Between “Victims” and “Criminals”

Sine Plambech
Researcher and film maker
Danish Institute for International Studies

Sine Plambechs film Becky's Journey provides a rare insight into the hopes and fears of high-risk migration. Becky is a 26-year-old Nigerian who wants to go to Europe. She already tried twice. The first time she was stopped with counterfeit documents in the airport in Nigeria by immigration authorities. This made her decide to begin a deadly journey through the Sahara desert hoping to embark on a migration boat bound for Italy.

The film documents Becky’s attempts to travel across the Mediterranean and tells the story of the many migrants that never reach the shores of Europe.

Plambech has several years of professional experience in international migration, human trafficking, sex work research, socio-cultural and gender analysis. She has worked as researcher, lecturer and consultant at various institutes of higher learning, the UN and other public institutions in Denmark and abroad. 

Plambech conducts fieldwork in Nigeria on the topic of deportation of Nigerian sex workers from the EU, and among Nigerians selling sex in the streets of Copenhagen. She also works in Thailand on sex work and marriage migration of Thai women to the EU. 

From 2006, the research merged with documentary film making as a way to communicate research to a broader audience. This has so far resulted in three award winning feature documentaries and one award winning short film on the topics of international migration, sex work and human trafficking.

Find out more about Sine Plambech's work.

The film screeing and discussion is part of the Bergen Summer Research School and is open to the public.

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