Government social assistance providers and NGOs or nonprofit assistance providers, who are frequent partners of the state in aid provision in many countries (Smith and Grønbjerg, 2006; Toepler et al., 2023), interact with vulnerable populations at moments that are important stages in the human trafficking process. This can be especially true in times of humanitarian crises and other emergencies. Research shows that accommodation and exploitation are logistically intense tasks for traffickers and require close collaboration among actors (Diviák et al. (2023).
Meanwhile, assistance providers are often highly involved in transportation and accommodation arrangements for vulnerable people, meeting with migrants at very sensitive and susceptible periods during their lives, and are often staffed by volunteers who interact with important and sensitive documentation.
Drawing upon data from semistructured interviews and site visits with over 20 distinct civil society initiatives working with Ukrainian migrants in Romania in summer 2022, we identify five themes that enhance our understanding of system capacities to address human trafficking in emergency settings, especially in countries unaccustomed to migration, and discuss the implications for social services providers. These include: (1) lack of governmental oversight, coordination, and formalized processes in some settings, (2) individual vulnerabilities, (3) existing systemic risks, migration routes, and pathways into human trafficking, (4) war-time rape and other conflict-related sexual violence, and (5) barriers to identification and reporting of human trafficking cases.
Presenter: Shawn Flanigan
