Dr. Marian Hatcher
Shared Hope Policy Consultant
Ambassador-at-Large, United Nations
As National Slavery & Human Trafficking Prevention Month 2022 ends, I am filled with a myriad of emotions. This annual recognition on the surface is focused on long term protections of victims/survivors addressing labor and sex trafficking, yet economic exploitation is often overlooked. In a month dedicated to awareness, there is still a lack of awareness of the long-term financial impacts that many trafficking survivors suffer. However, this past year we had a win, the Debt Bondage Repair Act (DBRA), and this month is a great time to celebrate it.
In December 2020, I was asked to provide technical assistance to the House Committee on Financial Services and was subsequently invited to testify as a subject matter expert at a hearing on issues related to the Business of Human Trafficking.
After numerous delays due to the COVID pandemic, and many layers of internal vetting for the panel, on March 25, 2021, I was honored to testify at the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services’ hearing, Breaking the Chains: Dismantling the Business of Human Exploitation.
To explain the importance this issue holds for me, I would like to share some of the testimony I gave at that hearing:
The impact of human trafficking does not end when victims leave their trafficking situations and their exploiters are held accountable. For survivors, these are just the first steps in a long process toward achieving the interwoven goals of healing, empowerment, and financial stability. Without financial stability and resources to support educational goals and to meet basic needs, survivors who have left their trafficking situation will often struggle to stay “out of the life” and may return to exploitative situations due to lack of resources. The fact that many trafficking survivors face arrest and criminal charges as a result of their trafficking means they face even greater hurdles to accessing needed housing assistance, seeking employment, and pursuing educational goals.
We must provide avenues for credit history relief and ensure availability of consumer banking products for trafficking victims. In addition to exploiting their victims through commercial sex or forced labor, traffickers – particularly in the context of domestic trafficking – may also exploit their victims’ credit histories by using their social security numbers to take out loans and make large purchases, such as vehicles, intending not to pay, thereby destroying their victims’ credit histories in the process.
When survivors without credit histories and those having damaged credit histories leave their trafficking situations and begin working toward financial stability, they often find that they are unable to access basic consumer banking services – in particular, obtaining a credit card – which creates further barriers to establishing credit histories and achieving financial independence. Lack of a bank account or credit card may even impact a survivor’s ability to seek employment or to rent an apartment. Therefore, disrupting the long-term impacts of human trafficking should include assistance for survivors with amending damaging reports and other methods for improving their credit histories to prevent ongoing injury from trafficking victimization. Utilizing alternative means of evaluating credit for human trafficking survivors could have a dramatic impact on a survivor’s ability to attain financial stability and to heal from the wounds of trafficking victimization. We should also provide access to financial literacy education for human trafficking survivors. Survivors who have experienced sex trafficking as a child or young adult have shared that an important support that was sometimes lacking in the services they received was education on financial literacy and the skills they needed to become financially self-sufficient.
I was surprised and grateful, when Ranking Member Patrick McHenry’s office informed me, he wanted to craft a bill, inspired by my testimony. He displayed leadership at the federal level and exerted political will, courageously doing what it takes, to promote a victim-centered approach, helping survivors of sex trafficking move past economic barriers related to their exploitation.
The DBRA removes economic barriers for survivors by preventing debts incurred as a result of trafficking from ruining a survivor’s credit history and undermining their access to basic financial services needed to attain financial stability.
This past June, the Debt Bondage Repair Act (DBRA), a narrowly scoped piece of legislation with immense ability to assist the economically exploited, was passed by the House of Representatives.
With that, it brought one step closer, the sentiments of my written statement introduced on the House Floor June 15, 2021,
“Survivors spend a great deal of time trying to heal in ways you would expect; physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
However, another critically important aspect of healing is often left unattended and impedes the path to holistic health. That aspect is financial healing.
In many cases, the lack of financial wellness causes victims to have no option but to return to exploitive situations.
In other circumstances, survivors may be held civilly or criminally liable for debt incurred during their trafficking.
Any of these scenarios prevent the life of liberty and wholeness that survivors yearn for and deserve.
The Debt Bondage Repair Act will help provide survivors with a viable chance at full wellbeing, inclusive of financial stability and security.”….
I was thankful for the momentum the bill gained when Senator Cornyn introduced the Debt Bondage Repair Act in the Senate. Excitingly, the bill was later included in the non-defense section of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which passed Congress and was signed into law by President Biden on December 27, 2021.
You can imagine how I felt; it seemed so quick for this important change to come about. I’m not in the best health and yet God in his magnificence used my brokenness and experience to establish a way out for my sibling survivors.
It is a bittersweet accomplishment as the devastation of the remaining mountains of long-term consequences of exploitation, weigh heavily on the backs of victims/survivors and to be frank, my mind.
It’s that same urge to build better responses for the many survivors who continue to be exploited through trafficking that motivated the development of the “Exited Prostitution Survivor Policy Platform” written by thirteen survivors, including myself. It remains the best policy for long term consequences and solutions:
“Our intention in issuing this unified declaration is to urge stakeholder groups to endorse comprehensive policies based on three Pillars of Priority: 1) Reforms to our nation’s criminal justice approach to prostitution; 2) Fair employment for survivors; and 3) Essential standards of care for people exiting the sex trade.”
As we reach the end of National Slavery & Human Trafficking Prevention Month, it is an excellent time to take stock of the challenges that lie ahead and the issues that have remained hidden but need our attention. Looking ahead, I am excited to see how the DBRA will impact survivor’s lives, even as I recognize that this is just part of the work that remains to be done to ensure the long term needs of survivors get the attention they need.
Dr. Hatcher has worked as a civilian member of law enforcement at the Cook County Sheriffs Office for 15 years, a U.S. Representative of SPACE International (Survivors of Prostitution Calling for Enlightenment), a survivor organization representing 10 countries. She is a recipient of numerous awards including the 2014 Shared Hope International Path Breaker Award, the 2016 Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from President Obama, and was honored on Congressional Record for Black History by U.S. Senator Richard Durbin of IL.
The information and links provided in this resource are solely for educational and informational purposes and do not constitute legal advice. Additionally, Shared Hope International cannot comment on, or confirm, an individual’s victim status for purposes of accessing relief under the Debt Bondage Repair Act.
