Researchers in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health received two new grants from the U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons to examine the health and safety risks of forced labor on workers and their communities. One grant will be conducted in Nepal, looking at the migration process for migrant workers from Nepal to destination countries in the Middle East and Asia, and the other will be conducted in Pakistan, examining the occupational health and safety impacts for laborers in the brick kiln industry. 

Both grants are led by W. Courtland Robinson, PhD, associate professor in the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School. Other Johns Hopkins faculty working on the projects include Dinesh Neupane, PhD, MSc, assistant scientist and Syeda Mahnoor Rizvi, MSPH ’22, research associate, in the Department of International Health. 

Both projects emphasize taking a global health approach when examining human trafficking and forced labor, issues that are often seen primarily from a human rights lens. “There are immediate health risks for people who are trafficked into work,” says Robinson. “They are often trafficked into dangerous types of work and are exposed to injuries, working in extreme heat conditions, and often doing heavy labor that puts them into positions where they are more likely to be hurt and suffer health conditions.”