Language Access Issues

Title VI of the Civil Rights Codes provides that language access must be made available to those for whom English is not their native language, if the agency providing services receives any federal funding. Violations of Title VI may be reported to the Department of Justice.

Communicating with Human Trafficking Victims considerations:

• Use an interpreter if the victim does not speak fluent English
• Never let someone onsite or somewhat who is not a designated translator, interpret for the victim
• Victims often don’t self-identify. They often present with another form of abuse, neglect, or abandonment.
• If the victim is a child, they should be interviewed by a child forensic interviewer
• The trafficker should NOT be present at the interview
• It may take several interviews to establish trust and even longer to determine if the potential victim has been trafficked
• Be considerate of cultural and religious differences
• If individual is with victim claiming to be parent or other relative, try to determine truth of relationship. May check IDs and have the victim and other individual fill out family trees, separately, to determine relationship.
• Don’t ask about immigration status initially. This may intimidate the victim and cause fear of deportation.

Materials may be ordered from the Rescue and Restore website in the following languages: English, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, Thai, Indonesian, Spanish, and Korean.