Hollow Bodies

In Hollow Bodies, Susan Dewey travels to Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and India to follow the trade in women’s bodies and efforts to stop it. What she finds is a counter-trafficking system at the mercy of funds from misguided international organizations and foreign governments. From counterproductive restrictions placed on NGOs by donors, to jaded employees and bribes given to prosecutors, Dewey highlights the structural flaws in place that allow, and sometimes even help, sex trafficking to continue. Based on research conducted with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Dewey speaks with a range of actors from bar workers in Bombay to Embassy employees in Armenia and senior officials at international organizations. She discovers how a global problem plays out differently on the local level and why millions of aid dollars make little difference in the lives of women who are forced or compelled from their homes into the global sex trade.