By Digidiki, V., J. Bhabha, K. Connors, H. Cook, C. Galez-Davis, C. Hansen, M. Lane, S. Laursen, and L. Wong,  The International Organization for Migration and the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University.

Despite efforts, large numbers of children continue to fall victim to traffickers worldwide, due to inequitable social, economic, environmental and political factors that engender exploitative and discriminatory practices. A critical component of countering trafficking is reliable and up-to-date data, to empirically ground interventions, though actionable data are limited, and child victims are typically hard to reach. This report, based on analysis of extensive, globally sourced data, is the first of its kind and analyses primary data from more than 69,000 victims of trafficking of 156 nationalities, trafficked in 186 countries, who registered with IOM in its 113 countries of operation, using the IOM Victims of Trafficking Database (VoTD) - the largest available international database of individual victims of trafficking.

The report shows that child trafficking is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon that continues to spread and evolve within and across borders. No age range, no gender and no nationality are immune to child trafficking; it is a truly global phenomenon. However, the study provides evidence of important trends and dynamics, linked to factors such as age, gender and geography, that help further our understanding of the phenomenon, with the potential to inform policy and programming.

Geneva: IOM, 2023. 88p.

Geri L. DimasI, Renata A. Konrad2 , Kayse Lee MaassID3 , Andrew C. Trapp

Human trafficking is a widespread and compound social, economic, and human rights issue occurring in every region of the world. While there have been an increasing number of antihuman trafficking studies from the Operations Research and Analytics domains in recent years, no systematic review of this literature currently exists. We fill this gap by providing a systematic literature review that identifies and classifies the body of Operations Research and Analytics research related to the anti-human trafficking domain, thereby illustrating the collective impact of the field to date. We classify 142 studies to identify current trends in methodologies, theoretical approaches, data sources, trafficking contexts, target regions, victim-survivor demographics, and focus within the well-established 4Ps principles. Using these findings, we discuss the extent to which the current literature aligns with the global demographics of human trafficking and identify existing research gaps to propose an agenda for Operations Research and Analytics researchers. 

. PLoS ONE 17(8), 2022: e0273708. 

By Rebecca Nhep, Kate van Doore

  Orphanage trafficking refers to the process of children being transferred or recruited into orphanages for the purpose of exploitation and profit. Whilst much work is being done on strengthening child protection systems and deinstitutionalisation, orphanage trafficking as a driver of institutionalisation remains under researched despite being an issue that heavily impacts upon the ongoing institutionalisation of children. In some countries, an ‘orphanage industry’ has even emerged due to the high levels of tourist, volunteer and foreign donor interest in assisting orphaned children. As the first project of its kind in the world, this study assesses the legal, policy and procedural frameworks in both domestic and international law across Nepal, Uganda and Cambodia, where orphanage trafficking continues to undermine domestic efforts to stem the overuse of institutionalisation of children.

Brisbane: Griffith University, 2021. 66p.

By Elina Kervinen, Natalia Ollus

  HEUNI and the Assistance system for victims of human trafficking have analysed whether trafficking of children occurs in Finland and what forms of human trafficking may exist in Finland. In addition to trafficking in human beings, the report examines exploitation related to or indicative of the same, as well as risk and vulnerability factors that create conditions for such exploitation. In addition to minors, the report included young people 18–21 years of age, as many adolescents have been exploited as minors but have either only received assistance as an adult or have been victimised after reaching adult age. The report covers exploitation of children and young persons who are members of the majority population or have a foreign background, including children and young persons who are asylum seekers. The report includes both the cases of exploitation that took place in Finland and those that were identified in Finland. This means that the actual exploitation may have occurred in Finland, in a child’s home country or country of origin, or en route to Finland. The report answers the following research questions: 1) Which forms of trafficking of children exists in Finland, 2) What kinds of cases have been reported to authorities, organisations and other actors, 3) How these parties have acted in the cases reported to them, and 4) How trafficking in children can be identified and prevented in Finland. The focus of the report is on understanding and describing the nature of the phenomenon on the basis of individual case examples. The report utilises both quantitative and qualitative information obtained from an online survey directed at professionals and interviews with experts. We have also used statistics of the Assistance system for victims of human trafficking on child victims of human trafficking and case descriptions of the forms of human trafficking experienced by children. Between 2006 and 2018, the Assistance system for victims of human trafficking assisted 55 children under 18 years of age and 141 young persons (aged 18 to 21). These figures show how many children and young persons have been guided into the assistance system, but they do not describe the extent of the phenomenon in Finland, as many cases remain unidentified as human trafficking. On the basis of this report, it appears that the exploitation of children and young people is not always seen through the framework of trafficking in human beings: rather, it is understood as some other form of exploitation. According to the assessment by experts, as obtained from interviews and the survey results, exploitation that took place in Finland was most commonly sexual exploitation, such as forced prostitution, commercial sexual exploitation of a child or sexual exploitation that occurs or begins via the Internet. The report also reveals cases of forced marriage and forced criminal activity in Finland. Sexual exploitation and forced marriages are the most common forms of exploitation experienced by children and young people in their home country or country of origin. En route to Finland, children and young people have experienced many forms of sexual exploitation and labour exploitation. According to this report, sexual exploitation appears to be the most  identifiable form of exploitation related to human trafficking.

