Anti-Trafficking Review
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What Does It Take to Protect Livelihoods and Forests? Insights from workers and communities in the Brazilian Amazon opposing deforestation and slave labour
Full text linkIn this short article, we explore what needs to be in place for the workers and communities in the Brazilian state of Amazonas to resist slave labour in areas that have recently opened up routes to deforestation, cattle ranching, and mining. Drawing from community-based work in several remote locations in Amazonas state, including individual interviews and discussions with community groups, we argue that long-term work by trusted local organisations, aiming to curb structural violence at community level, is vital, enabling local residents to visibilise the problem of forced labour and slavery-like practices and prompt actions by statutory bodies to protect workers and the environment
Decent Work in a Changing Climate
Full text linkClimate change is placing increased pressures on workers, including their health, working conditions, and economic outcomes. Whilst efforts by international governance mechanisms and governments espouse the need to achieve decent work, in reality, the threats facing workers are shifting. In this article, we begin to assess how decent work is undermined by climate change. We explore what barriers render decent work increasingly out of reach for some workers in the context of a changing climate. Using examples from the literature, we review different sectors, geographies, and climate impacts, such as extreme heat, flooding, and wildfires, to assess the varied risks to workers. We outline some of the extant approaches in policy and labour rights spaces to identify integrated solutions for decent work in a changing climate. Finally, we conclude that a future shift in discourse is needed to ensure decent work becomes the minimum standard when addressing labour rights and climate change concerns, including centring expertise from worker-led initiatives
Compounding Institutional Exclusion and Harm: A case study of federally funded Alaskan anti-trafficking service providers
No full textFederal funds for human trafficking victim programmes and services in the United States have increased from approximately USD 10 million in 2002 to more than USD 90 million in 2022. This increase in fund availability, however, has not necessarily translated into meaningful or accessible services for trafficking survivors. This paper examines the distribution of Department of Justice anti-trafficking funds through the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), particularly looking at OVC recipients in Alaska. It highlights certain trends in OVC funding in the state, including changes in funding distribution, the emphasis on task force creation and collaboration between service providers and law enforcement, and discussions of equity and inclusion. The paper further explores institutional mechanisms of exclusion and harm of some victims, complexities in collaborating with law enforcement, criminalisation of trafficking survivors, and criteria to qualify for services. As the reality faced by trafficking survivors does not always align with OVC narratives, these mechanisms are illustrated through the experiences of a sex trafficking survivor who has been turned away as not qualifying for services by many of the OVC funded providers in Alaska. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of this research for policymakers and service providers
Anti-Trafficking and the Harm of Funding
No full textThis article argues that the UK government’s anti-trafficking funding is mostly harmful, because anti-trafficking emulates and extends other arms of the immigration system—a system financed to engage in practices of impoverishment. After explaining the slow violence at work in the asylum system, I show that UK anti-trafficking work expands the reach and extends the length of that impoverishment. I finish by making two recommendations: defunding government anti-trafficking work and organising through community building
Editorial: Beyond Terrorism and Sexual Slavery: Dynamics of armed conflicts, trafficking, and forced migration
Full text linkThis Editorial introduces a Special Issue of Anti-Trafficking Review on the theme of armed conflicts and their relationships with and impact on human trafficking, forced migration, and exploitation. It provides an overview of the literature on this theme, which has primarily focused on terrorism and sexual slavery. It then outlines the articles in the Special Issue, which expand our understanding of the topic by adding nuances to the experiences of people who flee, or choose to remain in, conflict-affected areas
Editorial: Rethinking Anti-Trafficking Funding: Following the money, again
No full textThis Editorial introduces a special issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review that investigates where the funding for anti-trafficking work comes from, goes to, and with what effect. It reflects on some of the changes in funding that have occurred over the past ten years and why it is necessary to research and analyse these changes. It then introduces the articles in the special issue and concludes with suggestions for future research on the topic
How I as a Fundraiser Would Use Twenty Million Dollars for Anti-Trafficking Work
