Moving Forward – Life after trafficking
Launch of Issue 10 of the Anti-Trafficking Review ‘Life after Trafficking’
Guest Editors: Denise Brennan and Sine Plambech
Editor: Borislav Gerasimov
Media, policymakers and NGOs typically focus on the horrors of life in trafficking and ‘rescuing’ trafficked persons, but much less attention is paid to life after trafficking. This special issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review documents the challenges that people face after exiting situations labelled as trafficking, as well as those whose exploitation garnered no legal protections or service provision.
Women make up 49.4 percent of the global paid labour force yet their labour participation remains highly gendered. Irrespective of where they work, there are several factors that are common to women’s working and living conditions. Women workers are concentrated in occupations that are unpaid, underpaid and informal, and their economic contributions are consistently undervalued (such as being paid below minimum wage levels, or lower than their male counterparts). Given societal attitudes, women also face gender-specific mobility restrictions including migration bans on women, segregation in living spaces, and the confiscation of passports. Of grave concern is the fact that women workers are subject to gender-based violence (GBV). The risk of exposure to violence is greater in occupations where work is informal, precarious, or low compensated, where work is segregated by gender, where employer accountability is low and where workers are prevented from joining or forming trade unions. With growing international conflict and economic stagnation, there is the risk of women’s working conditions worsening across occupational sectors. There is a need to understand and reflect on such global trends, identify common challenges and positions, and share experience on how to develop solidarity and advocacy through strategic coordinated action. 
Last week the European Commission presented the EU’s new 