Rafaela Pascoal is a Research Fellow in the Department of Culture and Societies at the University of Palermo. Rafaela finished her PhD at the University of Palermo with the thesis “The vulnerability of Nigerian and Romanian women in sexual exploitation. Motherhood as a double vulnerability.” She is also one of the Cofounders of the International Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Human Rights She has published several articles on the subject of Human Trafficking, Migration and Gender in Romanian, Portuguese and American Journals, as well as four book chapters. She has also presented several conferences in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, Romania, Lithuania and Italy. Besides her work as an Academic, Rafaela has also worked seven years on the implementation of several transnational projects on the issue of migration and human trafficking.