A brief overview and analysis of current practices and challenges in addressing trafficking in persons based on interviews with protection cluster and AOR coordinators

This analysis is based on IOM’s caseload and excludes the hundreds of victims identified and assisted by other partners in Cox’s Bazar. Therefore, the trends described were compiled from Rohingya who were directly assisted by IOM. The trends provide some insight to the current trafficking context affecting the Rohingya but do not indicate the prevalence of human trafficking in the district. Human trafficking is a crime that is often underreported for many reasons including but not limited to lack of general awareness on the complex dynamics of human trafficking, the services available for victims, the verbal, physical and psychological coercive tactics used by the trafficking network, and stigma and discrimination against victims.

In 2016, there were an estimated 40.3 million victims of modern slavery in the world, more than were enslaved during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Since the adoption of the 2000 UN Trafficking Protocol, numerous efforts from inter-governmental agencies, governmental agencies, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), and domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have strived to combat the phenomena of human trafficking through legal-institutional means, direct interventions, and programs of support for those exploited. This anti-trafficking work has paid varying degrees of attention to the principles and methods of monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment, but has often been subject to the end of project evaluations. Similar to findings of reviews of evaluations in the international development sector, evaluations of anti-trafficking programing have primarily focused on assessing the progress of project implementation and the achievement of outputs, rather than tracking the achievement of outcomes or impact. This is further complicated by the hidden nature of human trafficking and the trauma experienced by human-trafficking victims. As a consequence, despite some evidence of raised awareness and increased levels of funding, organizations are still struggling to demonstrate impact and discern what works to combat human trafficking. This article analyses the evaluations of counter-trafficking programing produced since the Protocol to draw conclusions regarding the lessons learned from these interventions and the methods used to monitor and evaluate human-trafficking programs. By highlighting gaps, this article provides a series of suggestions on how to better track progress and impact toward the elimination of modern slavery.

This training material was developed in the framework of the project Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings - Phase 1 (THB/IFS/1), which was funded by the European Union under its Instrument for Stability with the aim to fight organised crime and trafficking in human beings (THB) in Azebaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova and Turkey. The project was implemented in the period January 2013 to September 2014 by ICMPD (International Centre for Migration Policy Develpment) in partnership with FIIAPP (Fundación Internacional y para Iberoamérica de Administración y Políticas Públicas) and EF (Expertise France) and focused on the enhancement of national, regional and trans-regional law enforcement cooperation.

Migrants from the Horn of Africa continue to travel along the southern route towards South Africa and almost all of them use smugglers to get to their final destination. This RMMS briefing paper provides an update on the volume, trends and dynamics of mixed migration and migrant smuggling along this route. It offers new estimates on the volume of migration and the value of the illicit migrant smuggling economy from Ethiopia and Somalia to southern Africa and highlights many of the protection issues migrants and refugees face while being smuggled south. The research draws upon data from the RMMS Mixed Migration Monitoring Mechanism initiative (4Mi), through which field monitors conducted 398 interviews in South Africa, as well as additional interviews in southern Africa and secondary research.

This report is developed in response to an official request submitted to the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) by the Main Department on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Department requested a feedback on the National Action Plan for fight against trafficking in human beings of the Republic of Azerbaijan 2014-2018 as well as support and suggestions for the development of the next 2019-2023 plan. The report is produced in the framework of the Prague Process Migration Observatory implemented through the “Prague Process: Dialogue, Analyses and Training in Action” (PP DATA) initiative, funded by the European Union and implemented by ICMPD in its capacity of Prague Process Secretariat. PP DATA aims at sustaining and further enhancing the cooperation established in the area of migration and asylum between the countries of the European Union, the Schengen Area, the Eastern Partnership, the Western Balkans, Central Asia, Russia and Turkey.

