This qualitative study examines the link between human trafficking, trauma, and khat addiction among Ethiopian women who were trafficked to the Middle East. Through in-depth interviews with 20 survivors aged 24–35, the study reveals that khat addiction is primarily driven by trauma, rejection by family members, and poverty. The study also highlights the pathways to addiction, including coercion, peer pressure, and poor employment opportunities. The effects of khat addiction include physical health damage, psychological addiction, social isolation, and an increased risk of HIV infection. The study also highlights the limited nature of existing support systems, particularly trauma-informed mental health care, economic reintegration programs, and stigma-reduction programs. The implications of the study include the need for trauma-integrated interventions and specific policies to combat trauma, ease economic desperation, and reduce harm. The study's limitations include a cross-sectional design and a small sample size, which necessitate longitudinal observation. However, the study suggests comprehensive strategies to disrupt the trauma-addiction cycle, social re-entry, and systemic assistance as priorities.

Young refugees are at risk for human trafficking throughout their migration journey. Unaccompanied minor refugees (UMRs) experience trauma in their home country, during their smuggling experience, and in host countries. Additionally, governments’ refugee and asylum laws and interconnected policies create slow violence , that is, gradual and cannot be traced to a single entity. We explored how prior trauma coupled with Swedish policies and laws exacted a slow violence on UMRs. We analyzed UMRs’ narratives ( n = 7) and surveys ( n = 18) and accounts from the helping network ( n = 19) for trauma at each phase. Our results indicated that some UMRs experience trauma similar to the risk factors for child trafficking along with other trauma and experience new risks created by asylum policies and laws. We provided suggestions to governments to mitigate trafficking risk for newly arrived UMR groups, especially those with cumulative trauma and high risk for human trafficking.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of the SOSEK MALINDO (Malaysian-Indonesian Socio-Economic) regional collaboration program in addressing human trafficking, coordinated by the Regional Border Management Agency (BPPD) of the Riau Islands Province (Kepri). The Riau Islands Province, which borders Malaysia and Singapore, is a strategic entry point vulnerable to transnational crimes, including human trafficking. The main factors driving the people of Kepri to choose illegal routes to become Indonesian Migrant Workers (TKI) to Malaysia are economic pressure, limited job opportunities, attractive promises from brokers (tekong), complex and expensive official bureaucracy, and a lack of accurate information about official procedures. This situation is exploited by human trafficking networks through hidden routes, illegal ports, and methods of illegal labor and sexual exploitation. Although SOSEK MALINDO aims to improve the socio-economic welfare of communities in border areas and indirectly functions to reduce vulnerability to human trafficking, this program does not specifically make human trafficking its main focus. The BPPD plays a very important role as a liaison in cooperation with the Indonesian National Police, Immigration, and BP3MI for prevention and supervision. However, the BPPD faces challenges such as limited funding, overlapping authority between institutions, and a lack of accurate data on human trafficking. Strategic recommendations include making human trafficking a primary focus of the SOSEK MALINDO forum agenda, establishing a dedicated cross-border human trafficking task force, strengthening the BPPD's role in coordination and information gathering, and involving local communities, NGOs, and international organizations in mitigation efforts.

Based on article (Shelley, 2010) Human Trafficking is the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving individuals through force, fraud, or corcecion for the purpose of exploiting them profit. This exploitation may include forced labor, sexual slavery, or other forms of commercial sexual exploitation. It is considered a serious violation of human rights and includes a form of modern slavery, a crime against humanity. Human trafficking is a global threat that requires serious attention and real action. Factors such as poverty, political instability, and lack of public awareness make human trafficking increasingly difficult to eradicate. Therefore, there is a need for international cooperation, government, and community cooperation to prevent, protect, and recover victims of human trafficking. Human trafficking is a serious crime that continues to grow, including in Cambodia, which is vulnerable due to geographical and socioeconomic factors. This study aims to analyze the handling of human trafficking cases in Cambodia from the perspective of international legal policy. Sexual exploitation, forced labor, and organ trafficking are the main forms of this crime. Although Cambodia has adopted various laws, its implementation is still hampered by limited resources, corruption, and weak cooperation between countries. International community support such as the Palermo Protocol has helped, but law enforcement remains inconsistent. This study emphasizes the importance of stricter law enforcement and an adequate rehabilitation system for victims. Collaboration between governments and NGOs is urgently needed to create effective solutions and better protection for victims of human trafficking.

