This essay is one of the 2025 winners of the Brenda Trenowden Essay Prize for Feminist Analysis.
Content note: the following essay discusses sexual and gender-based violence experienced by migrant women and girls, including testimonies of survivors, which may be distressing for some readers.
According to the UN Human Rights Council, the global number of women who migrate has been increasing from 1960 (UNHRC, 2019). In 2017, women made up around 48% of the global migrant population. Furthermore, this report highlights how women are increasingly migrating on their own and are also likely to be the first family member to migrate, instead of migrating for family reunification (UNHRC, 2019). Moreover, the International Organization for Migration has found that women’s migration has become a household strategy to secure income as migrant women may be more likely to secure a job in sectors with growing demand for migrant labour, like the care sector (IOM, 2024).
Besides better employment opportunities, some crucial determinants of women’s migration are sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and discrimination (UN Human Rights Council, 2019; UN Women, 2020). Evidence of this phenomenon comes from all over the world. For instance, a UN Women (2021) report found that women and girls flee the Horn of Africa to escape GBV, child marriages and female genital mutilation. Another example is Afghanistan; with the return of the Taliban, and hence with new restrictions on and dangers for women, the numbers of female emigrants has increased (IOM, 2024). Also, the IFRC (2018) reported on how young migrant girls from Central America named fear of rape and sexual assault, often at the hands of gangs, as a driver for their migration. Women and girls also migrate to escape social stigma caused by divorce or being a single mother, like in the Republic of Moldova and in Guatemala (UN Human Rights Council, 2019).
Nevertheless, the same social stigma and gender expectations that drive women to migrate may hinder their access to regular, safe migration channels. Indeed, in some societies independent immigration for women is considered shameful (IOM, 2024). Besides social norms, countries may even have restrictions or even bans on women’s migration (UN Women, 2021). These impediments, of social and/or legal nature, can push women to migrate through irregular channels (UN Human Rights Council, 2019). These channels are dangerous for all those who undertake them, but women, together with LGBTQ+ individuals, face heightened risks.
In this essay, I will argue that irregular migration pathways, shaped by restrictive migration regimes, expose women and girls to systemic GBV, which greatly hinders their physical, psychological and emotional wellbeing. While UN Women (2021) makes clear that women and girls are vulnerable to GBV throughout all the stages of migration, from the country of origin to the destination country, here I focus on GBV during transit. Drawing on secondary sources including studies from UN agencies and non-governmental organisations, I will present evidence on GBV from several migration routes, from South Asia, to Sub-Saharan Africa, to the Mexico-US border. Furthermore, I will shed light on two particular forms of GBV: survival sex and sex trafficking, to which women and girls migrants are highly vulnerable when migrating irregularly. I will also delve deeper in the case study of Libya, an infamous transit country for migrants en route to Europe. Before continuing, I feel obliged to say that much of the research I carried out on this topic contains explicit accounts of gender-based violence, including instances of rape. While I will report as much information as necessary to ensure a comprehensive analysis, including testimonies of survivors, I will avoid including sensational details. This is a conscious choice to prevent the spectacularizing of women and girls’ pain and suffering, and to treat these accounts with the dignity they deserve.
Gender-based violence refers to “any act of violence that is directed against an individual based on their gender identity or perceived gender” (Plan International, 2024) and is a violation of human rights (REF – e.g. CEDAW). GBV takes multiple forms, including sexual violence, sex trafficking, exclusion leading to survival sex, physical violence, and intimate partner violence (UNICEF, 2022; CARE International, 2022), and, while everyone can be a victim of it, women and girls are especially at risk (UNHCR, 2023). Irregular migration paths heighten these risks, as women and girls lack access to protection networks and information, and fear reporting abuse due to the threat of incarceration or deportation. Indeed, UN Women (2020) finds that migrant women, in particular irregular ones, face higher risks of GBV and exploitation at the hands of smugglers, border officials, traffickers, as well as other migrants. In the East and Horn of Africa migration route, smugglers are responsible for 90% of instances of GBV (UN Women, 2021). Another example is provided by the migration route from Central America to the United States; Amnesty International found that 6 out of 10 migrant women and girls were raped while travelling to cross the border. Smugglers, especially coyotes the desert guides, (PBS NewsHour, 2024) are key perpetrators. Women and girls are aware of the high risks of GBV, particularly of rape, that they face during migration, and hence some of them take precautions to avoid pregnancies. The IFRC (2018) found that girls from East Africa who migrated through Sudan took emergency contraception with them, anticipating the risks of sexual violence. This is corroborated by accounts of migrant women who reached Italy through Libya and reported taking birth control due to such risks (Taylor, 2016). Migrant women and girls who migrate through Mexico often take similar preventative measures: the pharmacist in Altar, the last town migrants encounter before entering the desert, reports that women often come to her asking for contraception in case they are raped (PBS NewsHour, 2024). As highlighted by the above evidence, women and girl migrants are highly susceptible to risks of GBV - in particular to rape - in transit countries, and those who migrate irregularly are the most exposed, as this violence is often consumed at the hands of smugglers.