The years 2015-2016 saw an unprecedented increase in the numbers of people travelling by sea and overland along the migration route to the European Union (EU), with almost one and a half million people irregularly entering EU countries.This situation required frontline responders in these regions to be able to quickly identify and refer potential victims of trafficking in human beings (THB) among refugees, asylum applicants and migrants in an irregular situation. It also required the adoption of tailored protection and rehabilitation programmes for identified victims of trafficking among these people. This is particularly important for the protection of specific vulnerable groups, such as separated and unaccompanied children. The TRAM research assessment aims to contribute to the establishment of a solid knowledge base on this crucially important issue. It examines the incidence of trafficking in human beings and risk factors for THB in the context of the Balkan route and in destination countries. It also looks at the gaps, needs and challenges that exist in the identification, referral, protection and rehabilitation of victims of trafficking. The study found indications that trafficking and exploitation are a major cause of concern for migrants and refugees travelling along the Western Balkans route, yet the number of identified victims remains extremely low. The lack of statistical data is to a certain extent the result of a vicious circle, whereby if there is no evidence of trafficking cases among a certain group, the necessary resources are not mobilised to address THB and proactively identify cases, which in turn prevents the gathering of accurate statistics. The low number of identifications is also due to the lack of harmonisation and incorporation of anti-trafficking procedures into the first reception and asylum systems for new arrivals, leading to a disconnect between the two processes. The research also highlighted that in the context of the Balkan route, trafficking is often related to the migrant smuggling process, with exploitation occurring due to people being in debt to smugglers, and due to smugglers requesting increasing amounts of money for their services. The complexity of differentiating between the two distinct phenomena of smuggling of migrants and trafficking in human beings, and of understanding the points of convergence, contributes to making identification and referral procedures more difficult. From a migration policy perspective, the study found that increasingly restrictive border control policies and the lack of legal alternatives for onward movement play into the hands of unscrupulous smugglers, who use this opportunity to also perpetrate trafficking and other forms of exploitation, taking advantage of the vulnerable situation of migrants and refugees.

In the last decades, considerable efforts have been made to eradicate trafficking in human beings. In this context, the role of demand has gained prominence in public and political debates. Activists had lobbied for a reference to demand in the UN Anti-Trafficking Protocol, mainly with the aim to criminalise ‘the demand’ or purchase of sexual services. What was eventually agreed upon was something different and above all vague. Indeed, the Protocol asks signatory states to ‘discourage the demand that fosters all forms of exploitation of persons, especially women and children, that leads to trafficking’, as do the 2005 Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings and the 2011 EU Anti-Trafficking Directive (2011/36/EU). This demand-clause triggered a search for meaningful interpretations in a range of fields. The project DemandAT had the task of mapping what was understood as demand-side measures, to suggest a consistent conceptual and theoretical framework for the analysis of demand-side and alternative policies, and to contribute to a better understanding of the working of selected ‘demand-side’ measures. This policy brief summarises main research results and formulates recommendations for European and national policy makers.

Labour inspectorates and other inspecting authorities with a mandate to monitor labour and employment standards (e.g. the financial police) have emerged as possible actors that can contribute to national efforts to combat trafficking. Today these authorities are expected to play a key role in tackling trafficking for labour exploitation (see, e.g., GRETA 2016) and in fact, in many countries, they have become involved in anti-trafficking efforts to implement international obligations. This policy brief summarises key findings of research conducted within the DemandAT project that examined the role of selected authorities mandated to monitor labour and employment standards in addressing trafficking in five EU Member States.

Violence in Syria has been driving children, women and men from their homes for almost five years. ICMPD’s new research study looks at the vulnerability of displaced Syrian people to trafficking in persons. The research found that people are often trafficked or exploited because they are not able to meet their basic needs. This is exacerbated by complications in relation to legal residence status in host countries and legal authorisation to work. While some trafficking is committed by highly organised criminal networks, the most common type of exploitation is at a lower level, involving fathers, mothers, husbands, extended family, acquaintances and neighbours. The context of general vulnerability means that there are often factors that leave families with no viable alternative for survival other than situations that could be defined as exploitation and trafficking in national and international law. We therefore need a paradigm shift in how trafficking, refugee, migration and child protection policy are viewed in terms of access to protection. While policy-makers and practitioners might see themselves as working in distinct fields, on specific topics, the human beings in need of protection do not always fall under one single, clear-cut category. We must concentrate efforts to provide access to basic needs and safety for people displaced from and within Syria.