Transnational Criminal Law in a Globalised World: The Case of Trafficking

Not a day goes by without a sensationalist report on the travails of modernslaves, be it the saga of Indian teenagers trafficked into sex work as depicted in theHollywood movie Love Sonia, or workers trafficked into the UK’s nail bar and carwash shops, or the 2018 Global Slavery Index released by the Walk FreeFoundation founded by mining magnate Andrew Forrest which estimates that thereare 40.3 million modern slaves around the world. Anti-slavery groups remind usthat modern slavery afflicts almost everything that we consume on a day-to-daybasis. This includes basic commodities like tea, sugar, coffee, prawns, chicken,eggs, onions, mushrooms, “slave chocolate” from Cote D’Ivoire and cotton fromUzbekistan. Exploitation is also rife in wartime captivity in Nigeria, bonded labourin Pakistan, fishing boats in Thailand, households employing overseas migrantdomestic workers, Qatari construction sites with Nepali workers, the brick kilnindustry in India, Brazilian garment factories employing Bolivian workers, inUnilever’s supply chain in Vietnam, and in Kenyan flower and green beancultivation.