Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW)

21/04/2026

Indonesia has finally passed a law to protect the rights of domestic workers!!! The long struggle of domestic workers has finally brought success.

The bill was first introduced in 2004 to protect the country’s 4.2 million domestic workers, almost 90 per cent of whom are women.

We congratulate our sisters at JALA-PRT and wish them more power and strength.

20/04/2026

We’re organising a hybrid side event with La Strada International as part of the 26th OSCE Alliance Conference against Trafficking in Persons.

From Criminalisation to Protection: Strengthening the Non-Punishment Principle in Cases of Forced Criminality

Location: Bibliotheksaal, Vienna, Austria & online via Zoom [https://osce-org.zoom.us/j/99361934485]
Date/Time: 21 April between 13:45-14:45 CET

While the non-punishment principle is recognized in international and regional anti-trafficking frameworks−and reflected in OSCE commitments−people who have been trafficked across the OSCE region continue to be arrested, detained, and prosecuted for acts they were forced to commit.

In this session, we will bring together research insights and frontline perspectives to explore why the principle remains inconsistently applied, and what concrete steps are needed to strengthen its implementation.

Speakers include:
Moderator: Suzanne Hoff, International Coordinator, La Strada International
• Professor Conny Rijken, Dutch National Rapporteur on Human Trafficking and S*xual Violence against Children
• Daisy-May Carty Cowling, Human Trafficking and Forced Labour Programme Officer, GAATW
• Kamena Dorling, Director of Policy, Helen Bamber Foundation
• Tamara Schmidt, Co-director, LEFÖ-IBF
• Michele Mildwater, Director HopeNow – Empowering Trafficked People

Join us in Vienna or online!

19/04/2026

It is 42 Degrees C here in Varanasi. The sun is a blazing fireball in the April sky. We are grateful for the Neem and Banyan trees. The trees are old and have thick canopies of tender new leaves. The familiar bitter fragrance of Neem flowers is in the air.

We are here with Jan Vikas Samiti, our member who works in many districts of Uttar Pradesh, India. The women who have gathered on the weekend are part of the Women Workers for Change Programme coordinated by GAATW Secretariat.

It is impossible to bring the paid work of these sisters under one occupational label. The nature of work depends on the season, on the time they can take out of their household chores and their skill sets. So they cut ripened wheat in their neighbours’ fields in exchange for some wheat, make bead necklaces which fetch them very little money, keep livestock at home so they can sell eggs, milk and meat and help in cooking wedding feasts. The money they make is very little but still it is something not to be scoffed at. They are eager to learn other skills, preferably those that will enable them to earn a little more. It will also have to be work that they can do alongside their unpaid household work.

For the last six months, many of them have been learning to sew. They know that readymade garments are cheaply available in the market these days and they may not be able to turn this skill into an income generating activity anytime soon. Still, all of them look forward to come to their sewing class for a few hours every day. Their husbands and mothers-in-law let them come to the training place because they think this could result in better earning in the future. The women enjoy a few hours away from home. With old and new friends.

In addition to the skills training, they also have input sessions by qualified health professionals. And they organise facilitated discussions on women’s rights.

Some of them have discovered that they have a talent for performing arts. So the group has come up with a street play. We are honoured to watch the opening performance of “My Rights” which gives us a glimpse into their lives and aspirations. They make plans to take the play to neighbouring villages. Braving the long summer and knowing well that some families will not be too happy with their ‘street performances’. The quiet woman who had transformed herself into a drunk husband on the stage, smiles shyly. “I always wanted to act. And now I have an opportunity,” she says.

The social, economic and the emotional go hand in hand. The young girls who have accompanied their mothers are happy for their mothers. “If my mother learns about women’s rights, she will stand up for me,” she tells us. “Will you stand up for her too,” I ask her. “Of course, I will,” she replies.

Workers for Change #

16/04/2026

GAATW International Secretariat currently has a vacancy for a Programme Associate (Alliance Strengthening) focusing on 1) strengthening the engagement of our membership through structured learning and discussion spaces; and 2) supporting progressive social justice movements, including those outside of our three thematic areas: Migration, Labour and Trafficking.

