Is modern slavery the domain of organised crime?

4 October 2018 | Sasha Jesperson

Our Head of Transnational Challenges Practice, Sasha Jesperson, has written a column on the role of organised crime in modern slavery and the added challenges it brings to global stability.



‘When organised crime is involved, modern slavery is more dangerous for victims and more difficult for authorities to detect and address’.


With a team of researchers from the Centre for the Study of Modern Slavery, Sasha has been exploring the relationship between organised crime and human trafficking, considering what form organised criminal involvement takes; how cohesive criminal networks are across the human trafficking supply chain; what elements of trafficking are managed by criminal networks; and how violent they are.


As the networks facilitating human trafficking and modern slavery are fluid and adaptive, a nuanced understanding of how organised crime networks facilitate trafficking has proved to be a challenging task. Nevertheless, recognition of human trafficking and modern slavery as an organised crime problem is increasing, namely in the UK, but a detailed understanding of the structures of organised crime groups involved in human trafficking and other modern slavery practices is needed to tailor the response.


Analysis of the role of organised crime in human trafficking and people smuggling along key routes into Europe will be shared over the coming months on Delta 8.7 – focusing on Nigeria, Sudan, Albania and Vietnam.


Read the first article here and learn more about the role of organised crime in modern slavery.


Delta 8.7 is a global knowledge platform managed by UNUCPR and explores what works to end forced labour, slavery, human trafficking and child labour. Sasha Jesperson is a frequent contributor - stay tuned to read more from Sasha about the role of organised crime in modern slavery and how it functions as an industry.