Helsinki: European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control, affiliated with the United NationsHEUNI, 2019. 115p.

  By Anni Lietonen and Natalia Ollus

  The guide has been prepared in connection with the Action plan for effective public procurement (i.e., the Procurement Finland Strategy), coordinated by the Min - istry of Finance and the Association of Finnish Local and Re - gional Authorities. The project was built on the objectives of the Social Sustainability Group operating as part of the Pro - curement Finland Strategy, which include the promotion of human rights in public procurement and respecting funda - mental rights at work. By combating labour exploitation and human trafficking as part of public procurement procedures, contracting units can contribute to preventing fraudulent ac - tivities and crimes, and to promoting the implementation of human rights and respect for the fundamental principles of working life. The proposed measures, views and interpretations presented in this publication represent the authors' views and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the par - ties involved in the implementation of the Procurement Fin - land strategy. This guide has been prepared for the public procurement context in Finland, and for the application of Finnish laws and instructions. However, public procurers and businesses from other countries can also benefit from the content of the guide. When implementing the recom - mendations in the guide, public contracting entities must ensure that their measures comply with the na - tional procurement and data protection legislations, the Act on the Contractor’s Obligations and Liabili - ty when Work is Contracted Out, including other key obligations.   

Helsinki: European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control, affiliated with the United Nations HEUNI, 2021. 61p.  

By Alice Fereday

This report assesses risks of exploitation and labour trafficking in gold-mining areas in northern Niger and northern Mali. It examines the modalities of recruitment and employment, the risks they pose to workers and the structural factors that contribute to the vulnerability of gold miners. The report also identifies key opportunities for policy makers to address these risks while recognising the crucial role of gold mining for local livelihoods and stability.

  OCWAR-T Research Report 3 . Institute for Security Studies, 2023. 34p.

By Rebecca L. Feldmann

An inherent tension underlies the duty to prevent trafficking. On the one hand, nation-states are required to take border control measures aimed at preventing trafficking. At the same time, such measures must respect international obligations toward asylum-seekers and other migrants relating to the free movement of people. In the past twenty years, countries such as the United States have developed increasingly sophisticated systems designed to regulate and restrict the movement of people across borders. However, the same period has seen an increasing disregard for the human rights of the very people who are crossing those borders. In order to fully meet the duty to prevent trafficking, states must come to recognize the importance of involving victims of this crime in the solution, which will never happen if countries demonize all migrants as criminals and traffickers. In short, states that seek to lead the fight against human trafficking need to work with victims (including foreign national victims in the state’s territory) and other partners (such as non-governmental organizations and victims’ attorneys) to ensure that their rhetoric more closely matches reality.

Utah Law Review, 659 (2023)

By Lucia Bird

Governments need to ensure responses to migration and human smuggling don’t make it more dangerous for migrants and more lucrative for criminals. Mobility has been a key facet of resilience across much of the African continent throughout its history, and those on the move have long relied on the support of smugglers to facilitate the journey. However, the birth of the modern migrant smuggling industry as a multi-million global business is much more recent, as is the perception of the migrant smuggler as a highly organised criminal figure.

ENACT Africa, 2021. 88p.

