Defining Human Trafficking and Identifying Its Victims

Book excerpt: Trafficking in human beings has become a major international concern in the last two decades. Trafficking has been subjected to intense political debate and ambitious legal regulation on international, regional and national levels. Although much has been done to eradicate trafficking and to protect the victims, an increasing number of critical voices are emerging: the efforts to deal with human trafficking have proved to be more ineffective than anticipated. This book seeks explanations to why anti-trafficking strategies and activities appear to be so futile, and what should be done better for them to achieve their goals with more success. Besides the academic audience, this study is written for legal practitioners, who might come across human trafficking in their work.