🌏 This is a full-time position located in Bangkok, Thailand

The deadline for applications is 8 May 2026

👉For more information and to apply, visit: https://tinyurl.com/gaatwasms

07/04/2026

GAATW International Secretariat currently has a vacancy for a Programme Officer (Research) focusing on migration for the Women on the Move programme.

🌏 This is a full-time position located in Bangkok, Thailand

‼ The deadline for applications is 24 April 2026

👉For more information and to apply, visit https://tinyurl.com/mr2e5y2a

27/03/2026

The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented rise in global temperatures, with each year setting new records as the warmest. This increase—driven by human-induced climate change—results in more frequent and intense droughts, floods, erratic weather patterns, and natural disasters.

These slow- and sudden-onset weather events make working conditions in already precarious labour sectors, such as agriculture, fishing, or garment production, unbearable. They also destroy many people’s homes and livelihoods, forcing them to undertake risky migrations or accept exploitative jobs, thereby increasing their vulnerability to exploitation and human trafficking.

To unpack some of these dynamics, we are organising a webinar to analyse how the worsening climate crisis is impacting workers and migrants. Speakers will discuss changing working conditions in countries across Asia, Africa, and the Americas, the strategies that communities are implementing to resist resource extraction and exploitation, and what steps governments must take to protect people’s rights and well-being.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/N5Pub27fSQy6pynjrUz3DA

21/03/2026

In February, Vivian Cartagena, Programme Officer for Alliance Strengthening, spoke with Billy Navarrete, President of Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDH Guayaquil), a non-profit organisation established in 1984. Committed to promoting and defending human rights, CDH has long worked on issues of migration and displacement, supporting refugees and migrants through regularisation, protection, and community organising in a city shaped by constant human mobility.

Comité Permanente Defensa Derechos Humanos

GAATW sees the phenomenon of human trafficking as intrinsically embedded in the context of migration for the purpose of labour.

18/03/2026

The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented rise in global temperatures, with each year setting new records as the warmest. This increase—driven by human-induced climate change—results in more frequent and intense droughts, floods, erratic weather patterns, and natural disasters.

These slow- and sudden-onset weather events make working conditions in already precarious labour sectors, such as agriculture, fishing, or garment production, unbearable. They also destroy many people’s homes and livelihoods, forcing them to undertake risky migrations or accept exploitative jobs, thereby increasing their vulnerability to exploitation and human trafficking.

To unpack some of these dynamics, we are organising a webinar to analyse how the worsening climate crisis is impacting workers and migrants. Speakers will discuss changing working conditions in countries across Asia, Africa, and the Americas, the strategies that communities are implementing to resist resource extraction and exploitation, and what steps governments must take to protect people’s rights and well-being.

Speakers:
Denise Brennan, Professor of Anthropology at Georgetown University and a 2025–26 Harvard Radcliffe Fellow, United States.
Bethany Jackson, Rights Lab Lead in Decent Work and Climate Change at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Ginny Baumann, senior programme manager at the Freedom Fund, United Kingdom.
Moderator: Borislav Gerasimov, Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/N5Pub27fSQy6pynjrUz3DA #/registration

17/03/2026

These past few weeks Lebanon has been on our minds a lot. GAATW has worked closely with many migrant worker leaders and migrant rights activists in the country. Some of them have become close friends.

So as we watch with helplessness and anger the havoc that yet another war is causing to the country, we also hear about people’s courage and humanity.

More than 800,000 displaced people, thousands of civilians killed and injured, many houses and institutions in rubbles, and too little resources for emergency relief work in Lebanon.

In the midst of this disaster, a colleague from Beirut has a heartwarming post from the Sea Front of the city:

“A group of migrant domestic workers have gathered there to cook for the displaced people. On their own initiative and with their own money. One of them was in tears while talking about the situation in Lebanon. The workers, typically seen as ‘outsiders’, have reached out with love, concern and care.”

I was reminded of a Sunday afternoon with a group of migrant workers at the Migrant Community Centre, Achrafieh, Beirut.

"What do you like most about your life in Beirut", I had asked them.

