Paper short abstract:

Utilising data from ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in Cameroon and the United Arab Emirates, this paper addresses why, despite the universal condemnation of human trafficking and the broad alliances against it, so little progress seems to have been made.

Paper long abstract:

Trafficking in person, unlike other challenges of our time, is widely recognised as a devastating human tragedy. We find states and civil society, countries in the North and South, prominent international organisations and local NGOs and people with opposing political or ideological views in agreement as they condemn this practice or mobilise against it. However, despite the universal condemnation, official reports and the broader debate suggest a steady rise in magnitude. In Cameroon, the state works closely with international partners–the US, UK and UN, and local NGOs and civil society to crack down on human trafficking. In addition, it occasionally seeks cooperation with destination countries in tackling this problem. Given such a broad alliance and public support, we ask why so little progress seems to have been made. Against this question, we seek to identify the networks involved in human trafficking in the case of migration from Cameroon to the Gulf states and analyse their roles and the position of different actors within them. We utilise data from ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in Cameroon and the United Arab Emirates and draw on the conceptual lenses of migration infrastructure and multiscalar perspectives.