Anti-Trafficking Review
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Closing the Door on Survivors: How anti-trafficking programmes in the US limit access to housing
Full text linkHousing is often an immediate need for survivors as they exit a trafficking situation. Due to financial hardship, housing availability, and other barriers, many survivors rely on time-limited housing options, some which are offered by anti-trafficking service providers. As such, the anti-trafficking field has begun to adopt trauma-informed approaches to housing to meet the needs of survivors. In this paper, we present an analysis of policies and procedures from 73 US anti-trafficking housing programmes on the implementation of a trauma-informed model. We argue that mandatory requirements limit the implementation of trauma-informed service delivery. Additionally, practices such as the voluntary services model can be leveraged to increase trauma-informed approaches in housing services. Lessons learnt from this process can inform the revision of punitive policies and procedures in favour of those that are voluntary and trauma-informed
Negotiating Multiple Risks: Health, safety, and well-being among internal migrant sex workers in Brazil during COVID-19
Full text linkDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, experts called attention to the fact that the pandemic was disproportionately affecting socially vulnerable groups. Research suggested that structural inequalities resulted in unequal access to healthcare and that infection prevention measures increased precarious working conditions in illegal, informal, or unregulated sectors, such as the sex industry. This article reports on research findings that examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives and working conditions of 25 women internal migrant sex workers in the city of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. It demonstrates that the pandemic and measures to control it severely impacted the lives of internal migrant sex workers, their affective and work relationships, as well as their income, safety, and physical and mental health. Furthermore, sex workers suffered from disturbing levels of violence and precariousness as well as a lack of effective policies aimed at protecting their health and well-being. This was exacerbated by the stigma, lack of labour rights, and the fact that they were migrants, which impacted them financially and emotionally during movement restrictions
Are They Victims of COVID-19? The livelihood and quandaries of sex workers in the New Kuchingoro camp for internally displaced people in Abuja, Nigeria
Full text linkIn this paper, I examine the challenges faced by sex workers in the New Kuchingoro camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous studies on sex workers’ activities in the camp have underscored their hardships, distress, and deprivation, as well as their general inability to cope with COVID-19. Through my research, I reveal that the government and other agencies failed to support sex workers’ struggle to adequately provide for themselves and their families. I also explore the different strategies they employed in their efforts to survive during this period of hardship, which demonstrated their resilience
Key Stakeholder Perspectives on the Potential Impact of COVID-19 on Human Trafficking for the Purpose of Labour Exploitation
Full text linkWhile human trafficking in its different forms has received growing recognition, currently there is an absence of research providing empirical evidence on the potential impact of COVID-19. COVID-19 and its related challenges provide a lens through which the vulnerability and complexities inherent in human trafficking can be further ascertained and analysed. This article explores challenges encountered by key stakeholders primarily operating in the field of countering human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation across Europe. These challenges are categorised as increased vulnerability to human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation; the impact on services and support; and limitations on professional duties. A qualitative method involving sixty-five semi-structured interviews was employed to capture the on-the-ground experiences of a diverse cohort of stakeholders active during the pandemic
No One Wants to Hire Us: The intersectional precarity experienced by Venezuelan LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in Brazil during COVID-19
Full text linkThis article presents a case study of how COVID-19 has increased the precarity and risks of labour exploitation for vulnerable populations. Looking at the situation of LGBTQ+ Venezuelan asylum seekers in Brazil during COVID-19, it examines how the challenges they faced were exacerbated during the pandemic and how the Brazilian government’s poor response to COVID-19 and lockdown policies forced LGBTQ+ Venezuelan asylum seekers to take greater risks that exposed them to the virus. Based on 56 surveys with LGBTQ+ Venezuelan asylum seekers in Manaus, Brazil, the article discusses how COVID-19 impacted the livelihoods of LGBTQ+ Venezuelan asylum seekers. Specifically, it demonstrates that transgender and travesti Venezuelan asylum seekers experienced more labour precarity, discrimination, and violence during the pandemic than their cisgender counterparts
Providing Services to Women in Situations of Prostitution and Human Trafficking during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Spain, Italy, and Portugal
Full text linkThis short article discusses the challenges faced by women engaging in prostitution/sex work or in situations of trafficking for sexual exploitation during the COVID-19 pandemic. These included housing and food insecurity, violence, failure by the police to identify them as trafficked persons, lack of social assistance, and the inability to renew residence and work permits. The article also presents the support provided to women by the NGO Hermanas Oblatas in Spain, Portugal, and Italy
Access Denied: Sex workers’ exclusion from COVID-19 relief in the United States
Full text linkThis short article provides an overview of the US government’s response to COVID-19 and the exclusion of sex workers from pandemic relief. It details the impacts of this exclusion, including how sex workers and advocates were forced to prioritise emergency service provision over longer-term policy goals. The article concludes that the exclusion of sex workers from COVID-19 relief is part of the US government’s broader history of discriminating against people involved in the sex trades and hindering advancements in policies to protect sex workers’ human rights
Editorial: Who Counts? Issues of definition in anti-trafficking and housing research and action
Full text linkThe relationship between homelessness and contemporary forms of slavery and human trafficking is well established. Early research often took this relationship for granted and was frequently divorced from housing policy or theory. Interdisciplinary research has continued to ignore how the housing sector struggled with its own issues around defining homelessness and what the dominant definition (the United States’ HUD-Rossi definition) meant for our understanding of homelessness. This Editorial to a Special Issue of Anti-Trafficking Review on ‘home and homelessness’ discusses the HUD-Rossi definition, its impact on research, both domestically and abroad, and the recent rejection of ‘roof-based’ for a return to socio-cultural definitions. With these socio-cultural definitions in mind, this special issue introduces the research touching upon the intersection of housing and anti-trafficking in three categories: 1) listening to traditional subjects of anti-trafficking research and their views on housing, homelessness, and homes; 2) illustrating how state housing and immigration policies encourage exploitation; and 3) critiquing how housing provided by the anti-trafficking and criminal justice sector often falls short in supporting a home-like environment
Takatāpui/LGBTIQ+ People’s Experiences of Homelessness and Sex Work in Aotearoa New Zealand
Full text linkAt present, there is limited research on the intersection of sex work, takatāpui/LGBTIQ+ communities, and experiences of homelessness in Aotearoa New Zealand. This paper helps to bridge this gap, exploring how takatāpui/LGBTIQ+ people who had been failed by the welfare state engaged in sex work during periods of homelessness, and expressed agency in difficult circumstances. Specifically, we look at sex and sex work as a means to secure basic needs, and in the context of exploitative relationships; the emotional effects of sex work; and safety and policing. A stronger welfare state is needed to provide sufficient support for people to realise an adequate standard of living and treat them with dignity and respect
On the Streets: Deprivation, risk, and communities of care in pandemic times
Full text linkFollowing the COVID-19 pandemic, public concerns about ‘vulnerable people in street situation’ have grown in South American countries. These concerns focus on the risk of sexual violence, exploitation, and human trafficking faced by migrants and women in the sex sector. This article examines these public concerns and the discourses of risk that structure them, taking Ecuador and the border province of El Oro as a case study. It analyses how irregularised migrants and women offering sexual and erotic services talk about ‘risk’ and ‘exploitation’, and how they respond to crisis, controls, and restrictions by becoming involved in risky activities and building communities of care. These communities are solidarity alliances that connect and offer mutual support to people confronting deprivation and violence. They are not restricted to the household or the domestic sphere; rather, they constitute different forms of ‘family’ and ‘home’ building. The article is based on a participatory research in El Oro, a place with a long history of human trafficking that has not been recognised or studied