By The International Labour Organization (ILO), Walk Free, and International Organization for Migration

Modern slavery is the very antithesis of social justice and sustainable development. The 2021 Global Estimates indicate there are 50 million people in situations of modern slavery on any given day, either forced to work against their will or in a marriage that they were forced into. This number translates to nearly one of every 150 people in the world. The estimates also indicate that situations of modern slavery are by no means transient – entrapment in forced labour can last years, while in most cases forced marriage is a life sentence. And sadly, the situation is not improving. The 2021 Global Estimates show that millions more men, women, and children have been forced to work or marry in the period since the previous estimates were released in 2017.

Geneva: International Labour Organization (ILO), Walk Free, and International Organization for Migration, 2022. 144p.

By International Labour Organization and Walk Free Foundation,

The 2017 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery focus on two main issues: forced labour and forced marriage. The estimate of forced labour comprises forced labour in the private economy, forced sexual exploitation of adults and commercial sexual exploitation of children, and state-imposed forced labour.

The estimates herein are the result of a collaborative effort between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). They benefited from inputs provided by other UN agencies, in particular the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

In the context of this report, modern slavery covers a set of specific legal concepts including forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, other slavery and slavery like practices, and human trafficking.

Geneva: International Labour Organization and Walk Free Foundation, 2017. 68p.

By Chris Jones, Jane Kilpatrick, Mariana Gkliati

Deportation Union provides a critical examination of recently-introduced and forthcoming EU measures designed to increase the number of deportations carried out by national authorities and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex. It focuses on three key areas: attempts to reduce or eliminate rights and protections in the law governing deportations; the expansion and interconnection of EU databases and information systems; and the increased budget, powers and personnel awarded to Frontex.

London: Statewatch, 2020. 63p

By Frances Webber

The criminalisation of asylum claimants who arrive with no documentation is the latest salvo in a ‘war on asylum’ which employs every possible method to keep the world’s unwanted masses, the displaced, the desperate and the destitute, away from the shores of Europe – from legal obstacles such as the common visa list,4 imposing impossible visa requirements on nationals of all refugee-producing countries, to British immigration officers stopping Roma passengers boarding aircraft at Prague airport,5 gunboats and military aircraft patrolling the Mediterranean and the coast of west Africa,6 landmines on the Greek border with Turkey7 and the shooting of people attempting to scale the barbed wire fences surrounding the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco.8 Anything goes, so long as the goal of keeping out poor asylum seekers and migrants is achieved.

London: Statewatch, 2006. 37p.

By Georgios Papanicolaou

Mounting a vigorous critique on existing approaches to transnational policing, this book lays out an argument situating transnational policing within contemporary transformations of the capitalist state and imperialism, looking at the particular case of regional police cooperation against sex trafficking in Southeast Europe.

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 254p.

Edited by Ignazia Bartholini

"This volume, edited by Ignazia Bartholini, principal investigator of the PROVIDE - Proximity on Violence: Defence and Equity project (Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme - 2014-2020) funded by the EU, shifted the interpretative focus of its research from gender-based to proximity violence. This theoretical intuition-assertion, fruitful too at empirical level, is informed by a wide-scale reconstruction of the phenomenon of migratory violence and corroborated by the results of the action research carried out by six international teams ˗ Ismu, Oxfam, Telefono Donna, Badia Grande, Aseis Lagarto, SamuSocial International, the University of Jaén and the University of Palermo. Systems of protection, formal and informal good practices, as well as critical issues regarding the reception of migrants, are explored and narrated by the co-authors of the volume thanks to the action research they conducted with the collaboration of a plethora of professionals who narrate and illustrate the topic of proximity violence, providing their own particular frames of reference, views and counterfactual reflections. Furthermore, the discussion of legislation provided offers a cogent cross section of what has been done to contrast the violence which thousands of asylum seekers and refugees undergo and how much national governments need to do in order to host and recognise victims of proximity violence."

Milano, Italy: FrancoAngel, 2019. 225p.

By Ilse van Liempt

Navigating Borders into the Netherlands provides a unique in-depth look at human smuggling processes. Based on biographical interviews with smuggled migrants in the Netherlands, the study reveals considerable differences that exist in smuggling's underlying causes, how journeys evolve, and outcomes of the process. This research from an insider's perspective clearly demonstrates that smuggled migrants are not passive actors, there is a broad variety in types of smugglers, and interactions between migrants and smugglers largely determine how the smuggling process evolves.

Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007. 215p.

By Laura Ralston

Trafficking is an emerging concern in West Africa. In 2011, 17 percent of all cocaine consumed in Europe—21 tons—passed through the region, for a retail value of US$1.7 billion. This paper discusses the evolution of trafficking in the region and provides estimates of the size and value of trafficking flows to demonstrate the significance of this illegal activity. Although this topic is gaining increasing attention, less attention has been has been paid to how trafficking is perpetuating fragility. This paper contributes to this area of research by identifying five channels through which trafficking is intensifying fragility in the region. The relative importance of each channel is discussed, with specific countries as case-study examples. Possible programmatic responses are then suggested with examples of policy approaches successfully adopted elsewhere in the world.

Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2015. 34p.

Edited by Margaret Melrose and Jenny Pearce

This volume is the first major exploration of the issues relevant to young people who are affected by sexual exploitation and trafficking from a variety of critical perspectives. Issues include accommodation, gangs, migrant and refugee communities, perpetrators, international policy and the language through which we construct child exploitation.

Houndmills, Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 211p.

By Jessica M. Vaughn

The Trump administration has declared war on MS-13, the notoriously brutal gang based in El Salvador. A similar initiative launched by the Bush administration in 2005 stifled the gang's activity after several years, but the gang has been able to rebuild itself here since 2012.

Center researchers reviewed more than 500 cases of MS-13 gang members arrested nationwide since 2012. We conclude that this resurgence represents a very serious threat to public safety in communities where MS-13 has rebuilt itself. The resurgence is directly connected to the illegal arrival and resettlement of more than 300,000 Central American youths and families that has continued unabated for six years, and to a de-prioritization of immigration enforcement in the interior of the country that occurred at the same time.

All criminal gangs are a threat to public safety, but MS-13 is a unique problem because of the unusually brutal crimes its members have committed, its success in using intimidation to victimize and control people in its territory, and its focus on recruiting young members, often in schools.

Nevertheless, because such a large share of MS-13 members are not citizens, they are especially vulnerable to law enforcement, and many can be removed from the communities they terrorize. Strategic use of immigration enforcement is a necessary element to disrupting and dismantling MS-13 gangs and any other transnational criminal organization operating in our communities.

The proliferation of sanctuary policies that interfere with cooperation between state and local law enforcement agencies threatens to hamper efforts to stifle MS-13 activity. The federal government must take steps to clarify how federal law permits such cooperation and also must set up consequences for those jurisdictions and officials who impose sanctuary policies.

Washington, DC: Center for Immigration Studies, 2018. 17p.

By The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences

There are two statements that Pope Francis has constantly repeated from the beginning of his Pontificate: that ‘Human Trafficking is Modern Slavery’ and that this practice is a ‘Crime against Humanity’. PASS endorses both without reservation having, in fact, been the first to coin the latter phrase. However, each statement merits closer inspection because they denote rather different issues. Both have been crucial in shaping the leadership that the Catholic Church has assumed and the agenda she has adopted in spearheading a social movement opposing this morally horrendous treatment of human persons. As many social scientists have noted, today’s digital media make initial protests and demonstrations by new social movements easier to organize than ever before. Conversely, to hold a movement together whilst pushing its agenda forward remains as difficult as ever. The latter is where our Academy (in fact, the two Academies) can make a contribution. We are not ‘beyond moral outrage’; that remains our constant bedrock. However, it also requires a clearer definition of what new social provisions are needed not merely to eliminate Human Trafficking quickly but to restore respect – and self-esteem – to those whose human dignity has been assaulted and battered through the process of being trafficked. It is to this that the first statement points unequivocally.

Vatican City, The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences Acta 20, 2016. 522p.

By United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

This study shows that migrant smuggling routes affect every part of the world. It is based on an extensive review of existing data and literature. The study presents detailed information about key smuggling routes, such as the magnitude, the profiles of smugglers and smuggled migrants, the modus operandi of smugglers and the risks that smuggled migrants face. It shows that smugglers use land, air and sea routes – and combinations of those – in their quest to profit from people’s desire to improve their lives. Smugglers also expose migrants to a range of risks; violence, theft, exploitation, sexual violence, kidnapping and even death along many routes.

