Citation

Hales L, Gelsthorpe L. Prison Service Journal 2011; (198): 33-37.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The work of a number of key organisations, such as the International Organisation for Migration, means that there is now greater awareness of the extent of national and international people trafficking and exploitation by smugglers or agents of people seeking to leave their country to seek work or asylum. Within the UK, public knowledge has been influenced by the setting up of the UK Human Trafficking Centre in October 2006, the work of a number of human rights organisations and media interest in some cases. However, to date, there has been no formal recognition of the numbers of potential victims in custody on criminal charges, nor systematic prison based research that provides evidence of how these individuals have been managed within the Criminal Justice System and by the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA). Our research on the criminalisation of migrant women, funded for 18 months by the ESRC, aims to fill this knowledge gap.1 In this article we outline the background to this work, our research design, and initial findings as we approach the final phase of this work.

Keywords: Human trafficking