RETHINKING VICTIMHOOD IN THE CONTEXT OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND TERROISM

Abstract

This article examines the intersection of human trafficking and terrorism through a forced criminality lens, focusing on how trafficking can compel individuals into terrorism-related conduct while simultaneously positioning them as both victims of exploitation and subjects of criminal liability. Through doctrinal analysis of international and domestic legal instruments, the study demonstrates how counter-terrorism frameworks grounded in assumptions of voluntariness, strict liability, and security-driven enforcement often obscure trafficking indicators such as coercion, deception, and abuse of vulnerability - dynamics that disproportionately affect women and children. Applying a continuum-of-harm framework, the article argues that the failure to recognise trafficking within terrorism contexts perpetuates layered victimisation, including criminalisation, preventive detention, and exclusion from protection mechanisms. It concludes that integrating trafficking-sensitive safeguards into counter-terrorism regimes is both a doctrinal and human rights imperative, necessary to prevent unjust criminalisation and to strengthen victim-centred protection in cases of terror-linked exploitation.