This IOM and NEXUS Institute-authored report considers the methodological and ethical challenges of conducting research and collecting human trafficking data. The analysis contained in this study sheds light on the debate about the current quality and integrity of research and data collection in the trafficking field; and offers recommendations to improve future efforts to produce reliable data and derive an empirically-based understanding about the nature of human trafficking. The authors draw, in particular, upon lessons learned from the use of the IOM human trafficking database as the basis of many current reports about the nature of trafficking in countries around the world. In addition to highlighting some of the limitations of collecting data directly from assisted victims, the report calls for more accurate and in-depth research and data collection on a broader range of topics related to trafficking. It also underscores the importance of ensuring that the weaknesses, as well as the strengths, of particular research and data collection efforts are clearly stated so that policymakers and practitioners can make informed decisions about the manner in which research findings and data are employed in the design, implementation, and evaluation of anti-trafficking responses.

This publication, Tourist Marriage in Ibb, assesses the phenomenon of tourist marriage, defining tourist marriage as a temporary, formal union between a Yemeni female and a man from an Arabian Gulf country. The pilot study explores the economic and social dimensions and consequences of tourist marriage, and highlights its impact on young Yemeni females and their families. The research identifies how tourist marriage is a form of human trafficking because the groom deceives the young bride and her parents and with the purpose to use her in the short term (e.g. one week to one month) for sexual exploitation. The study concludes that, although the tourist marriage trend in Ibb declined in recent years, there are allegations of the trend's presence in other Yemen Governorates. The research offers a list of recommendations for the Government of Yemen, the international community, and national civil society organizations to take action and strengthen the response against human trafficking.

Children and youth migrating – whether between or within countries and whether accompanied by their relatives or not – have become a recognized part of today’s global and mixed migration flows. Nevertheless, in research and policy debates, the migration of children and youth is considered a new area of concern and focus. Information on children who are migrating is consequently little reflected in global debates on migration. Often, academic and policy discussions tend to represent children as passive victims of exploitation, possibly even including trafficking situations, coerced to move and work in exploitative situations. However, recent research and policy approaches to unaccompanied migrant children are revealing and addressing the varying experiences of children migrating – both positive and negative. Independent child migration is not necessarily an exploitative or damaging experience for children, but rather a multidimensional phenomenon. Children can be actively involved in the decision-making process regarding their future, including the decision to continue their education, to work or to combine both. Nonetheless, policy responses to support these unaccompanied migrant children are fragmented and inconsistent, and the lack of subject-specific expertise is a persisting problem. In line with the increased attention paid to child migration as part of a larger phenomenon of family migration, transnational families and family reunification, the work of IOM has substantially grown in relation to providing assistance to children on the move, particularly those who are unaccompanied. As a global agency working on migration, it is of major importance for IOM to strengthen and support coherent approaches to unaccompanied migrant children. In this regard, the Organization is collecting operational data and programmatic information on this population of migrants to better address their needs.

Young migrants and refugees set out to escape harm or secure better futures – and face staggering risks in the process. For children and youth on the move via the Mediterranean Sea routes to Europe, the journey is marked by high levels of abuse, trafficking and exploitation. Some are more vulnerable than others: those travelling alone, those with low levels of education and those undertaking longer journeys. Most vulnerable of all are those who come from sub-Saharan Africa. These findings come from a new UNICEF and International Organization for Migration (IOM) analysis of the journeys of some 22,000 migrants and refugees, including some 11,000 children and youth, interviewed by IOM. The report calls on all concerned parties − countries of origin, transit and destination, the African Union, the European Union, international and national organizations with support from the donor community – to prioritize a series of actions. These include establishing safe and regular pathways for children on the move; strengthening services to protect migrant and refugee children whether in countries of origin, transit or destination; finding alternatives to the detention of children on the move; working across borders to combat trafficking and exploitation; and combatting xenophobia, racism and discrimination against all migrants and refugees.

Under the framework of the technical working group on Engaging the Security Sector on Gender-based Violence (GBV), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is implementing a project on strengthening response mechanisms and accountability to GBV and trafficking in persons (TIP) in North-East Nigeria, with focus on the Nigeria Police Force and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Borno and Adamawa states. IOM carried out an in-depth assessment in October–November 2018 to map and assess training needs and existing internal mechanisms in addressing GBV, TIP and sexual exploitation and abuse. Recommendations made in the assessment report were tailored to the development of the training of trainers manual for law enforcement agencies.

