Background: Human trafficking is a crime that commonly results in acute and chronic physical and psychological harm. To foster more informed health sector responses to human trafficking, training sessions for health care providers were developed and pilot-tested in the Middle East, Central America, and the Caribbean. This study presents the results of an investigation into what health care providers knew and needed to know about human trafficking as part of that training program. Methods: Participants attended one of seven two-day training courses in Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Costa Rica, Egypt, El Salvador, Guyana, and Jordan. We assessed participants’ knowledge about human trafficking and opinions about appropriate responses in trafficking cases via questionnaires pre-training, and considered participant feedback about the training post-training. Results: 178 participants attended the trainings. Pre-training questionnaires were completed by 165 participants (93%) and post-training questionnaires by 156 participants (88%). Pre-training knowledge about health and human trafficking appeared generally high for topics such as the international nature of trafficking and the likelihood of poor mental health outcomes among survivors. However, many participants had misconceptions about the characteristics of trafficked persons and a provider’s role in responding to cases of trafficking. The most valued training components included the “Role of the Health Provider,” “Basic Definitions and Concepts,” and “Health Consequences of Trafficking.”

Las evaluaciones mundiales sugieren que una proporción sustancial de los trabajadores migrantes terminan en situaciones de explotación extrema, algunos de los cuales han sido identificados como víctimas de trata de personas. Debido a que un gran número de trabajadores migrantes caen en una "zona gris" entre la trata (como es definida por el derecho internacional y nacional) y situaciones de explotación laboral, hay una buena razón para explorar las diferencias y similitudes entre las necesidades de salud de aquellos que han sido identificados como víctimas de la trata en comparación con otros migrantes que trabajan en el mismo sector de trabajo que no lo han sido. Es urgente comprender los riesgos actuales para salud y la seguridad, las formas de abuso y explotación en los diferentes sectores y las condiciones de trabajo y de vida peligrosas comunes para mejorar las estrategias de prevención y respuesta. Este es uno de los primeros estudios que explora y compara la influencia de las exposiciones de riesgo ocupacionales, entre otros, en la salud y el bienestar de las personas, comparando las experiencias de los trabajadores migrantes y las víctimas de trata en todos los sectores y regiones que lo integran. Nuestro estudio cualitativo multi-región sobre la explotación y el daño sufrido por las personas en el sector textil en Argentina, en la extracción artesanal de oro en Perú y la construcción en Kazajstán, encontró similitudes importantes en los riesgos para la salud y los retos financieros, sociales y legales en todos los sectores y regiones. En total, se entrevistó a 71 personas; de éstos, 18 fueron identificados formalmente como víctimas de trata y 53 eran trabajadores migrantes.

Trafficking in persons is a modern-day form of slavery involving victims who are typically forced, defrauded or coerced into various forms of exploitation. Men, women and children are treated as inexpensive, expendable and profitable commodities used for benefit (financial or otherwise). Human traffickers often use existing migratory flows and look for migrants that can be potentially exploited. Trafficking has become one of the fastest growing and most lucrative crimes, occurring both worldwide and in individual countries, including those in the Caribbean region. The region’s trafficking trends include intra-regional flows and extra-regional flows (e.g. movement from South Asia or East Asia to the region). Caribbean countries also can serve as a transit route for trafficking, often destined towards North America and Europe. Additionally, internal trafficking, which occurs within a country’s borders, exists in some Caribbean nations. IOM’s Exploratory Assessment of Trafficking in Persons in the Caribbean Region identified some level of human trafficking in the areas of forced labour, sexual exploitation and domestic servitude. The victims (men, women, boys and girls from within and outside the region) were found to be trafficked through legal methods, such as work permits and visas, and illegal methods, such as smuggling.

This desk review is conducted as part of the project entitled “Stop Trafficking Now!” being implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Special Liaison Mission in Addis Ababa, the African Union Commission (AUC) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Secretariat. The project is aimed at contributing to the efforts of the AUC, IGAD and East African Community (EAC) Member States to combat trafficking in persons, consistent with the “Ouagadougou Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings Especially Women and Children” (OAP) and the AUC Initiative against Trafficking (AU.COMMIT) campaign strategies to translate the Ouagadougou Action Plan into action. The OAP is a declaration of the will and joint intent of the African Union, the European Union and their Member States to enhance their efforts to fight human trafficking. It provides specific legal and political recommendations to be implemented by the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Member States at sub-regional, continental and global levels. It further upholds and reinforces the international and regional legal instruments on human rights, particularly the conventions and protocols on trafficking in persons, elimination of discrimination against women and protection of the rights of the child. As part of the project “Stop Trafficking Now!” a desk review is undertaken on the countertrafficking efforts by IGAD Member States (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda), EAC Member States (Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda) as well as the IGAD and EAC secretariats within the framework of the OAP, the AU.COMMIT strategy document and the recently-developed implementation matrix. A comprehensive review report is thus prepared to be shared and discussed during the launching of the AU.COMMIT campaign in the IGAD and EAC sub-regions and at a sub-regional workshop on making the OAP operational, which is organized in Djibouti from 6–8 December 2010.

The massive earthquake of 8th October 2005 has killed over 42,000 people to date, and affected the lives of over 4 million of which an estimated 1 million have been seriously affected. The number of casualties grows every day. Husbands, wives, parents and guardians have died, families have been separated and infrastructure has been damaged leaving people, especially separated/widowed women and separated/orphaned children, vulnerable to hunger, dehydration, the elements, disease and crime. Local government, social services and law enforcement structures in the affected areas have been destroyed and many officials have died in the disaster increasing the vulnerability of local populations, especially women and children. From experience of other humanitarian emergencies and existing concerns about human trafficking in Pakistan, there is a clear risk of human trafficking escalating in the aftermath of the earthquake. Press reports have already started to indicate the presence of human trafficking activity.

The Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) has been set up pursuant to Article 36 of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (“the Convention”), which entered into force on 1 February 2008. GRETA is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Convention by the parties and for drawing up reports evaluating the measures taken by each party. GRETA is composed of 15 independent and impartial experts coming from a variety of backgrounds, who have been selected on the basis of their professional experience in the areas covered by the Convention. The term of office of GRETA members is four years, renewable once. GRETA’s country-by-country monitoring deals with all parties to the Convention on an equal footing.

The overarching goals of this Toolkit are those of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which will be referred to hereinafter as the “Trafficking in Persons Protocol”. These goals are: To prevent and combat trafficking, To protect and assist its victims, To promote international cooperation. In pursuit of these goals, the Toolkit seeks to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and information among policymakers, law enforcers, judges, prosecutors, victim service providers and members of civil society who are working at different levels towards these same objectives.

African and EU leaders adopted a political declaration and a common action plan at the Valletta Summit on migration, in Malta, 12-15 November 2015.

The links between technology and anti-trafficking—the focus of this Special Issue of Anti-Trafficking Review—and COVID-19 may seem topically distant and their analytical connections not readily apparent. However, by situating COVID-19 as an analytical launch pad into the Special Issue, our aim is to spark creative interdisciplinary approaches in tracking how distinctive global phenomena constitutively overlap in moments of social and economic disruption. And, more pointedly, we hope to better understand how issues framed as exceptional give rise to solutions, including state and non-governmental solutions augmented by technology, which may further contribute to structural vulnerabilities.