By INTERPOL

  With this strategic analytical report, INTERPOL, under the European Union funded project ENACT, assesses how trafficking in human beings for the purpose of organ removal (THBOR) affects North and West Africa and to what extent this crime connects both regions with other parts of the world. Globally, when the supply of organs cannot be fulfilled by ethical transplant practices the supply is often done with illegally sourced organs. This implies that organs have been purchased from individuals that have been coerced, through a wide range of means, into having their organ(s) removed. Moreover, THBOR is reported to be a highly lucrative form of human trafficking, with victim -donors receiving only a small fraction of the total amount of money that organ buyers are willing to pay to brokers and the medical sector for the sourcing of organs. While this type of trafficking is believed to be largely underreported, it is important for law enforcement agencies in North and West Africa to have a nuanced approach to THBOR and to set priorities, so as to identify potential victims, investigate trafficking in human being cases that can be motivated by the organ trade and target criminal networks that facilitate THBOR. Several factors facilitate the organ trade in North and West Africa. The global shortage in organs is one of the most commonly referenced driving factor but is not the unique cause that has made THBOR a profitable business for Organized Crime Groups (OCGs).

Lyon, France: INTERPOL 2021. 38p.

by Joe Eyerman, Melissa M. Labriola, Bella González

Reducing the prevalence of all forms of human trafficking, including sex trafficking, labor trafficking, and child sexual exploitation, is a national priority that puts the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a prominent role. Given the scale, evolving nature, and complexity of labor trafficking, combating the problem poses a significant challenge. The DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) anti–human trafficking program is assessing the current state of and future needs for labor trafficking research in the United States. This effort will serve as a starting point for future social science–based S&T anti–human trafficking research and actions focused on labor trafficking.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2023. 

Edited by  Christiana Gregoriou

This open access edited collection examines representations of human trafficking in media ranging from British and Serbian newspapers, British and Scandinavian crime novels, and a documentary series, and questions the extent to which these portrayals reflect the realities of trafficking. It tackles the problematic tendency to under-report particular types of victim and forms of trafficking, and seeks to explore both dominant and marginalised points of view. The authors take a cross-disciplinary approach, utilising analytical tools from across the humanities and social sciences, including linguistics, literary and media studies, and cultural criminology. It will appeal to students, academics and policy-makers with an interest in human trafficking and its depiction in the modern day.

Cham:  Springer Nature, 2018. 160p.

By Bruce Ravesloot, Tanay Amirapu, Chandler Smith, Sehdia Mansaray ; TANGO International, Inc.

This research report critically assesses the risks and needs of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and Southeast Asia across three thematic domains: refugee protection, human trafficking, and human smuggling. The research draws from three national contexts: Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

The research explores the following questions: What is the regional and national policy landscape for refugee protection, anti-smuggling, and anti-trafficking? What are the risks and opportunities in these domains?

Denmark: Mixed Migration Centre, 2022. 97p.

By  Hui Yin Chuah

This briefing paper highlights the key findings from the Research Report, “Refugee Protection, Human Smuggling, and Trafficking in Bangladesh and Southeast Asia”. The research aims to assess the risks and needs of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and Southeast Asia across three thematic domains, with particular focus on the national contexts of Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The three domains are: protection; human trafficking; and human smuggling.

Denmark: Mixed Migration Centre, 2023. 9p.

By Kevin Fredy Hinterberge

‘Combatting’ irregular migration is one of the key challenges to migration management at EU level. The present book addresses one of the most pressing structural problems regarding the EU’s return policy: the low return rate of irregularly staying migrants. In this regard the EU Return Directive obliges Member States to issue a return decision, yet only 40% of such decisions are enforced annually. Moreover, despite the political and legal efforts, the EU is not making any significant progress in enforcing the rules it has laid down in the Return Directive. The legislation of EU Member States may, however, serve as a source for possible solutions to ‘combat’ the problem of irregularly staying migrants. This is why the book compares the system of regularisations in Austria, Germany and Spain. Regularisations constitute an effective alternative to returns because they terminate the irregular residence of migrants, not through deportation, but rather by granting a right of residence. Regularisation is therefore understood as each legal decision that awards legal residency to irregularly staying migrants. As is shown by the examination and comparison of regularisations in Austria, Germany and Spain, differentiated systems of regularisation exist at national level. However, EU regularisations supplementing the present return policy would be more effective at ‘combatting’ irregular migration at EU level.

 Baden-Baden: Nomos; Hart Publishing, 2023. 398p.

Edited by Emre Bayamlioğlu, Irina Baraliuc, Liisa Janssens, and Mireille Hildebrandt

Profiling the European citizen: why today's democracy needs to look harder at the negative potential of new technology than at its positive potential.

Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press,    148p.

