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The years 2014-2019, saw approximately 104.000 Eritreans arriving by boat from North Africa to Italy alone. Thousands of others arrived via Greece, Spain and Turkey into the EU. With an estimated population of 5,34 million people that equates to almost 2% of the entire population of Eritrea arriving in Italy during these five years. Eritreans were among the ethnic groups associated with the so called 'Migrant Crisis' in the Mediterranean, a phenomenon that has been well-documented. Depending on the viewpoint, migration to the EU through the Mediterranean or via Turkey has been described as an 'invasion', portrayed in some sections as Europe being 'under siege', and suggested - as in the case of the former Italian Interior Minister Salvini - as a means for terrorists to infiltrate European borders. Or, simply, as a tragedy with the route becoming known as 'the world's deadliest' for migrants. Without first understanding or acknowledging the drivers of irregular migration, the responses will not be effective. As Eritreans are one of top nationalities undertaking irregular migration to travel to the EU, this article looks at their motivations and the means used by them to migrate illegally. In doing so, it attempts to show what drives the high volume of people migrating and that the link between smugglers and criminality is not as western perceptions and paradigms would indicate.

This is the introduction to the special issue on 'human trafficking, sexual exploitation and digital technologies'. This special issue contributes to the knowledge base by bringing together four articles that focus on the use of online platforms by human traffickers for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. In doing so, this special issue explores the affordances of online platforms to human traffickers, the challenges faced by law enforcement and other actors seeking to intervene in human trafficking in the digital age, and perhaps pathways towards overcoming these challenges in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation and modern slavery have experienced an unprecedented boom over the past decade due to the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly in digital and networked environments. These developments have created new opportunities for human exploitation and illegal profiteering. Adult Services Websites (ASWs), online platforms on which sex workers post profiles advertising their services, are a key conduit for human traffickers to exploit their victims. Alongside profiles of independent sex workers, traffickers are posting false ASW profiles, advertising the forced services of their victims and camouflaging these false profiles amongst legitimate adverts. In response, police practitioners are proactively investigating ASWs to identify suspect profiles. A key obstacle for practitioners, however, is to distinguish between ASW profiles posted by independent, consenting sex workers advertising their services, and those posted by traffickers exploiting their victims. The exploratory study presented in this paper seeks to address this particular challenge. Working with a British police force, the researchers in this study gathered existing knowledge on the traffickers' use of ASW profiles to create a bespoke tool of analysis, the Sexual Trafficking Identification Matrix (STIM). The aim of this tool has been to identify 'risk indicators' on ASW profiles and to flag these for potential police investigation. This paper presents the results of this exploratory study and its four stages. Furthermore, more broadly, it reflects on the use of evidence-based tools by law enforcement to tackle complex domains of offending such as those of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]