Disability, Human Trafficking, and Antitrafficking Policy

• In Event: Rethinking Justice for Victims of Structural Harm and Exploitation

Abstract

This paper interrogates constructions of disability and human trafficking embedded in global anti-trafficking policy initiatives, as reflected in the U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report (TIPR), the UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (GRTP), and the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings General Report (GRETAGR). Using the conceptual framework of ableism, we undertake content analysis of the TIPRs (2001-2024), the GRTPs (2009-2024), and the GRETAGRs (2009-2023). We show that policy interventions are part of the imposition of ableist frameworks of knowledge and interventions locally and globally that neglect the root causes of inequality for disabled people.

Three main findings emerge from the content analysis: firstly, references to disability have increased over time. Specifically, from 2003 onwards there is a gradual but clear trend towards more of these references appearing in each subsequent iteration of the TIPR. The GRTP and GRETAGR follow suit from 2012 and 2017 respectively. Thus, there is a shift from a state of silence towards both wider visibility and the labelling disabled victims of trafficking as extremely vulnerable. Secondly, these references portray disability in relation to human trafficking as a factor that renders someone ‘at risk’, ‘at high risk’, ‘particularly vulnerable’ or ‘most vulnerable’. While the intersection between victimisation and disability is becoming more visible, in most instances the problem is framed as human traffickers preying on individual victims or on certain features of some victims, rather than recognising the continuous impact of ableism, as it systematically permeates social structures and, in many cases, the legal systems of multiple jurisdictions. Thirdly, there is a trend towards acknowledging that human trafficking violence may lead to impairments and to secondary and tertiary victimisation.

Author

• Avi Boukli, University of Southampton