Our intent in doing multiple survey studies was to attempt to converge on an estimate. Each method used has different and inevitable threats to validity, and there is no perfect method for estimating the extent of such a rare, hidden, and sometimes shameful event. Therefore, by using methods with different threats, we hoped to counter the inevitable criticism of the validity of a single method, and make any estimates at which we arrived much more credible.

The results from the three studies lead us to conclude that in the past three–five years, at least 22,000 Ukrainian citizens per year, and perhaps more than 36,000 per year, have gone abroad to work and have been enslaved in one form or another. The total number enslaved appears to be probably well in excess of 110,000.

We believe the three survey methods are probably biased so as to produce somewhat smaller numbers of victims than the actual numbers, but are nonetheless the best that can be achieved. Hence we say, “Well in excess of.”

The methods and results of the three studies are tabulated below. The methodology and results are further discussed in subsequent chapters on each study. One critical point to mention here is that we used a common conceptual definition of human trafficking in all three studies: a resident left his or her home country and was forced to work in a foreign country for little or no pay. This definition allows us to encompass not only forms of slavery that exist in the popular imagination, such as brothel slavery or certain kinds of factory and agricultural slavery, but also “wage slavery” or “debt bondage,” in which slaves are nominally paid, but usually never enough to buy their way out of a forced work environment.

The first study was a survey of close families done in five Eastern European countries, including Ukraine. This study was relatively small given the fact that finding human trafficking victims is like finding needles in a haystack (1,345 close families in Ukraine were surveyed). In addition, when a member of each close family was asked to specify how many members of that family had been trafficked, no time frame was specified, although it would be reasonable to assume that most answers were relevant to the past five–ten years. This study estimated that about 110,000 Ukrainians had been trafficked abroad. For reasons discussed in the study report, we believe this estimate is low.

The second study was a survey of “key informants.” This is quite different from surveying close families or households. In the surveys of close families and households (Studies 2 and 3), someone potentially close to a trafficking victim was asked if someone in the family or household had been trafficked. There may be a natural reluctance to answer such a question positively, even if someone close has been victimized. Thus, estimates are probably biased downward. In Study 2, however, the person asked was someone not of the household or family of a potential victim, but a knowledgeable person in the neighborhood or a head teacher from a child’s school. Thus, the reluctance to answer positively would probably be much lessened on the part of the informant. However, the knowledge of someone’s victim status might be lessened as well, due to social distance. Thus, we replaced one probable major source of bias with another. In the case of the key informant study, our best estimate of known trafficking victims in Ukraine was about 110,000 over five years. However, when we asked about strongly suspected victims, we estimated that there were another 110,000. Thus, we feel quite certain the number of victims over the past five years has exceeded 22,000 per year, and may possibly be 44,000 per year or higher.

The third study yielded the most accurate estimates in terms of low sampling error, since it was a survey of over 13,000 households. Heads of households were interviewed and asked if anyone in the household had been trafficked over the past three years. From this survey, we obtained an estimate of about 111,000 persons trafficked over the past three years, or about 37,000 per year. This study has the same form of bias as the first study. That is, we are asking someone in a family or household to reveal that someone close to him or her was a trafficking victim. Thus, there is some unknown bias, almost certainly downward.

So, looking across studies, we conclude that we can be fairly confident that at least 22,000 Ukrainians per year have been enslaved abroad over the past 3 to 5 years, possibly close to double that number. Most – perhaps no more than five or ten per cent, ever get help from the rehabilitation experts at NGOs.

Subsequent to the Table below, each study will be discussed in turn with results first, and then an extensive discussion of methodology.

In theory, undocumented workers victimized by exploitive employment practices may act as private attorneys general in the enforcement of workplace harms and may sue their employers under many of the same civil rights laws that protect citizen workers. Regardless of whether workers are foreign-born, the substantive guarantees of our civil rights laws protect all workers against exploitation. The Thirteenth Amendment guarantees freedom from slavery and involuntary servitude, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides all individuals with equal protection of the laws, and various civil rights statutes, most prominently the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibit discrimination in a variety of settings. In practice, however, the goals of immigration enforcement take precedence over the individual rights of undocumented workers. These workers are often deported and deprived of access to civil courts. As a result, workplace violations are not prosecuted and basic workplace protections are undermined. Consequently, both the workers and the nation suffer deterioration in civil rights.

