ABSTRACT
Despite the shift in international definitions of trafficking, from prostitution to broader migration processes and situations of forced labor, the global sex trade remains a target for many anti-trafficking policies and agencies. In the following we present excerpts from public statements and appeals by sex worker rights organizations about anti-trafficking interventions and politics. The excerpts reveal dimensions of the violence and terror sex workers are subject to in the name of anti-trafficking, yet also offer alternatives for policy and action to address the multiple dimensions of the problem of trafficking. The organizations represented here—Zi Teng, Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, and Empower—are located in, respectively, Hong Kong, China; Kolkata, India; and Thailand. Their experiences and perspectives are similar to those expressed by sex workers’ rights organizations elsewhere in the world. 1
