A Message from the Editor: Introduction to the Special Issue on Human Trafficking

Foreword Ryan Alexander, Editor Following on the success of our spring 2021 special issue dedicated to Brazil, I am pleased to present to you a special issue dedicated to the topic of human trafficking in the Global South. Organized by Professor of Political Science Sabella Abidde at Alabama State University, Professor of Political Science José de Arimatéia da Cruz at Georgia Southern University, and Professor of History Michael R. Hall at Georgia Southern University, this issue looks at various dynamics of human trafficking in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. The collection was inspired in part by the 7th INTERPOL Global Conference on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, just months before the Association of Global South Studies held its own annual meeting there. The editors of this collection have provided a brief introduction, which follows this foreword, to the project and the individual articles contained within it. As always, I want to express my thanks to the many people who make this journal possible, including the anonymous peer reviewers who review manuscripts; the volunteer associate editors (Joseph Bangura for Africa, Srobana Battacharya for Asia, Sonia Farid for the Middle East, Tyler Ralston for the Americas, Jason Strakes for Eurasia, and Michael Hall for book reviews); Sara Abernathy, JGSS editorial assistant; Lauren Phillips, manager of journals at the University of Florida Press; Raven Hudson, the press's editorial assistant for journals; and the copy editors at the press. Our parent organization, the Association of Global South Studies, was established in order to provide an international structure for the humane and scientific study of peoples, problems, and issues in the world's developing countries, with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life in those places. The late Dr. Harold Isaacs, professor emeritus of history at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, Georgia, founded the Association of Third [End Page vii] World Studies (ATWS), Inc., in 1983. The association now has a global membership and chapters in South Asia and Africa. In the summer of 2016, following a vote of the members of the association, ATWS was renamed the Association of Global South Studies (AGSS). As ATWS, the association began its history as an institution in 1991 when, under the newly ratified ATWS constitution, elected officials assumed responsibility for the management of the organization. Since 1992, the executive headquarters have been located at Georgia Southern University (1992–2003), Mississippi State University (2003–2006), and Louisiana State University–Shreveport (2006–). Due to the dedicated and energetic leadership of Zia H. Hashmi and Paul Rodell at Georgia Southern, Shu-hui Wu at Mississippi State, and William Pederson at LSU-Shreveport, AGSS has made great progress as a global, professional organization. In 1995, the United Nations recognized the success of AGSS by granting it UN "consultative status," thus enabling the association to increase its direct impact on world development. AGSS has an established and newly revamped website, to be found at http://apps.gsw.edu/atws/. Membership in AGSS is open to any person interested in studying the developing countries. Yearly membership dues are $60.00, which includes an annual subscription to JGSS. The yearly subscription rate is $60.00; single copies are $30.00. Discounts are available for students and those living in the developing countries. Membership and subscription forms, as well as copies of JTWS/JGSS, may be obtained by writing to the Association of Global South Studies, Inc., care of Ryan Alexander, History Department, SUNY-Plattsburgh, Champlain Valley Hall 224, Plattsburgh, NY 12901. Individuals interested in submitting articles to be considered, or refereed, for publication by the JGSS Board of Editors should write to the editor, also Ryan Alexander, at the above address. Alternatively, manuscripts may be sent to the editor via email: ralex006@plattsburgh.edu. Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted and indexed in Scopus, GEOBASE, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), International Political Science Abstracts Database (IPSA), Political Science Database, Sociological Abstracts, Historical Abstracts, America: History and Life, Periodica Islamica, Social Sciences Index, PAIS Indexes, CAB International (CABI), and others. [End Page viii] Copyright © 2023 Association of Global South Studies, Inc.

The Modern Trend of Human Trafficking in Africa and the Role of the African Union (AU)

