Dr. Gillian Wylie:

In trafficking research there is a general acceptance that the data are problematic. This is because of the criminality of the act but also because of the different perspectives researchers bring to their understanding. I do not think there is any country where there has been agreed research. The United Nations produces the global initiative to fight human trafficking, GIFT, report, which is helpful in the sense that it reports only on prosecuted cases or investigations and prosecutions. Therefore, it provides hard data, but the problem is that not all cases will ever come to light and there is a problem with how the law defines the problem. It might make it rather narrow in terms of who is seen as a trafficking victim. There have been attempts by the International Organization for Migration, IOM, and the Austrian Government to produce a model which would allow for better data collection. There is an ongoing research struggle to provide a way of doing research that is grounded. It remains a highly contentious issue.