Trafficking, which has little or nothing to do with HIV, is in the news again. Here is a comment based on http://www.hivinfo4mm.org/new-friends-sign-an-agreement/:

"I dont understand the putting together of the three categories ( forced labor, the illegal recruitment of child soldiers, and sex trafficking) so could someone please explain the relationship between the three and what is the common link?"

"I have been opposed to the moral panic that is the sex trafficking project for a long time. I see it as the conflation of a lot of nasty desires (policing of moving bodies [hence allowing capital to flow unencumbered but keeping the poor in their right place], puritanical disciplining of sex, the liberal desire to look for the spectacular and sentimental so as to elide the structural variables - poverty - that animate them). So I'd like to hear more about how HT interventions get in the way of HIV programs."

The [him] moderator has found an article on Cambodian state interference in HIV prevention from 'antitrafficking programmes', an article that notes low prevalence of HIV infection among 'survivors', and a background piece:

http://www.plusnews.org/Report/81036/CAMBODIA-Human-trafficking-crackdown-also-hits-HIV-prevention
http://www.snap-undp.org/eLibrary/Publications/SexTrafficking.pdf
http://www.genderhealth.org/files/uploads/change/publications/hivaidsandthesexsector.pdf

Can any readers tell us all about the Myanmar 'antitrafficking' plans? Have ethical seroprevalence studies ever been conducted on 'survivors'?

[him] moderator