Human Trafficking: A Call for Global Action

Human trafficking can and should be regarded as a modern form of slavery. The failure to recognize the correlation between human trafficking and illegal migration explains the setbacks in the pursuit of appropriate policies. The end of the Cold War has increased the flows of illegal migrants, some of which are inevitably falling prey to human trafficking. At the same time, an increasing number of international organizations started tackling this challenge. Yet, so far, international efforts have not paid off and human trafficking is on the rise. The two main problems of the current global approach are that human trafficking is treated primarily as a problem of law enforcement and that the “supply” and “demand” factors are not treated symmetrically. Another approach is needed that corrects the various shortcomings of the present countermeasures. Such an approach could be institutionalized by a global plan of action against human trafficking.