Human trafficking following the 2015 Nepal earthquake : a case study of how a natural disaster impacts people´s vulnerabilities and the role disaster response and recovery plays in countering it

Abstract

Human trafficking in crisis has reached the international humanitarian agenda the last few years. The humanitarian response to the 2015 earthquake in Nepal was among the first to include counter-trafficking at the onset of a natural disaster. Using the counter-trafficking efforts in the earthquake response in Nepal as a case study the aim of this research is threefold: The first aim is to look at natural disaster impacts the root causes that puts people at risk of human trafficking. The second to look at the counter-trafficking measures implemented in the humanitarian response. Thirdly to look at how social, cultural and political factors affected how the response and recovery efforts reached vulnerable people and how this impacted the root causes that put people at risk of trafficking.