This article seeks to contribute to the anti-trafficking debate by exposing shortcomings in the policy framework applicable to the domestic-work sector in the Netherlands, a sector wherein workers are at risk of trafficking. The findings are the result of qualitative research (desktop research, case analysis, and indepth interviews), conducted in 2015. Based on the analysis, it will be shown that the current policy framework fosters rather than alleviates the vulnerability of domestic workers for THB (trafficking of human beings), and therewith, the author calls upon the Dutch government to remedy these policies as part of their responsibility to prevent THB.

United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 2331 (2016) recognizes that ‘acts of sexual and gender-based violence, including when associated to trafficking in persons, are known to be part of the strategic objectives and ideology of certain terrorist groups, used as a tactic of terrorism and an instrument to increase their finances and their power through recruitment and the destruction of communities’. In the same resolution, the Council noted that such trafficking, particularly of women and girls, ‘remains a critical component of the financial flows to certain terrorist groups’ and is ‘used by these groups as a driver for recruitment’. Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab are among the main terrorist groups that have used human trafficking (including for sexual exploitation) and conflict-related sexual violence as tactics of terrorism, or ‘sexual terrorism’. This article will: (i) explain the nexus between these three crimes; (ii) focus on its different manifestations in the context of these terrorist organizations; and (iii) reflect on the possibilities for national criminal prosecution. To assist in the fight against impunity and increase accountability, this article provides suggestions to facilitate the successful prosecution of sexual terrorism in a more survivor-centric way.

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This article discusses a rapid assessment of risks and gaps in the anti-trafficking response, related to the prevention of human trafficking of refugees from Ukraine in the immediate aftermath of the start of the war (March-April 2022). For this assessment numerous actors have been interviewed from Ukraine and neighbouring countries and a study visit has been organized to Poland in April 2022. This assessment reviews the trafficking risks (and at risk groups) related to the outflow of Ukrainian refugees in Eastern and Central Europe, the extent to which these risks are being addressed by the agencies involved in the humanitarian response and the identification of the possible roles for anti-trafficking organizations. To address the gaps and needs that are identified in the anti-trafficking response in Ukraine and neigbouring countries (Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia) several recommendations are made, addressing governments/international organisations, anti-trafficking NGOs and donors, to (I) reduce the vulnerabilities to human trafficking; (ii) to ensure the identification of trafficked persons and accountability of perpetrators; and (iii) to ensure adequate referral and assistance to trafficked persons.