The sheer number of displaced people is mind-boggling. Over two-and-a-half million people have fled the war in Syria and sought refuge in Turkey under the Turkish Government’s Temporary Protection Regime. At least two million others have fled from Syria to Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. More than six million people are internally displaced inside the war-torn country. In the chaos of violence, displacement, crossing borders and trying to survive in a new country, opportunities arise for traffickers and exploiters to take advantage of vulnerable people.
Throughout 2015, ICMPD’s team of researchers investigated the effects of the Syrian conflict on trafficking in persons in the five countries with the highest numbers of displaced people: Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. The research was conducted in the context of a project to increase and enhance knowledge on the effects of the Syrian conflict on trafficking, and to thereby contribute to improving the response by relevant actors operating in the countries under study. It is funded by the US Department of State. The resulting study, Targeting Vulnerabilities, focuses on the phenomenon of human trafficking as defined in international law, and as it affects people displaced within and from Syria.