During the mobilization by associations and the debates in the French parliament about the status of victims of trafficking in human beings, an ideal victim was presented. As a young woman-a naive, innocent, vulnerable foreigner-she needs to be protected in the name of human rights. However this victim becomes a suspect once attention shifts to her legal status (undocumented immigrant) or economic activity (prostitution), and the ideal vanishes behind national priorities for protecting the country from «undesirables». The tension between these priorities and universal principles produces an «impossible» victim, characterized by its absence. How has this absence of the «victim» of human trafficking been socially produced? Besides the foregoing tension, it also results from a social relation and from restrictions on the activities of the police, judges and associations. © Presses Universitaires de France. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays.

Trafficking in human beings Slavery Migra-tions National priorities Universal human rights France Victimhood

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