Human Trafficking

Who Is Worthy of Protection?: Gender-Based Asylum and U. S. Immigration Politics

Citation:

Nayak, Meghana. 2015. Who Is Worthy of Protection?: Gender-Based Asylum and U. S. Immigration Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Incorporated. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/who-is-worthy-of-protection-9780199397624?cc=us&lang=en&.

Author: Meghana Nayak

Abstract:

A surprisingly understudied topic in international relations is gender-based asylum. Gender-based asylum offers protection from deportation for migrants who have suffered gender violence and persecution in their home countries. Countries are increasingly acknowledging that even though international refugee law does not include "gender" as a category of persecution, gender violence can threaten people's lives and requires attention. But Meghana Nayak argues that it matters not just that but how we respond to gender violence and persecution.  Asylum advocates and the US government have created "frames," or ideas about how to understand different types of gender violence and who counts as victims. These frames are useful in increasing gender-based asylum grants. But the United States is negotiating the tension between the protection and the restriction of non-citizens, claiming to offer safe haven to persecuted people at the same time that it aims to control borders. Thus, the frames construct which migrants are "worthy" of protection. The effects of the asylum frames are two-fold. First, they leave out or distort the stories and experiences of asylum seekers who do not fit preconceived narratives of "good" victims. Second, the frames reflect but also serve as an entry point to deepen, strengthen, and shape the US position of power relative to other countries, international organizations, and immigrant communities. Who Is Worthy of Protection? explores the politics of gender-based asylum through a comparative examination of US asylum policy and cases regarding domestic violence, female circumcision, rape, trafficking, coercive sterilization and abortion, and persecution based on sexual and gender identity.
(Oxford University Press)

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Sexual Violence, Rape, SV against Women, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Violence Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2015

Mental Health of Female Survivors of Human Trafficking in Nepal

Citation:

Tsutsumi, Atsuro, Takashi Izutsu, Amod K. Poudyal, Seika Kato, and Eiji Marui. 2008. “Mental Health of Female Survivors of Human Trafficking in Nepal.” Social Science & Medicine 66 (8): 1841–47. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.12.025.

Authors: Atsuro Tsutsumi, Takashi Izutsu, Amod K. Poudyal, Seika Kato, Eiji Marui

Abstract:

Little is known about the mental health status of trafficked women, even though international conventions require that it be con- sidered. This study, therefore, aims at exploring the mental health status, including anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), of female survivors of human trafficking who are currently supported by local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, through comparison between those who were forced to work as sex workers and those who worked in other areas such as domestic and circus work (non-sex workers group). The Hopkins Symptoms Checklist-25 (HSCL-25) was administered to assess anxiety and depression, and the PTSD Checklist Civilian Version (PCL-C) was used to eval- uate PTSD. Both the sex workers’ and the non-sex workers’ groups had a high proportion of cases with anxiety, depression, and PTSD. The sex workers group tended to have more anxiety symptoms (97.7%) than the non-sex workers group (87.5%). Regarding depression, all the constituents of the sex workers group scored over the cut-off point (100%), and the group showed a significantly higher prevalence than the non-sex workers (80.8%). The proportion of those who are above the cut-off for PTSD was higher in the sex workers group (29.6%) than in the non-sex workers group (7.5%). There was a higher rate of HIV infection in the sex workers group (29.6%) than in the non-sex workers group (0%). The findings suggest that programs to address human trafficking should include interventions (such as psychosocial support) to improve survivors’ mental health status, paying attention to the category of work performed during the trafficking period. In particular, the current efforts of the United Nations and various NGOs that help survivors of human trafficking need to more explicitly focus on mental health and psychosocial support.

 

Keywords: human trafficking, women, Nepal, mental health, sex work, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression

Topics: Gender, Women, Health, Mental Health, PTSD, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Nepal

Year: 2008

"Shades of Grey": Spaces In and Beyond Trafficking for Thai Women Involved in Commercial Sexual Labour in Sydney and Singapore

Citation:

Yea, Sallie. 2012. “‘Shades of Grey’: Spaces In and Beyond Trafficking for Thai Women Involved in Commercial Sexual Labour in Sydney and Singapore.” Gender, Place & Culture 19 (1): 42–60. doi:10.1080/0966369X.2011.617906.

