Resource

Human trafficking is a grave violation of human rights, where individuals are recruited and transported within and across borders for forms of forced labour, domestic servitude or sexual exploitation. Survivors of human trafficking experience repetitive trauma that puts them at higher risk of mental health conditions (such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, complex PTSD, depression and anxiety) but have reduced access to or uptake of support services. One of many reasons for this is a fear of or lack of trust in authorities. It is necessary to better understand the experiences of trust in survivors of human trafficking to help facilitate access to support services, and help prevent re-traumatisation through further betrayals of trust. 

We conducted a study in collaboration with University College London to better understand how trust amongst survivors of human trafficking has been shaped by their experiences before, during and after trafficking. This study focuses on the lived ‘trust journeys’ of human trafficking survivors and includes interviews with 10 survivors of trafficking.  

Research findings 

The research found that experiences pre-, during and post- trafficking all culminated in a sense of mistrust of others in the participants, often worsened by treatment within the UK immigration system. However, the study also highlighted the opportunity for rebuilding trust through appropriate supportive services.  

Pre-trafficking experiences: “Everything turned upside down” 

• For the individuals interviewed, pre-trafficking experiences included betrayals which disrupted or prevented foundational experiences of safety, increasing vulnerability for exploitation by a trafficker. 
• The participants’ pre-trafficking experiences highlighted the role of socio-economic factors, such as an absence of material safety or the loss of a parent, in making individuals more vulnerable to exploitation from others. 

Trafficking experiences  

• Traffickers were often seen as a trusted person, either as someone the individual knew, or referred via a trusted person, and gained trust through affection, gifting money or promising future safety and stability. 
• However, this trust was betrayed, and participants went on to experience violence and non-physical manipulation (including isolation, deprivation of basic needs and ritualized spiritual abuse). Trafficker’s used isolation to prevent individuals from forming reciprocal or trusting relationships outside of them. 
• Despite realising that they had been betrayed, participants felt that they were at fault recounting feelings of shame and self-blame.  

Post trafficking experiences: “It’s like a shield that comes up”  

• The participants in this study unanimously expressed a sense of mistrust in others, which helped to protect them from further harm but also reinforced a sense of isolation and disconnect from others, and persisting psychological entrapment. 
• Participants often experienced re-traumatisation in the post trafficking period. Without documentation and, in some cases, without recourse to public funds, several participants reported being arrested and detained in immigration centres which they described as a profoundly dehumanising and depersonalising experience, in which they were treated as criminals by the immigration system.  
• However, participants also highlighted the role of support services that provided consistent, predictable and compassionate support, in rebuilding trust, such as services that provided practical support and community groups. As one participant said, “they brought me back to life.” 

Implications for policy and clinical work 

This research highlights the importance of services that provide trauma informed care in rebuilding trust and giving survivors of trafficking the opportunity to access much needed support. However, funding cuts and poor interagency co-ordination remain significant barriers to the provision of such services nationwide.  

• The study illustrates the potential for negative treatment by immigration services to re-traumatise survivors of human trafficking and further erode trust in professional authorities, which may hinder engagement with future support. This emphasises the need for improved policy when approaching potential survivors of human trafficking, including a more robust screening process prior to the decision to detain, and when detention is maintained, for psychological support, and legal counsel to be offered. 
• The research also highlights the potential benefit of clinicians exploring experiences of trust in therapeutic work and supporting individuals in helping to rebuild trust in interpersonal relationships. Understanding previous attachment history and past relationships may also allow clinicians to identify those at higher risk of re-trafficking and inform prevention efforts. 

Read the full article here