By The Mixed Migration Centre

The Central Sahel countries of Mali and Niger are migration crossroads, both in terms of intra-regional migration and for journeys to North Africa or towards Europe on the Western and Central Mediterranean Routes. It is difficult to know the proportion of migrants passing through these countries who have used smugglers during their journey. However, the use of smugglers by migrants appears to be a common phenomenon.

This paper has been prepared by the Mixed Migration Centre within the framework of a UNODC-OHCHR joint initiative (PROMIS) funded by the Government of the Netherlands, aimed at promoting a human rights-based response to smuggling of migrants and to respond to human rights abuses related to irregular migration in West Africa. It is based on 4Mi data collected with migrants in Mali and Niger in 2021. Using data from respondents who used a smuggler during at least one part of their journey, it examines respondents’ perceptions of their smuggler(s) and rationale for using them. It also looks at abuses and perpetrators cited by those who have used a smuggler; assistance and information needed en route; and perceived risks to children.

Mixed Migration Centre, 2023. 20p.

By Rosalind Raddatz and Matthew Kerby

This paper explores the rarely examined experiences of unaccompanied refugee minors in Nairobi, Kenya. Children are thought to comprise up to a third of Nairobi's refugee population, however, there is virtually no data on them. The paper provides a first analysis of a unique dataset to ascertain unaccompanied minor refugees’ experiences of physical, emotional, resource related, and sexual violence. Our research findings indicate widespread violence among refugee children living in Nairobi, and denote the prevalence of several kinds of violence in particular. Our results also reveal which children are most at risk and the type of abuse they are most likely to experience.

International Migration Review Online First, 2023.

By Priscilla Solano https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7636-385priscilla.solano@soc.lu.sand Douglas S. Massey

Drawing on the concept of a “complex humanitarian crisis,” this paper describes how outflows of migrants from Central America were transformed into such a crisis by intransigent immigration and border policies enacted in both Mexico and the United States. We describe the origins of the migration in U.S. Cold War interventions that created many thousands of displaced people fleeing violence and economic degradation in the region, leading to a sustained process of undocumented migration to the United States. Owing to rising levels of gang violence and weather events associated with climate change, the number of people seeking to escape threats in Central America has multiplied and unauthorized migration through Mexico toward the United States has increased. However, the securitization of migration in both Mexico and the United States has blocked these migrants from exercising their right to petition for asylum, creating a growing backlog of migrants who are subject to human rights violations and predations both by criminals and government authorities, leading migrants to label Mexican routes northward as a “corridor of death.” We draw on data from annual reports of Mexico's Red de Documentación de las Organizaciones Defensoras de Migrantes (Network for the Documentation of Migrant Defense Organizations) to construct a statistical profile of transit migrants and the threats they face as reported by humanitarian actors in Mexico. These reports allow us to better understand the practical realities of the “complex humanitarian crisis” facing undocumented migrants, both as unauthorized border crossers and as transit migrants moving between the southern frontiers of Mexico and the United States.

Journal on Migration and Human SecurityVolume 10, Issue 3, September 2022, Pages 147-172

By Isabel Gil-Everaert https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6426-2igil@colmex.mx, Claudia Masferrer, and Oscar Rodríguez Chávez

This paper explores the ways in which contemporary mobility dynamics in Mexico have changed over the last decade, leading to protracted displacement. It focuses on three populations: (1) the internally displaced due to violence; (2) Mexican nationals returning from the United States, both voluntarily and due to deportation; and (3) populations seeking asylum in Mexico and the United States. These three populations are not usually analyzed together and do not squarely fall under the traditional legal definitions. The paper outlines ways that situations of protracted displacement and insecurity present challenges in four interconnected arenas of life: housing, legal status, employment, and emotional well-being. For governments and local communities, protracted displacement requires immediate humanitarian responses and the development and implementation of public policies focused on integration. The paper concludes with a set of policy recommendations based on its findings.

Journal on Migration and Human SecurityVolume 11, Issue 1, March 2023, Pages 125-148

By The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Inspector General

We conducted this evaluation to review CBP’s screening process of a suspected terrorist and the timing of ICE’s subsequent arrest following the suspected terrorist’s release into the United States. What We Recommend - We made three recommendations to ensure CBP effectively resolves inconclusive Terrorist Watchlist matches and ICE has immediate access to Global Positioning System data relevant to its law enforcement operations.

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2023. 24p.