New York: University Nations, 2018. 170p.

Edited by Fiona David

The report explores how proper data collection and use can combat trafficking. It defines relevant terms and how country case studies (Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Cambodia) highlight concepts, successes and missteps in practice.

Geneva, SWIT: International Organization for Migration, 2006. 164p.

Edited by Marie McAuliffe and Frank Laczko

Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A global review of the emerging evidence base presents a unique review of what is being collected and what can be done to further build the evidence base on migrant smuggling globally. The report is the result of a collaboration between the International Organization for Migration and researchers from a range of backgrounds and academic disciplines, and supported by the Government of Turkey.

The report shows that important research has been undertaken on the transnational crime aspects of migrant smuggling, including on routes, smuggling organization (such as criminal networking and facilitation), smuggler profiles and fees/payment. Likewise, there is an emerging academic literature on migrant smuggling, particularly the economic and social processes involved in smuggling, which has largely been based on small-scale qualitative research, mostly undertaken by early career researchers. Contributions from private research companies, as well as investigative journalists, have provided useful insights in some regions, helping to shed light on smuggling practices. There remains, however, sizeable gaps in migration policy research and data, particularly in relation to migration patterns and processes linked to migrant smuggling, including its impact on migrants (particularly vulnerability, abuse and exploitation), as well as its impact on irregular migration flows (such as increasing scale, diversity and changes in geography). Addressing these systemic and regional gaps in data and research would help deepen understanding of the smuggling phenomenon, and provide further insights into how responses can be formulated that better protect migrants while enhancing States’ abilities to manage orderly migration.

Geneva, SWIT: International Organization for Migration, 2016. 340p.

By Sylvie Bredeloup and Olivier Pliez

Since the mid 1990s, the media have directed our attention to the thousands of Southern Sahara Africans who take life threatening risks crossing the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic ocean. Their numbers on migratory routes leading to Europe are increasing, joining up, especially in the “Libyan crossroad” with North Africans, Egyptians and even Asian migrants on the same quest. This image reflects reality, but only partially so, for it leads one to believe that these migrants cross the Sahara in the hope of reaching Europe. It should be pointed out that one of the main misunderstandings when evoking these migrations flows is to reduce them to the act of crossing the straits of the Mediterranean Sea. Since the 1990s, the Libyan case exemplifies the way the multilateral (EU-Maghreb) or bilateral (Libya-Italy) political negotiations between the two shores of the Mediterranean sea rapidly focus on the figure of the “illegal sub-Saharan migrant in transit”. This simplistic view is dangerous because it erases the historical dimension of the movement of people and its consequences. The Sahara is not merely a desert to be crossed; it is an area that has been shaped for more than half a century by the various migrant, trader or pastoral communities who have contributed to its massive urbanisation and economic development. At the same time, the reorganization of African migration is affected by the inflation of tensions, border and police controls, the diversification of routes between Niger, Chad Sudan and Libya consequently contributes to the perpetuation of transit spaces. There are tens of thousands of these migrants who settle down more or less durably in these new transit areas dependants on opportunity, status controls, and expulsions. But these transit areas have also become places where migrants seek employment, create new economic activities, or develop new skills while working, studying or practicing other tongues. As migration patterns across the Sahara are reconfigured, the impact is more visible in some places. But their durability should not be taken for granted. Villages specialised in the transit economy may easily decline as new diplomatic relations are formed between countries of immigration and third countries

Florence, Italy: European University Institute. 2011. 23p.

By Roberto Sollazzo and Matthias Nowak

The tri-border area between Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mali has long been an important zone of commerce for West Africa, and a key transit route for the trade flowing between the Gulf of Guinea, the Sahara, Sahel, and Mediterranean. In recent years, however, smuggling and trafficking has risen in the subregion because of the growing demand for illicit goods and firearms. This demand is fueled by communities’ need for self-defense due to banditry and the increased presence of jihadist groups; needs of traditional hunters and non-state security providers; and the ecosystem around artisanal and small-scale gold mining in which criminals seek weapons to target the miners who in turn equip themselves with firearms for protection against attacks. These dynamics heighten the risk of insecurity and instability. Tri-border Transit: Trafficking and Smuggling in the Burkina Faso–Côte d’Ivoire–Mali Region, by the Survey's Security Assessment in North Africa (SANA) project, takes a detailed look at the actors enabling smuggling and arms trafficking in the region, identifies the drivers of this traffic, and analyzes the impacts on local communities. The paper finds that there are three key trafficking axes in the area and that states are largely unable to control their borders and prevent these activities. The study also shows that illicit firearms are often trafficked together with other smuggled goods such as gold or drugs, using the ant trade method.

