Pointing the finger of blame at the wrong (and easy) target Recent events that have seen 39 people die in a lorry in the United Kingdom prompted the debate on a hotly contested topic: human trafficking and modern slavery. In a recent interview to the Times, the independent anti-slavery commissioner called for a new approach to this abhorrent crime. What happened in Essex was yet another human tragedy that quickly grabs the news headlines. However, it is also a tragedy that stays there for only a few days. We, the public, immediately look into the actors that are closely associated with or involved in the act. We focus on perpetrators (in this case, human smugglers) and victims. We want justice for the victims. We want punishment for those we deem so inhumane that we think we should lock them in and throw away the key. We streamline the complex world of poverty, abuse, exploitation, vulnerability, hopelessness and despair into a simple dichotomy of a good and a ba...
This book is a unique and original examination of borders and bordering practices in the Western Balkans prior to, during, and after the migrant "crisis" of the 2010s. Based on extensive, mixed-method, exploratory research in Serbia, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, and Kosovo, the book charts technological and human interventions deployed in this region that simultaneously enable and hinder the mobility projects of border crossers. Within the rich historical context of the Balkan Wars and subsequent displacement of many people from the region and beyond, this book discusses the types and locations of borders as well as their development, transformation, and impact on people on the move. These border crossers fall into three distinct categories: people from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia transiting the region; citizens of the Western Balkans seeking asylum and access to labour markets in the EU; and women border crossers. This book also maps border struggles that follow thes...
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