304 VAN WAAS ET AL. Keywords statelessness – human trafficking – subjective legal empowerment – methodological approach 1 Introduction It is a common claim and widely held perception that statelessness puts a person at greater risk of becoming a victim of human trafficking.1 However, the causal link between statelessness and trafficking has never been decisively demonstrated using empirical data. In order to fill this information gap, the authors sought to develop and pilot a methodology that would enable the interaction between statelessness and trafficking to be mapped.2 Thailand was selected as the location in which to field-test this methodology, since it has a large and long-standing statelessness problem.3 Besides, it is precisely Thailand’s situation that is most often cited as an example when the connection is made between statelessness and trafficking.4 Nevertheless, 1 United States Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report 2012 (2012) <http://www .state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2012/192368.htm> accessed 5 October 2013; C. Foster Crawford, ‘Cultural, Economic and Legal Factors Underlying Trafficking in Thailand and their Impact on Women and Girls from Burma’ (2006) 12 Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender 821; UNIAP, SIREN Human Trafficking Data Sheet (2008) <http://www.no-trafficking.org/reports _docs/­ thailand/datasheet_thailand_oct2008.pdf> accessed 3 November 2013; D. Brennan, Victim-Centred Prevention Methods of Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region – an Examination of Grass-roots and Governmental Efforts, unpublished paper (2013) on file with the author. 2 This project was made possible by a research grant from the United States Department of State, Bureau for Population, Migration and Refugees. 3 Thailand is home to a stateless population currently estimated at just over half a million people. UNHCR, Global Trends 2012 – Annexes. Table 7, Persons under UNHCR’s statelessness mandate (2013) <http://www.unhcr.org/globaltrends/2012GlobalTrends_0913.zip> accessed 5 October 2013. 4 This is pointed out, for instance, in L. Kingston, ‘A Forgotten Human Rights Crisis: Statelessness and Issue (Non) Emergence’ (2013) 14 Human Rights Review 73. For relevant publications on Thailand, see Vital Voices Global Partnership, ‘Stateless and Vulnerable to Human Trafficking in Thailand’ (2007) <http://www.humantrafficking.org/uploads/publications/Vital_Voices _Stateless_and_Vulnerable_to_Human_Trafficking_in_Thailand.pdf> accessed 3 November 2013; Y. Lertcharoenchok, ‘Searching for identity’ in Step-by-Step Newsletter from the InterAgency Project on Trafficking in Women and Children in the Mekong Sub-Region (2001) <www .no-trafficking.org/content/pdf/issue5.pdf> accessed 3 November 2013. tilburg law review 19 (2014) 303-312