Failure across borders: the spread of bad anti-trafficking

Mendel, Jonathan; Sharapov, Kiril

Abstract

Ineffective and harmful anti-trafficking is being internationalised in some striking ways, partly in response to representations of trafficking networks as borderless and omnipresent. Everything from damaging anti-trafficking raids to poor-quality legislation and technology are being rolled out through anti-trafficking networks with impressive cross-border mobility. Against this, we argue that bad anti-trafficking policy and practice need to be made less mobile: we should focus attention on stopping anti-trafficking practices that do not work, switching resources to those that are more promising, and further researching what may or may not work. In the meantime, more effort and money should be directed to advancing the interests of precarious workers in ways that are not framed as anti-trafficking.

Citation

Mendel, J., & Sharapov, K. (2021, August). Failure across borders: the spread of bad anti-trafficking. Paper presented at RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2021, London

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2021
• Conference Location: London
• Start Date: Aug 31, 2021
• End Date: Sep 3, 2021
• Deposit Date: Sep 1, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 1, 2021
• Keywords: human trafficking, migration, policy, crime
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2798776