By Michael A. Clemens

A recent surge in child migration to the U.S. from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala has occurred in the context of high rates of regional violence. But little quantitative evidence exists on the causal relationship between violence and international emigration in this or any other region. This paper studies the relationship between violence in the Northern Triangle and child migration to the United States using novel, individual-level, anonymized data on all 178,825 U.S. apprehensions of unaccompanied child migrants from these countries between 2011 and 2016. It finds that one additional homicide per year in the region, sustained over the whole period – that is, a cumulative total of six additional homicides – caused a cumulative total of 3.7 additional unaccompanied child apprehensions in the United States. The explanatory power of short-term increases in violence is roughly equal to the explanatory power of long-term economic characteristics like average income and poverty. Due to diffusion of migration experience and assistance through social networks, violence can cause waves of migration that snowball over time, continuing to rise even when violence levels do not.

published in: Journal of Urban Economics, 2021, 124, 103355. Bonn: Center for Global Development & IZA Institute of Labor Economics, 2021. 56p.

By Elaine K. Denny, David Dow, Gabriella Levy Mateo, Villamizar-Chaparro

How does extortion experienced during the migration journey affect the civic engagement of deported migrants returned to their home country? More broadly, how does extortion affect political participation? Little is known about either the political behavior of returnees or about how coercive economic shocks experienced during migration affect subsequent levels of political participation. More broadly, existing literature on how victimization affects political participation is inconclusive, particularly when combined with existing work on economic insecurity. Studying deported migrants and the quasi-random experience of extortion helps address the endogeneity that often confounds these analyses. This approach isolates the impact of extortion on political action from potentially confounding factors related to local security or corruption. Using a novel dataset concerning Guatemalan migrants returned to Guatemala by the U.S. government, this paper finds that extortion has a direct, positive relationship with multiple forms of civic action, and that, at least in this context, the mobilizing effects of economic hardship outweigh the potentially demobilizing effects of fear of crime

Policy Research Working Paper 10020 . Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022. 36p.

By René Leyva-Flores , Cesar Infante , Juan Pablo Gutierrez , Frida Quintino-Perez , MariaJose Gómez-Saldivar , Cristian Torres-Robles

Objectives: The objectives of the study are to 1) estimate the burden of physical, sexual, and psychological violence among migrants in transit through Mexico to the US; and 2) examine the associations between experiencing violence and sociodemographic characteristics, migratory background, and health status in this vulnerable population.

Results: The overall prevalence of suffering from any form of violence was 29.4%. Nearly 24% reported physical violence, 19.5% experienced psychological violence, and approximately 2% reported sexual violence. TTTs experienced a significantly greater burden of violence compared to men and women. Violence occurred more frequently among migrants from Central America (30.6%) and other countries (40.0%) than it did among Mexican migrants (20.5%). Experiences involving sexual, physical and psychological violence as well as theft and even kidnapping were described by interviewees. Migrants mistrust the police, migration authorities, and armed forces, and therefore commonly refrain from revealing their experiences.

Conclusion: Migrants are subjected to a high level of violence while in transit to the US. Those traveling under irregular migratory conditions are targets of even greater violence, a condition exacerbated by gender inequality. Migrants transiting through Mexico from Central American and other countries undergo violence more frequently than do Mexican migrants. Protective measures are urgently needed to ensure the human rights of these populations.

PLoS One. . 2019 Aug 21;14(8):e0220775.

By Conny Rijken, Laura van Waas, Martin Gramatikov and Deirdre Brennan

Statelessness and human trafficking are grave and widespread human rights problems which the international community is committed to tackling. The two issues have even been linked, through the common claim that statelessness puts a person at greater risk of becoming a victim of trafficking. However, the causal link has never been decisively demonstrated using empirical data. This research project focused on developing a methodology that would enable the interaction between statelessness and trafficking to be mapped. The methodology uses Subjective Legal Empowerment (SLE) theory as a way to measure the impact of statelessness and to identify vulnerability. This report discusses the research findings of an empirical study of the nexus between statelessness and human trafficking among hill tribe people in the Northern Part of Thailand. The steps taken in the design and development of the research methodology are extensively described in the report A methodology for exploring the interaction between statelessness and human trafficking. The aim of the research was twofold: first, to develop a research methodology to identify the nexus between statelessness and human trafficking, and second, to identify the nexus between statelessness and human trafficking among hill tribe people in the Northern part of Thailand. Answering the central research question on how to measure the impact of statelessness on a women’s vulnerability to human trafficking and piloting the developed research instrument among the hill tribe people in Thailand helps to close the knowledge gap on the link between statelessness and human trafficking. …. For the research in Thailand two field trips were undertaken; the first in January 2013 to conduct key-informant interviews and to set-up the survey, and the second in January and February 2014 to set up and supervise the in-depth interviews and focus groups and to conduct additional interviews with key-informants to verify and discuss some provisional findings of the project. For the data collection, cooperation was sought with the law clinic of Chiang Mai University who also provided advice on how to set up the data collection, helped with establishing contacts in research locations and provided input on the questionnaire and interview protocol.

Oisterwijk; Wolf Legal Publishers The Netherlands :2015. 119p.

