Labour Exploitation Trafficking and Migrant Health

2. Introduction
Globally, there are an estimated 232 million international migrants and 740 million internal migrants,
most of whom migrate in search of work. 3 Global assessments also suggest a substantial number
(approximately 21 million) 4 of labour migrants end up in situations of extreme exploitation – including
victims of human trafficking or forced labour. 5
The United Nations’ Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women
and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
(also referred to as the Trafficking Protocol or Palermo Protocol) states:
“Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms
of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position
of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the
consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others
or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices
similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. 6
As criminal levels of exploitation have gained global attention, so has recognition of the health
dimensions of such abuses. 7 Yet there remains little evidence on the health risks and consequences
associated with many forms of labour trafficking, because most data have come from studies on sex
trafficking. 8 Despite the large number of occupations in which extreme exploitation has been found
to occur, health research has been limited. 9,10 However, studies on labour trafficking and health are
beginning to emerge, for example, the recent publication of findings on the health of more than
1,100 trafficking survivors in the Greater Mekong Subregion. 11 Results from this study show that
survivors had been exploited in more than 15 different sectors, experienced numerous abuses and
sustained high rates of injury, physical pain and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and
depression. 12 As greater attention turns to people who have been exploited in such labour sectors as
fishing, mining, construction and textile work, it is necessary to understand the range of occupational
health and safety risks they face as well as the hazardous working and living conditions associated
with specific sectors.
3
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “The number of international migrants worldwide reaches 232 million”,
Population Facts, No. 2013/2, September 2013. Available from http://esa.un.org/unmigration/documents/The_number_of_
international_migrants.pdf.
4
International Labour Organization, “Forced labour, human trafficking and slavery: Facts and figures”, web article. Available from www.
ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/lang--en/index.htm. Accessed 31 October 2015.
5
Terminology for this field (that is, such terms as “modern slavery” and “forced labour”) remains a matter of contention and is constantly
shifting. We use the term “human trafficking” because it is the language in the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime.
6
United Nations General Assembly, United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (A/RES/55/25), adopted by the
General Assembly 15 November 2000.
7
World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization, “Human trafficking”, Understanding and addressing violence
against women, WHO, Geneva, 2012. Available from http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/77394/1/WHO_RHR_12.42_eng.pdf;
Erin Williamson, Nicole M. Dutch and Heather J. Clawson, “Medical treatment of victims of sexual assault and domestic violence and
Its applicability to victims of human trafficking”, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, web article, 30 March 2010. Available
from http://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/medical-treatment-victims-sexual-assault-and-domestic-violence-and-its-applicability-victimshuman-trafficking.
Accessed 31 October 2015. Heal Trafficking, Health Professional Education, Advocacy & Linkage website: https://
healtrafficking.wordpress.com. Accessed 31 October 2015.
8
Siân Oram et al., “Prevalence and risk of violence and the physical, mental, and sexual health problems associated with human
trafficking: Systematic review”, PLoS Medicine 9, no. 5 (2012), e1001224, doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001224. Accessed 2 November
2015.
9
Eleanor Turner-Moss et al., “Labour exploitation and health: A case series of men and women seeking post-trafficking services”, Journal of
Immigrant Minority Health 16, no. (2014), pp. 473–480, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10903-013-9832-6. Accessed 2 November 2015.
10
United States Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Trafficking in persons report 2015, United
States Department of State, Washington, D.C., July 2015.
11
Ligia Kiss et al., “Health of men, women, and children in post-trafficking services in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam: An observational
cross-sectional study”, The Lancet Global Health 3, no. 3 (2015), e154–161.
12
Cathy Zimmerman et al., Health and human trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion: Findings from a survey of men women and
children in Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam, International Organization for Migration and London School of Hygiene & Tropical
Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland, 2014. Available from http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/free/Steam_Report_Mekong.pdf.
Labour Exploitation, Trafficking and Migrant Health
15