Defining Trafficking through Empirical Work: Blurred Boundaries and their Consequences

Abstract

The definition of trafficking in the United Nation (UN) Protocol on Trafficking from 2000 is the starting point of different countries' definition of trafficking. In Norway, as in other countries, there are still difficulties in identifying victims of trafficking in the day-to-day work of the police, social workers and others. The definitions of and demarcation between human trafficking and human smuggling have grave consequences for legal approaches, policies and help offered. It is thus necessary to continually discuss how to define trafficking if we want the term to be a fruitful tool in framing the phenomenon-which in turn impacts the ability to aid victims, prevent victimization and to prosecute traffickers.In this article we approach this matter through two qualitative studies among Nigerian women in prostitution in Norway. Their stories are complex and their travels long, and along the way, their migration and prostitution has been organized by different agents. These agents were sometimes human traffickers; other times smugglers of migrants. In this article, we explore which is which, with the definition in UN's Trafficking Protocol as our starting point. This article is an attempt to analyze the complexities of the women's situation in order to link theoretical debates on trafficking definitions with women's lived experiences.

Identifying human trafficking in Norway: A register-based study of cases, outcomes and police practices

“…National legislation does not yet rule out the so-called 'blurred boundaries' (Skilbrei and Tveit, 2008) that often complicate the understandings of both the police and other parties (for example, safe houses, child protection services or non-governmental organizations (NGOs)) and their responses to the crime. Previous studies have argued that, despite separate articles covering THB, the detection of THB incidents is still influenced by the police organization's receptivity to change as well as individual police officers' use of discretionary judgement (Barrick et al, 2014;Farrell et al, 2010;Jahnsen, 2014).…”

New Directions in Research on Human Trafficking

“…It defines "exploitation" tautologically as "exploitation" and fails to define "abuse of power," "vulnerability," and "control." empirical studies show just how difficult it is to apply the Palermo definition in practice and document cases where the distinction between smuggling and trafficking is blurred-e.g., where smuggling involves vulnerability and exploitation but not deception or coercion (Skilbrei and Tveit 2008).…”

Quality of Work in Prostitution and Sex Work. Introduction to the Special Section

“…This paradigm, as has been evidenced by migration, feminist, and sex work scholars and activists (for instance Agustín 2007, Andrijasevic 2010, Doezema 2010, Weitzer 2007, is constructed upon a clear dichotomy between 'freedom' on the one hand and 'exploitation' and 'force' on the other. It is argued that this sharp binary distinction does not correspond to the experiences of the subjects involved in migration and in sex work (Skilbrei and Tveit 2008). In particular, as Oso stresses, a 'trafficking perspective' tends to conceal central characteristics of migrants' means of providing and mobility.…”