By Raoul Farrar

This report details current migration and human-smuggling dynamics in the extreme south of Algeria. The study assesses how Algerian authorities manage migration flows and human smuggling along the borders with Niger and Mali. The report comprises three sections: The first offers a brief history of the evolution of migration from sub-Saharan Africa to Algeria, and migrants’ experiences there. The second details the practicalities of human smuggling (strategies, prices, modus operandi and routes) in Algeria’s borderlands with northern Mali and northern Niger (Bordj Badji Mokhtar, Timiaouine, Tinzaouatine, In Guezzam). The third section assesses how the Algerian authorities address irregular migration, scrutinizing recent policy developments, including the 2015 repatriation deal between Algeria and Niger and its effects. The study concludes with a number of policy recommendations on how Algeria can better cope with irregular migration in the future.

Geneva: Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, 2020. 60p.

By Tuesday Reitano and Lucia Bird

Counter-trafficking efforts should be part of broader work to enhance community resilience to organised crime. This brief draws on field research conducted on trafficking in persons in four protracted conflicts in Africa – Central African Republic, Libya, Nigeria and Somalia – to explore what constitutes realistic and effective responses to trafficking in persons in conflict contexts. It argues that counter-trafficking efforts should be part of broader work to enhance community resilience to organised crime and to address long-standing needs, while responses which rely on the state, or approach the issue through a criminal lens, should be treated with caution.

Enact Africa, 2019. 16p.

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 . Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for Security Studies, 2023. 34p.

By 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.

International Organization for Migration and the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. 2023. 88p.

By John Winterdyk and Crystal Hincks

This report represents the findings of the survey and interviews conducted in Alberta as part of the project supported by ICCLR to undertake a “qualitative analysis of services/supports for human trafficking survivors”. The findings of the research project reiterates what several other similar studies have concluded: governments, advocacy groups, and community agencies need to work collaboratively to close ongoing gaps in service provision. These stakeholders need to share resources to increase capacity across all sectors, further develop and implement trauma-informed and survivor-informed service approaches among client-facing workers, and work towards the shared vision of helping victims and survivors of human trafficking lead healthy lives free from exploitation.

Vancouver, BC: International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, 2023. 32p.

By Amanda Noble, Isaac Coplan, Jaime Neal, Amanda Suleiman, Susan McIntyre

Exiting sex trafficking can be a long and arduous process, with survivors having many needs that must be addressed before, during and after exiting. Often this process takes many attempts. To date, very little work has been done to document the process survivors must undergo in order to successfully escape from sex trafficking or to document their specific needs while attempting to do so. The following pages detail the findings of a national research project conducted in eight Canadian cities: Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Thunder Bay, Montreal, Halifax, and St. John’s. Through a combination of focus groups and interviews, we spoke with 201 stakeholders from 147 organizations, including service providers, healthcare professionals, police, and most importantly, 50 survivors of sex trafficking. This research project sought to answer five key questions related to exiting the sex industry: What is the process of exiting sexual exploitation? What are the major barriers to escaping sex trafficking? What basic, instrumental, and psychological needs do survivors have when exiting sex trafficking? At what point in the journey are certain needs more pressing?….. This report aims to provide guidance to service providers (including frontline agencies, health care providers, first responders and child protection agencies) so that they can better understand the unique and complex needs of those who have survived sex trafficking.

Toronto: Covenant House & The Hindsight Group. 2020. 84p.

By Yvon Dandurand, Darryl Plecas, John Winterdyk and Vivienne Chin

The International Centre for Criminal Law Reform (ICCLR) conducted a qualitative survey and analysis of the types of services and supports most needed by survivors of labour and sex trafficking, including the perceived usefulness and effectiveness of these services. The study also examined service delivery models, source of referrals, models of inter-agency collaboration, and accessibility of relevant services in British Columbia and Alberta for meeting the needs of labour and sex trafficking survivors (including those at risk of or are currently being trafficked). Previous research has revealed a lot about the needs of victims and survivors of human trafficking and their difficulty in accessing relevant services. Their needs are multiple and complex, but, by now, they are well known. These needs include health care (including mental health and in some cases addiction treatment), legal, financial (immediate and longer-term), protection (e.g., safe houses), housing, emotional and psychological support, connection with the justice system, and in the case of survivors of transnational trafficking, translation, assistance with respect to their immigration status, communication with home and repatriation, travel assistance, etc. The needs of trafficked survivors are not uniform and are contextualized by the purpose for which they are trafficked, particularly such as those for sexual exploitation or labour exploitation. The needs are also different for Canadian and foreign victims. There are also gender-based differences in the needs of survivors. Finally, survivors of human trafficking require during the criminal justice process when they are involved as witnesses for law enforcement and the prosecution.

Vancouver, BC : International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, 2023. 72p.

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.