Labour Migration, Human Trafficking and Multinational Corporations

3    The commodification of human smuggling and trafficking

Louise Shelley

A diversity of actors participate in labor trafficking, ranging from diplomats and employees of multinational organizations to large-scale criminal organizations in Asia. In between these two extremes are small-scale entrepreneurs, who seize on the demand and desire of many to gain meaningful employment.¹ This paper will focus on the organized smuggling and trafficking networks that move individuals for labor exploitation, rather than on the elite individuals who move individuals to be used in their home or on their property.

Trafficking networks include both economically and politically motivated criminals. Both categories of traffickers often intersect with the larger ...