15 August 2013
'Unweaving the Web of Online Human Trafficking' - experts to discuss global trade
Ways of tackling the global problem of human trafficking by targeting the digital technology that traffickers use to facilitate
the multi-billion pound trade will be explored at a workshop hosted by the University of Dundee next month.
'Stop Traffic: Unweaving the Web of Online Human Trafficking' takes place at the University's Dalhousie Building on Monday,
2nd September. Academics and practitioners from across the UK will join their colleagues at Dundee to discuss ways of measuring
and fighting the global trade, with a specific focus on the online resources that traffickers rely on.
Web sites and online social networks are used for both the recruitment of trafficked people and for advertising their
services. The increasing accessibility and technical advantages of the internet and digital networks enable traffickers
to operate with increased efficiency and anonymity in reaching out to larger audiences across geographical borders.
However, despite the scale of the industry - with the International Labour Organisation estimating that trafficked forced
labourers produce in the region of $32 billion in profits per year - little research has been carried out to determine how
online technologies are used in both sex and labour trafficking.
'Our workshop will be used to discuss what research has been carried out to date and the experiences around this topic
in order to engage with the most significant gaps in our current knowledge,' said Dr Jonathan Mendel, a researcher in human
geography at the University and one of the event organisers.
'From there, we can begin to build a larger project on human trafficking and online networks and how they contribute to
a trade which sees a striking combination of exploitation and substantial profits. We hope this larger project will be
able to draw on a range of expertise and approaches in order to clarify the extent and nature of the problem and to
investigate potential ways to address it.'
'As our societies become increasingly dependent on electronic networks and information systems, new types of cybecrime have
also been emerging, including recruitment and sale of human trafficking victims over the Internet and via social networks,' said
Dr Kiril Sharapov from the Central European University in Budapest, who is currently undertaking a study of public knowledge
of human trafficking in Europe and who will be presenting at the Dundee event.
'The EU Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings identifies this link between human trafficking and
the Internet as one of the priority areas in fighting human trafficking across Europe.'
The workshop will be divided into two sessions. The first will examine Enforcement, Legal and Policy Context and what options
this gives to prevent online technology being used to aid trafficking. The second will focus on Forced Labour and Trafficking
itself, and its relationship to the Internet and other global technology.
Academics, human rights advocates, police and other anti-trafficking experts will contribute to the workshop, which is part
of a Scottish Crucible-funded project on human trafficking and online networks.
To book a place at the event, e-mail trafficking@dundee.ac.uk.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277 |
