ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the response to trafficking in the region and suggests that this response to date has been undermined by three interrelated shortcomings in how the issue is conceptualized and understood. These are: lack of acknowledgment and understanding of a "push-down, pop-up phenomenon" that is taking place around trafficking; faulty construction of the concept of prevention; and inaccurate assessment of the root causes of trafficking. There is growing acknowledgement of the displacement, or push-down pop-up effect surrounding trafficking. Many trafficking programs focus on "prevention," often at the community level in places that are known or thought to be vulnerable to trafficking. The current use of the term prevention generally assigns responsibility for dealing with gross violations of persons to places hundreds or thousands of miles from where the violations are taking place. The recategorization of many of the current prevention activities under the rubric of vulnerability reduction would make a significant difference to the way this issue is perceived.
