Breaking the Silence on Moroccan Women Victims of Sex Trafficking in Spain
Lidia Puigvert, Guiomar Merodio, Lena de Bottom & Rosa Valls | September 21 | 10:15-11:15 AM | Room 3020
At the conference, the presenters will explain the main results of the Spanish research project, Life trajectories that move away or bring closer to the trafficking processes of sexual exploitation (2013-2015). This project was funded by the Spanish Women’s Institute, Ministry of Health, and Social Services and Equality, and the main researcher was Dr. Lidia Puigvert. This project was developed at CREA Research Center at the University of Barcelona. Drawing on CREA’s previous work and scientific contributions on breaking the silence on violence against women in Spain, in the project the presenters shed light on a collective of victims who remained invisible for social service providers and law enforcement until the research was conducted. The aim of the project was to explore the life trajectories of young Moroccan women between 15 and 21 years old from poor and rural areas of Morocco. They were seeking to improve living conditions with a migratory project to Spain and the factors that bring them closer to sex trafficking. The study was developed using the Communicative Methodology of research (Puigvert, Gómez, & Flecha, 2011). They conducted fieldwork in Spain and Morocco during 2015, entailing a sum up of 30 qualitative techniques of research.
Presentation Objectives:
- Provide an overview on sex trafficking in Spain
- Show the identification of new realities and collectives of victims as young Moroccan women sex trafficked in Spain
- Discuss the challenges of research on sex trafficking with a social impact