Anti-Trafficking Review
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The Climate Crisis as a Poverty Crisis: How climate change amplifies (im)mobility and gendered vulnerabilities
Full text linkThis article explores the intersection of climate change, mobility, and gender in the Madhesh Province of Nepal, with a particular focus on the experiences of Maithili Dalit women, based on 19 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2024. It highlights how international labour migration, primarily undertaken by men, serves as a crucial survival strategy for families, while women remain behind to manage the household in the face of poverty and increasing climate risks. Utilising an intersectional approach, the article argues that (im)mobile Maithili Dalit women face poverty-induced vulnerabilities, which are amplified by climate change. Consequently, migration becomes a strategy for coping with these poverty-induced vulnerabilities. Privileging the voices and stories of Maithili Dalit women, the article attempts to understand those who are affected by climate change and international migration but are often absent from the political conversation and decision-making processes in a globalised world
Fields of Uncertainty: Climate, extraction, and the struggles of rice farmers in the Philippines
Full text linkAs the climate emergency intensifies in the Philippines, extreme weather events increasingly threaten key economic sectors. In response, the government has prioritised infrastructure development, driving up demand for sand and gravel from the extractive industry. This article shares the story of a small agricultural village that was devastated by a super typhoon, forcing rice farmers to sell their land and leading to a rapid expansion of sand and gravel extraction. This situation now endangers the village’s irrigation system, its lifeline for farming. The narrative highlights a critical dilemma: while rebuilding after climate disasters necessitates urgent infrastructure development, extractive industries can exacerbate the vulnerabilities of rural communities
Ethiopian Domestic Workers and Exploitative Labour in the Middle East: The role of social networks and gender in migration decisions
No full textMigrant domestic work in the Middle East is known for high rates of exploitative labour. Despite this fact, many women from Africa pursue this work as a gendered familial expectation or means of financial gain, among other motivations. In this article, we centralise how personal social networks—family, friends, peers, and communities—act as motivating factors for prospective migrant domestic workers in Ethiopia looking to travel for work in the Middle East. The analysis of 100 in-depth interviews with women migrant domestic workers seeking employment in the Middle East demonstrates that social networks and gender influence migration decisions in complicated, multifaceted, and sometimes contradictory ways. Social networks also play an important role in facilitating entry into domestic work for Ethiopian women and in seeking help when they experience exploitative conditions in the Middle East
Understanding Albanian Culture of Migration: The role of the family in precarious journeys and human trafficking
No full textThis article explores families’ roles in precarious journeys and human trafficking from Albania. It demonstrates that familial pressure is a primary driver of migration for many Albanians and sets the family at the centre of the Albanian culture of migration rather than as one of many other factors that can lead to precarious migration and trafficking. The decision to migrate is rarely an individual one; rather, it is often a collective decision where parents, siblings, and extended family members play a crucial role. This is particularly evident in cases where migration is seen as a means to escape poverty or improve social standing, with family members reinforcing the belief that success abroad is the only viable option. The article concludes with recommendations to enhance cultural competence among practitioners and integrate family-oriented considerations in migration policies and interventions, particularly in the United Kingdom
The Importance of the Family Environment of Trafficking Victims in Peru, Before and After Exploitation
No full textThis article analyses the importance of the family environment of victims of human trafficking in Peru, before and after exploitation. Based on interviews with 30 victims and 10 family members, it demonstrates that families, primarily mothers, can play a powerful role in both preventing victimisation and assisting victims to recover from human trafficking experiences. Family structure and background can increase victims’ vulnerability, yet the families are also the ones that protect and take care of victims. However, government officials often blame parents and family members for victims’ exploitation, leading to revictimisation of both victims and their families. Understanding families’ role in victim reintegration is crucial for improving the quality of social inclusion. Protection and care services workers must involve victims’ families as part of their recovery process and receive further training to safeguard survivors’ physical and mental integrity
Forced Marriage and Family Relationships
