Ms Marie Segrave

Ms Marie Segrave
(Monash University)

Law & Order & the Border: Responses to Trafficking in Australia and Thailand

Abstract:

International engagement with the issue of trafficking in persons has compelled nation states across the globe to develop policy responses to address this issue. Within both Australia and Thailand, policy responses have been adopted that operate almost exclusively within a law and order framework - reflecting the broader framework provided at the international level. This paper will examine some of the similarities in the responses to trafficking in these two countries. While the patterns and the broader social, political and economic contexts differ markedly, what is consistent in both countries is the role the border plays in determining the limits and the operation of the response to people trafficking. Indeed, it will be argued that in both countries the adoption of law and order narratives within the policy rhetoric effectively silences alternative, more comprehensive narratives while maintaining the prominence of the border regime. Through drawing on a more complex analytical framework that locates trafficking in women at the nexus of a range of global factors, this paper seeks to disrupt the dominant narratives and to ask some critical questions regarding the current operation of policy responses to people trafficking.

Biographical note:

International engagement with the issue of trafficking in persons has compelled nation states across the globe to develop policy responses to address this issue. Within both Australia and Thailand, policy responses have been adopted that operate almost exclusively within a law and order framework - reflecting the broader framework provided at the international level. This paper will examine some of the similarities in the responses to trafficking in these two countries. While the patterns and the broader social, political and economic contexts differ markedly, what is consistent in both countries is the role the border plays in determining the limits and the operation of the response to people trafficking. Indeed, it will be argued that in both countries the adoption of law and order narratives within the policy rhetoric effectively silences alternative, more comprehensive narratives while maintaining the prominence of the border regime. Through drawing on a more complex analytical framework that locates trafficking in women at the nexus of a range of global factors, this paper seeks to disrupt the dominant narratives and to ask some critical questions regarding the current operation of policy responses to people trafficking.

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