It is fundamental to stress that migrants who are members of the LGBTQ+ community are at high risk of GBV as well. Migrant transgender women are especially vulnerable: they are often placed in detention facilities with men (UN Human Rights Council, 2019), which exposes them to the risk of being abused by fellow migrants as well as by smugglers and jailers.
Forms of GBV: survival sex and sex trafficking
When migrating through irregular channels, women and girls migrants can also fall victim to two particular forms of GBV and exploitation: survival sex and sex trafficking.
Survival sex occurs when people engage in sexual exchanges to meet a survival need (Changing Lives, 2023), like food, shelter, and, in the case of migration, safe passage. As highlighted by Czechowski et al. (2022), since this transaction occurs when the person exchanging sex is highly vulnerable, survival sex is characterized by power imbalances, which undermines the ability to freely consent to sex, making survival sex a form of sexual violence. Evidence of this phenomenon comes from various migration routes. A study conducted in Bangladesh showed cases of women that had to perform sexual activities for border agents in order to obtain safe passage (UN Human Rights Council, 2019). Similarly, in the Central Sahel, smugglers may require sex as a form of payment for “smuggling services” (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2024), another form of sex-for-passage. Moreover, humanitarian workers of the IFRC found that many unaccompanied adolescent girls travelling from Nigeria through Niger resort to survival sex in brothels to have shelter and gather enough money to continue their journey (IFRC, 2018). This is different from sex work, as the latter implies the free choice of exchanging sexual activities for different benefits (Changing Lives, 2023), whilst these migrant girls sell sex to meet their survival needs. Documentation of survival sex, especially in the form of sex-for-passage, has been reported also along the Mediterranean, especially in Libya, Central American and East African migration routes (Amnesty International, 2010; UN Women, 2021). Being coerced into transactional sex profoundly impacts women and girls’ wellbeing. They risk unplanned pregnancies and STDs, which can bring further health problems due to lack of access to sexual and reproductive care during migration. Moreover, trauma and stigma can hinder their emotional and psychological wellbeing.
People can be trafficked for several purposes, for instance forced labour, domestic servitude, forced marriage, and sexual exploitation. Nonetheless, trafficking is a highly gendered phenomenon. Out of the 51,675 detected victims of human trafficking in 2020, 42% were women and 18% were girls, constituting the majority of the victims (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2022). Most of these women and girls have been trafficked for sexual exploitation, hence sex trafficking (Linares, 2022). Sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking that involves the “recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act” (CDC, 2024). Trafficked persons are coerced to engage in transactional sex. therefore, as with survival sex, they cannot freely consent to sex. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2022) further finds that, beyond representing the majority of human trafficking victims, trafficked women are subjected to physical or extreme violence at the hands of the traffickers three times more than their male counterparts.
Both men and women migrants can fall into the hands of traffickers: 25% of detected victims are migrants (Linares, 2022). This is exacerbated when migration is irregular (McAuliffe and Kitimbo, 2021), because it greatly reduces the access to protection networks and institutions for migrants. Moreover, the fear of incarceration and deportation may lead irregular migrants to not report the crimes they have been victims of, and hence the share of trafficking victims who are migrants may be underestimated in official data. Moreover, since it is a highly gendered phenomenon, women and girls are particularly at risk of being trafficked for sexual exploitation. Due to the fallacies in reporting and the vulnerability of irregular migrants, human trafficking (specifically sex trafficking) plagues several migration routes, including the Asia-Pacific West African and the Central American routes (United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime, 2024; Caballero-Anthony, 2018; Linares, 2022).