The Tragedy and Horror of Human Trafficking of Children and Youth

This chapter discussed the intractable nature of human trafficking in Africa. Its specific focus is on the weaknesses of a wholly legalistic approach to protecting and assisting trafficking victims, especially in the context of South Africa. It is argued that the persistence of human trafficking in Africa is a serious problem because the crime deprives victims of the right to life, security, and freedom from slavery through coercion, isolation, forced labour and sustained systematic abuses. While South Africa has ratified international treaties relating to human trafficking, the country remains a source, destination and transit hub in the human trafficking flows. The persistence of trafficking in Africa and South Africa is particularly blamed on the deficiencies of a heavy reliance on a legalistic approach to addressing the problem. The identified shortcomings of the legalistic approach highlighted in the chapter are a lack of clear conceptual separation of trafficking victims from illegal migrants and gender-based violence victims. Other deficiencies include inconsistent legal interpretation and implementation of standard operating procedures for victim identification and referral for protection and necessary assistance by host countries. To strengthen victim protection and assistance, as well as effective prosecution of trafficking offenders, the chapter argues for the necessity of recognising internalised fear of the unknown as the major weakness of the legalistic approach. Fear of the unknown is caused by threats of violence and perceived negative effects of backtracking from secret oaths administered on victims by human trafficking perpetrators before powerful African deities. Fear prevents victims from testifying against suspected human traffickers in courts, thus helping them escape the full weight of the law. Given the shortfalls of relying entirely on legal approach to effectively to address human trafficking problem, especially victim protection and assistance; the chapter proposed an integrated approach that complements formal legalistic measures with trado-religious, and socio-cultural practices.

Human trafficking is a human rights violation in every region of the world. The African continent is not spared. Every year, millions of people experience significant health and social consequences. International organizations and governments combating human trafficking are hindered by a lack of knowledge about what factors influence domestic (within-country) human trafficking. This study aims to conduct a scoping review to collate and synthesize literature on factors influencing domestic trafficking in Africa. We will follow Arksey and O'Malley's framework to answer the question about reported influences on domestic human trafficking and their relative weight. The search strategy will explore PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Scopus. A total of 2 independent researchers will select quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods studies that examine relationships influencing domestic human trafficking. We will document our results by following the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines. We will extract a list of all reported relationships between identified factors influencing domestic human trafficking in each study. Based on a discourse analysis approach, we will weigh the strengths of the relationships based on how frequently they are reported across the included studies. We will summarize the findings as fuzzy cognitive maps depicting the relationships reported in the literature. The maps represent the influences between concepts (nodes) linked by arrows (edges) going from each cause to its outcomes. These maps are helpful visual summaries of the factors associated with domestic human trafficking, allowing a comparison with maps to be created by stakeholder groups. This project received financial support in March 2023. We expect to start the project in March 2024. We recruited 2 research staff members to conduct the scoping review and expect to publish the results in March 2025. The review will provide a comprehensive understanding of factors influencing domestic human trafficking in Africa. The overlap of human trafficking with other forms of exploitation, the limited literature on domestic human trafficking, and the likely diversity of factors are challenges for the review. We propose strategies to address these challenges. PRR1-10.2196/56392.

What happens at the nexus of the digital divide and human trafficking? This book examines the impact of the introduction of new digital information and communication technology (ICT) – as well as lack of access to digital connectivity – on human trafficking. The different studies presented in the chapters show the realities for people moving along the Central Mediterranean route from the Horn of Africa through Libya to Europe. The authors warn against an over-optimistic view of innovation as a solution and highlight the relationship between technology and the crimes committed against vulnerable people in search of protection. In this volume, the third in a four-part series ‘Connected and Mobile: Migration and Human Trafficking in Africa’, relevant new theories are proposed as tools to understand the dynamics that appear in mobile Africa. Most importantly, the editors identify critical ethical issues in relation to both technology and human trafficking and the nexus between them, helping explore the dimensions of new responsibilities that need to be defined. The chapters in this book represent a collection of well-documented empirical investigations by a young and diverse group of researchers, addressing critical issues in relation to innovation and the perils of our time.

This chapter will examine trends in human trafficking in Caribbean and African islands over the past five years as documented in the US Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report (2016–2021). The countries that will be examined include Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines in the Caribbean region and Cabo Verde, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Zanzibar, Tunisia, and Bijagos, Guinea-Bissau, in Africa. This article will examine what countries in these two regions have accomplished in the areas of prosecution of traffickers, victim protection, and prevention activities, as well as discuss the challenges and shortcomings in the anti-trafficking efforts of these island countries. The chapter will discuss the common elements across these regions facilitating success and failures in combating human trafficking. The chapter will end by discussing what policy recommendations, capacity-building initiatives, and cross-regional collaborations could be launched to address these collective trafficking problems.

This chapter explores the nature, extent and mystification of human trafficking in Africa. While human trafficking is an age-long, border-less crime of global proportion, its current form and dimensions have enormous negativity on the human race (generally), and pose enormous threats to peace and security on the African continent (specifically). Such consternation has engendered various stakeholders to introduce policy measures to curb the spread; however, rather than diminishing, it is ever increasing. From a positional standpoint, using document analysis, this chapter provides a synopsis of human trafficking in Africa, in recent times, and offers suggestions on pragmatic steps that could help address both the demand and supply end of this illicit criminal enterprise in twenty-first (21st) century Africa.

