A Case Study of Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia

• In Event: Gender, Violence, and Political Crises

Abstract

This paper aims to use a feminist human security approach to examine human trafficking issues in Southeast Asia. The Southeast Asian region has been facing the challenges of non-traditional security threats, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Much non-traditional security research in Southeast Asia focuses on water and food security, heath, climate change, agriculture, and migration. The human security issue is definitely a critical point. One of the issue-areas that are less stressed by political scientists is human trafficking in women and children. With the globalized economic, political, and health environment, the individual’s safety and security have become a major concern. In particular, the feminist perspective is important in human security because women and children are often victims of violence, organized crime, refugees, interstate conflicts, and other cruel and degrading behaviors. Also, women and children are often suffered from unequal access to resources, services, and opportunities. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a qualitative comparative research examining the human trafficking issue in Southeast Asia from the feminist human security perspective. The four countries selected are Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand due to the unique trafficking profile of each. This paper provides an empirical analysis using an analytical framework developed by the author. The data were collected from primary and secondary sources such as governmental publications, official records, newspapers. In conclusion, this paper identifies four types of human trafficking patterns that commonly exist in Southeast Asia. However, the severity of human trafficking in each type is different in each country. Finally, the governments have not addressed all of the causes that lead to human trafficking in their country.

Author

• Shao Fan Lin, The University of Southern Mississippi