Human Exploitation and Resilience Program

The Human Exploitation and Resilience program (HERP) faced a difficult 2025. We started the year with program interventions focused on forced labor and human trafficking in five countries—India, Thailand, Kenya, Tanzania, and Costa Rica—with all projects showing promising results. However, in the first quarter, our U.S. Department of State-funded projects in Thailand, India, and Kenya were terminated. HERP then pivoted to secure new funding, but the landscape for international intervention work remains limited. Despite the losses, HERP received continuation funding from the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Office for its intervention work with the Tanzanian local NGO, Community Health and Social Welfare Africa (COMHESWA), providing both pre-departure and vocational training to Tanzanian domestic workers. Additionally, HERP’s partner in Costa Rica, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), began training the Costa Rican Coast Guard to identify victims of forced labor in the fishing industry; this will continue into 2026. Lastly, Director of HERP, Meredith Dank, presented at the United Nations High-Level Plenary Meeting to Appraise the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons. In 2026, we are hoping to expand our efforts domestically, continuing to elevate the voices of exploited and vulnerable populations and highlight their resilience through rigorous, empirical research.

Domestic Servitude in Tanzania: With the continuation of funding received from the TIP Office, HERP, along with local implementing partner COMHESWA, will be expanding their labor trafficking research in Tanzania. The new funding will support additional participants, an expanded site in Zanzibar, and enhanced capacity building with government and community partners. This project has already succeeded in providing more sustainable livelihood opportunities for individuals who decide to remain in Tanzania and pursue in-country employment, in addition to valuable educational training for those who go abroad. As part of the project, the team developed a project brief on the use of digital peer networks to empower Ethiopian domestic workers who travel abroad for employment opportunities. And, Dank published an article in the Journal of Human Trafficking: “Estimating the Prevalence of Domestic Servitude among Tanzanian Women Who Have Returned from Working Overseas: A Direct Comparison of Stratified Simple Random Sampling and Vincent Link-Tracing Sampling Strategies.”

Forced Labor in the Fishing Industry in Costa Rica: In late 2025, local partner International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched the first training for coast guards to identify victims of forced labor in the fishing industry, with additional trainings planned for 2026. Through this work, those involved in the fishing industry show an increased understanding of the markers of exploitative labor and human trafficking in their industry. This project uses innovative participatory methods to deliver the educational program, which has found great success. Dank’s prevalence research, “Estimating the Prevalence of Forced Labor in the Fishing Industry in Puntarenas, Costa Rica: A Direct Comparison of Conventional Sampling and Vincent Link-Tracing Sampling Strategies,” was also published in the Journal of Human Trafficking.

Nature and Scope of Forced Criminality in the US: Dank and her team deployed the first-of-its-kind screening tool in four public defender’s offices across the US to understand the commonality of forced criminality and the nature by which it manifests. This project also includes interviewing legal stakeholders and their clients, alongside comprehensive reviews of human trafficking vacatur cases, filling a significant gap in our understanding of this form of exploitation.

Other Research, Presentations, and Media: Dank served as a panelist at the United Nations High-Level Plenary Meeting to Appraise the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons. She also participated in EUROCRIM 2025, where she discussed her project, “Developing Domestic Economic Opportunities to Reduce Trafficking Risks in Overseas Migration: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Tanzania.” She and her co-authors published Labor Trafficking in Construction and Hospitality Topical Brief: Barriers to Help-Seeking, a report produced with funding from their National Institute of Justice (NIJ) project, “Labor Trafficking in Construction and Hospitality: Analyzing Victim Recruitment, Exploitation, and Service Needs to Identify Strategies for Prevention and Intervention.” Lastly, she was interviewed by NYU News on her recent study, “Understanding the Needs of Unstably Housed Youth in New York City.”