Addressing exploitation of labour migrants in Southeast Asia: Beyond a counter-trafficking criminal justice response

Large numbers of young people in Southeast Asia seek work opportunities outside their country of origin, migrating both regularly and irregularly, and with little power to access or negotiate safe and fair migration and work conditions. The risk of exploitation is high.The potential for human trafficking in these situations has attracted
significant attention. Yet much of the response by regional governments and international donors has focused on identifying and prosecuting ‘traffickers’ rather than addressing the many vulnerabilities and forms of exploitation that many labour migrants experience. This thematic brief sets out a diversity of forms of exploitation that labour migrants in Southeast Asia experience, and the implications for how efforts to respond might need to adapt. This includes broadening beyond the dominant frame of criminal justice in order to address exploitation at scale and in a manner that is realistic about the prevailing political economy.

Addressing exploitation of labour migrants in Southeast Asia: Beyond a counter-trafficking criminal justice response- Australian Aid, 2023 DOWNLOAD

Legal Deserts Report 2.0

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In July 2021, The Avery Center and the National Survivor Law Collective (NSL Collective) co-authored the first Legal Deserts Report to depict the landscape of legal services for survivors of trafficking. Specifically, The Avery Center's research tea...Read More

TAGS: North America

No limits to exploitation: Migrant labourers in the supply chains of German supermarkets

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Fat profits on the one hand, starvation wages on the other: The inequalities along the supply chains for our food are enormous. Dieter Schwarz, owner of Lidl and Kaufland, earns the annual income of a farmworker on a pineapple plantation in Costa Ri...Read More

TAGS: Due Diligence Africa Europe Latin America and the Caribbean

The Global Initiative & RESPECT at EU Anti-Trafficking Day Conference

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When: October 29, 2018 all-day

Where: Hofburg, Vienna, Austria

On the occasion of the EU Anti-Trafficking Day, one of the RESPECT founding organisations, the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime co-organized a high-level conference on “Human Trafficking and Human Rights – Access to Rights for Victims of Human Trafficking” with...

TAGS: Europe

“If we complain, we are fired”: Discrimination and Exploitation of Migrant Construction Workers on FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Stadium Sites

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Investigations by Equidem between September 2020 and October 2022 documented significant labour and human rights violations at all eight FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 stadiums—Lusail Iconic Stadium in Lusail, Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Al Janoub Stad...Read More

TAGS: Middle East