Human trafficking and human rights in humanitarian crises: The case of refugee camps

Abstract

Recent global statistics show that refugee situations are on the rise. A growing body of literature has focused on the scale of the crises, mostly in rich countries, portraying refugees as ‘victims’, ‘burden’ and ‘problems’. In general, host communities have been perceived as being homogenous while socially constructed differences between them and refugees have been understudied. Implementation of top-down interventions with a primary focus on refugees’ basic needs satisfaction increased their dependency on aid and instilled their dignity triggering the strategy of their confinement mainly in camps. Accommodation of refugees in camps has not always been the best solution because they did not always provide a safe place for their dignified life. Operational gaps in some refugee-accepting countries, on the one hand, and the disproportionate efforts made by the international community to support them to manage humanitarian crises, on the other hand, have made refugees a profitable target for human traffickers. While human trafficking has been perceived as a side effect rather than a direct consequence of the humanitarian crises, it has not been prioritized in humanitarian responses’ design. Considering the existing gaps in the literature about challenges faced by refugees in camps and insufficient research about refugee-host communities’ relations, this paper aims at discussing the risk of human trafficking in refugee camps and how it is addressed. It examines how policies and approaches advocated by International Office for Migration, European Commission, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees call to promote a rights-based anti-trafficking response in refugee camps during humanitarian crises. It uses secondary data to illustrate the vulnerability of refugees to human trafficking in refugee camps and provides some recommendations to be taken into consideration.