The Conference
After several successful online conferences, we are delighted to announce that our first in-person conference will take place in June 2024 in Faculty of Law, University of A Coruña (Spain). The Human Trafficking Research Network (HTRN) invites contributions fostering exchange and cooperation between researchers from diverse disciplines, as well as practitioners working on human trafficking in different contexts.
The aim of the conference is to bring together researchers and practitioners working on similar issues in panels to discuss a research topic from a range of perspectives.
The Human Trafficking Research Network
The Human Trafficking Research Network (HTRN) is a network open to academics and practitioners engaged in research and/or practice on the broad theme of human trafficking. The HTRN encourages a multidisciplinary research environment with opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration
Faculty of Law, University of A Coruña (Spain)
Provisional Programme
15:00 Arrival and Registration
15:15-15:30 Welcome and Introduction
- Gillian Kane, HTRN Co-chair (Ulster University)
- Silvia Rodríguez López and Patricia Faraldo Cabana (University of A Coruña)
15:30 – 17:00 Panel 1:Technologies and Human Trafficking Chair: (tbc)
- Gabriele Baratto & Beatrice Rigon (University of Trento): “Human Trafficking in the Digital Age: Mapping the Current Criminological Landscape and Charting Future Frontiers”
- Anne Waswa, Cassandra Eng, Anna Cody, Pedro Goulart, Hui Yi, David Okech (The University of Georgia, USA): “How can emerging data-driven technologies improve the global response to human trafficking?: New advancements in the prevalence estimation in West Africa”
- Raquel Guzmán Ordaz (University of Salamanca, Spain): “Digital Mediation in Human Trafficking: Exploring Intersections of Vulnerability in Technological Spaces”
- Serifat Asiyanbi (Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria): “Cryptocurrencies: A Dark-web of Child Trafficking in the Digital Age”
- Maria Barraco (formerly Queen Mary University of London, UK): “Technology and human trafficking: using predictive algorithms to improve the identification of victims of trafficking”
17:00 – 17:30 Coffee break
17:30 – 19:30 Panel 2.1: National and International Anti-Trafficking Policies (I) Chair: (tbc)
- Georgina Rodríguez (University of Girona, Spain): “The reflection and recovery period: analysis and proposals in the face of the imminent transformation of the EU framework in the fight against trafficking”
- Claudia Torres Ferrer (University of Lleida, Spain): “Trafficking in human beings as economic crime: reframing 4P policy”
- Kirsten Larson (The University of Galway, Ireland): “Children and Armed Conflict: The Response of UN Mechanisms to Child Trafficking in the Syrian Arab Republic”
- Erika Szyszczak (University of Sussex, UK): “Trafficking and Trade: A New Paradigm”
Panel 2.2: National and International Anti-Trafficking Policies (II) Chair: (tbc)
- Antonello Scialdone (National Institute for Public Policy Analyses, Italy), “The Dark Side of Globalization. Remarks on Human Trafficking and Slavery Work”
- JP O’Sullivan, Ann Mara & Gloria Kirwan (MECPATHS, Ireland): "All Together Now": Integrating Change Management Theory into Anti-Human Trafficking Policy Innovation”
- Lisa Calder (Sheffield Hallam University, UK), “Missing Children: A Critical Analysis of Collaborative Institutional Responses in England” Anneke Koning (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands): “Transnational Child Sex Offending: What is the problem represented to be?”
21:00 Dinner
9:30 – 10:30 Keynote speech: Carolina Villacampa Estiarte (University of Lleida, Spain): “Human Trafficking for labour exploitation: Data and institutional responses in Spain”
10:30 – 12:00 Panel 3: Criminal Justice Responses Chair: (tbc)
- Margarita Valle Mariscal de Gante (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain): “The wearisome fight against human trafficking. An inane fight paved with human casualties”
- Roberto Dufraix Tapia (Universidad de Tarapacá, Chile): “Drugs Traffickers of Victims? Exploring the Links Between Cross-Border Drug Trafficking and Human Trafficking: The Case of 'Mules' in the Tarapacá Region of Chile”
- Ekin Deniz Uzun (Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Türkiye): “Turning into Victimiser: Lost in the Guilty-Innocent Paradox?”
