Trafficking in Women and Forced Migration : Moving Victims Across the Border of Crime into the Domain of Human Rights

The response to the trafficking of women is primarily dominated by the discourse of criminal law both internationally and nationally. By contrast, in the refugee law context, women are constructed as victims in a ‘culturally relative', patriarchal society. This paper explores the tensions between these constructs and the practical responses to protecting trafficked women.Taking Australia's policy response to the trafficking of women in the Asia-Pacific region as an example, the paper describes how the trafficking/smuggling distinction is blurred by constructing trafficked women both as victims/witnesses and as free agents rather than as rights bearing individuals. This profoundly affects the way that government agencies and decision-makers respond to the issues