Human Trafficking Prevention Through Evolving International Migration Law and Multilevel Rights Protection Mechanisms
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51903/dmj44241Keywords:
International Migration Law, Multilevel Rights Protection, Human Trafficking PreventionAbstract
The mounting complexity of transnational human trafficking has uncovered the weaknesses of migration governance that prioritize border control over migrants' rights protection. What are the implications? This study will explore how the evolution of international migration law has impacted on building up a multilevel rights protection mechanism to strengthen efforts against human trafficking. Comparative legal analysis was integrated with a qualitative approach to the study of juridical-doctrinal issues. Additionally, The study included not only secondary and tertiary legal sources but also the primary legal materials themselves, such as international conventions, protocols or national legislation. This involved identifying, classifying and interpreting the data to determine how legal codes evolved and interacted with each other across different legal systems. This demonstrates that the legal regime governing international migration has evolved from being based on border control to 'rights-based treatment', which highlights the importance of utilizing international and national laws to ensure the protection of migrants. This development leads to the creation of a multilevel rights protection regime, which enhances the preventive measures against human trafficking by making the migrants less vulnerable. The research offers a thorough theoretical framework, which shows how changing legal norms become the normative basis for protecting multilevel rights in international migration law.
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