Modern aspects of human trafficking in the context of labor exploitation and irregular labor migration in the Russian federation

Abstract

For the Russian Federation, human trafficking for labour exploitation has become particularly acute due to the country’s special socio-economic situation and geographical location. In Russia, the collapse of the USSR was followed by a sharp increase in socio-economic inequality and a rise in unemployment and poverty, which created a socio-economic rationale for the involvement of sizeable socio-demographic groups among the Russian population in trafficking. Russia is not only a source and destination country for internal and external trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation, but by virtue of its geographical location and size, Russia has become a country through which a significant number of migrants from Asia, Africa, and the Near East attempt to enter Europe. The aim of this research is to identify trends and patterns in human trafficking for labour exploitation as well as related irregular labour migration in the Russian Federation under the current socio-economic conditions and to formulate recommendations to combat these adverse phenomena. In this research trafficking for labour exploitation is considered from a broad perspective, not only focusing on the legal definition of trafficking for forced labour but also on less legally severe cases of labour exploitation that constitute and facilitate the context in which a trafficking situation can occur. Slave labour and trafficking for labour exploitation are utilized as synonyms to trafficking for forced labour throughout the article of authors.