ABSTRACT
This chapter explains what international agreements mean by ‘trafficking in persons’, how governments have interpreted the term and what some of the impacts have been for migrants. It describes the context of the United Nations’ adoption in 2000 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. It summarises the Protocol’s complex definition and various provisions. It summarises developments during the first decade following the Protocol’s adoption, notably in the United States, where trafficking for the purpose of prostitution has routinely been conflated with any form of recruitment into sex work, whether abusive means or force were involved or not. Law enforcement officials in other parts of the world also focused initially on the sex industry. The second decade saw more attention given to other forms of exploitation (referred to collectively as ‘labour exploitation’). Nevertheless, anti-trafficking measures have continued to harm rather than help migrants, particularly women and independent child migrants. To a great extent, this is because there has been a focus on criminal justice responses to human trafficking (to bring about the conviction of traffickers and deter others), which have not been counterbalanced by appropriate measures to prevent extreme exploitation or to protect the victims.