Edited by Ulrich Pallua, Adrian Knapp and Andreas Exenberger

"The publications of the interdisciplinary and internationally networked Research Platform “World Order – Religion – Violence” seek to improve our understanding of the relationship between religion, politics and violence. It therefore deals especially with the return of religious themes and symbols into politics, with the analysis of the link between political theory and religion, and finally with the critical discussion of the secularization thesis. At the centre of the research are questions concerning the causes of violent conflict, the possibilities for a just world order and the conditions for peaceful coexistence on a local, regional, national and international/worldwide scale between communities in the face of divergent religious and ideological convictions. Its task is to initiate and coordinate thematically related research-efforts from various disciplinary backgrounds at the University of Innsbruck. It creates a network between departments, research-teams and single researchers working on topics of religion, politics and violence. The overall aim of the research platform World Order-Religion-Violence is to promote excellence in social and human science research on religion and politics at the University of Innsbruck and to guarantee the diffusion of this particular competence on a national and international level."

Innsbruck: innsbruck university press, 2009. 256p.

Edited by  Dirk Hoerder and Nora Faires

Presenting an unprecedented, integrated view of migration in North America, this interdisciplinary collection of essays illuminates the movements of people within and between Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, and the United States over the past two centuries. Several essays discuss recent migrations from Central America as well. In the introduction, Dirk Hoerder provides a sweeping historical overview of North American societies in the Atlantic world. He also develops and advocates what he and Nora Faires call “transcultural societal studies,” an interdisciplinary approach to migration studies that combines migration research across disciplines and at the local, regional, national, and transnational levels. The contributors examine the movements of diverse populations across North America in relation to changing cultural, political, and economic patterns.

Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011. 458p.

By John Ketchamand Daniel Di Martino   
SSince the summer of 2022, more than 70,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City, stretching public resources to their limit. The massive influx has been particularly challenging given the city’s “right to shelter,” the result of a 1979 lawsuit, Callahan v. Carey, and corresponding consent decree, which required the city to provide immediate shelter to those who request it, regardless of the number of applicants or the availability of resources. In order to comply with this requirement, the city has housed some 40,000 migrants in shelters—which has led to an approximately 70% spike in the shelter population in a single year. NYC is currently supporting more than 170 emergency shelters and 10 additional large-scale humanitarian relief centers.

Shelters and relief centers simply cannot house all the newly arrived migrants, which has forced the city to procure approximately 4,500 hotel rooms in unionized facilities,[1] often through expensive contracts that provide bonanzas to owners and the city’s hotel-worker unions. Most notably, on May 13, Mayor Eric Adams announced that the historic 1,025-room Roosevelt Hotel, located in the heart of Midtown East, would become New York City’s central migrant intake center,[2] at a reported cost of $225 million.[3] In addition to hosting hundreds of families and individuals on-site, the location will process all arriving asylum seekers and provide them with a range of city services, including government-issued ID cards, public-school and health-insurance enrollment, mental-health counseling, and more.

New York: Manhattan Institute, 2023. 19p.

By John Ketchamand Daniel Di Martino   

Since the summer of 2022, more than 70,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City, stretching public resources to their limit. The massive influx has been particularly challenging given the city’s “right to shelter,” the result of a 1979 lawsuit, Callahan v. Carey, and corresponding consent decree, which required the city to provide immediate shelter to those who request it, regardless of the number of applicants or the availability of resources. In order to comply with this requirement, the city has housed some 40,000 migrants in shelters—which has led to an approximately 70% spike in the shelter population in a single year. NYC is currently supporting more than 170 emergency shelters and 10 additional large-scale humanitarian relief centers.

Shelters and relief centers simply cannot house all the newly arrived migrants, which has forced the city to procure approximately 4,500 hotel rooms in unionized facilities,[1] often through expensive contracts that provide bonanzas to owners and the city’s hotel-worker unions. Most notably, on May 13, Mayor Eric Adams announced that the historic 1,025-room Roosevelt Hotel, located in the heart of Midtown East, would become New York City’s central migrant intake center,[2] at a reported cost of $225 million.[3] In addition to hosting hundreds of families and individuals on-site, the location will process all arriving asylum seekers and provide them with a range of city services, including government-issued ID cards, public-school and health-insurance enrollment, mental-health counseling, and more.

New York: Manhattan Institute, 2023. 19p.

By Alexander Betts

Such threats as environmental change, food insecurity, and generalized violence force massive numbers of people to flee states that are unable or unwilling to ensure their basic rights, as do conditions in failed and fragile states that make possible human rights deprivations. Because these reasons do not meet the legal understanding of persecution, the victims of these circumstances are not usually recognized as "refugees," preventing current institutions from ensuring their protection. In this book, Alexander Betts develops the concept of "survival migration" to highlight the crisis in which these people find themselves.

Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Pres, 2013. 255p.