Human trafficking involves the recruitment, transportation, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion or fraud – ultimately, it’s about having control over another person, for the purposes of exploiting them.
For human trafficking to be human trafficking there must be the act – for example the transporting or recruiting – the means – through force, fraud, or coercion – and then the purpose – the intent to exploit them through forced labour for example.
It is important to remember that human trafficking is not the same as people smuggling, migrant smuggling or illegal immigration!
As Emily Kenway writes, “rather than thinking of trafficking as a crime of abduction or unwilling movement, it’s more accurate to think of it as migration gone wrong.”
The real issue is that often, government policies are making migratory circumstances harsher and thus, more dangerous.
Globally, states have generally failed to provide people with safe migration routes which have created and increased the market for human smuggling, illegal immigration and human trafficking.
Therefore, policies that are aiming to tackle human trafficking, should be around creating safer migration routes.