This article examines the trafficking of women through a restorative justice lens, using a case study from China, to explore the complex realities of human trafficking for forced marriage. It analyses how current criminal justice policies and practices address this longstanding social ill, the search for innovative responses alongside conventional legal interventions, and the structural and ideological constraints that limit the development of restorative justice practices. The findings reveal that, while trafficking in women remains a persistent issue, official responses beyond the criminal justice system remain limited. Recent policy trends emphasising a balance between leniency and severity have not displaced the predominance of punitive approaches. While restorative programmes are readily applied to juvenile offenders, minor infractions or ‘victimless’ offences, their extension to serious and sensitive crimes – such as trafficking in women which carries harsh penalties, including capital punishment – is highly restricted. Drawing on insights from a jurisdiction where justice models are profoundly shaped by distinctive political, cultural and institutional nuances, the article contributes to scholarly debates at the intersection of human trafficking, gender-based violence and restorative justice.

Spring of Hope is a unit of DMI, which runs “Prevention cum Rehabilitation Program-PRP” for girl victims of trafficking in Tanzania since 2011. So far, over 1500 girls victims of trafficking have been identified and reunified with their families/guardians. However, about 900 children have completed four vocational skill training, awarded with course completion certifications, and created job employability opportunities for them to earn a regular income to cover their basic needs and the needs of the family. Between 2011 and 2014, DMI-SOH accommodated only 30 girls for four vocational skill training, namely beautician, computer, tailoring, and catering. The DMI-SOH has increased the number of admissions from 30 to 72 girls since 2015, and also included catering skills in the rehabilitation program. DMI-SOH noticed that there are various reasons for girls to move or run out of their homes, native communities. While some are forced by their family members to enter into trafficking world, and their holistic growth and development are exploited and abused completely. To stop human trafficking against female children, DMI-SOH has initiated various awareness programs using various platforms to sensitise 44,875 communities to act, and various other stakeholders, including government officials, to strictly implement the “Anti-trafficking in Persons Act-2008” to stop the human trafficking issue in Tanzania. DMI-SOH has carried out an impact study on human trafficking issues through this program, and even this study is an initiative of DMI-SOH to assess the community’s understanding about child safety and to assess the prevailing practices of children’s movement out of their homes. Since 2011, DMI-SOH has been addressing human trafficking issues in Tanzania. Over 1500 girls victims of trafficking are rescued, counseled, provided four vocational skill training, and reintegrated with their families/guardians. Over 34,875 local community members and various other stakeholders have been sensitized on the human trafficking issue since 2015. This study aims to assess the community's understanding of child safety and the prevailing practices of human trafficking.

Human trafficking remains a significant social and economic challenge in Nepal, exacerbated by limited awareness among community people and inadequate regulatory frameworks to ensure ethical recruitment practices. This article highlights the pioneering efforts of Forum for Nation Building (FNB) Nepal, which has implemented community-based programs to promote safer migration and countering human trafficking. Through community mobile legal clinics, FNB Nepal raises awareness about fraud prevention, labor migration channels, and the principles of ethical recruitment, reaching aspiring migrant workers directly at the local level. Additionally, FNB Nepal's Migration School initiative educates school youth on the risks of trafficking, promoting informed decision-making and safe migration practices. This article also points out persistent gaps in law enforcement and survivor support, and calls for comprehensive reforms aligned with Nepal’s commitments to international conventions.

