Committee backs ordinance adding human-trafficking survivor status to Philadelphia's workplace protections

Philadelphia's Committee on Public Health and Human Services voted to report bill 250,990 with a favorable recommendation after a daylong public hearing in which prosecutors, survivor leaders and service providers urged the council to add human-trafficking victim status to the city's Fair Practices Ordinance.

Council members heard detailed testimony about the barriers survivors face when seeking and keeping work and about gaps in the investigative and referral process that make prosecution of traffickers rare. Chair Nina Ahmed opened the hearing by saying the change 'is about whether survivors are allowed a fair chance to rebuild' and read national and local hotlines for survivors.

District Attorney Larry Krasner told the committee his office is committed to prosecuting traffickers and protecting victims, but said his prosecutors receive very few trafficking referrals. "We prosecute these cases very vigorously when we get them," Krasner said, while acknowledging that "we get very few, simply put." He and his staff described a family violence and sex-assault unit that handles trafficking matters and said the…