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Social Sciences
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Exploring the Interface between Human Trafficking, “Modern Slavery” and Asylum
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Exploring the Interface between Human Trafficking, “Modern Slavery” and Asylum

A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760). This special issue belongs to the section "International Migration".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 22851

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Patricia Hynes

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Applied Social Studies, University of Bedfordshire, Bedfordshire LU1 3JU, UK
Interests: forced migration; refuge; asylum; human trafficking; research ethics; trust and mistrust; human rights; humanitarian contexts
Dr. Hannah Lewis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TU, UK
Interests: forced migration; migrant integration; experiences of and responses to forced labour, “modern slavery” and human trafficking

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

By the end of 2019, close to 80 million people were recorded as being forcibly displaced across the globe. This figure is made up of people who policy designate as refugees, internally displaced persons, asylum seekers and stateless populations. Although rarely studied through a forced migration lens, people who experience human trafficking are subjected to degrees of force, coercion or coercive control, with debates about agency and consent ongoing. However, people who are trafficked are generally not included in the picture of forced migration circulated globally.

This Special Issue addresses the interface between human trafficking, “modern slavery” and asylum. Human trafficking and “modern slavery” are routinely treated as exceptional phenomena, requiring new policy, bespoke criminal enforcement, unique technological interventions and widespread public awareness. Much of this response ignores the intersection between forced migration and processes of exploitation in destination countries. Policy and legislative policy responses towards people seeking asylum are becoming increasingly restrictive and hostile, with people living in contexts that are a mix of care, control, liminality, precarity and uncertainty. Definitional differences, distinct legal frameworks, separate recording of statistics and separate literatures reify segregated policy agendas around human trafficking and asylum further.

The empirical papers in this Special Issue will look at the intersections and (dis)connections between human trafficking, “modern slavery”, forced labour and asylum, including how knowledge production occurs. We are interested in papers which respond to the question of how these distinct areas are related, what can be said about the binary positions of “forced” and “voluntary” migration in these areas, considerations of how the agency of people migrating sits within these debates, plus what structural, contextual and socio-ecological positions issues are at play. Papers might also address how the development of the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migrants and the Sustainable Development Goals relate to this interface.

Dr. Patricia Hynes
Dr. Hannah Lewis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • human trafficking
  • modern slavery
  • asylum
  • refuge
  • forced labour
  • forced migration

