This thesis focuses on the British human trafficking prevention policies adopted for the 2012 London Olympics using mixed methods including participation-observation, qualitative interviews, theoretical analysis and policy evaluation.

I was invited to observe the Human Trafficking Network and London 2012, the Mayor of London’s official response to the claim that human trafficking would increase at the London Olympics. My presence enabled me to witness first-hand the key policy debates surrounding human trafficking intervention and to conduct a series of in-depth interviews with members of the Human Trafficking Network as well as associated professionals such as the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre, MPs, governmental and non-governmental agencies, law enforcement officials, anti-trafficking groups, sex workers, sex workers outreach services and academics.

In addition to collecting rich empirical data, I contexualise these policy debates within two relevant theoretical frameworks. First, I draw upon the work of Weitzer (2007) to examine the construction of the four underlying claims that human trafficking increases before and during large sporting events. Significantly, this perspective is built upon an anti-prostitution agenda of the partial criminalisation proponents, which collapses all migration for prostitution together with human trafficking (Weitzer 2005, Kempadoo 2005, Milivojevic and Pickering 2008, Kinnell 2009, Mai 2009, Mai 2012, Weitzer 2014). This same conceptualisation of human trafficking as the nexus of prostitution, migration and crime is replicated within the global anti-trafficking framework (Milivojevic and Pickering 2013), resulting in two approaches to human trafficking prevention policies — Security Governance and Human Rights — which together resulted in preventions measures that target prostitution and control migration.

Finally, I draw upon my empirical evidence to critically examine the effects of the claim that human trafficking increases over the Olympics and, moreover, situate the response by the Mayor of London within the global anti-trafficking framework. This framework highlights the contradictions and, in some instances, failures between the approaches to human trafficking and the stated purpose of the Human Trafficking Network. The thesis concludes with two innovative policy recommendations for human trafficking prevention programmes.