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The Migration-Trafficking Nexus. Combating trafficking through the protection of migrants’ human rights

Document number
1901
Date
2003
Title
The Migration-Trafficking Nexus. Combating trafficking through the protection of migrants’ human rights
Author/publisher
Anti-Slavery International
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Migrant rights; Migration management; Comprehensive approach to migration; Migration policy; Restrictive migration measures, Irregular Migration, Feminization of migration, Economic migration, Labour migration, Free movement, Undocumented migrants; Undocumented labour;
Summary
The first section of the publication gives an overview of trafficking in people internationally. It considers the coercive mechanisms through which traffickers maintain control over trafficked migrants and why prosecutions have been difficult to obtain. The absence of proper measures to protect and assist trafficked migrants is highlighted as a particular failure in many states' counter trafficking strategies. The second section stresses that policies to increase prosecutions and provide support and protection to trafficked migrants will be largely ineffective unless they are part of a larger strategy, which acknowledges the need for growing numbers of migrant workers and introduces policies to manage and facilitate this migration. The chapter gives an overview of migration today, including both push and pull factors that are encouraging international migration. It also provides evidence of the increasing demand for migrant workers and proposes how such migration could be facilitated so as to benefit the migrants themselves, as well as both sending and receiving countries. The third chapter focuses on the need to recognise and respect the labour and human rights of all migrant workers as set out in the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families, 1990 (subsequently referred to as the 1990 Migrant Convention). It assesses aspects of several international conventions which could be used to assist and protect migrant workers and gives examples of two countries where existing legislation has proved inadequate and has not prevented the exploitation and forced labour of migrant workers, even when they migrated through regular channels.
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