Geneva: Small Arms Survey, 2020. 20p.

Edited by Julia Planitzer and Helmut Sax

This comprehensive Commentary provides the first fully up-to-date analysis and interpretation of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. It offers a concise yet thorough article-by-article guide to the Convention’s anti-trafficking standards and corresponding human rights obligations. This Commentary includes an analysis of each article’s drafting history, alongside a contextualisation of its provisions with other anti-trafficking standards and a discussion of the core issues of interpretation.

Edward Elgar. Cheltenham, UK + Northampton, MA, USA. 2020. 563p.

By Alex P. Schmid

This Research Paper explores and questions some assumed causal links between terrorism on the one hand and (forced and irregular) migration on the other. The paper delves into the role that state and non-state terrorism might have in causing migration as well as analysing if and how refugees’ camps and the diaspora community might be a target for radicalisation. One of the findings of the paper is how migration control for the control of terrorism is a widely used instrument however, it might hurt bona fide migrants and legal foreign residents more than mala fide terrorists. Finally, this Research Paper offers recommendations that can go some way towards disentangling the issues of (refugee) migration and terrorism

The Hague: International Centre for Counter Terrorism (ICCT) , 2016. 63p.

By Hayli Millar, and Tamara O’Doherty

The Palermo Protocol & Canada Ten Years On: The Evolution and Human Rights Impacts of Anti-Trafficking Laws in Canada is a comprehensive study of Canada’s use of anti-trafficking legislation evaluating the stated intentions and actual effects of national anti-human trafficking laws, in the more than ten years since Canada ratified the international treaty. Our primary goals were to contribute to knowledge uptake of marginalized groups and to foster increased communication between sectors working on similar issues, with the fundamental purpose of improving access to justice for im/migrant sex workers.

Vancouver, Canada: International Centre for Criminal Law Reform - ICCLR, 2015. 115p.

By International Organization for Migration (IOM)

The trafficking of men to Thai fishing boats started in earnest after the ravages of Typhoon Gay in 1989, which resulted in the sinking of over 200 fishing boats and caused at least 458 deaths (an additional 600 persons are missing and presumed dead), mostly among Thai fishing crews from the poor Northeast region of Thailand.1 Prior to the storm, fishing was primarily concentrated in the nearby Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Ocean (which were still relatively rich in marine resources) and considered as lucrative, seasonal work. Almost overnight, fearful Thai crews abandoned the sector, leaving remaining boat owners in desperate need of labour. Burmese, Cambodian and a few Lao migrant workers began to be recruited to replace the rapidly dwindling Thai crews, and informal migrant and Thai labour brokers sprung up to facilitate this process. Twenty years later, Thai fishing vessels ply the territorial waters of dozens of nations, especially Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, and travel as far as Somalia and other parts of the coast of East Africa. Yet, for an increasingly sophisticated industry, Thailand’s recruitment for workers in the fishing sector remains largely based on informal recruiting processes which often lead to abuse and foster human trafficking. Many fishermen are sold to fishing boat owners (at a certain price per head, the ka hua -- see glossary). A trafficked fisherman must thereafter work to pay off the ka hua before being paid any wages. Depending on the amount of the ka hua, a trafficked fisherman could be working from one month to as long as six to eight months before earning any wages for himself. In some cases, depending on the predilection of the boat captain and/or owner, trafficked fishermen are kept working on boats for years without pay. Working conditions on fishing boats are extremely arduous. Fishermen are expected to work 18 to 20 hours of back-breaking manual labour per day, seven days per week. Sleeping and eating is possible only when the nets are down and recently caught fish have been sorted. Fishermen live in terribly cramped quarters, face shortages of freshwater and must work even when fatigued or ill, thereby risking injury to themselves or others. Fishermen who do not perform according to the expectations of the boat captain may face severe beatings or other forms of physical maltreatment, denial of medical care and, in the worst cases, maiming or killing.

Bangkok: IOM, 2011. 92p.