What about the victims? : - A study to see if empowerment is part of the support and protection that EU aims to give the victims of human trafficking

• Main Author: Bertram, Josefine
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS) 2014
• Subjects: human trafficking; victim; EU; empowerment; disempowerment
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-37659

This study was carried out in order to get an understanding on how the victims of human trafficking are taken care of in the EU and if the union’s ambition open up for the victim’s empowerment and thereafter also decreases the risk of the survivors to be utilized again in the same or different way. The idea derives from EU’s focus on establishing minimum standards that shall protect and support victims of human trafficking. Through a thematic text analysis where John Friedmann’s disempowerment model was applied, the ambition was to answer the research questions how does the EU work in order to protect and support the victims of human trafficking and does this effort open up for the possibility of the victims to take control over their own lives and livelihood; i.e. being empowered. The result shows that EU’s work to protect and support victims of human trafficking open up for the possibility for the victims to take control over their lives – but that there needs to be similar studies of other actors and agencies in order to see if the work is comprehensive enough and supplements what EU can do.