No full textForced marriage was criminalised in Australia in 2013 and is considered a form of modern slavery and, less consistently, of family violence. Reports to date indicate that family members, particularly parents, are commonly responsible for coercing their children into marriage. Within a criminal framework, families are perpetrators, but this framing obscures complex family relationships, and the love, mutual care, and sense of duty that is often present within families affected. We interviewed eight women with experience of forced marriage and explored the histories of families as well as communication practices within families where coercion into marriage takes place. We reflect on what happens after an experience of coercion to marry, discussing both the resilience of the women as well as the reconfiguration of familial relationships that occurs when decision-making about marriage takes place. Interviews showed that ties between parents and their adult children can be enduring, even when difficult and requiring significant effort
The Vulnerability Gap: How people affected by climate change perceive their circumstances and make (risky) migration decisions
Full text linkClimate change has disproportionate effects on the most disadvantaged communities and households, but the ways in which individuals and households respond to extreme weather events is not yet fully clear. This paper uses the adaptive preferences framework to better understand decision-making processes among individuals and households struggling to cope with the effects of extreme weather events. Drawing on 755 household surveys and 74 qualitative engagements, it argues that, as climate change limits livelihood options, individuals and households make conscious decisions to undertake risky migration. Climate limits current earnings, pushes households to sell productive assets, and erodes community infrastructure; in doing so, it constrains individual and household well-being. In response to these increasing limitations, individuals and households consciously accept the risks associated with migration journeys to access potential short- and long-term benefits. Specific groups, including women, face potentially more damaging adaptive preferences due to pre-existing structural and cultural barriers such as lower literacy and levels of documentation. While government investments to support climate adaptation are partially successful, they do not fully reach the most vulnerable populations. Government actors must develop a better understanding of the choices faced by disadvantaged households, and create flexible risk mitigation measures on long-term initiatives that are already trusted by communities. The paper concludes that adoption of the adaptive preferences framework by policymakers can improve the effectiveness of programmes designed to support climate adaptation and reduce vulnerability
A Phenomenon Displaced: Human trafficking in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan
No full textWidespread claims about human trafficking emerge after many climate-induced disasters, with news headlines about children being snatched, abducted, and exploited. One such example is Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) which struck the Philippines in 2013, partially destroying Tacloban City and claiming more than 6,000 lives. Returning to the city after this historic storm, I conducted interviews with professionals who were likely to have encountered trafficking cases, including police, government anti-trafficking officials, NGO workers, community leaders, academics, and judges. However, despite widespread claims of post-disaster trafficking, only four cases were ever investigated—none of which resulted in prosecution. Casting the net wider, I discovered that affected people living in more peripheral areas, or who were displaced there, appeared more likely to be recruited into trafficking than those at the geographical centre of the disaster. In an area of study almost completely devoid of empirical evidence, this paper challenges an assumed direct link between disasters and trafficking. It presents a more nuanced picture of a multi-step process in which disasters destroy livelihoods, prompting a precarious search for work which can, in turn, heighten the risk of human trafficking
The Battered Generation: Precarity of ageing people and people with impairments in climate-affected borderlands
Full text linkAll people inhabit the same world, but global warming and subsequent climate adversities do not affect everyone in the same way. People who are already marginalised due to aspects of their identity—race, religion, age, gender, or ability—face compounded vulnerabilities. With a particular focus on elderly people and people with disabilities, this short article presents cases of three families who live in villages spread across the southwestern borderlands of Bangladesh while coping with a less predictable climate. It draws connections between their experiences with erratic climate patterns that collide with structural inequity and social injustice
Editorial: The Embeddedness of Human Trafficking within Family and Community
No full textFamily and community play varied and important roles in facilitating human trafficking and helping victim-survivors recover from it. Despite this, many trafficking studies are individualistic in nature and do not consider the broader positioning of victim-survivors within complex social, family, and community structures. The discussion in this Editorial to a special issue of Anti-Trafficking Review provides an overview of the myriads of ways that family and community are central to trafficking. From the recruitment stage through to the recovery stage, the role of family in trafficking cannot be overlooked. In addition, trafficking has such a profound impact on family members, and in particular dependant children, that they should also be considered victims of this crime. The aim of this Editorial is to demonstrate that human trafficking is embedded within family and community and cannot be understood without studying the relational components that define it. It argues that to effectively respond to trafficking, the intergenerational impacts must be considered and holistic family-centric responses developed