ABSTRACT
The increased desire for cross-border mobility in the age of globalization is well documented in contemporary social science research. Human rights frameworks are often singled out as the potential lifeline for mobile bodies at risk. While human rights frameworks encourage nation states to respect, protect and fulfil rights of migrants, we can consistently identify a range of practices that directly or indirectly impact undesired migrant populations negatively. For the purposes of this chapter we simply note that human trafficking is understood at the international level as a crime in the traditional sense: involving victims and offenders, where offenders may be individuals or part of organized crime. Human rights frameworks too often fail mobile bodies that rank low on the hierarchy of mobility. Human rights frameworks need to be redesigned and reapplied, in order to mitigate if not prevent harmful effects of border hardening policies across the Global North and Global South.