Since the United Nations adopted the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (the “Palermo Protocol”) in 2000, a global campaign against human trafficking has emerged. Despite significant progress over the last two decades—supported by billions of dollars in investment—our understanding of effective prevention and response strategies remains limited, particularly those that prioritize victim-centered and trauma-informed approaches (TIC). The dearth of scientific evidence has not stopped funding agencies and service providers from marching forward, touting treatment principles with manualized services and moving testimonials. A growing number of researchers and policymakers are beginning to demand evidence on intervention efficacies, urge intervention development research, and push for accountability for the massive investment in this field. This paper points out the current ill-defined emphasis on victim-centered and trauma-informed interventions and attempts to give content and clarification to what TIC may pertain. This paper ends with an empirical attempt by one leading funding agency that took a deliberate path with a series of initiatives that required intervention development research, direct involvement of the target populations in program planning and implementation, phased scale-up of programming services, as well as rigorous impact evaluation.

Trafficking in women and forced marriage are serious problems in current society, especially more severe in rural areas of China. The underlying causes involve multiple factors such as gender inequality, economic disparity, patriarchy, and insufficient law enforcement. Based on the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on gender equality (SDG 5), reducing inequality (SDG 10), and peace and justice (SDG 16), this paper takes the case of the trafficked woman XIAO HUAMEI in Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province as an example to explore the causes of trafficking in women and forced marriage in China. The research adopts a combined approach of case study and literature review. Through research, it conducts an in-depth analysis of the XIAO HUAMEI case and thereby analyzes the issue of trafficking in women in rural areas of China. The research indicates that promoting gender equality, narrowing the economic gap between urban and rural areas, economically and educationally empowering women, and strengthening the judicial system are effective ways to reduce trafficking in women.

Human trafficking constitutes a form of transnational organized crime that results in serious violations of human rights and places victims in highly vulnerable positions, both physically, psychologically, and legally. Within the framework of international law, the Palermo Protocol serves as the principal legal instrument that promotes a victim-centered approach, one of which is reflected in Article 7, which regulates the protection of victims’ legal status, including the possibility of granting temporary or permanent residence permits in the receiving State. As a State Party, Indonesia has adopted this commitment through Law Number 21 of 2007 on the Eradication of the Crime of Human Trafficking. This article aims to analyze the regulation of victim protection under Article 7 of the Palermo Protocol, examine its implementation within Law Number 21 of 2007, and identify normative gaps between international law and national law in the protection of victims of human trafficking. This research employs a normative juridical method using statutory and conceptual approaches by examining international legal instruments, national legislation, and relevant legal literature. The findings indicate that Law Number 21 of 2007 has generally adopted the principles of victim protection; however, it has not explicitly regulated the protection of victims’ legal status as mandated by Article 7 of the Palermo Protocol. This normative gap potentially results in legal uncertainty and increases the risk of secondary victimization of victims of human trafficking. Therefore, regulatory harmonization is necessary to strengthen victim protection based on human rights principles and in accordance with international legal standards.

Child trafficking is an organized crime that exploits children in various forms and is still prevalent in Indonesia. This continues despite law enforcement efforts and regulations on child protection in an attempt to combat it. The purpose of this study is to examine the efforts made in handling child trafficking crimes in Bandar Lampung City through a case study approach to Case Number 311/Pid.Sus/2024/PN Tjk. The methods used are a normative legal approach and a legal approach. The findings of the study indicate that the crime prevention strategy is pursued through penal mechanisms with the application of criminal provisions based on Article 83 of Law Number 17 of 2016 of the Republic of Indonesia, which stipulates Government Regulation in Lieu of Law Number 1 of 2016 as the second amendment to Law Number 23 of 2002 concerning Child Protection, as well as a non penal approach in the form of strengthening supervision, optimizing the Task Force on Human Trafficking Crimes, increasing public awareness, active reporting, supporting victim rehabilitation, and education to strengthen child protection and resilience.

