(2017-12-06), Human trafficking, exploitation and health: A Special Collection launched at PLOS Medicine, Medical Patent Law Weekly, 4, ISSN: 1551-5249, BUTTER® ID: 014779644
By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Medical Patent Law Weekly -- The exploitation of people for forced labor and marriage affects over 40 million worldwide, with every nation implicated in a human rights violation now termed “modern slavery.” PLOS Medicine announces the publication of a new Collection, “Human Trafficking, Exploitation and Health,” on , to examine this global crisis.
Collection coordinators Cathy Zimmerman and Ligia Kiss of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine argue that labor exploitation is a public health problem that should be treated as preventable. They lay out the global reach of human trafficking and offer a public health policy framework to guide responses to it in their introductory Collection Review.
The articles in this Collection reveal some of the many ways people are exploited, including unaccompanied migrant and refugee boys in Greece, fishing industry workers in Southeast Asia, and children exploited for sex in the United States. The extreme hazards suffered by trafficked workers in high-risk sectors, such as fishing, manufacturing and domestic work, highlight the need for occupational health and safety interventions, a topic further discussed in an article that shows how specific work-related health problems can help identify victims of labor trafficking.
This Collection will grow as more articles are published. Given the magnitude of the problem - for every 1,000 people in the world between 5 and 6 people are enslaved, with 1 out of every 4 being a child - research is sorely needed for evidence-based approaches to prevention and the provision of appropriate health care.
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