In the context of irregular migration, smugglers can traffic people directly or connect the people they are smuggling with traffickers (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2024). Evidence of both phenomena are found by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2024) in different migration routes, including the Central Sahel and the Western Mediterranean. In the former, there have been instances where smugglers directly trafficked women for sexual exploitation along the journey. In the latter, there are documentations of smugglers connecting women to local community leaders, who then sell them to pimps. Just as for the case of survival sex, trafficked women and girls face immense risks for their physical, psychological and emotional health and wellbeing, and often lack information and access to care services, which further exacerbates their condition.
Case study: Libya
Now, I will turn to analyse further the case of Libya and phenomena of GBV, including survival sex and sex trafficking, for migrants transiting there. Libya is a transit country for migrants coming from Western and Eastern Africa, the Middle East, and even Southeast Asia (UNHCR, 2024; UNHCR, 2017), and it is the main departing point for Europe of the Central Mediterranean migration route, the deadliest migration route in the world. Since 2014, 24,7800 migrants have died or gone missing crossing the Central Mediterranean (IOM, 2025). However, this tragedy is far from the only reason why Libya has gained infamy as a transit country for migrants. Widespread violence, including gender-based and sexual violence at the hands of smugglers and traffickers, further cements its reputation as one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world. Libya’s case indeed exemplifies how the difficulties in accessing regular migration paths can foster a system of structural violence on migrants, with women and girls facing the highest risks.
Libya has attracted migrants seeking job opportunities for decades (UNHCR, 2017). Yet, with the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011, the economic crisis in the country exacerbated, leading to decreased job opportunities and bleak economic conditions both for the Libyan population and for migrants, who increasingly decided to leave the country and further migrate to Europe. Moreover, this political breakdown, which resulted in the failure of the state and hence the incapability of enforcing laws, led to the flourishing of migrant smuggling and trafficking networks (Eaton, 2025). The expansion of these networks, together with the economic and political collapse of the country, have turned Libya into a crucial transit country for migrants who aim to reach Europe. Indeed, the numbers of migrants entering Italy across the Mediterranean increased from less than 30,000 in 2011 to more than 160,000 in 2016, and in 2017 around 110,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean from Libya (Eaton, 2025). Looking at this year’s data, 92% of the migrants who arrived in Italy in March through the Central Mediterranean route sailed from Libya (Italpress, 2025).
The transit through this North African country is filled with dangers and risks which affect all migrants travelling through irregular routes, regardless of sex and gender. Violence and abuse is overwhelmingly committed by traffickers and smugglers, who often engage in human trafficking themselves. Fares (2024) reports testimonies of two Syrian men migrating through Libya, who have been incarcerated, trafficked by their smugglers and enslaved for forced labour. One of these men, Malik, tells the reporter how his smuggler told him that he only had to stay in Libya for ten days before sailing to Italy, but ended up being detained, abused and trafficked for over eight months (Fares, 2024). Nevertheless, as previously discussed, women and girls face heightened risks of violence and trafficking during transit. They constitute around 8-10% of migrants sailing from Libya, and they are frequent victims of GBV and sexual violence. They are three times more likely to witness and/or experience sexual abuse than their male counterparts (Ghani, 2020), with UN Women (2020) estimating that around 90% of migrant women and girls are raped when transiting. According to a joint report by the UN Support Mission in Libya and the UN Human Rights Office, the main perpetrators of sexual violence are smugglers and traffickers (Sou-Jie van Brunnersum, 2024).
Evidence and testimonies from women and girls survivors show again instances of survival sex and sex trafficking. A 22-year-old Nigerian woman reported that smugglers coerced many fellow migrant women to have sex with them under the threat of leaving them in the desert (Ghani, 2020). Clearly, they could not freely express their consent, as their own survival was at stake. Moreover, there is evidence of survival sex used to repay for the exorbitant smuggling fees, that can reach up to $5,000 (UNHCR, 2017). As smugglers perpetrate 45% of the reported SGBV against women and girls migrants transiting through Libya, it is impossible to not notice again the pattern that goes from irregular migration channels to abuse and violence towards women, as the victims do not have the means and information to access protection and care networks. Moreover, irregularity can lead victims to not report the crimes and abuse they have endured for fear of incarceration and deportation. This results in impunity for the perpetrators, who can continue to smuggle and abuse migrants, and in underestimation of the share of migrant women and girls who have been victims of GBV in Libya.