The exploitation and human trafficking practices against Indonesian migrant workers employed on foreign-flagged fishing vessels demonstrate the weakness of cross-jurisdictional legal protection. This study aims to analyze the regulatory framework governing legal protection for migrant workers in the fisheries sector; to examine the legal strategies and policies that may be developed to strengthen such protection. The research employs a normative juridical method, incorporating statutory, conceptual, and case approaches, and uses qualitative descriptive analysis of primary, secondary, and tertiary legal materials. The findings indicate that Law No. 18 of 2017 and Government Regulation No. 22 of 2022 provide a strong legal basis in Indonesia; however, inter-agency coordination gaps and limited cross-border supervision hinder their effective implementation. To reinforce both legal and economic protection, institutional synergy, consistent supervision, and the ratification of the ILO Convention No. 188 of 2007 and the Cape Town Agreement of 2012 as supporting international legal instruments are required. This study contributes to the strengthening of institutional and cross-jurisdictional policy synergy to ensure the protection of Indonesian migrant workers in the fisheries sector through an integrated legal and economic approach.

Human Trafficking: Challenges and Innovative Approaches for Research, Policy and Practice

This article examines migration flows to neoextractivist enclaves within the framework of necropolitics and the political ecology of migration. It explores how degraded territories, shaped by illegal mining, human trafficking, and the sex trade, function as both forces of expulsion and attraction. The theoretical framework integrates concepts of accumulation by dispossession and extractive biopolitics to understand how state control, labor precarization, and violence create differentiated mobility regimes, particularly affecting migrant women. The study focuses on Madre de Dios in the Peruvian Amazon, a region characterized by environmental degradation and territorial control through illicit economies, despite the state's claims of biodiversity protection. Using qualitative methods, including document analysis and interviews with local actors, the research reveals that historical configurations of territorial exploitation influence migration patterns in these enclaves. The article contributes to the political ecology of migration by demonstrating how extractive economies and structural inequalities shape migration flows in necropolitical contexts.

The recent shift in United States immigration policies has led to heightened enforcement measures, expedited deportations, and increased surveillance of migrant communities. These policies have exacerbated fear and distrust among migrant populations, particularly undocumented individuals, and have negatively impacted their well-being and willingness to engage in research. This methodological article synthesizes ethical challenges, safety concerns, and field-informed strategies for conducting qualitative, community-engaged research with migrant populations during periods of heightened immigration enforcement. It highlights approaches that ensure ethical engagement, build trust, and safeguard participants while advancing intersectional and policy-oriented research to improve health. Drawing on the authors’ collective experience across multiple community-engaged qualitative projects (including HIV prevention, human trafficking, and violence research) conducted in the United States and informed by parallel work in Canada and Mexico, this methodological article proposes three strategies for ethical research in restrictive immigration climates: (1) building trust through community engagement and partnerships with nonprofits, advocacy groups, and faith-based organizations; (2) prioritizing safety and confidentiality by implementing secure data practices, pivoting research when necessary, and reducing dependency on the collection of identifiable information; and (3) employing intersectional and policy-oriented analysis to address the compounded vulnerabilities migrants face. In times that challenge the well-being of migrant communities and create barriers to public health research, a strong commitment to ethical engagement, safety, and advocacy is needed. Scholars can contribute to knowledge production that centers on migrants’ voices and advances social and physical well-being by forging meaningful partnerships, ensuring participant protection, and leveraging research for policy transformation.

This research addresses the challenge of automated detection and classification of multiple types of violence from image data using deep learning techniques. Given the societal importance of timely and accurate violence recognition, this study explores both custom Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architectures and state-of-the-art transfer learning models pre-trained on ImageNet, including VGG16 and InceptionV3. The dataset comprises images across five violence categories—brutality, domestic violence, human trafficking, rape, and sexual harassment—collected and augmented to enhance model generalizability. Methods involved image preprocessing, data augmentation, and training models with categorical cross-entropy loss optimized via Adam. Transfer learning approaches outperformed the custom CNN, The models demonstrated varying degrees of success in classifying violence image categories. Transfer learning models, particularly VGG16 and InceptionV3, outperformed the custom CNN, achieving overall accuracy improvements from approximately 75% to 76%. These results confirm the effectiveness of leveraging pre-trained networks for complex image classification tasks with limited datasets. Class-wise analysis through confusion matrices and derived metrics such as precision, recall, and F1-score demonstrated varied detection performance, highlighting difficulties in differentiating visually similar classes. The results affirm that leveraging pre-trained deep architectures substantially benefits the classification of limited, complex image datasets. This paper contributes by providing a comprehensive evaluation of deep learning approaches for violence classification in images, motivating their use in practical monitoring and intervention applications. Future work is suggested to integrate temporal data and attention mechanisms to further enhance detection performance. The findings underscore the feasibility and importance of automated violence recognition systems for social safety.

