Exploring Links between Trafficking and Migration - Global Alliance ...

Exploring Links between Trafficking and MigrationTable 1: Differences and Overlaps in DefinitionsTrafficking, refugee situations, undocumented migration and smugglingare smaller parts of the larger migration picture. In the table above the“YES” marks show criteria that must be met for each term. It could bepossible for a person to have a YES in every column. If that happened,the person would have travelled with a third party to another country,not have legal status, be exploited and would have been forced to move.This person could potentially be a migrant, a refugee (if there was acertain kind of force), a smuggled person (if payment was given), atrafficked person (if there was a certain kind of force) and anundocumented person all at the same time. Categories may, thus, getvery blurry, and it may be hard to tease out one label for every personwho moves from their home.Further complicating trafficking and migration categories is the factthat in some contexts many migrant workers experience coercion (oftenin terms of abuse of authority) and exploitation in their work. Forexample, an overwhelming majority of workers from Nepal who migrateto Malaysia, the Gulf and India, work under exploitative workingconditions. United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) hasstated that, in the case of women migrant workers from Nepal, exploitationis even more rampant, as very few protections are in place. Recruitmentagencies routinely deceive migrant workers as well. 8 With such a largeproblem, the “trafficking” category becomes somewhat redundant, andloses its value in terms of providing a few specific individuals with specialprotections.This is a question for us all to consider in our own national contexts. Insituations where the trafficking category could apply broadly, GAATW hasobserved that some governments and NGOs feel they must narrow thecategory because there is limited assistance to be offered – so they narrowit to include women in sex work only. This becomes problematic becausepeople in other forced or exploitative labour situations are ignored, whenthey very much need assistance, whether their situation is called“trafficking”, “forced labour”, “bonded labour”, etc. (see GAATW WorkingPaper Links with Labour 9 for more discussion on this).6On the other hand, categorising all or most migrants as “trafficked” canresult in quick and unhelpful protectionist responses. Migrant rights advocatesand migrants themselves can be very frustrated when government or NGOresponses prevent people from moving, or “deport them for their owngood.” 10 GAATW has observed over the years that as more and more peopleare defined as trafficked, this restriction of movement and/or deportationin the name of anti-trafficking happens to more and more people.