Irregular migrants transiting through Libya are vulnerable to human trafficking at the hands of the smugglers, or through smugglers that have connections with traffickers (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2024). The country indeed has a score of 8.5 out of 10 for human trafficking according to the Global Organized Crime Index (Watkins, 2024). Just as for smugglers, the flourishing of traffickers has been favoured by the failure of the Libyan state and the subsequent turmoil and violence. Moreover, through the great influx of migrants in the country, traffickers have increasingly found vulnerable victims. Several forms of human trafficking are perpetrated in Libya, from sexual exploitation to forced labour (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2022), and it impacts migrant women, men and even children, with the latter demographic constituting the 13% of trafficking victims exploited in Libya (CTDC, 2022). Nevertheless, as previously shown, women and girls are particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking: they represent 99% of the reported victims (Watkins, 2024).
Women and girl migrants are indeed targeted for sex trafficking (Sou-Jie van Brunnersum, 2024), with smugglers often being intermediaries between the victims and the traffickers. A Nigerian migrant woman reported to the UN that, during the transit through Libya, it is common for women and girls to be “sold and forced to have sex with Arab and African men” for money (Ghani, 2020). Another Nigerian migrant woman, Deborah, who was 20 years old when she crossed Libya, reported that the smuggler she left Nigeria with sold her to a woman who forced her into prostitution. In Deborah’s words: “The first day we reached Libya, he sold me to a woman… I told them to take me back. … They said that was impossible. The first woman I was sold to was Abigail. She took me to her place and told me to start working. I asked her, what work? … She said I’d work as a prostitute.” (IOM, 2024).
Moreover, smugglers can become perpetrators of sex trafficking as well. One girl, still a minor during transit, reported that her smuggler forced her into prostitution: “As soon as he had visitors, he would tell me to go into my room and wait for them, the friends would then eat and come to the room to have sex with me. Most of the time, they gave me small money when they finished.” (Adeyinka et al., 2023). A testimony of another migrant woman shows how the lack of access to protection and care networks, which characterizes irregular migration, can easily lead women and girls to fall victim to such abuse. She reported that, while prostitution wasn’t part of the agreement she had with the smuggler, she couldn’t do anything to prevent it as she didn’t know anyone in Libya and had nowhere to go (ibid).
These testimonies highlight again how the lack of access to regular migration channels can gravely affect women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health, together with their emotional and psychological wellbeing.
Smugglers can also become perpetrators of sexual exploitation and trafficking, particularly targeting women and girls in situations of vulnerability. Testimonies from migrant women who transited through Libya reveal how, in the absence of protection and care networks, exploitation can easily occur. One girl, still a minor during transit, reported that her smuggler forced her into prostitution: “As soon as he had visitors, he would tell me to go into my room and wait for them, the friends would then eat and come to the room to have sex with me. Most of the time, they gave me small money when they finished” (Adeyinka et al., 2023). Similarly, another woman recounted that, while prostitution was not part of the agreement she had with the smuggler, she was unable to resist his demands, as she knew no one in Libya and had nowhere else to go (ibid). These testimonies underscore how the lack of access to regular migration channels, and the consequent dependence on smugglers, can gravely compromise women and girls’ sexual and reproductive health as well as their emotional and psychological wellbeing.
Conclusion
This essay has shown that irregular migration pathways, shaped by restrictive and gendered migration regimes, expose women and girl migrants to systemic forms of gender-based violence, particularly during transit. From survival sex to sex trafficking, and through the case study of Libya, I have demonstrated that these are not isolated incidents, but structural patterns of abuse rooted in the vulnerabilities created by irregular migration. While migration can be a strategy for women to escape violence and seek better opportunities, the very journey they undertake often reproduces and magnifies the same violence they are trying to flee.
The significance of this analysis lies in revealing how restrictive migration policies, by limiting access to regular and safe mobility channels, inadvertently contribute to the perpetuation of violence against women and girls. A gender-sensitive migration governance framework is therefore essential. States and international actors must prioritise the expansion of legal and safe migration pathways, strengthen protection and reporting mechanisms in transit zones, and ensure that survivors of sexual and gender-based violence have access to trauma-informed and culture-sensitive health, psychosocial, and legal support.
For the women who have experienced such violence, the consequences extend far beyond the moment of abuse, affecting their physical and mental health and wellbeing, their ability to rebuild trust and stability, and their prospects for integration and empowerment at destination. Addressing the gendered violence embedded in irregular migration is not only a matter of border management, but of human rights and justice. Ensuring that no woman’s journey towards safety becomes a journey into further harm must remain a central goal of migration and gender policy alike.