Consequences of Trafficking on Women’s Health

Abstract

Introduction: Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery. Trafficked women and men are exploited in the service of illicit and criminal services and labor, including sex work and labor in the garment industry and domestic service. Women and children are most likely to be trafficked. Trafficked persons are most commonly transported to distant locales and forced to perform services and labor that are often dangerous without compensation and under coercive and abusive conditions. Study purpose: The primary aim of the current study is to characterize physical, psychological, and emotional health of women trafficked in and through Armenia from the narratives of women who have been trafficked and representatives from various organizations (e.g., governmental, international, and non-governmental) currently working in the field of trafficking. The secondary aim is to describe the barriers to access to healthcare for trafficked women through the narratives of the same study groups. Methods: This study employs directed content analysis in a cross sectional design. The cross sectional design relays on in-depth interviews using a semi-structured approach. Two groups of participants contributed their narratives to address the primary and secondary aims of the study. In-depth interviews with trafficked Armenian women and with representatives of organizations who work with these women provided the data for this project. Direct content analysis allows for confirmation of the concepts in data analysis, which are: mental health, physical health, access to healthcare, and opportunities for improved health and healthcare. Content codes are clustered into categories that fit the concepts directing analysis. Codes that do not fit the guiding concepts are categorized, collapsed into more abstract themes and then arranged into categories and themes. Results: Five women who were trafficked in the past and eight organizational representatives from both governmental and non-governmental agencies participated in in-depth interviews. Three categories are confirmed through directed content analysis (mental health, physical health, health care access, and opportunities to improve health and health care) and two additional categories are discovered during the study (causes of trafficking and trafficking trajectories). Causes of human trafficking, discussed in relation to Armenian social and economic forces, emerged during the analysis. Findings highlight the fact that all trafficked women fell into trafficking based on deception of the traffickers. They were then forced into prostitution and other forms of illegal and dangerous work. These conditions contribute to adverse health consequences. Trafficked women experienced psychological and physical violence during the trafficking. Psychological disorders are the most often reported negative impact of the trafficking on women’s health. Damage to women’s physical health is substantial. As a common punishment method some of the traffickers kept women without food and water, forced them to work longer hours, kept isolated and some of them were beaten for refusing to perform the job, which worsened the health conditions of women. Trafficked women did not have access to health care even in urgent circumstances during trafficking. Even after these women returned from trafficking they have limited access to health care. Implications: Future research is needed including children and men to more fully understand the consequences of trafficking on health. Despite the efforts to improve trafficked women’s health and access to health care in Armenia, there is much more to be done to improve the services available to them.