In the human trafficking context, undocumented workers forced to labor in exploitive conditions may sue their traffickers and may also obtain immigration status pursuant to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, thereby ameliorating the divergent goals of immigration enforcement and civil rights laws that adversely impact other undocumented workers. This Article examines the ways in which the trafficked plaintiff fulfills the role of private attorney general by not only obtaining individual relief, but by also vindicating important societal interests in the advancement of constitutional and civil rights. A comparative analysis of litigation in the undocumented worker context demonstrates similar individual and societal benefits. This analysis supports an additional policy objective: The trafficked worker as private attorney general represents a model of civil rights enforcement. If replicated by other undocumented victims of workplace abuse, this model would allow these victims, unimpeded by restrictive immigration laws, to advance civil rights imperatives.

Bales is the president of Free the Slaves, the U.S.-based sister organization of Anti-Slavery International, and emeritus professor of sociology at Roehampton University in London. He also is the author of the award-winning "Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy."

His speech -- the opening event of UNL's inaugural Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking -- will take place at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 29 in the Centennial Room at the Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. The speech is free and open to the public.

Bales' book, released in 1999 and revised in 2005, was based on the study of slave-based businesses in five different countries: Thailand, Mauritania, Brazil, India and Pakistan. The Oct. 29-31 conference will be an interactive forum designed for sharing research results, ideas and interests in studying human trafficking and will bring together researchers and government agencies that are nationally and internationally engaged in anti-trafficking efforts. Organizers also hope to find ways to raise public awareness of modern slavery worldwide, from young men forced to work without pay on construction sites and in agricultural labor, young women forced to work without pay as domestic labor or prostitutes, or whole families that are bonded into endless wage slavery in factories and farms.

"Despite the fact that slavery is illegal virtually everywhere in the world, some experts claim that more people are enslaved internationally today than ever before," said Dwayne Ball, UNL associate professor of marketing and one of six faculty organizers of the conference. "Slavery today exists in ... almost every country, including our own. The problem is easy to ignore because it is so hidden."

Governments have become aware of the problem and are taking steps against it, but there is limited knowledge of the scope and nature of the problem and how to attack it. "This conference is, as far as we know, the first that has tried to bring together people from many academic disciplines, as well as government officials, law enforcement, and non-governmental agencies," Ball said.

UNL faculty organizers include Ball; Ron Hampton, marketing; Sriyani Tidball, journalism; Anchalee (Joy) Panigabutra-Roberts, libraries and women and gender studies; Josephine Potuto, law; and Donna Akers, history.

More information on the conference is at http://conferences.unl.edu/trafficking.

[ The "Download" document (upper right) is a PDF file generated from the PowerPoint presentation; the "Additional file" (below) is the PowerPoint slides themselves. ]

Our work with first-year college students suggests that they are not aware of modern-day slavery, yet they are quite ready to get engaged in the fight to eradicate it once they have the knowledge. We would like to discuss how to integrate the teaching of modern-day slavery into first-year seminar courses, a growing interdisciplinary curricular option on many campuses, and provide data illustrating its effectiveness at one institution.

This presentation will be both theoretical and highly practical, combining data analysis with dialogue about what worked on our own campus and what might work on other campuses. We will also provide participants with curricular materials to help them integrate modern-day slavery into their courses.

[ The "Download" document (upper right) is a PDF file generated from the PowerPoint presentation; the "Additional file" (below) is the Powerpoint slides themselves. ]

[ The "Download" document (upper right) is a PDF file generated from the PowerPoint presentation; the "Additional file" (below) is the Powerpoint slides themselves. ]

Though national efforts to fight TIP and CSE have increased in recent years, there remain several gaps and challenges if modern day slavery is to be brought to an end in the U.S. and across the globe. One such challenge is that cooperation and coordination among NGOs, U.S. government agencies and grassroots movements is currently insufficient. Concrete and sustainable referral systems between agencies is weak, information sharing of best practice is often neglected, and agencies often find they’ve had to ‘reinvent the wheel’ due to a lack of knowledge of what’s already being done.

An exhaustive catalog, index, or list of organizations, agencies, and movements working against TIP and CSE across the United States currently does not exist. A mapping of organizations will aid in the development of more collaboration and cooperation amongst involved agencies as a critical step in addressing modern day slavery.

With its U.S. Mapping Project, Chab Dai USA, a branch of Chab Dai Cambodia, aims to collaborate with other like-minded organizations in order to measure how organizations, ministries and service providers are currently providing a response to TIP and CSE in the United States. Organizations mapped will include prevention initiatives, legal intervention programs, social services, collaborative initiatives, research, and advocacy programs, amongst others. Once a database has been developed, the findings, along with a list of recommendations aimed to cover gap areas, will be disseminated (with safeguards in place) with the intention of developing major networking initiatives.