The problem of preventing crime against migrants is updated. The urgency of issues related to preventing crimes against migrants as the main factor of criminality prevention in general is substantiated. The relevance of the topic is caused by the fact that in modern conditions, the attitude to migrants in accordance with the norms of international law is equally ambivalent. Migrants are exposed to numerous risks of victimization, and many of them suffer from victimization – sometimes repeatedly, and sometimes even systematically. Such risks of victimization can be classified together with their individual background of emigration and immigration. The two main types of criminal behaviour that is of interest to criminal policy – human trafficking and human smuggling – are addressed in the two Amendment Protocols to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Convention): the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air. In the latter document, migrants are perceived as offenders, not as victims, especially in legal treatment of smuggling. This is justified by the fact that migrants represent a demand for smuggling services, and this demand is considered the main incentive for this branch of organized crime, including transnational one. However, current legal situation – both the international legal framework and the legal provisions applied in the main jurisdictions – does not reflect the victimological reality of migration. The distinction between human trafficking and people smuggling (trafficking) creates a significant gap in the treatment of victims. The same is true of public, political and academic discussions that tend to ignore the reality of migration, which is characterized by the fact that not only victims of trafficking, but migrants in general, are clearly vulnerable and are at multiple risks of victimization. The problem of preventing crime against migrants is that it is hardly possible to justify a politically motivated dividing victims of criminal acts into two groups (trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants) in order to achieve two different standards of protection, especially in light of the enormous risks of victimization to which all migrants are exposed.

The persistence and prevalence of human trafficking across the African region have continued to pose worries among academics and other stakeholders on the continent. Despite the existing legislation against human trafficking in virtually all African countries, the menace still persists, thus posing several consequences such as risk, abuse and exploitation of vulnerable populations such as women and children and undermining their job dignity, therefore impeding the realization of sustainable development goals 8 and 16 which focus on promoting sustained, inclusive and economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all and also peace, justice and strong institutions that aim to end violence against women and children. Interestingly, research has been carried out on human trafficking in Africa, but few studies have explored how border corruption influences the persistence of human trafficking along the Nigeria–Benin Republic Corridor. This, therefore, would serve as the thrust of this study. The study seeks to answer the question: To what extent does border corruption influence the persistence of human trafficking along the Nigeria–Benin Republic corridor? An exploratory research design was used in the study. The outcome of the study showed that the majority of the victims of human trafficking were successfully recruited and transported by the traffickers due to the manifestation of corruption-related activities at the border among the security operatives who could have scrutinized and interrogated the victims, thereby preventing them from being trafficked. It is recommended that there should be a restructuring among the border operatives in both countries to be more efficient in discharging their duties. This would reduce the surge of human trafficking in Africa generally.

Although 'trafficking in human beings' and 'human smuggling' are divergent crimes that refer to different articles in the Dutch Criminal Code, they both became strongly attached to 'world' of organized crime. Consequently, the government speaks of victims in case of people being trafficked and increasingly of offenders for those being smuggled. In this chapter, several global developments and incidents within the Netherlands have been described that have contributed to a climate in which human smuggling has evolved from a non-problematic fact or activity to a serious criminal offence that deregulates Dutch immigration and integration policies and ultimately threatens national security. This chapter focuses on the flows of people, transnational organized crime and international terrorism. As in most other western countries, migration policies in Netherlands are increasingly characterized in terms of migration control. Simultaneously migration policies focus on integration of settled immigrants at the expense of marginalizing and excluding illegal immigrants. Keywords: Dutch criminal code; Dutch immigration policies; human smuggling; illegal immigrants; international terrorism; migration control; Netherlands; organized crime; trafficking in human beings

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of legal relations in the field of international cooperation in combating migrant smuggling and human trafficking. It has been determined that smuggling of migrants and human trafficking have long been among the transnational crimes in terms of profitability. The article proves that this area is characterized by clearly structured and organized criminal syndicates, which direct their profits to the development of other even more dangerous activities. The article describes the main features of trafficking in human beings under the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, which complements the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Research of influence of exogenous and endogenous factors on development of modern world trafficking. It is determined that international cooperation in criminal matters is one of the most important prerequisites for the organization of combating and preventing trafficking in human beings and smuggling of migrants. The article outlines the key elements of the implementation of trafficking in human beings in accordance with Article 3a of the Protocol to Prevent and Suppress Trafficking in Human Beings. A number of international normative and legal documents regulating the implementation of the state policy on combating human trafficking and smuggling of migrants have been proposed and paid attention to. It has been proven that, according to Europol, smuggling of migrants is carried out by criminal networks that provide various services: from forgery of documents to bribery of law enforcement officials. Various forms of international cooperation are superficially described: extradition of criminals, mutual legal assistance, transfer of criminal proceedings to another country, transfer of convicts, cooperation for confiscation, cooperation between law enforcement agencies, including information exchange and cooperation in investigations, joint investigation using special investigative methods.

