Human Trafficking and New Patterns of Migration

Since the end of the Cold War human trafficking has evolved from localized practices of labor recruitment into globalized and multidirectional forms of migration. These new forms of migration patterns have acquired considerable economic and political significance in terms of their regional and global magnitudes and complexities. Previously limited to the purpose of sexual exploitation trafficking now cross-cuts a multitude of female and male migrants searching for work in a wide range of low-skilled and labor-intensive economic sectors particularly construction light industries agriculture and fisheries. There has been a rise in autonomous migration by women young people and children within and outside traditional practices of migration. The growing migration business which takes place under conditions of information asymmetry and under the control of diverse brokers has produced major reactions based on human rights principles. These have contributed to new international regional and national legislative frameworks for prevention prosecution and the social re-integration of trafficked persons. However the implementation of such legislations has led to inconclusive debates about the issues of victimhood and agency on the one hand and the responsibilities of states on the other. The prevalence of differences of interests in the variant policy approaches and civic responses to all the issues-migration management crime control labor standards poverty reduction and particular needs of communities at risk-reflect a fragmented understanding of the situation. The securitization of migration policy which accelerated since 9/11 has reaffirmed the notion of state sovereignty in forceful ways further preventing meaningful negotiations about the discrepancy between the legal and social interpretations of human rights and well being in migration. (excerpt)