Based on long-term ethnographic research, including documentary research, qualitative interviews and observations made at a Portuguese shelter for “sex trafficked women,” this paper explores the counter-trafficking apparatus questioning who benefits from it. The discussion explores the contrasts between an institutional commitment to constructing this apparatus and the actuality of procedural efforts purporting to support “trafficking victims.” The author argues that the higher goal of building a countertrafficking apparatus — in itself a political objective — limits the rights of “victims,” making processes that claim to be part of their protection de facto neo-liberal anti-political exercises in reenforcing bureaucratic state power.
Most in the anti-human trafficking and modern slavery community agree that trafficking activities are aided and facilitated by corruption. Yet research shows that the available data supporting this assumption is thin. More evidence is needed to bette...Read More
This Research Brief analyses possible scenarios of how smuggling of migrants and cross-border trafficking in persons are likely to be affected by the COVID-19 crisis along mixed migration routes to two important destination regions: North America an...Read More
The war in Ukraine has caused a high level of forced displacement of the civil population in Europe, with a significant impact on neighboring countries in particular. Since February 24, 2022, until now, the Republic of Moldova (RM) borders have been...Read More
The COVID-19 crisis has a potentially far-reaching, long-term negative impact on trafficked and exploited persons. Although at this stage it is not yet possible to assess the full impact of the pandemic on human trafficking, it is sure that its soci...Read More
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