Author: Sallie Yea

Abstract:

In this article I explore the migration trajectories of some Thai women trafficked internationally for commercial sexual exploitation, suggesting that many figuratively ‘cross the border’ between coerced and consensual existence in volatile migrant sex industries during the course of their migration experiences, thus complicating debates around the notion of choice in ‘sex’ trafficking. In exploring these women's transitions I seek to understand why women who had either never previously been sex workers or who were sex workers operating without duress, but who were then trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation remain in, or re-enter volatile forms of migrant sex work at a later point under voluntary arrangements. In answering this question I focus on the temporal and spatial aspects of individual women's experiences in migrant sex industries drawing in detail on the narratives of two Thai women trafficked to Sydney, Australia and Singapore. I make some suggestions about methodologies used in trafficking research that can assist in bringing to light some of these complex time–space dimensions of women's experiences through their shifting positions in commercial sexual labour. The article also reflects on the implications of these women's trajectories for the ‘prostitution debate’ as it relates to trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation by suggesting that many trafficked women occupy ambiguous or in-between positions in migrant sex industries, neither easily distinguishable by the label of victim of trafficking or migrant sex worker.

Keywords: sex trafficking, commercial sexual labour, methodologies, migration trajectories, Thailand

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Forced Migration, Gender, Women, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Political Economies, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexual Slavery, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Thailand

Year: 2012

Prostitution, Gender, and Violence in the Colombian Postconflict Context

Citation:

Olivar, J.M.N., and C.I.P. Sánchez. 2012. “Prostitution, Gender, and Violence in the Colombian Postconflict Context.” In Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: International Law, Local Responses. Sterling: Kumarian Press. https://www.rienner.com/title/Conflict_Related_Sexual_Violence_International_Law_Local_Responses.

Authors: J.M.N. Olivar, C.I.P. Sánchez

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2012

Between "Victims" and "Criminals": Rescue, Deportation, and Everyday Violence Among Nigerian Migrants

Citation:

Plambech, Sine. 2014. “Between ‘Victims’ and ‘Criminals’: Rescue, Deportation, and Everyday Violence Among Nigerian Migrants.” Social Politics 21 (3): 382–402. doi:10.1093/sp/jxu021.

Author: Sine Plambech

Abstract:

This article is about the lives of Nigerian sex workers after deportation from Europe, as well as the institutions that intervene in their migration trajectories. In Europe, some of these women's situations fit the legal definitions of trafficking, and they were categorized as "victims of human trafficking"; others were categorized as undocumented migrants -- "criminals" guilty of violating immigration laws. Despite the growing political attention devoted to protecting victims of trafficking, I argue that in areas of Nigeria prone to economic insecurity and gender-based violence, the categories of "victim" and "criminal" collapse into, and begin to resemble, one another once on the ground. The need to identify and distinguish groups of migrants from one another illustrates the dilemmas that have arisen in the wake of increasingly restrictive European immigration policies. Furthermore, the return processes create a hierarchical structure in which the violence women experience in the sex industry in Europe is imagined to be worse than the everyday violence they experience at home.

Keywords: sex industry, human trafficking, immigration policy, violence, Gender, Nigeria

Topics: Citizenship, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Forced Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2014

Between Rhetoric and Reality: Exploring the Impact of Military Humanitarian Intervention upon Sexual Violence – Post-Conflict Sex Trafficking in Kosovo

Citation:

Godec, Samantha T. “Between Rhetoric and Reality: Exploring the Impact of Military Humanitarian Intervention upon Sexual Violence – Post-Conflict Sex Trafficking in Kosovo.” International Review of the Red Cross 92, no. 877 (March 2010): 235–58. doi:10.1017/S1816383110000159.

Author: Samantha T Godec

Abstract:

Adopting a feminist perspective, this paper analyses the doctrine of humanitarian intervention and its impact on women in recipient states, particularly with regard to sexual violence. By analysing the phenomenon of post-conflict trafficking in Kosovo following the NATO intervention, the author presents a challenge to the ‘feminist hawks’ who have called for military intervention in situations of systematic sexual violence. It is the author’s contention that such intervention would be counterproductive for women’s rights and thus constitute a disproportionate response to sexual violence in terms of the international law governing the use of force. 