Trafficking in human beings (THB) and smuggling of migrants (SoM), two distinct but often interrelated phenomena, occur on a global scale. Searching for a way out of economic inequalities, environmental crises, armed conflict, political instability and persecution, and in view of tightening border controls and restricted options for legal migration, migrants are driven to seek the services of smugglers. At the same time, a globalized economy fosters demand for diverse types of exploitation, which also makes migrants vulnerable to traffickers. Both THB and SoM are billion-dollar businesses that exact high human costs. This is illustrated by the many migrants dying while being smuggled along increasingly dangerous migration routes, and by the millions of trafficking victims trapped in exploitative situations worldwide. The African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States are increasingly stepping up to address THB and SoM. However, they face challenges in developing the necessary holistic, long-term interventions that combine law enforcement with a rights-based, victim-centred approach and with prevention efforts that are linked to development and offer realistic, practical alternatives to irregular migration. This ACP-EU Migration Action publication analyses these challenges and provides recommendations to tackle the difficulties that ACP countries face in relation to THB and SoM

Trafficking in human beings is a gross violation of human rights that often involves extreme exploitation and abuse. To date, there has been very limited robust research on the health consequences of human trafficking, particularly for various forms of labour in the Greater Mekong Subregion. This study aims to fill critical gaps in the body of knowledge on the health risks and consequences of human trafficking in order to improve protections and care services. The groundbreaking report provides findings on the health risks and physical and psychological consequences of men, women and children in post-trafficking services in Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam, and includes recommendations to national governments and regional bodies to improve health protection and response mechanisms for trafficked persons.

Migrant smuggling is seen as antithetical to safe, orderly and regular migration. In fact, the fight against migrant smuggling stands out as a point of agreement in an otherwise fractured policy field. This apparent unity obscures disparate motivations for counter-smuggling measures. Traditionally, concerns about illegal work and residence have been prominent. More recently, the fight against migrant smuggling is also driven by states’ desire to minimize the obligations that follow from the 1951 refugee convention. These are just two out of eight motivations identified in the paper.The eight motivations for counter-smuggling efforts differ with respect to explicitness and legitimacy.Insufficient clarity of purpose makes it more challenging to develop a sound response.Counter-smuggling strategies can be divided between those that seek to suppress the supply of smuggling services and those that seek to suppress demand. The conventional law-enforcement approach concentrates on curbing supply. Sustainable solutions are only possible with a reduced demand for migrant smuggling services. But demand-oriented policy approaches go to the heart of migration management and raise political, legal, economic, and ethical dilemmas.

International migration is at the core of the international debate. However, while a major part of the discussions focus on migration policies in receiving countries, it is important to recall that most people are not willing to migrate permanently to another country. It is thus crucial that policymakers also support those who prefer to remain in their communities of origin to resist the migration pressure they may be facing. Consequently, this analysis aims first to identify what drives this migration pressure, and second to formulate a set of recommendations to support those communities. With regard to the drivers, evidence suggests that, contrary to a common belief, poverty reduction will not necessarily alleviate migration pressure. Reducing poverty is an aim, per se, no matter its effect on migration. However, it is not a panacea, and other factors explaining the migration pressure should be considered. The urge to move can be due to the fact that potential migrants, in particular those willing to migrate illegally, tend to formulate biased expectations about their earnings and living conditions abroad. For people who have not moved yet, expectations from the migration experience are often based upon perceptions of the living conditions of their families and relatives who migrated. Those relatives – through their remittances and the status their families that are left behind acquire within the communities – can lead some to think that success is guaranteed with migration. This in turn can spark the desire to move at any cost, raising the issue of relative concerns about what matters in the decision to leave. Another possible driver of migration pressure is negative shocks, such as adverse climatic conditions. Climatic factors and natural disasters can lead to more migration if other survival strategies have failed, when the severity of the shocks does not leave any other option than moving, and when people can afford migration costs.

Global assessments suggest that a substantial proportion of labour migrants ends up in situations of extreme exploitation, some of whom are identified as victims of human trafficking. Because large numbers of migrant workers fall into a “grey area” between trafficking (as defined by international and national law) and exploitative labour situations, there is good reason to explore the differences and similarities between the health needs of those who have been identified as trafficked compared to other migrants working in the same labour sector who have not. It is urgent to understand present-day occupational health and safety risks, forms of abuse and exploitation in different sectors and common hazardous working and living conditions to improve prevention and response strategies. This is among the first studies to explore and compare the influence of occupational and other risk exposures on people’s health and well-being and compare the experiences of migrant workers and victims of trafficking across sectors and regions. Our multiregion qualitative study on exploitation and harm experienced by individuals in the textile sector in Argentina, and artisanal gold-mining in Peru and construction sector in Kazakhstan, found important commonalities in the health hazards and financial, social and legal challenges across sectors and regions. In total, we interviewed 71 people; of these, 18 were formally identified victims of trafficking and 53 were migrant workers.