Are victims of human trafficking (HT) at the centre of international or national interests? National and international organisations report an alarming number of human trafficking cases, but the hard data on the real extent of HT are missing. Different organisations report different figures-without divulging their data collection methods. In this paper, the different data collection methods of data producers (UNODC, ILO, IOM and US Government) are critically analysed. Can such data be used to legitimise a worldwide campaign against HT? The analytical section of the paper focuses on Bangladesh and Japan. This paper concludes with a recommendation for a harmonised framework to document the real number of victims at the national, regional and global level, and for a bottomup approach to eliminate this problem. © RMIT Publishing.

Human trafficking Counter-trafficking Victimisation

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