10 November 2025

Thematic Focus: Human Trafficking & Smuggling

Short pieces:

Abandoned in the desert: the reality of migrant smuggling (UNODC, Oct. 2025) [text]

Not the same crime: Understanding the difference between human trafficking and migrant smuggling (UNODC, Oct. 2025) [text]

Reports: 

Climate Chains: Mapping the Relationship between Climate, Trafficking in Persons and Building Resilience (International Organization for Migration, Oct. 2025) [text via ReliefWeb]
- Focuses on Ethiopia and the Philippines.

Human Smuggling and Trafficking Ecosystems: North Africa and the Sahel - 2025 Series (Global Initiative) [info]
- Currently, two country reports have been published: Libya (Oct. 2025) & Niger (Nov. 2025)

“They don’t think we are humans”: The Cycle of Human Trafficking for Ransom in Libya (Tilburg Univ. & Langaa Research & Publishing, 2025) [full-text]
- Note: This dissertation is published as vol. 6 of the "Connected and Mobile: Migration and Human Trafficking in Africa" book series.

*Trafficking in human beings - the international dimension (European Migration Network, July 2025) [access]
- Follow link for study and country reports. See also related EMN Inform.

Trafficking in Persons Report 2025 (US Dept. of State, Sept. 2025) [access]
- Note: Under the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act, this annual report must be submitted by the State Dept. to Congress by 30 June. However, according to The Guardian, the release of this year's TIP was delayed due to funding and staff cuts. Moreover, references to LGBTQ victims of human trafficking have been removed. See more info here.

Journal articles & book chapters:

Anti-Trafficking Review, no. 25 (2025) [open access]
- Special issue on "Climate Emergency and Work on a Heated Planet."

"Beyond borders and blockades: human trafficking risks among vulnerable Palestinian populations under occupation," BMC Public Health, 25:3544 (Oct. 2025) [open access]

"Human trafficking risks in countries unaccustomed to migration: Romanian assistance providers’ experiences with conflict-affected migrants from Ukraine," European Journal of Criminology, OnlineFirst, 6 Nov. 2025 [open access]

"Labor Trafficking among Migrant Populations: A Scoping Review and Qualitative Interview Study with Stakeholders," Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 2 Nov. 2025 [open access]

"Trafficked Persons as Convention Refugees: Opportunities and Obstacles in Asylum Claims based on a Risk of (Re-)Trafficking," Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law, vol. 39, no. 1 (2025) [postprint]
- Focuses on the UK.

"Who are human traffickers? Evidence from Romanian prisons," Comparative Migration Studies, 13:81 (Oct. 2025) [open access]

"Who is the 'Vulnerable' Victim? Trafficked and Smuggled Persons as Victims of Crime Under EU Law," Chapter in Intertwining Criminal Justice and Immigration Control in the EU (Routledge, Sept. 2025) [postprint]
- Note: Access to the full-text is embargoed until 9 March 2027.

*UPDATED

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