No full textRepresentations of human trafficking in film and media have widely missed the mark by misinforming the public and funders and harming those with lived experience. This has real implications for the anti-trafficking movement, including a lack of sufficient financial support for victim services and the failure to implement long-term systemic change. To change this, this article argues that we must invest in narrative change around human trafficking, under the leadership of those with lived experience. If done well, this could potentially bring additional funding for services by reaching the wider public, and even move the needle on trafficking prevention
Una mirada a la trata de personas y a la operación antitrata en México desde la experiencia de Victoria, una mujer trans
Full text linkIn this article, we discuss the experience of Victoria, a trans woman who was trafficked in the context of the criminal war in Mexico. Drawing on anthropological and feminist perspectives that privilege the dialogue of knowledge, Victoria’s experience allows us to problematise two central elements of the phenomenon of human trafficking in Mexico: first, the relationship between organised crime groups and human trafficking, and its effects on daily life in local contexts in Mexico, specifically in the experience of a trans woman. And second, the functioning of the Mexican anti-trafficking apparatus which, by focusing on the rescue of victims of sexual exploitation in places where independent sex work occurs, overlooks the identification of other forms of trafficking, such as trafficking for labour exploitation and servitude, both experienced by Victoria at the hands of organised crime groups.En este artículo recuperamos la experiencia de Victoria, una mujer trans que vivió un proceso de trata de personas en un contexto mexicano en el que se desarrolla una guerra criminal. A partir de una perspectiva antropológica y feminista que privilegia el diálogo de saberes, la experiencia de Victoria nos permite problematizar dos elementos centrales del fenómeno de la trata de personas en México: uno, la relación entre los grupos de crimen organizado con la trata de personas, y sus efectos en la vida cotidiana en contextos locales de México, específicamente en la experiencia de una mujer trans; y dos, la forma en la que opera el dispositivo antitrata mexicano, que por enfocarse en el rescate de víctimas de explotación sexual en sitios donde se realiza comercio sexual autónomo, omite la identificación de otras expresiones de la trata, como la trata laboral y de servicios forzados que experimentó Victoria por parte de grupos del crimen organizado
US Anti-Trafficking Funding and the Discourse of ‘Prevention’
No full textThe United States government has positioned itself as the global exemplar in the anti-human trafficking arena, including through its unparalleled financial support for domestic and international anti-trafficking activities. How the US has allocated these funds has not previously been systematically studied. Building on original databases compiled through a review of the US Attorney General’s Annual Report to Congress on US Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons for fiscal years 2017–2021, in this article, I offer a detailed analysis of US anti-trafficking funding allocations. I find that during the five-year period under review, the vast majority of US anti-trafficking funds were spent on reactive activities, including the identification, protection, and support of trafficking survivors and efforts to improve the detection, arrest, and prosecution of traffickers. In contrast, activities targeting the conditions that increase precarity, rendering certain populations at heightened risk of being trafficked, or that enable the exploitation of precarity, were relatively under-funded. When these conditions were addressed by funded activities, the targets were nearly always countries in Africa, Asia, or Latin America, perpetuating a discourse of trafficking as a social problem rooted in poor policies, practices, and inequalities seen as endemic in the Global South
Caught in the Crossfire: Unravelling the complex interplay of exploitation and agency in children associated with Boko Haram
Full text linkThis paper investigates the experiences of children associated with Boko Haram in Northeast Nigeria. The central argument posits that, within highly coercive environments, exploitation and agency are mutually constitutive. While acknowledging the prevalent exploitation of these children, it is crucial to recognise how such exploitation is intimately connected to their agency. As economic, social, and political pressures mount, children may perceive participation in Boko Haram (and self-exploitation) as the only viable means to achieve various goals—from protecting their families and communities to seeking self-significance. Consequently, exploitation—whether orchestrated by group leaders or members—may be consciously embraced by children as a means to create new horizons of possibilities. Simultaneously, by engaging in Boko Haram’s activities, children reproduce a system aimed to their own exploitation and vilification. Neglecting the complexities inherent in children’s associations with Boko Haram has potential implications for their reintegration and community healing processes