1st Edition

Labour Migration, Human Trafficking and Multinational Corporations The Commodification of Illicit Flows

Edited By Ato Quayson, Antonela Arhin Copyright 2012
    192 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    192 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Although much literature on human trafficking focuses on sex trafficking, a great deal of human trafficking results from migrant workers, compelled - by economic deprivation in their home countries - to seek better life opportunities abroad, especially in agriculture, construction and domestic work. Such labour migration is sometimes legal and well managed, but sometimes not so – with migrant workers frequently threatened or coerced into entering debt bondage arrangements and ending up working in forced labour situations producing goods for illicit markets. This book fills a substantial gap in the existing literature given that labour trafficking is a much more subtle form of exploitation than sex trafficking. It discusses how far large multinational corporations are involved, whether intentionally or unintentionally, in human trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation. They explore how far corporations are driven to seek cheap labour by the need to remain commercially competitive and examine how the problem often lies with corporations’ subcontractors, who are not as well controlled as they might be. The essays in the volume also outline and assess measures being taken by governments and international agencies to eradicate the problem.

    Introduction - Antonela Arhin and Ato Quayson  Foreword: Corporate Liability for Violations of International Human Rights Law - Mohamed Y. Mattar  1. Trafficking for Labour Exploitation: Getting the Responses Right - Roger Plant  2. The Commodification of Human Smuggling and Trafficking - Louise Shelley  3. Child Labour Migrants or Victims of Labour Trafficking: A Segmental Approach - Antonela Arhin  4. Displacing Childhood: Labour Exploitation and Child Trafficking in Sport - Darragh McGee  5. Labor Migration, Human Trafficking and Multinational Corporations within the ECOWAS Region: challenges and opportunities - Ndioro Ndiaye  6. Adults or Children? The Case of Trafficking of Children for Purposes of Exploitative Labour in the Fishing Industry in Ghana - Daniel Kweku Sam  7. Doing Canada’s Dirty Work: A Critical Analysis of Law and Policy to Address Labour Exploitation Trafficking - Bethany Hastie  8. Minimum Wage –An Ally in the Fight Against Human Trafficking for Labour Exploitation? - Anne Pawletta and Philipp Schwertmann  9. Responding to Labour Trafficking: Suggestions from Experiences of Local Service Providers - Amy Stevens, Romesh Hettiarachchi and Sung Hyun Yun 10. The Programmatic Approach to combating Trafficking in Human Beings - Ruud Hilgers

    Biography

    Ato Quayson is Professor of English, and inaugural Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies (CDTS) at the University of Toronto, Canada.

    Antonela Arhin is a Visiting Junior Fellow at the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies and the Executive Officer at the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is currently completing her PhD on the socio-economic dimensions of trafficking in children for labour exploitation.