Identifying Human Trafficking Victims - World Leaders and Health Institutions

Abstract
Human trafficking involves harsh exploitation of victims and is a deplorable human rights violation. It can be a danger to one’s health and is a major public health issue. Roughly, 12.3 to 27 million men, women, and children are trafficked worldwide. Close to 17,500 people are trafficked yearly into the United States. Human trafficking victims often suffer from many health problems while being trafficked. Trafficking victims often seek medical care while in captivity, placing health care professionals in a unique position to interrupt the abuse cycle and prevent further exploitation and the risk of death. However, caregivers often do not detect trafficking victims’ delicate health needs. Despite training, care providers still lack the extent of knowledge that is needed to assess and rescue victims of trafficking. Furthermore, the World Health Organization (WHO) international classification of diseases (ICD) 11th version system excludes the diagnostic codes for sex trafficking and labor trafficking, hindering the requisite global public health efforts to research, monitor, and diagnose labor and sex trafficking. One of the barriers to human trafficking identification involves challenges in breach of confidentiality with ICD coding and electronic health record. Documentation or reporting via ICD coding may also violate HIPAA. Although reporting laws are designed to protect certain victims, the laws can potentially create further harm to them. The purpose of this paper is to review the human trafficking victim identification process for healthcare institutions and the global International Classification of Diseases (ICD) system for human trafficking.

Keywords
human trafficking, trafficking, health care, emergency department, trafficking victims, identification tools, sex trafficking, labor trafficking, warnings signs, red flags, barriers to identification, health consequences of human trafficking, screening tools, screening protocols, sex trafficking health policies, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO) on human trafficking, United Nations (UN) on human trafficking, validated screening tools, Health Insura

Cite this paper
Dr. Jennifer Leslie, JD, DHSc., Identifying Human Trafficking Victims - World Leaders and Health Institutions , SCIREA Journal of Clinical Medicine. Volume 6, Issue 5, October 2021 | PP. 329-364. 10.54647/cm32588

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