Description
Introduction – Objectives:
Forcibly displaced populations, including refugees and asylum-seekers, encounter formidable challenges characterized by limited legal and economic opportunities during their displacement. In response to gendered structural vulnerabilities, individuals resort to survival strategies, potentially involving transactional sex. This study aims to comprehensively investigate patterns and drivers of transactional sex among forcibly displaced populations, and shedding light on the sexual and reproductive health and mental health implications.
Methodology:
This multi-disciplinary multi-country study, spanning from fall 2021 to summer 2023, examines the experiences of forcibly displaced individuals in five countries—Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Greece, and Switzerland. Collaborating with humanitarian organizations and local actors providing health and social services, and interviewing forcibly displaced women, men and people of diverse sexual orientation and gender identities, we examine how they navigate structural vulnerabilities, devise survival strategies, manage health risks, and interact with local health systems. Employing a qualitative approach, we seek to understand and characterize the structural factors intricately linked to transactional sex practices.
Results and Discussions:
Participants in the study revealed a spectrum of transactional sex practices, including exchanges for necessities such as food and housing, alongside instances of sexual abuse, harassment, and sexual exploitation. Our findings highlight a significant association between structural vulnerabilities stemming from border crossing challenges, asylum-seeking complexities (wait time, legal liminality), limited economic opportunities, scant legal protections, and housing instability and transactional sex practices. Furthermore, participants faced heightened health health risks, while facing limited access essential SRH and MH health services.
Conclusions:
The study underscores that structural vulnerabilities, particularly the paucity of legal and economic opportunities, contribute to transactional sex practices among forcibly displaced populations, subsequently leading to detrimental health outcomes. Urgent attention is needed for further research to inform effective policy responses, addressing the root causes of these structural vulnerabilities and tailoring effective policy and programmatic interventions that ensures the well-being of forcibly displaced individuals.
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