SWAN Vancouver is a support and advocacy organisation for immigrant and migrant sex workers in Canada. Beyond Trafficking and Slavery caught up with its executive director, Alison Clancey, to learn more about the organisation’s new campaign ‘Anti-Trafficking: Harming While Trying to Help, which seeks to educate anti-trafficking campaigners on the unintended consequences of their actions for people in the sex industry. Our interview with Alison has been lightly edited for space and clarity.
Joel Quirk (BTS): What are the ways in which anti-trafficking campaigns, however well-intentioned, ultimately end up being harmful or unhelpful when it comes to addressing trafficking and exploitation in the sex industry?
Alison Clancey (SWAN): Anti-trafficking campaigns inadvertently contribute to the conditions in which trafficking thrives. In Canada, where we work, anti-trafficking laws, the enforcement of those laws, and the public discourse around human trafficking all impede migrant and immigrant sex workers from having violence perpetrated against them addressed. And that's whether they're trafficked or not.