 

Annotation:

Godec discusses current critiques of militarized humanitarian intervention and delivery of aid, which do not consider women or a gender analysis of women’s post-intervention experience. This article seeks to analyze the impact of militarized humanitarian intervention in relation to sex trafficking & forced prostitution in Kosovo.  Prior to 1999, Kosovo did not have a thriving sex-industry but within months of the troops, NGO’s, and UNMIK personnel arriving due to the conflict with Serbia, brothels were established around the military bases.  Due to this influx of militarized aid deliverers, Kosovo is now a major destination country for trafficking women & children and the author attributes this to:

1.     Sudden presence of military personnel creating immediate demand for sexual services

2.     Post-intervention of Kosovo sustained the demand & fostered an environment where organized criminal network could reap the profits

3.     Disruption of society & economy resulted in increased numbers of women & girls in need of income thereby creating a supply for the sex industry

4.     Failure of the UNMIK to address the problem of trafficking allowed for a culture of impunity to prevail

In addition to a developing sex industry, the greater the military presence the greater gender-based-violence increased in Kosovo. Godec cautions that the same pattern of international presence and the subsequent outcome on women & girls is arising in conflict areas such as: Kuwait, Afghanistan & Iraq.  As a preventative, Godec calls for gender awareness and education to be brought to peacekeepers and the military.  “The key criterion is whether the benefits of the use of force will outweigh the costs.”

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender Analysis, Humanitarian Assistance, International Law, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarization, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Kosovo

Year: 2010

Human Security and Gender Violence

Citation:

Coomaraswamy, Radhika. 2005. “Human Security and Gender Violence.” Economic and Political Weekly 40 (44-45): 4729–36.

 

Author: Radhika Coomaraswamy

Abstract:

All countries comprising the south Asian region have responded in some measure to the challenges posed by violence against women in the region. However, what remains a matter of concern is the fact that apart from India, none of the other south Asian countries have adopted domestic violence legislation or made the necessary changes to anti-trafficking legislation. Progress to ensure security and a world without violence for women has been slow but its pace especially in the last decade has been heartening. Violence against women, as borne out by research from around the world, can be effectively combated if a healthy partnership prevails between women's groups and the state apparatus.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Society, Domestic Violence, Gender, Women, Girls, Masculinity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, South Asia

Year: 2005

Trafficking in Persons: An Issue of Human Security

Citation:

Clark, Michele Anne. 2010. “Trafficking in Persons: An Issue of Human Security.” Journal of Human Development 4 (2): 247–63.

Author: Michele Anne Clark

Abstract:

This paper discusses trafficking in persons within a human security framework by identifying factors that heighten the insecurity of women and children within countries of origin, transit and destination. The author begins by reviewing the definitions in use and assessing the scope of the problem, and describing vulnerable populations and harmful practices. The paper then addresses conditions of vulnerability, including economic conditions, the entrenchment of organized crime, and civil war and unrest. It examines responses to the problem in countries of origin, transit, and destination, and concludes with recommendations for future policy intervention.

Keywords: Trafficking, human security, crime, Gender, children, the Economy, Crisis, Italy

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Trafficking, Human Trafficking

Year: 2010

Trafficking Women after Socialism: To, Through, and From Eastern Europe

Citation:

Kligman, Gail, and Stephanie Limoncelli. 2005. “Trafficking Women after Socialism: To, Through, and From Eastern Europe.” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society 12 (1): 118–40.

Authors: Gail Kligman, Stephanie Limoncelli

Annotation:

Summary:
"In this article, we examine the traffic in women to, through, and from postsocialist Eastern Europe. We first discuss the complex interrelations between trafficking, prostitution, and labor migration, as well as the relationship between gendered economic transitions in Eastern Europe, the traffic, and the global sex trade. We then review contemporary trafficking routes to, through, and from eastern Europe, noting the significance of militarization, poverty, and gender. We close by outlining key issues in the development of strategies to combat trafficking and suggest the need to more critically refine its conceptualization" (Kligman and Limoncelli 2005, 120).

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Gender, Women, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Labor Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Europe, Eastern Europe

Year: 2005

Trafficking in girls and women in Nepal for commercial sexual exploitation: emerging concerns and gaps

Citation:

Subedi, Govind. 2009. “Trafficking in girls and women in Nepal for commercial sexual exploitation: emerging concerns and gaps.” Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies: Alam e Niswan 16 (1&2): 121-145.

Author: Govind Subedi

Abstract:

Trafficking in girls and women for sexual exploitation has a long history in Nepal. Its magnitude, processes and factors leading to trafficking have changed with the growing phenomena of urbanization, Nepal’s entry in the world labour market for carpet industry, armed conflict and the emergence of foreign labour market opportunities for Nepali youth especially after 2000. Utilising secondary data from different sources and narratives of the trafficking survivors, this article aims to critically review the contemporary trafficking situation in Nepal and Government’s and civil society’s efforts to combat trafficking and identify the new areas of concerns and gaps to combat trafficking in girls and women.

Topics: Age, Youth, Gender, Women, Girls, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Labor Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Nepal

Year: 2009

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