Johanna Granville is an assistant professor of political science at Clemson University.Torgovlya Liud'mi: Sotsiokriminologicheskii Analiz, Center for the Study of Transnational Organized Crime and Corruption (TraCCC) (American University). Moscow: Akademia, 2002. 221 pp.Migrant Trafficking and Human Smuggling in Europe: A Review of the Evidence with Case Studies from Hungary, Poland, and Ukraine, International Organization for Migration (IOM). New York: United Nations Publications, 2000. 416 pp. $35.00 paperback.Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy, Kevin Bales. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. 298 pp. $16.95 paperback.Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives, David Kyle and Rey Koslowski, ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. 374 pp. $18.95 paperback.War's Dirty Secret: Rape, Prostitution, and Other Crimes Against Women, Anne Llewellyn Barstow, ed. Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2000. 224 pp. $20.00 paperback.The roaring of the Boeing's engine matched twenty-six-year-old Lena Nakhimovskaya's barely suppressed excitement. So many months of preparation compressed into this one moment! It just proved that if you worked hard enough, you could get whatever you wanted. As the wheels finally hit the runway of Berlin's Schonefeld airport, she heard a silken feminine voice speaking rapid German. The jet airliner came to a stop, and Lena gathered up her belongings: the dog-eared hardback Istoriya Berlina too thick to fit in her purse and a long To Do list. Its first item: Ask Sergei to pay for German lessons.A few minutes later she walked beside Sergei as they entered the terminal. She had met him shortly after answering the ad for a job in Berlin as housekeeper and nanny. Friendly and outgoing when he coaxed her to sign the contract (verbovka), he had barely spoken a word during the whole journey from Samara. Strange.A tall man approached them. He wore a green T-shirt with German words on it and sleeves too tight for biceps as thick as thighs. He and Sergei conversed in low tones for about twenty minutes.Eager for action, she finally burst out, Hi. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Lena Nakhimovskaya. Let's go tour the city now!The man looked at Sergei with a twinkle in his eye. Licking his upper lip, he ran his eyes slowly up and down her body. First take a tour of you, he said with a strong German accent.Sergei finally spoke to her, twisting her arm. I'll give the orders around here, devushka.Thunder clapped overhead as rain drops began to patter against the windows. Lena jerked away to rummage in her purse. Her voice rose hysterically. Where is my passport? Both men just stared at her with pity. You can't be serious.... her voice trailed off.The above scenario, albeit fictional, is unfortunately typical. In 1997 alone, 175,000 young women from Russia, the former Soviet Union, and Eastern and Central Europe were actually tricked and as commodities in the sex markets of the developed countries in Europe and the Americas. 1 Every year, at least 1 million women and children are taken from their homes and sold into slavery. 2 The United Nations' International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that as many as 4 million people worldwide are smuggled across borders each year, resulting in illicit profits amounting to $7 billion annually. 3 In addition to women from the former communist bloc, tens of thousands of other women from countries such as the Philippines, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ghana, and Nigeria are trafficked abroad each year and forced into prostitution to pay off their debts for transportation and housing. 4 Given the extent and duration of the problem of global human trafficking and, more specifically, forced prostitution, astonishingly few people fully understand it. In Article 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons that supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (2000), human trafficking is defined as,the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, the abuse of power or position of vulnerability or 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. …

"Immigration and Criminal Law in the European Union: the Legal Measures and Social Consequences of Criminal Law in Member States on Trafficking and Smuggling in Human Beings" published on 01 Jan 2006 by Brill | Nijhoff.

Human trafficking has often been discussed as a downside of globalization and is now identified as one of the fastest-growing areas of international organized criminal activity. The UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime was adopted in 2000 with the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (hereinafter, the Trafficking Protocol). The significance of the protocol is that it includes labor exploitation and the removal of organs in addition to sexual exploitation in its definition of trafficking; under it, “trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, 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 labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude, or the removal of organs.”1