The lives of migrant working women are complex. In their realities, labour, migration, gender, trafficking, globalization and security are embedded and cannot be seen separately. However, in most literature, in the practice of many NGOs and international organizations, and in the policies of many governments, these aspects of their lives are taken to a more abstract level and/or treated as separate specialties. While this can have benefits, the 2007 GAATW study Collateral Damage revealed that this separation can also be harmful.
In 2008-2010 GAATW held a series of consultations and published four Working Papers in 2010 each of which look at trafficking and a specific linkage:
* Exploring Links between Trafficking and Gender: http://www.gaatw.org/
* Exploring Links between Trafficking and Labour: http://www.gaatw.org/
* Exploring Links between Trafficking and Migration: http://www.gaatw.org/
* Exploring Links between Trafficking, Globalisation and Security: http://www.gaatw.org/
Each of the four Papers covers the following broad areas:
* Basic concepts in the field
* Examples of the links between trafficking and other issues in the work of civil society actors, governments, and other stakeholders
* The beneficial and harmful effects of these simultaneous factors on working migrant women
* The importance of using a human rights-based approach
* How groups from different sectors can work together in new ways
* Policy recommendations
GAATW would like to contribute to a more nuanced and grounded understanding of trafficking, and how it relates to other sectors and, ultimately, to move away from stereotypes and a single focus on crime control, towards a nuanced understanding of trafficking and related issues, awareness of agency of the person involved, and most importantly, a focus that includes human rights. TheWorking Papers are one step in this direction.
The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) is a global network of more than 90 non-governmental organizations from all regions of the world including migrant rights organizations; anti-trafficking organizations; self-organized groups of migrant workers, domestic workers, survivors of trafficking and sex workers; human rights and women’s rights organizations; and direct service providers. GAATW promotes and defends the human rights of all migrants and their families and calls for safety standards for migrant workers in the process of migration and in the formal and informal work sectors where slavery-like conditions and practices exist. GAATWs International Secretariat (IS) is based in Bangkok (Thailand).
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