Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach

Violence against womeneach year, thousands of survivors of domestic violence and individuals in crisis call our offices seeking Legal advice and assistance. Some call from a shelter or afriend's safe-home

Human traffickingpreying on the desperation and dreams of vulnerable immigrants around the world,human traffickers lure their victims to the u.s. with false promises and tales ofliving the american dream. Most victims are pulled to the u.s. by the hope ofopportunity and pushed from their home country by the lack of the same chances ofmaking a better life for themselves and their loved ones. But once in the u.s., theexperiences of these individuals are strikingly similar: abuse, threats of violenceand retaliation, elimination of personal liberty and free agency, and dehumanizingtreatment that crushes the dignity, self esteem, and self worth of the victim. For the fortunate few that are able to escape their trafficking situations, these men, women, and children all too often deal with seemingly insurmountable challenges of daily survival: they are in a foreign land, unable to speak english, terrified of police and immigration, no knowledge about available help or resources, and little or no money or even any idea about where they will be sleeping that night.the anti-trafficking project of api Legal Outreach serves these needs. We providelegal representation to these individuals to stabilize their immigration status,protect and advocate for them during the ensuing criminal investigation andprosecution, and work with our sister agencies in the Asian anti-traffickingcollaborative (aatc) to provide them with a place to live, medical help, aidobtaining refugee benefits, counseling, as well as job training and placement forthe future.api Legal Outreach is the only Legal organization in the entire state of California that provides comprehensive Legal services to victims of human trafficking. The u.s. department of justice has recognized our collaborative, holistic approach, selecting aatc as one of only 3 programs in the entire country to be replicated on a national basis.the trade in human bodies is overwhelming in scope and there is a tremendous amountof work and advocacy that must be done to try to reach and eliminate the source ofhuman trafficking as well as ensure the safety and well-being of victims. Therefore,in addition to our Legal work, we use a multi-level strategy in our anti-traffickingproject to deal with the numerous issues involved in human trafficking through theprovision of technical assistance and trainings, policy and legislative advocacy atlocal, state, and federal levels, and continuing community education and Outreach tosister agencies and the general public.by the numbers:** 200: the number of men, women, and children survivors of human trafficking thathave been served by api Legal Outreach's anti-trafficking project and the asiananti-trafficking collaborative (aatc)** 15+: the number of different countries of origin of survivors in the greater bay area served by aatc. These countries include: china, egypt, guatemala, honduras,india, indonesia, japan, kenya, korea, malaysia, mexico, nigeria, philippines,russia, taiwan, thailand, and others. ** 2: age of our youngest survivor** 63: age of our oldest survivormore than 50% of the cases involved forced labor other than sex trafficking, such asdomestic servitude, restaurant work, servile marriage, and even professionaloccupations such as nursing and teaching.

Immigration and naturalizationwhile the hallmarks of the immigration project - direct services and community education - remained constant, our staff focused much of its attention during the past year to expanding virtual access to our services to the diverse api community.some of the highlights included:* collaborated with api community groups to make immigration services more accessible. * established a variety of community-based clinics in alameda, san mateo, andsan francisco counties. * provided a full range of immigration services and advocating for immigrantrights, including combating the increasing numbers of deportations that separatefamilies and destabilize communities.