Human trafficking in Afghanistan: what hope for change?
Turkish security forces apprehend a group of migrants in an operation aimed at stemming the recent influx of migration, mainly coming from Afghanistan and stopping human trafficking operations in the area at the border province of Van, Turkey. 21 August 2021. Photography: AP Photo/Emrah Gurel.
November 2022
Book Chapter
Thi Hoang, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime
SOC ACE Project: Human trafficking in the Afghan context
PUBLICATION SUMMARY
Decades of wars, internal conflicts and political instability have driven millions of Afghan families into poverty and increased human suffering and vulnerabilities, eroded community resilience, and amplified human trafficking activities (and in several cases also created new forms of these practices). This chapter first provides a brief overview of the main trafficking forms, and their widespread reach and practices in the Afghan context, both before and after the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021. Second, it discusses the potential implications and impact of the new Afghan government, international actors and non-governmental organisations’ policies, intentions and perspectives for the multiple humanitarian crises in the country, especially for the development of ways to address human trafficking in particular. I argue for prioritising humanitarian assistance. Stakeholders need to pursue a pragmatic approach to responses and negotiations that puts human lives at its centre, to prevent worsening the humanitarian crises, exacerbating vulnerability to human trafficking, and causing further loss of life and other harms.
Published in: Michael Cox (ed.). Afghanistan: Long war, forgotten peace. London: LSE Press, 2022. The full book is available to download here.
