By CORY SMITH

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced that it will now allow its grantees to use HHS funds toward legal assistance for foreign national human trafficking survivors, following a request from the Alliance to End Slavery & Trafficking (ATEST).

In a letter dated January 24, 2012, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) indicated to ATEST that it will revise its policy to include legal services as an allowable expense by its grantees to assist foreign national survivors of human trafficking. The letter was in response to a July 2011 request from ATEST urging HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to reconsider the department's original policy, which prohibited HHS grantees from using the department's funding to provide legal services for foreign national survivors of human trafficking.

Legal services are essential to the identification, protection, and empowerment of trafficking survivors. Funding direct legal services for these survivors helps many escape from slavery, cooperate with law enforcement, and achieve independence. Survivors are particularly vulnerable to re-exploitation, because of their past exploitation and abuse, and need ongoing access to lawyers' advice to defend against threats to their safety and independence.

The Administration of Children and Families' Office of Refugee Resettlement (ACF / ORR) will issue a letter to state refugee coordinators, national voluntary agencies providing case management services to foreign victims of trafficking, and other interested parties announcing this change in the coming weeks.

Learn more about ATEST, a project of Humanity United, at http://www.endtraffickingandslavery.org.

Cory Smith is a policy consultant for ATEST. He has helped to guide the alliance since 2008.