By Andrea Nichols and  Erin Heil

The current academic discourse examining human trafficking is lacking in focus on survivors with a disability. The increased likelihood of abuse experienced by people with a disability is well documented in the research literature, and a small body of research indicates heightened sex trafficking victimization of minor girls with a disability. Yet, very little research specifically examines sex and/or labor trafficking of people with a disability, and no systematic research analyzes prosecuted cases of trafficking with disability as the focal point of analysis. Drawing from a content analysis of 18 federal and 17 state cases of human trafficking, the current study specifically aimed to increase our understandings of sex and labor trafficking involving survivors with a disability. The findings revealed the following patterns and themes: 1) the type of trafficking experienced (sex, labor, or both), 2) whether state level or federal cases 3) the types of disabilities identified among trafficking survivors, 4) the nature of the relationship between traffickers and survivors, 5) methods of recruitment, 6) case outcomes; and 7) demographic characteristics of traffickers and survivors (e.g., gender/citizenship). Implications include prevention efforts in the form of developmentally grounded sex education and healthy relationships curriculum for survivors with an intellectual disability, as well as specialized anti-trafficking training for those in legal, healthcare, and social services that is inclusive of people with a disability  

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence: Vol. 7: Iss. 1, Article 1.

By Robin E. Klabbers, Andrea Hughes, Meredith Dank, Kelli N. O’Laughlin, Mutaawe Rogers & Hanni Stoklosa 

Human trafficking is a global public health issue that is associated with serious short- and long-term morbidity. To address and prevent human trafficking, vulnerabilities to human trafficking and forces sustaining it need to be better understood among specific subpopulations. We aimed to explore risk and protective factors for human trafficking, the health impact of exploitation, and barriers and facilitators of seeking help throughout the human trafficking trajectory among forced labor and sex trafficking victims in Kampala, Uganda.

Methods

Between March and November 2020, in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 108 victims of forced labor and sex trafficking who had completed a human trafficking survey conducted by the Uganda Youth Development Link (UYDEL). Participants who experienced various forms of exploitation were purposively invited for qualitative interviews and a convenience sample was interviewed. Interviews explored personal history, trafficking recruitment, experiences of exploitation and abuse, and experiences seeking help. Interviews were analyzed using a combination of deductive and inductive thematic analysis. Themes and subthemes were organized using an adapted conceptual framework of human trafficking.

Results

Poverty and an abusive home life, frequently triggered by the death of a caretaker, underpinned vulnerability to human trafficking recruitment. Limited education, lack of social support, and survival needs pushed victims into exploitative situations. Victims of human trafficking were systematically exploited and exposed to dangerous working conditions. Victims suffered from sexually transmitted diseases, incontinence, traumatic fistulae, musculoskeletal injuries, and mental health symptoms. Lack of awareness of resources, fear of negative consequences, restrictions on movement, and dependence on the trafficker and exploitation income prevented victims from seeking help. The police and healthcare workers were the few professionals that they interacted with, but these interactions were oftentimes negative experiences.

Conclusions

To address and prevent human trafficking, localized interventions are needed at all stages of the human trafficking trajectory. Health impacts of human trafficking are severe. As some of the few professionals trafficking victims interact with, police and healthcare workers are important targets for anti-trafficking training. Improved understanding of human trafficking drivers and barriers and facilitators to seeking help can inform the design of necessary interventions.

  Global Health Research and Policy (2023) 8:52 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41256-023-00332-z

By Andreas Harsono  

  A violent attack by security forces and an ultranationalist mob on a West Papuan student dormitory in Surabaya, East Java, on August 17, 2019, prompted street protests in at least 33 cities across Indonesia. Bolstering the protests was a social media campaign called #PapuanLivesMatter, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States seeking racial justice. The Indonesian authorities arrested hundreds for joining the anti-racism protests, and 109 people were convicted for “treason.” “If It’s Not Racism, What Is It?” finds that the protests renewed discussions on racial discrimination in Indonesia against Indigenous Papuans because of their ethnic origin, and sparked fresh demands for sovereignty for West Papua. It profiles cases of Papuan activists prosecuted after the Papuan Lives Matter protests and describes ongoing human rights violations rooted in racial discrimination, in particular, the right to education and the highest attainable standard of health. It also documents recent abuses by security forces and Papuan militants during the ongoing armed conflict in West Papua. Over the past six decades, Indonesian authorities, in countering the pro-independence movement and insurgency in West Papua, have often promoted divisiveness by describing Papuans as unruly and violent. The report calls on the Indonesian government to review regulations and practices that marginalize the community, to allow foreign journalists and international rights monitors to visit the territory, and to conduct public education to end racism against people of Papuan ethnic origin.  

New York: Human Rights Watch, 2024. 86p.

By  Alyna C. Smith and Michele LeVoy

  Impact of insecure residence status on safety and access to justice The criminalisation of irregular migration makes people who are undocumented fearful of engaging with public authorities, and especially with the police, because of the risk that they will be detained and ordered to leave the territory as a result. This distrust is worsened by policing and surveillance of migrant and minority communities. The detention and deportation of people who have experienced abuse and mistreatment is a form of secondary victimisation. The systematic failure of the state to recognise, investigate and remedy abuses committed against undocumented victims denies them recognition and accountability.   

Belgium, PICUM, 2021, 44pg