Human Trafficking in Scotland
| DOI | 10.1177/1477370809347944 |
| Date | 01 January 2010 |
| Published date | 01 January 2010 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Corresponding author:
Korin Lebov, Justice Analytical Services Division of the Scottish Government, Edinburgh EH7 4JS, UK.
Email: korin.lebov@gmail.com
Human Trafficking in Scotland
Korin Lebov
Justice Analytical Services Division of the Scottish Government, UK
Abstract
This paper reports on interview-based research carried out to improve the evidence base around
human trafficking in Scotland. It aims to construct a more detailed national picture of the nature
and extent of the phenomenon while also examining the issues and challenges for policing and
victim care in a Scottish context. In total, 79 individuals believed to be victims of human trafficking
came into contact with agencies in Scotland between April 2007 and March 2008. The majority
of cases involved adult female victims who had been trafficked into sexual exploitation. Overall,
this research echoes the message of that carried out in other jurisdictions: human trafficking is a
complex area of policing and victim care with many challenges.
Keywords
Human Trafficking, Labour Exploitation, Sexual Exploitation.
The phenomenon of human trafficking has received increased attention in recent years
from policy makers, academics and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The pol-
icy focus in the UK has culminated in the signing of the Council of Europe Convention
on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings in March 2007 and the creation of a joint
action plan in 2007 by the UK and Scottish Governments with the purpose of adhering
to provisions contained in the 2000 Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, by April 2009. However, little
empirical research on this subject has been carried out in the UK (Marie and Skidmore
2007; CEOP 2007; Dowling et al. 2007; Skrivánková 2006; IOM 2005; Dickson 2004;
Zimmerman et al. 2003; Kelly and Regan 2000) and none to date has focused specifi-
cally on the trafficking of adults in Scotland.
This article describes a small-scale research project carried out between September
2007 and April 2008 as part of work within the Scottish Government to improve the
evidence base around human trafficking in Scotland. The objectives of the research were
to construct a more detailed national picture of the extent and nature of human trafficking
in Scotland and to examine issues and challenges for policing and victim care in a
Scottish context.
European Journal of Criminology
7(1) 77–93
© The Author(s) 2010
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DOI: 10.1177/1477370809347944
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78 European Journal of Criminology 7(1)
The most commonly used definition of human trafficking is the broad one set out in
the Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially
Women and Children, which supplements the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime. It defines human trafficking as follows.
‘Trafficking in human beings’ shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring
or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of
abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of
the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having
control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a
minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation,
forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of
organs. (United Nations 2000: Article 3(a))
It is not possible to present a full academic literature review within this paper.
However, it is useful to broadly situate the current study within a brief overview of that
which is most relevant. Although it is a topic of relatively recent academic and policy
interest, there is now a growing body of international literature relating to human traf-
ficking, which spans the overlapping discourses of migration (Agustín 2006a, 2006b and
2005; Chapkis 2003; Gülçür and İlkkaracan 2002; Kelly 2002; Mai 2001), prostitution
and sex work (Bindel and Kelly 2003; Aghatise 2004), labour exploitation (Agustín
2004; Dowling et al. 2007; Hughes et al. 1999), and gender studies (Doezema 2000;
Pickup 1998; Pyle 2001).
Much of the literature acknowledges the difficulties in establishing the scale and nature
of human trafficking (EUROPOL 2008; Kelly and Regan 2000: 7). Any estimations of scale
provided are wide-ranging. For example, the 2009 US State Department’s Trafficking in
Persons report suggests that there are at least 12.3 million adults and children in forced
labour, bonded labour and commercial sexual servitude worldwide at any given time (US
State Department 2009). Kelly and Regan estimated that that the scale of trafficking in
women into and within the UK lay within the range of 142 and 1420 women per year (2000:
22). Another Home Office (2003) report estimated that 4000 women had been brought into
the UK for the purposes of prostitution, but it is unclear how many of these women had been
trafficked (see also Viuhko in this issue). During the Pentameter police operation,1 84
women were seized in raids across the UK, but it is not clear how many of them had been
trafficked. Although there have been various newspaper reports estimating the numbers of
trafficked victims in Scotland (see e.g. The Herald, 1 February 2009), these estimations
have not been based on any empirical research and are essentially crude estimates.
There are also few consistent accounts of the nature or experiences of human traffick-
ing in the UK (see, for example, IOM 2005; Zimmerman et al. 2003; Kelly and Regan
2000). This is probably related both to the dearth of empirical data in this field and the
multiplicity of its victims’ experiences. Indeed, some of the literature (Agustín 2006a;
Doezema 2000) focuses specifically on the challenges of diagnosing human trafficking
as distinct from the much larger phenomena of migration, labour exploitation and sex
work, and it becomes clear that to arrive at any understanding of human trafficking one
must also understand the other phenomena with which it seems inextricably linked.
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