Publication of issue 25 'Climate Emergency and Work on a Heated Planet'

Guest Editors: Denise Brennan and Sallie Yea

Editor: Borislav Gerasimov

 

The year 2024 was the hottest on record and 2025 is on track to be the second hottest. In fact, in the past decade, nearly every year has set new temperature records. It is now clear that rising global temperatures—driven by man-made climate change—increase the frequency and intensity of droughts, floods, erratic weather patterns, and natural disasters. These slow- and sudden-onset events destroy homes and livelihoods, forcing people to undertake risky migrations or accept exploitative work, thereby increasing their vulnerability to exploitation and human trafficking.

As world leaders, academics, and activists prepare for the 30th United Nations Climate Conference, the new Special Issue of Anti-Trafficking Review arrives at a crucial time. With contributions from Asia, Africa, and the Americas, it documents how the climate crisis affects migrants, precarious labourers, and disadvantaged communities.

Several articles demonstrate that the climate emergency deepens existing socioeconomic inequalities and increases precarity for those who migrate in search of better livelihoods as well as those who remain behind. Ruta Nimkar and Julia Schweers use survey data and interviews to explore how individuals and families in Ethiopia and the Philippines make migration decisions in climate-affected contexts. Many are aware of the risks of exploitation, yet feel they have little choice but to accept them. Benedikte Raft and Kolja Dahlin analyse the intersection of climate change, mobility, and gender—along with caste discrimination—in the lives of Maithili Dalit women in Nepal whose husbands and sons have migrated abroad for work. Tasnia Khandaker Prova, Era Robbani, and Humaun Kabir discuss how the climate crisis affects elderly people and people with disabilities in the southwestern borderlands of Bangladesh, who face particular challenges in earning a living or even staying safe during increasingly severe cyclones. Reetika Revathy Subramanian looks at child and early marriage in India, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, which some families utilise as a coping strategy in climate change-affected regions and following natural disasters. Chris Weeks investigates the claims that natural disasters lead to increases in human trafficking. His research following the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines found little evidence to support such claims, but the widespread destruction clearly heightened people’s vulnerability to exploitation.

Other articles bring into focus the ways in which the climate crisis affects workers, especially those in already precarious labour sectors. Sallie Yea documents the impacts of rising sea temperatures and water salination on the health of Filipino fishers on distant water fishing vessels. Bethany Jackson, Nicole Tichenor Blackstone, and Jessica L. Decker Sparks review how the changing climate affects working conditions in agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and other sectors. They conclude that the climate crisis undermines efforts to achieve decent work and call for inclusion of the decent work agenda, and meaningful consultation with workers, in all climate adaptation and mitigation policies. Denise Brennan, Kathleen Kim, and Julia Jackson go a step further. They demonstrate that many undocumented migrants, temporary visa holders, and incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals in the United States are working under increasingly unbearable conditions and call for the re-evaluation of the socio-legal dimensions of forced labour. Phoebe Michelmore and Marinella Marmo explore the risks of forced labour in the supply chains of materials needed for the transition to net zero. They argue that Australian Human Rights Due Diligence legislation must be strengthened to protect workers in solar value chains and support a truly just transition.

Two contributions highlight how communities resist resource extraction that worsens the climate crisis. Jolemia Nascimento das Chagas, Dionéia Ferreira, and Ginny Baumann describe how a local NGO in Amazonas state, Brazil, helps people organise against both forced labour and environmental destruction caused by corporations. Merry Jean A. Caparas and Maria Aurora Teresita W. Tabada share the story of rice farmers in the Philippines who tried to stop sand and gravel extraction from their village for infrastructure projects. Though the effort was unsuccessful, the article underscores the tension between rebuilding after natural disasters and the harms extractive industries can inflict on communities and ecosystems.

The issue concludes with an interview with anthropologist and filmmaker David A. Feingold who reflects on his experiences witnessing the effects of climate and other ecological changes on rural communities in Cambodia and Thailand.

The issue contributes to the mounting evidence of the catastrophic effects of the climate crisis on people and communities, particularly in lower-income countries that have contributed the least to it. It challenges policymakers, advocates, and scholars to address environmental degradation not only as an ecological or economic concern but also as a driver of forced migration and labour exploitation.  

Governments must take urgent measures to halt the increase in global temperatures and mitigate their impacts. The costs of inaction will be profound!

View the new issue at https://antitraffickingreview.org/index.php/atrjournal/issue/view/36