announcing this change in the coming weeks.