Human Trafficking and Health: Setting a new public health agenda through a gender analysis

Trafficking in persons is a global phenomenon that has received significant attention from human rights advocates, international organizations, and the media. Public health research has recently begun to examine the health impacts of trafficking, but has only examined the health needs of victims of sex trafficking. The lack of research on potential health outcomes associated with other forms of exploitation, including trafficking into domestic labor, construction, factory or agricultural work, may negatively impact the availability and quality of services for victims of such exploitation. A review of international reports and legal frameworks to combat trafficking reveals that both men and women, boys and girls, can be victims of human trafficking. Public health research to date, however, has only examined the needs of women and children who are the majority of victims trafficked into sex work. This gender analysis tries to reframe the discourse around trafficking in public health and calls on researchers to consider the different exposures and potential health outcomes faced by male and female victims of trafficking because of their gender and sex, separately and synergistically, as well as the power dynamics related to age, class, race, ethnicity, and religion, that make some women and some men more vulnerable to trafficking and poor health outcomes. The suggested framework emerging from this gender analysis hopes to inform future research as well as policies and programs for combating trafficking and serve the needs of victims.