From Conflict to Common Ground: Why anti-trafficking can be compatible with challenging the systemic drivers of everyday abuses

Response to the ATR debate proposition ‘It is worth undermining the anti-trafficking cause in order to more directly challenge the systems producing everyday abuses within the global economy.

War, Displacement, and Human Trafficking and Exploitation: Findings from an evidence-gathering Roundtable in Response to the War in Ukraine

Millions of people have been displaced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Despite increasing concerns about the associated risks of human trafficking and exploitation, evidence remains sparse. To address this gap, and explore relevant experiences and perspectives, we co-convened an international online roundtable together with the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner. The roundtable addressed emergent issues, key concerns and recommendations, with a particular focus on the UK’s response to people fleeing Ukraine. Over one hundred people from various professional backgrounds including healthcare, lawyers, charities, law enforcement, policy makers and academics participated. Qualitative thematic analysis identified five major themes: 1) conflict can create and compound opportunities for trafficking and exploitation; 2) the UK’s visa-based response to Ukrainian refugees lacks clarity, resourcing and accountability; 3) information gaps and overloads, both for people seeking sanctuary and those supporting them, can exacerbate risks of trafficking and exploitation; 4) insecurity, fear and the broader political climate around immigration and asylum create challenging conditions to respond; and 5) longer-term strategic planning around displaced Ukrainians is vital but appears lacking. Here, we discuss the key findings from the roundtable, situating them within the broader literature and reflecting critically on their implications for evidence-gathering, research, policy and practice

Precarious work and labour market abuses: mapping the UK landscape

A new study into the scale and nature of labour market non-compliance in the UK will generate the first representative assessment of the extent of labour market abuses faced by people in precarious work in the UK. Ella Cockbain and Krisztián Pósch write that the study will provide in-depth insights into workers’ and employers’ lived experiences

“Spotting the signs” of trafficking recruitment online:Exploring the characteristics of advertisements targeted at migrant job-seekers

Despite considerable concern about how human trafficking offenders may use the Internet to recruit their victims, arrange logistics or advertise services, the Internet-trafficking nexus remains unclear. This study explored the prevalence and correlates of a set of commonly-used indicators of labour trafficking in online job advertisements. Taking a case study approach, we focused on a major Lithuanian website aimed at people seeking work abroad. We examined a snapshot of job advertisements (n = 430), assessing both their general characteristics (e.g. industry, destination country) and the presence of trafficking indicators. The vast majority (98.4%) contained at least one indicator, suggesting certain "indicators" may in fact be commonplace characteristics of this labour market. Inferential statistical tests revealed significant but weak relationships between the advertisements’ characteristics and the number and nature of indicators present. While there may be value in screening job advertisements to identify potential labour trafficking and exploitation, additional information is needed to ascertain actual labour trafficking. We conclude with an outlook on automated approaches to identifying cases of possible trafficking and a discussion of the benefits and ethical concerns of a data science-driven approach

The Ethics of Going Deep: Challenges in Machine Learning for Sensitive Security Domains

Sometimes, machine learning models can determine the trajectory of human life, and a series of cascading ethical failures could be irreversible. Ethical concerns are nevertheless set to increase, in particular when the injection of algorithmic forms of decision-making occurs in highly sensitive security contexts. In cybercrime, there have been cases of algorithms that have not identified racist and hateful speeches, as well as missing the identification of Image Based Sexual Abuse cases. Hence, this paper intends to add a voice of caution on the vulnerabilities pervading the different stages of a machine learning development pipeline and the ethical challenges that these potentially nurture and perpetuate. To highlight both the issues and potential fixes in an adversarial environment, we use Child Sexual Exploitation and its implications on the Internet as a case study, being 2021 its worst year according to the Internet Watch Foundation

Missing children: risks, repeats and responses

Investigating reports of missing children is a major source of demand for the police in the UK. Repeat disappearances are common, can indicate underlying vulnerabilities and have been linked with various forms of exploitation and abuse. Inspired by research on repeat victimisation, this paper examines the prevalence and temporal patterns of repeat missing episodes by children, as well as the characteristics of those involved. Using data on all missing children incidents recorded by one UK police service in 2015 (n = 3,352), we find that: (a) 75% of missing incidents involving children were repeats, i.e. attributed to children who had already been reported missing in 2015; (b) a small proportion of repeatedly missing children (n = 59; 4%) accounted for almost a third of all missing children incidents (n = 952, 28%); (c) over half of all first repeat disappearances occurred within four weeks of an initial police recorded missing episode; and (d) children recorded as missing ten times or more over the one year study period were significantly more likely than those recorded missing once to be teenagers, in the care system or to have drug and/or alcohol dependencies. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for future research and the prevention of repeat disappearances by children

Innovations in empirical research into human trafficking: introduction to the special edition

Introduction to special issue Crime, Law and Social Change on 'Innovations in empirical research into human trafficking'

Labor Trafficking of Men in the Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining Camps of Madre de Dios, a Reflection from the Diaspora Networks Perspective

“Defined as “labor intensive, low tech mineral exploration processing,” the artisanal and small-scale gold mining is expanding worldwide due to the increase in the prize of gold and the demand for the mineral. The industry creates jobs for the poor contributing to the alleviation of poverty in some developing countries, but the lack or regularization of the sector has occasioned environmental and social problems, human trafficking among them. In this industry trafficking situations have traditionally been perceived as exploitation or as violations of worker’s rights, while policies have targeted sexual trafficking of women, leaving vulnerable miners unprotected. That is the case of Madre de Dios, a gold enclave in the Peruvian Amazon that has become an emblematic case study of a modern gold rush. Peru has an extensive legal framework to fight human trafficking; however, this country follows a state-centric, security-based approach, focused on sexual exploitation of women trafficked by criminal networks. This article compiles fieldwork research to conclude that the trafficking dynamics in Peru can be described as a domestic phenomenon, part of an affective economy of local diasporas. Thus, it is argued, the focus of state’s human trafficking strategy needs to adjust to this reality and move beyond the security approach