Sex, money and modern slavery: trafficking of travestis and trans women from Brazil to Europe for sexual exploitation

Abstract

While sex and money may appear as subversive notions, attracting easily all the attention, it is also true that the issues raised in this article are, paradoxically, largely invisibilised. This invisibility seems to counterbalance the importance of the phenomena described in this work and justifies it in itself. Indeed, by coming back to the various mechanisms that lead to the immigration, voluntary or not, of Brazilian trans women and travestis to Europe, this article aims to emphasize the social and concrete realities suffered by these victims and related to their sexual exploitation. If, as we will see in our study, this particular migration is explained and driven by a strong desire to accomplish themselves more freely and decently in Europe and thus escape social realities such as discriminations and attacks that are part of their daily lives in Brazil, it is clear that when they arrive in Europe, these victims are confronted with a harsh reality, where their rights are violated and where a return to the past appears sometimes impossible. From a socio-anthropological and legal perspective, the objective of this work is to look at the characteristics of this sexual trafficking, which, as we shall see, can be identified as a form of modern slavery. We will, therefore, discuss the key notions and concepts related to this issue, before analyzing the concrete manifestations of this form of modern slavery and attempting to explain it.