International Projects & Research

Human Rights, Sex Work and The Challenge of Trafficking: Human Rights Impact Assessment of Anti-trafficking Policy in the UK
“Anti-trafficking policy fails to address the needs of trafficked people and prevents
sex workers from asserting fundamental rights.” (November 2010)

Migrants in the UK Sex Industry (October 2009)
The main aim of the project was to improve the understanding of the links between the sex industry and migration in the UK, by drawing on the ways in which migrants themselves described their experiences and analysed their histories. The links between the sex industry and migration in the UK are predominantly addressed in current public debates in terms of trafficking and exploitation. Interviews with 100 migrant women, men and transgender people working in all of the main jobs available within the sex industry, and from the most relevant areas of origin (South America, Eastern Europe, EU and South East Asia), suggest that although some migrants are subject to coercion and exploitation, a majority are not. Link to video of seminar! Prostitution and Trafficking: The Anatomy of a Moral Panic refers to the above research.

Immigration Policies, Not Trafficking is Major Cause of Exploitation of Sex Workers
“By gathering the life histories of migrant women, men and transgendered people working in the UK sex industry the research provides an evidence-based analysis which can contribute to the elaboration of more effective policies and social interventions on migration, prostitution, trafficking and social exclusion.” (November 2011)

Nordic Prostitution Policy Reform see web archive if unavailable
A comparative study of prostitution policy reform in the Nordic countries. This website links to research and discussion.

Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women Issues Report on Collateral Damage of Anti-Trafficking Policies This report reviews the impact of anti-trafficking measures on human rights in 8 countries: Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, India, Nigeria, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Each country chapter provides an overview of human trafficking, the current legal framework concerning all aspects of anti-trafficking efforts, specific laws and policies and their implications on key groups of people, and a critical analysis of the human rights impact of these measures specifically on women. This anthology emphasises the critical need for a re-assessment of anti-trafficking initiatives around the globe in order that human rights do not get written off as ‘collateral damage’ in combating human trafficking.

DMSC, Indian Sex Workers’ Organization and Self-Regulatory Model to Combat Trafficking (Launched Dec 2007) This page introduces DMSC’s anti-trafficking approach:”Ever since 1997, when DMSC activists articulated the issue at the First National Conference of Sex Workers, the Organisation has grappled with the problem of underage girls trafficked into sex work sites and of unwilling women duped/coerced/forced into sex work. DMSC is active in addressing and challenging the structural issues that frame the everyday reality of sexworkers lives as they relate to their material deprivation and social exclusion. From this standpoint, it stands against any form of exploitation and infringement of rights of human beings that includes sexworkers and their children. DMSC is explicit, too, about its stand vis-a-vis forced or coerced labour in any form- if sexwork is work like any other, then it must be subject to certain norms and conditions- decided upon and enforced by the workers in the trade- that must be fulfilled before anyone can start as a sexworkers…”

Summary Report:Human Rights Impact of Anti-trafficking Interventions: Developing an Assessment Tool (July-07): “In recent years, non-governmental organisations, specialists and advocates in the field of trafficking in human beings, migrants’ rights and sex workers’ rights and related fields have observed with growing concern various negative consequences of anti-trafficking interventions.” Published by HOM, Aim for Human Rights

Sex Work, Migration, HIV and Trafficking: Chinese and other Migrant Sex Workers in Australia
“This paper compares data on the experiences of 43 migrant sex workers of Chinese language background and 29 sex workers of English language background who migrated for sex work, gathered as part of a broader research project on Chinese sex-worker transnational migration.” (August 2011)