- Ana Belén Valverde-Cano (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain): “The Principle of Non-punishment of Victims of Trafficking: analysis of its need, requirements and problems” Jason Haynes (University of Birmingham, UK): “Demystifying the Impact of the UK’s Modern Slavery Agenda on Caribbean Anti-Trafficking Law and Practice”
12:00- 12:30 Coffee break
12:30 – 14:00 Panel 4: Gender and Human trafficking Chair: (tbc)
- Leire Berasaluze Gerrikagoitia (University of the Basque Country, Spain): “Addressing Forced Surrogacy and Human Trafficking: A Case Study from Córdoba, Spain, and Legislative Response”
- Amira Ahmed (The American University in Cairo, Egypt): “Consumable Sexualities”: Forced Migration, Temporary Marriage, and Human Trafficking in the Middle East”
- Mariona Llobet Angli (Pompeu Fabra University, Spain): “Prostitution and Trafficking: neither is the same, nor abolishing sex work exploitation will end”
- Marc Salat (University of Lleida, Spain): “Women as Perpetrators in Human Trafficking Cases: A Study of Spanish Judicial Cases”
- Patricia Faraldo Cabana (University of A Coruña, Spain): “Causes and consequences of the invisibility of male victims of human trafficking”
14:00-15:00 Lunch
15:00-16:00 Panel 5: Labour exploitation Chair: (tbc)
- Giovanna Leuzzi (University of Barcelona, Spain): “Human Trafficking for Labour Exploitation: A problematic conceptualization and its repercussions in the identification of victims”
- Diego Boza Martínez (University of Cadiz, Spain): “Trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labour exploitation and domestic employment: a consented reality”
- Nieves Sanz Mulas (University of Salamanca, Spain): “Servitude and domestic slavery of migrant women and girls”
- Zbigniew Lasocik (University of Warsaw, Poland): “Defining forced labour - a difficult challenge of today but a necessary one”
16:00 – 17:00 Panel 6: Root causes, vulnerabilities and responses Chair: (tbc)
- Lewis Njabulo Sibanda (The Open University, UK): “A Critical Legal Approach to understanding the root causes of human trafficking”
- Lily Okech (University of London, UK): “Trafficking from Africa to Europe – A case study of women trafficking from Kenya to Italy for the purpose of sexual exploitation”
- Prince Agwu (University of Nigeria & University of Dundee, UK): “Corruption: enables human trafficking and undermines antihuman trafficking response in Nigeria”
- Cherisse Francis (St Mary's University, UK): “Breaking the Ties that Bind: Considering Anti-trafficking in Persons efforts in the Anglophone Caribbean through law, culture, history and discourse”.
17:00-17:30 Break
17:30-18:45 Panel 7: Human trafficking survivors voices Chair: (tbc)
- Maria Turda (University of Central Lancashire, UK): “When migration fails’: The Post-trafficking trajectories of Romanian women sexually exploited in the UK”
- Chamunogwa Nyoni (University in Bindura, Zimbabwe): “Immediate and Long Term Needs for survivors of human trafficking: Insights from the Centre for Combating Human Trafficking in Zimbabwe”
- Dragana Wright (Helen Bamber Foundation, UK): “Insecure immigration status and the risks of re-trafficking”
- Tekalign Gidi Kure (Wachmo University, Ethiopia): “Ethiopian Irregular Migrants Narratives of Risks across Routes of Migration from Ethiopia to South Africa”
- Omozusi Mercy & Agba Ikwen Stephen (Babcock University, Nigeria): “Victims live experiences of psychosocial effect of human trafficking and intervention strategies at NAPTIP”
18:45 – 19:00 Closing Remarks