"What I love most is the sense of community I have with some people here. Not all of them are from my country, I know nothing about their countries, we don't even have a common language, but our lives here are very similar. I cherish the togetherness," one young man had replied. While talking about their everyday experiences of racism and discrimination, they were emphatic that we must not generalize. “Not everyone is a racist. Not every employer is abusive. It is the system, the unfair laws, that we must fight against. Once that is set right, things will change,” a migrant worker had told me.

That was nine years ago. Before the pandemic. Before the economic collapse. Before yet another war!

Keeping all our friends in Lebanon in our prayers.

to War #

(Photos below are of one of GAATW Secretariat’s women’s health workshops with migrant domestic workers in Beirut, a meeting at the Migrant Community Centre of Anti-Racism Movement, and a picture from the wall of the women’s co-op. All from 2018.)

08/03/2026

International Women’s Day 2026 has arrived at one of the most turbulent moments in our lives.
It is difficult to remain hopeful and optimistic at this ‘time of monsters’.

Yet, many of our sisters remind us that to give up hope is not only cowardly, it is also a luxury that not everyone can afford. “How can I give up when my daughter’s education depends on the money that I send home every month,” asks Ruth who has been working as a domestic worker in Kuwait. Far away from her home in Ghana. “I couldn’t study much. But my daughter is bright. She is ambitious. I have learnt to dream for her,” she adds. Her words are echoed by Renuka who is working in Italy, thousands of miles away from her village in Nepal. “I want to put my daughter in a private school. She will have a better life than mine. I am sure of that,” she says with confidence. Nang Duai works in a garment factory in Maesot, Thailand. Just across the river from her home town Myawaddy in Myanmar. But not only is she in another country, she also does not see any possibility of going back to her conflict torn country anytime soon. “I work hard. I was born in a refugee camp in this country. My family went back to Myanmar for a brief period of time. But we returned again. I started working in the factory when I was very young. Now I have my own small family. We are expecting our first baby,” she said. She and her husband who works at construction sites, are trying to find out what kind of parental benefits they would get in return of their social security contributions. In remote North 24 Parganas of West Bengal, India, adolescent girls are working as community action researchers. Alongside their studies, they also keep an eye on their communities and report to the local authorities about violence against women and child marriage. “I know the government systems are often corrupted. But I want to exercise my voting right as a citizen. Not only will I participate in the election, I will also demand accountability from my government,” a returnee woman migrant worker from Bangladesh told us on the eve of their election. Her words were echoed by many women in Nepal barely two months later. Our sisters in the SWANA region are angry and upset by the ongoing unfair and illegal war but they are not giving up.

So on this International Women’s Day, we commemorate past struggles. We remember and celebrate the changes we have been able to bring about. We also remember our mistakes so we can rectify them.

And most importantly, we stand together in solidarity to speak up against war and militarism that is destroying lives, livelihoods and the very notion of international order.

03/03/2026

On today’s International S*x Workers’ Rights Day, our Programme Lead, Maya Linstrum-Newman, spoke to Women on the Line on 3RC Radical Radio about the alliance we’ve been building to fight anti-s*x worker rights actors at the UN and in other international policy spaces.
“We have always been strong allies of the s*x workers’ rights movement, and when we’ve been working on all forms of human trafficking, we’ve always pushed back against people that take an overly simplistic approach and say “we should just ban s*x work and then no one will ever be exploited” and we’ve always worked with the s*x workers’ rights movement to argue that it’s actually the decriminalisation of s*x work and the free movement of everybody that will make people safer.”

Maya Linstrum-Newman, Programme Lead for Human Trafficking and Forced Labour at the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW), on a recent alliance between radical feminists and religious groups to restrict reproductive freedoms and its impact on s*x work, surrogacy, gender ideology and bodil...

03/03/2026

The Anti-Trafficking Review is accepting submissions for two special issues: 1) "Engaging Impacted Communities" will analyse how people impacted by anti-trafficking interventions (such as survivors of trafficking, migrants or s3x workers) contribute to the development and implementation of policies, programmes or research that affect them; 2) "Solidarities Beyond Silos" will highlight case studies of solidarity, cooperation, and mutual learning among different communities or social movements to fight against exploitation and marginalisation.

See the full calls for papers and the deadlines for submissions at https://antitraffickingreview.org/index.php/atrjournal/announcement