Money laundering poses a significant challenge to the economic stability of the world and the security of nations and human rights. Since illegal financial flows undermine the legal markets, corrupt the competition and promote the criminal life, there is a need to explore the wide-range of implications of such crimes, especially in the context of the United States economy. The paper explores the intersect between money laundering and human rights abuses and U.S. economic security, as well as the importance of effective Anti Money Laundering (AML) systems in reducing these problems. In the article, the author focuses on the argument that a tightening of AML regulations can positively impact the United States in terms of economic integrity, protection of human rights, and national security. The United States may reduce the concomitant expenses of corruption, human exploitation, and terrorism by averting the use of illicit funds to fund criminal groups and other human trafficking activities. In addition, a proper AML compliance will generate investor confidence, enhance transparency in the capital market, and sustainable economic growth, which is necessary to stabilize the U.S. economy. The study highlights the need to have wholesome, data-driven policy frameworks in place to curb the issue of financial crime and suggests a multi-layered solution to this problem, involving economic, legal, and human rights viewpoints. In this paper, the author provides the policy analysis and recommendations to the U.S. financial regulators, policymakers, and international organizations to improve AML systems, reduce the economic and human rights consequences of illicit financial flows, and increase the financial security of the globe. Finally, the findings state that increasing AML compliance will ensure the economic future of the United States, its increased credibility in the world, and its share in the process of ensuring international human rights.

Historically drawing from clinical and scientific methods and principles, evaluation as a discipline has privileged notions such as ‘objectivity’ and replicability, often overlooking the role of power and context. Despite its portrayal as value-neutral and objective, evaluation, like many other discourses, remains steeped in social norms and implicit bias. There is a growing need to recognise and dismantle this entrenched bias, acknowledging the need to move beyond a colonial framework from the Global North with metrics that perpetuate these epistemic hierarchies. Particularly in contexts as complex as anti-trafficking, we argue that evaluation frameworks are rarely neutral and often reflect power asymmetries. Using the case of anti-trafficking debates, this paper argues for a decolonial lens towards research and evaluation frameworks that seek to amplify voices from the Global South. We argue that decolonised evaluative practices can jumpstart the journey towards capturing nuanced realities of affected communities, in more inclusive and contextually relevant ways.

Human trafficking includes various forms of exploitation, including recruitment, collection, transportation, and forced labor of recruited girls and women, forced sexual exploitation, forced sexual exploitation for other sexual purposes (pornography), forced marriage or adoption under the guise of family or free domestic service, forced crime, forced begging, and illegal organ donation. Therefore, it is necessary to develop recommendations on preventive measures based on public participation to identify and stop the causes and conditions of sexual exploitation

Survivors of human trafficking, including commercial sex and labor exploitation, benefit from comprehensive, trauma-informed services, but more research is needed to establish best practices and identify effective models and strategies. The present study explored the lived experiences of seven direct service providers in agencies that support the recovery and development of human trafficking survivors in Kentucky. The aim of this study was to inform our understanding of how trauma-informed care better addresses the needs of human trafficking survivors in health care and social services settings. Using qualitative, narrative inquiry methods, this study identified trauma-informed models and strategies currently employed in Kentucky agencies that serve trafficking survivors and participants' experiences with successful strategies and barriers to promoting trauma-informed care. The theoretical framework that guided this study is Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. Participants' stories were collected through artifact presentations, semistructured interviews, guided questionnaires, and a focus group. Data analysis revealed the themes of (a) education and training, (b) responding to needs, (c) safety and transparency, (d) trusting relationships, and (e) standards of care. Implications for legislation in Kentucky to implement standards of care and support preventative efforts are explored. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).