Migrant women and trafficking for criminal exploitation. Study of the criminal and legislative reality in Spain.

• In Event: Criminology of Mobility Panel 1. Regulation and Prevention of Human trafficking

Abstract

Known as the slavery of the 21st century, human trafficking is a reality that deserves to be fully understood. Because trafficking is a process of recruitment and transfer for the purpose of exploitation, traffickers find migrant women to be the perfect target for recruiting their victims. However, the vast majority of efforts to prevent, prosecute, protect, and even study human trafficking have focused on trafficking for sexual exploitation. This has resulted in the invisibility of so many other forms of exploitation that, according to the most recent figures, even outnumber sexual exploitation, such as labor exploitation, trafficking for sexual purposes, and trafficking for sexual exploitation.
This paper will focus on trafficking for the purpose of exploitation for criminal activities, a modality through which the victim is recruited to be exploited for the purpose of committing criminal activities such as pickpocketing, shoplifting, drug trafficking, and other criminal activities for financial gain.
Given the close relationship between human trafficking and migration, the study will take as a reference migrant women as victims of trafficking for the purpose of exploitation for the commission of criminal activities. From a criminological point of view, it will address the current situation in Spain, analyzing the essential characteristics of this criminal modality, as well as the current legislation on protection, prevention, prosecution and cooperation. Finally, the paper will focus on the new proposal for a directive on the prevention and fight against trafficking in human beings and the protection of victims, understanding that the only effective response to trafficking in human beings must come from international legislative harmonization with a victim-centered approach based on cooperation and respect for human rights.

Author

• Manuel Cabezas-Vicente, Universidad de Salamanca