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 266 KiB  
Article
Combatting the Trafficking of Vietnamese Nationals to Britain: Cooperative Challenges for Vietnam and the UK
by Chung Pham
Soc. Sci. 2023, 12(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12010010 - 26 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3162
Abstract
The issue of Vietnamese nationals consistently having some of the highest numbers of referrals into the UK’s National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is increasingly apparent. However, this did not gather nationwide attention until the Essex tragedy of October 2019 which saw 39 Vietnamese nationals [...] Read more.
The issue of Vietnamese nationals consistently having some of the highest numbers of referrals into the UK’s National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is increasingly apparent. However, this did not gather nationwide attention until the Essex tragedy of October 2019 which saw 39 Vietnamese nationals found lifeless in a lorry after they were brought into the country by a criminal network of human traffickers and smugglers. This paper seeks to understand the circumstances of these Vietnamese victims of human trafficking to the Britain by reviewing the situation in both countries—Vietnam and the UK. Three instances of Vietnamese nationals trafficked to the UK have been chosen as case studies. Through semi-structured interviews, issues regarding how voluntary migration led these vulnerable people into slavery will be explored and this will be analysed alongside a review of literature in the field. This paper reveals the complexity of the matter, which is primarily derived from the multinational nature of trafficking and the different attitudes and approaches of the various countries involved, as well as the difficulty facing the authorities when combating this particular crime involving this specific group of vulnerable people, especially in terms of victim support. The ultimate goal of this paper is to offer authorities and practitioners in both countries a fresh review of the challenges in supporting these victims, and to redirect their focus on the obstacles to addressing Vietnamese trafficking. These obstacles include the prevalence of—often illicit—labour-exporting companies in Vietnam, instances of initial voluntary engagement in labour migration relationships which later become coercive, and the failure of the UK and Vietnam to agree what constitutes a genuine trafficking victim. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring the Interface between Human Trafficking, “Modern Slavery” and Asylum)
20 pages, 335 KiB  
Article
Protecting Trafficked Persons through Refugee Protection
by Jean-Pierre Gauci
Soc. Sci. 2022, 11(7), 294; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11070294 - 8 Jul 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3066
Abstract
This paper critically engages with the long-term protection of trafficked persons. In particular, it assesses whether, and the conditions under which, trafficked persons can be considered as refugees under Article 1A of the Geneva Refugee Convention. The importance of international refugee law in [...] Read more.
This paper critically engages with the long-term protection of trafficked persons. In particular, it assesses whether, and the conditions under which, trafficked persons can be considered as refugees under Article 1A of the Geneva Refugee Convention. The importance of international refugee law in this context is highlighted both by the number of trafficked persons seeking international protection and by its suitability to overcome the shortcomings of existing protection provisions in anti-trafficking instruments, which remain discretionary, conditional, and limited in scope. The paper begins by discussing the relevance of refugee protection for trafficked persons. It then applies the various components of the refugee definition to trafficked persons, focusing on the concepts of persecution and membership of a particular social group. Within these, it focuses on aspects of the debate that are currently missing from the broader literature. This includes the question of whether trafficking qua trafficking meets the threshold of persecution and the value of developments in international law in that regard, the merit of using race as a convention ground in cases of trafficked persons, and the contribution of legislative developments recognizing former victims of trafficked persons as members of a particular social group. It then concludes by highlighting the benefits of refugee protection for trafficked persons and indicating the challenges on the road to that protection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring the Interface between Human Trafficking, “Modern Slavery” and Asylum)
20 pages, 1381 KiB  
Article
Exploring the Interface between Asylum, Human Trafficking and/or ‘Modern Slavery’ within a Hostile Environment in the UK
by Patricia Hynes
Soc. Sci. 2022, 11(6), 246; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11060246 - 1 Jun 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5755
Abstract
While the drivers and processes of forced migration may overlap for people seeking refuge or experiencing human trafficking, responses are invariably rooted in legislation and policy rather than empirical enquiry. In the UK, tightening of legislation around asylum has, for the past three [...] Read more.
While the drivers and processes of forced migration may overlap for people seeking refuge or experiencing human trafficking, responses are invariably rooted in legislation and policy rather than empirical enquiry. In the UK, tightening of legislation around asylum has, for the past three decades, resulted in a ‘hostile environment’. During this time, a discourse around human trafficking (also referred to as ‘modern slavery’ in the UK) has emerged. This paper looks at asylum and human trafficking in the UK to consider a fractioning of protection and resulting fractioning of support for basic needs and welfare provision, provided through the establishment of parallel systems of support for both populations. This paper explores the distinctions, interface, key points of contact, and disconnects between asylum and trafficking in the UK. It details the trajectory of asylum policy, provides an overview of the pre-history to the hostile environment, the impacts of fractioning refugee protection, and what this means for trust as a result. It is argued that trust is an essential component of UK government policies but that the trajectory of asylum policy from a focus on integration to a culture of hostility runs directly counter to efforts to identify ‘victims’ of ‘modern slavery’. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring the Interface between Human Trafficking, “Modern Slavery” and Asylum)
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16 pages, 299 KiB  
Article
Crossing the Binaries of Mobility Control: Agency, Force and Freedom
by Angelo Martins, Jr. and Julia O’Connell-Davidson
Soc. Sci. 2022, 11(6), 243; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11060243 - 31 May 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3289
Abstract
This article draws on qualitative data on journeys to Europe or Brazil undertaken by adults and teenagers from Sub-Saharan African countries to develop a conceptual analysis of the blurriness of the lines drawn between supposedly different types of movement via referencing the conceptual [...] Read more.
This article draws on qualitative data on journeys to Europe or Brazil undertaken by adults and teenagers from Sub-Saharan African countries to develop a conceptual analysis of the blurriness of the lines drawn between supposedly different types of movement via referencing the conceptual binary of forced/voluntary movement (such as asylum, trafficking, smuggling). It questions the liberal model of ‘agency’ that is employed not just by state actors, but also by many antislavery, anti-trafficking, child rights, and refugee rights activists, to construct boundaries between different ‘types’ of people on the move. Conceptual divisions between refugees and economic migrants, trafficked and smuggled persons, forced and voluntary labourers, child and adult migrants, and the idea of ‘modern slavery’, deflect attention from the structures that limit the choices open to people on the move. This article argues that the voluntary/forced binary encourages a tendency to falsely conflate choice with freedom and works to preserve the illusion that human freedom is a defining feature of liberal democratic societies rather than working to universally protect the freedoms of actual living human beings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring the Interface between Human Trafficking, “Modern Slavery” and Asylum)
15 pages, 302 KiB  
Article
“God Helped Us”: Resilience, Religion and Experiences of Gender-Based Violence and Trafficking among African Forced Migrant Women
by Sandra Iman Pertek
Soc. Sci. 2022, 11(5), 201; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11050201 - 4 May 2022
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 5801
Abstract
In this article, I explore how faith and religion shaped the resilience of forced migrant women subjected to intersecting gender-based violence (GBV) and trafficking. Adopting a social constructivist perspective, I draw upon interviews with 11 Christian and 4 Muslim displaced survivors of 10 [...] Read more.
In this article, I explore how faith and religion shaped the resilience of forced migrant women subjected to intersecting gender-based violence (GBV) and trafficking. Adopting a social constructivist perspective, I draw upon interviews with 11 Christian and 4 Muslim displaced survivors of 10 African nationalities temporarily residing in Tunisia. I first outline the experiences of intersecting violence to understand what displaced survivors were resilient to, and then describe faith pathways to resilience, sometimes with spiritual struggles and unmet religious needs. I delineate ways in which personal prayers and cooperating with God enabled all but one survivor to cope with exploitation and perilous journeys toward imagined refuge. I offer insights for practitioners working with forced migrants on the move and highlight the importance of spiritual support for displaced survivors who are religious. I discuss the findings and offer implications for future research and practice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring the Interface between Human Trafficking, “Modern Slavery” and Asylum)
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