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.
The thousands of migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos who cross the border into Thailand each year trade near-certain poverty at home for the possibility of relative prosperity abroad. While most of these bids for a better life do not end ...Read More
The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (the Accord) was signed on 15 May 2013. It is an independent, legally binding agreement between global brands and retailers and trade unions designed to build a safe and healthy Bangladeshi Ready M...Read More
As stores closed around the world in response to COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020, fashion brands and retailers sought to minimize their losses, shifting the financial burden of the disruption to the bottom of their supply chain. Cancelled orders, d...Read More
The data in this report represents signals and cases from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017 and is accurate as of July 11, 2018. Cases of trafficking may be ongoing or new information may be revealed to the National Hotline over time. Conseq...Read More
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