6533b822fe1ef96bd127d5d4

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Protection and Victim’s Assistance

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description

Identification of a human trafficking victim is a herculean task, not only due to the complexity of the definition of human trafficking, but also due to the perception of victimhood and vulnerability. The last chapter of this book is written after the increase of the migration flows in Italy in the last years, where IOM declared that 80% of the Nigerian women arriving in Italy were potential human trafficking victims. In an era of a continuous overlap of categories, such as human trafficking victims, non-accompanied minors, refugees, and asylum seekers, legal frameworks can hinder the adequate protection of a human trafficking victim. This chapter profoundly analyses the hybrid category of human trafficking and the response of the Italian state to the new trends of Nigerian criminal networks. If on one hand, the migration flows have highlighted the conditions of Nigerian human trafficking victims, the lack of identification in Romanian women shows the shortcomings of the Italian state in identifying victimhood through normalised violence, as this is often justified by the setting. Normalised violence camouflages the victim, who consequently does not undertake the protection path.