Anti-Trafficking Review
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Online Child Sexual Exploitation in the Philippines: Moving beyond the current discourse and approach
Get PDFOnline child sexual exploitation (OCSE) is an issue of increasing concern in the Philippines. The current local discourse concerning OCSE is that it primarily involves children being sexually exploited by adults within their household or in ‘dens’, with ‘raid and rescue’ operations and public awareness campaigns as the most publicised strategies employed to address the issue. Whilst the true prevalence of OCSE is unknown, ongoing research and the experience of many stakeholders suggest that self-generated sexual content involving children is common. However, this is not being widely discussed or addressed. This article argues that more holistic, long-term, and community-based interventions targeted at vulnerable families and children are needed that address the deeper determinants of OCSE in the Philippines
Self-education and Collective Learning: Forming a critical ‘modern slavery’ study group
Get PDFThis article describes the authors’ experience in forming an interdisciplinary online study group dedicated to collective learning on modern slavery and trafficking from a critical perspective. It proposes ideas for discussions and readings along with three main principles concerning the method and approach of creating such a group that can be relevant to researchers and practitioners. First, the creation of a safe and inspiring space, the dialogues it can enable, and the approach required to create such a space in an online setting; second, attempts to tackle the big questions rather than conclusions or completed work; and third, reflexivity concerning challenges of knowledge production and distribution that critical scholars of trafficking face. A discussion on labour exploitation and the concept of ‘work’ is used to demonstrate these principles
Responsibly Including Survivors’ Voices in the Planning and Implementing of Educational Programmes for Healthcare Providers
Get PDFSurvivors’ experiences and input are essential for human trafficking education for healthcare providers yet they remain under-utilised. This article describes a collaborative initiative between two paediatric physicians and a survivor of trafficking, which led to the implementation of an anti-trafficking education programme for healthcare providers. It outlines the process of establishing the collaboration and the main principles of ensuring an equitable partnership. It shares the authors’ reflections of the process and their recommendations for others seeking to establish similar initiatives
Editorial: Trafficking in Minors: Confronting complex realities, structural inequalities, and agency
Get PDFThis Editorial introduces a Special Issue of the journal Anti-Trafficking Review of the topic of ‘Trafficking in Minors’. It argues that the urgency of the phenomena of child trafficking and related issues, such as child labour and child sexual exploitation, and the emotional responses they provoke, have often led to superficial and knee-jerk reactions that obscure the root causes of the problems and deflect attention and resources away from grounded, sustainable solutions. It presents a brief overview of the articles contained in the Special Issue and concludes that policy responses and practical interventions to address trafficking in minors need to have the best interest of the child in mind and address the underlying socio-economic and political root causes
‘Why Was He Videoing Us?’: The ethics and politics of audio-visual propaganda in child trafficking and human trafficking campaigns
Get PDFThis paper is a critical reflection on the ethical and political issues associated with the creation and dissemination of unsettling images and videos for child trafficking and human trafficking abolitionist campaigns. The paper acknowledges efforts by anti-trafficking campaigners to address accusations of poverty porn, stigmatisation, and sensationalism directed at such visual propaganda. However, it also observes that these remedial measures have had very little impact. Anti-child trafficking and anti-human trafficking campaigns are still dominated by sensational spectacles of victimhood, abjection, pain, and suffering. The paper attributes this inertia to campaigners’ fears that radical deviation from the use of emotive or ‘biting’ visuals may undermine their established narratives, campaign goals, and even credibility. It supports this conclusion using path dependence theory and the findings of research with residents of remote island communities on the Lake Volta in Ghana who have been the focus of extensive anti-child-trafficking raids and campaigns over the last decade
Addressing Exploitation in Supply Chains: Is technology a game changer for worker voice?
Get PDFMultinational businesses are facing mounting pressure to identify and address risks of exploitation, trafficking and modern slavery in their supply chains. Digital worker reporting tools present unprecedented opportunities for lead firms to reach out directly to hard-to-reach workers for feedback on their working conditions via their mobile phone. These new technologies promise an efficient and cost-effective way to cut through the complexity of global production, gathering unmediated data on working conditions directly from workers at scale. As the market for these tools grows, this paper contextualises their emergence within the broader political economy of supply chain governance. It presents three sets of concerns about their use that must be addressed by businesses, investors, donors and governments that develop or utilise these tools. First, the quality of data gathered by these tools may be inadequate to reliably inform decision-making. Second, global brands may gather large quantities of worker data to identify legal, reputational and financial risks without addressing structural causes of exploitation or delivering outcomes for workers. Third, large scale collection of data from workers creates new risks for workers’ wellbeing and safety
Editorial: From Exceptional Cases to Everyday Abuses: Labour exploitation in the global economy
Get PDFThis article introduces a special issue on economic systems and everyday abuses of labour rights. In recent decades, neoliberal policies have transformed both the world economy and the world of work. Hard-won rights and protections have been eroded by deregulation, outsourcing, and subcontracting. New forms of unstable, isolated, and insecure work have emerged. This introduction examines the driving forces behind the increasing prominence of precarious work, the accelerating role of migrant labour within global economic systems, and the political relationship between everyday abuses and forms of severe exploitation which have recently come to be defined as human trafficking and modern slavery. We argue that a singular focus upon individual cases of extreme exploitation is unlikely to be effective, and can also draw attention away from the larger systems, interests, and abuses that are associated with the smooth and regular operations of the global economy. We also suggest that at least some of the energies which have recently been expended debating the contentious category of ‘modern slavery’ could be usefully redirected towards lower profile interventions concerned with worker and migrant rights. There are never going to be simple or straightforward solutions to labour abuses, so it is necessary to take many bumpy paths simultaneously, with small steps forward and some steps backward
The Use of Digital Evidence in Human Trafficking Investigations
Get PDFThis short article two NGO workers’ experience providing legal and social support to twenty Venezuelan women who were trafficked through the use of social media and chat apps. It shows how the digital evidence from online interactions between the women and their traffickers was used in the investigation and successful prosecution of the case. The article concludes, however, that this does not apply to all women that the NGO supports, and thus digital evidence, and technology, have only limited application in anti-trafficking efforts
Domestic Work and the Gig Economy in South Africa: Old wine in new bottles?
Get PDFBased on innovative, mixed-methods research, this article examines the entry of on-demand platform models into the domestic work sector in South Africa. This sector has long been characterised by high levels of informality, precarity, and exploitation, though recent regulatory advances have provided labour and social protections to some domestic workers. We locate the rise of the on-demand economy within the longer-term trajectory of domestic work in South Africa, identifying the ‘traditional’ sector as a key site of undervalued labour. On-demand domestic work platforms create much-needed economic opportunities in a context of pervasive un(der)-employment, opportunities that come with some incremental improvements over traditional working arrangements. Yet we contend that platform models maintain the patterns of everyday abuse found elsewhere in the domestic work sector. These models are premised on an ability to navigate regulatory contexts to provide clients with readily available, flexible labour without longer-term commitment, therefore sidestepping employer obligations to provide labour rights and protections. As a result, on-demand companies reinforce the undervalued and largely unprotected labour of marginalised women domestic workers
Surveillance and Entanglement: How mandatory sex offender registration impacts criminalised survivors of human trafficking
Get PDFThis short article describes how some victims of human trafficking in the sex industry in the United States are prosecuted alongside traffickers and put on sex offender registries. The result is both a criminal record and an indefinite digital mark that limits their ability to find a job, settle in a new community, and see their children. The article concludes with a call for a careful, critical look at the system of sex offender registries and, more broadly, policing and prosecution strategies, including in cases of human trafficking, in the United States