Marjan Wijers, a long-time consultant and researcher on human trafficking, was in the room when the Palermo protocol on human trafficking was negotiated 20 years ago. We caught up with Marjan as part of our anniversary special on the protocol to learn how the anti-trafficking field changed with Palermo, how those negotiations played out, and where we might go from here. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Joel Quirk (BTS): The Palermo protocol was finalised over 20 years ago, and for many people working in the fields of trafficking and labour exploitation today it has simply always been there. But that’s not actually the case. What was the field like before there was a Palermo protocol?
Marjan Wijers: In the 1980s feminist groups with a background in development cooperation started working on trafficking in the Netherlands. They actually got into it because they were looking at sex tourism. Through that work and their contacts with Asian women’s organisations they came to realise there was a second flow of women the other way around, coming into the Netherlands and other European countries to do sex work but also as domestic workers and mail-order brides. That’s how the Foundation against Trafficking in Women (STV) was founded in 1987.
