Sex Trafficking in Turkey: Migration Policy, Prostitution and Gender

2017 | Gender Studies

Turkey's national counter-trafficking rhetoric is influenced by ideas about 'irregular' migration, national security and 'illegal' working. Having adopted definitions and legislation from the UN Protocol, sex trafficking is framed as a problem of organised crime, rather than of migration and global inequality. This book highlights the weaknesses of an international discourse on human trafficking and examines its impact in a local context. Emel Coskun explores Turkey's national policy and practice by looking at the interactions between sex trafficking, prostitution and migration in the country. She argues that Turkey's prostitution and migration regimes weaken the protection system and can lead to the re-victimisation of victims of sex trafficking. This is especially visible in national legislation and law enforcement where there are attempts to distinguish between 'forced' and 'voluntary' prostitution.

Based on interviews with policy makers, advisors, Turkish government officials, police officers, professionals from NGOs and lawyers, this research challenges institutional responses to sex trafficking both on national and international levels and makes wider policy recommendations founded on empirical research. The book adds to understanding of the prostitution regime in Turkey, its effect on sex trafficking and the needs of trafficked as well as migrant women.

Emel Coskun (Author)