Enhancing Trafficking in Persons Victim Services Program

Preventing, Identifying, Protecting, and Responding

The 14 years of civil war that ravaged Liberia at the turn of the century ended in 2003, but the culture of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) popularized as a weapon of war by fighting forces endured.

Despite being the first African country to elect a woman president, women and girls in Liberia remained susceptible to abuse in nearly all aspects of life and Liberia continues to be a source, transit, and destination country for vulnerable men, women, and children subject to human trafficking.

At the time of this project’s launch, rural populations were limited in their exposure to anti-TIP awareness campaigns, leaving many Liberians unaware of their rights or how to protect themselves and their families from falling victim to slavery. Authorities and community members were also limited in their capacity to identify trafficking when it occurred, and a lack of access to appropriate social welfare services precluded survivors from receiving recovery support, leaving them vulnerable to re-victimization.

That’s why World Hope and the Government of Liberia established a National Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Hotline in 2014. The hotline provided the opportunity to identify labor and sex trafficking survivors or at-risk persons, refer them to services, and build preventative measures, and inform the development of the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and Standard Operating Procedures for TIP survivors. World Hope also supported a short-term emergency shelter and provided holistic case management and reintegration assistance for survivors. 

The Government finalized the NRM to direct survivors towards services in November 2018, although the US State Department’s 2019 Anti-Tip Report notes that it still needs to be formally endorsed in order to be implemented.