Project overview
Stimulus Fund Project
This project aims to address a crucial research and policy gap between counterterrorism and what we shall describe as ‘digital human trafficking’. In a recent British case, charges for ‘preparing terrorist acts’ were dropped after the Home Office’s Single Competent Authority (SCA) concluded that the defendant, a 14-year-old girl, had been a victim of human trafficking. For the SCA there were ‘conclusive grounds’ the girl had been groomed and exploited (including sexually), particularly by an older male extremist in the USA.
Despite no physical movement, her international online communications on forums and with individuals linked to terrorist organisations reportedly amounted to trafficking under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA), serving as a statutory defence for the terrorism charges.
This project aims to address a crucial research and policy gap between counterterrorism and what we shall describe as ‘digital human trafficking’. In a recent British case, charges for ‘preparing terrorist acts’ were dropped after the Home Office’s Single Competent Authority (SCA) concluded that the defendant, a 14-year-old girl, had been a victim of human trafficking. For the SCA there were ‘conclusive grounds’ the girl had been groomed and exploited (including sexually), particularly by an older male extremist in the USA.
Despite no physical movement, her international online communications on forums and with individuals linked to terrorist organisations reportedly amounted to trafficking under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA), serving as a statutory defence for the terrorism charges.
