IOM — THE CLIMATE CHANGE–HUMAN TRAFFICKING NEXUS

Cli­mate change increas­es the risk of nat­ur­al dis­as­ters and places a strain on liveli­hoods; it exac­er­bates pover­ty and can poten­tial­ly cause sit­u­a­tions of con­flict and insta­bil­i­ty. These con­di­tions, when com­bined with a mis­match between demand for labour and sup­ply and the pro­lif­er­a­tion of unscrupu­lous recruit­ment agen­cies, increase high-risk behav­iours and oth­er neg­a­tive cop­ing strate­gies among affect­ed pop­u­la­tions. This may include resort­ing to migrant smug­glers, which in turn makes them vul­ner­a­ble to traf­fick­ing in per­sons (TiP) and asso­ci­at­ed forms of exploita­tion and abuse. The impact of cli­mate change, how­ev­er, is rarely con­sid­ered as a poten­tial con­trib­u­tor to human traf­fick­ing in glob­al dis­cus­sions or nation­al- lev­el pol­i­cy frameworks,1 and the nexus remains rel­a­tive­ly underexplored.