VOLUME LVII – Number 2

Jordan McConville

Abstract: Since its creation in 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been proven to participate in the human trafficking of minority women. Through use of government sources on human trafficking and on terrorism, primary sources as published by ISIS, and victim testimony, this research serves as an expansion on the previously understood uses of human trafficking by ISIS. As the definition of human trafficking is better understood, the recruitment practices of ISIS are considered human trafficking when the recruits are exploited after joining and are persuaded to join through deception or coercion. This article seeks to analyze how ISIS’s use of human trafficking is ignored in the U.S.’s decision to repatriate Foreign Terrorist Fighters from Northeast Syria. The negligence of the U.S. government in the investigation of human rights violations by ISIS contributes to the trauma of human trafficking victims and subverts the UN Principle of Non-punishment. This article will not minimize legitimate fears of ISIS but introduces a new dimension to prosecution; the implications of victims of ISIS being treated as the abusers that counterterrorism policies seek to punish is an under examined and increasingly relevant issue.

Key Words: ISIS, Human Trafficking, Repatriation, Syria, al-Hol, Roj

About the Author: Jordan McConville, (Annapolis, MD), is a graduating senior at Towson University’s Honors College, where she majors in International Studies and minors in Political Science. For the past two years, she has worked as a Tutor at the Writing Center and as a Resident Assistant in Douglass House. Heavily involved in undergraduate research, she concentrates on terrorism, non-state actors, human rights, and national security. In Spring 2022, the Towson Journal of International Affairs published her analysis of Kurdish sovereignty, entitled “The Issue of Kurdish Sovereignty: Why a Kurdish State Developed from the Kurdish Regional Government is Impossible.” Most recently, she examined the impact of human trafficking by ISIS on detainee repatriation from Northeast Syria which she presented at the Northeast Regional Honors Council Conference in Albany, NY. In March, she was the first undergraduate Keynote Speaker for the TU-BCPS Model UN Conference, and in April, she attended the Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference. Upon graduation, Jordan will join BGR Group, an international lobbying firm in Washington D.C., as a clerk.

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