Trafficking in humans: social, cultural and political dimensions - Softcover

This volume aims to deepen understanding of the social, economic and political contexts of human trafficking: the recruitment and transportation of human beings through deception and coercion for the purposes of exploitation. Upon this basis, the volume considers whether an understanding of these underlying factors - what may be called 'structural' - can inform policy discussion as well as strategic interventions regarding the fight against trafficking. Trafficking, generally, occurs from poorer to more prosperous countries and regions. However, it is not necessarily the poorest regions or communities which are most vulnerable to trafficking, as so the volume seeks to identify the factors which explain where and why vulnerability increases. At the same time, modern forms of transportation and communication have aided the movement of people and also enabled transnational organised crime groups and trafficking rings to exploit vulnerable people for profit. The volume includes experts with great experience of trafficking issues and it also gives a voice to 'critical' views which argue that trafficking challenges are inseparable from broader debates about human rights ad migration. Indeed, whilst the idea of protecting the human rights of victims is uppermost, protecting the human rights of people to seek a living and make decisions for themselves regarding migration is also important. The volume thus avoids simplifying those who have been trafficked as disempowered victims

Sally Cameron is a consultant on governance and gender issues based in Sydney, Australia, and a former policy analyst for the Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations. Edward Newman is the director of studies on conflict and security in the Peace and Governance Program of the United Nations University.